your blog is too safe

So, every time I think I've stopped touting my theological opinions long enough to share the blog publicly (by burying a link in my facebook profile :P) - I do something like this:

Here's a thought: would God rather have us doubt His existence or His righteousness? I'm gonna go with the former over the latter. I think God would rather have us not believe in Him at all than believe in a distorted, unjust, unloving version of Him who more closely mirrors a tyrant, a Zeus, than a loving father. God is jealous, make no mistake, He is jealous for His lost children to return to Him. And He hates sin. Still, I cannot believe or support the conclusions people arrive at by applying layer after layer of human logic to what's in the Bible, in a misguided attempt to answer every question. Sometimes it needs to be enough, at least for now, to know that God is loving and that we can trust Him to act justly (and mercifully) where we are concerned.

Case in point: a fairly widely held belief is that infants who die unbaptized spend an eternity in hell. This is just, somehow, because of Original Sin and God's demands of perfection. If you can simply accept that at face value, then "mister you're a better man than I." Some poor soul who subconsciously sees evangelism as saving sinners from a vengeful God no doubt came to this conclusion. Now, I can get behind faith entering at baptism, and I can get behind Original Sin (sort of, although its a moot point for anyone old enough to be held accountable for their actions), and I know God will have his children be just and holy to enter into His presence, but I don't think it's right to string these notions together to arrive at a conclusion about what happens to an unbaptized baby or a fetus (regardless of the faith of the parents). Maybe, somehow, it is truly just and not incompatible with the truth that God is Love that such a soul essentially suffers forever with no chance of redemption. I can't see it for now, though. On the other hand, there is certainly no promise that those who never hear are saved. Otherwise we should stop evangelizing - to do so would just be condemning people to hell, not revealing the wonder of the joy and mercy and glory of our God. No, the spread of truth, done in love, can only yield positive results - in the fullness of time.

The bottom line is, in my opinion anyway, we simply don't know in a lot of situations what God will do with the eternal soul. So why don't we trust the Son who told us that the Father loves us, and come to Him? All that needs knowing will be revealed, in the next world if not this one. Let us busy ourselves with the work the Father has given us, and not worry ourselves over the algebras of abstract equations of salvation. In Jesus's words, eternal life is knowing the Father as he does. So let us press on to that goal, forsaking all else (even complicated and convoluted doctrines) that gets in the way, until Christ reveals the truth to us.