The UmBlog

Hey Johnboy According to the epilogue of Job, the last chapter, most of the book portrays God falsely. Job 42:7 After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has."  Why did God leave all that bad stuff in if He is the author of the Bible? Why did he leave all that stuff in when he didn't even answer any of their perspectives? Should followers of Jesus today simply read the first couple chapters and the last couple? Maybe God, like most people, likes a good story. Maybe God wants us to know that not everyone who claims to speak for God, who claims to understand God, who claims to be able to explain God are right. When God appears at the end of Job's story, everything that came before his appearance gets reframed. I am not being an original thinker here, but isn't this just like the Bible at large? Once Jesus appears in...

Dear Johnboy circa 80's and 90's... Remember when the Russian commies were the great enemy of America? Without a doubt that totalitarian system was horrific. Once they fell apart though, this country needed someone else to hate on. Osama Bin Laden was happy to oblige. But their threat was not close to nuclear annihilation, which left room in our collective psychology to look for other things to hate/fear. Whenever things in the world get scary, the fundagelical tribe likes to warn the nation about God's wrath and judgment. In the past, it has scared up new converts and kept the doubters in the fold. But the wrath never arrived. They kept crying "wolf" and the Lamb of God never shows up to start kicking in doors. So Johnny, you don't really know about the internet or Facebook, just free discs from America Online and long load times on dial up modems. Now the wolf criers are all over the place. It's like a million John the Baptists, Jesus' cousin, th...