Exploration of a Favorite Verse
You’re Never Too Far Gone for God
I’ve struggled with my faith in God openly — both for my own coping, and maintaining some semblance of sanity, and for the sake of others on this platform who may resonate with my wrestling with concepts beyond our comprehension.
Some Bible verses are confusing, troubling, and downright odd. (Besides those referenced in my other piece, see: 1 Samuel 14:43–44, Philemon 1:19, Zechariah 5:7–8… feel free to add your own, I won’t take offense!)
Reading the Bible all on one’s own can be a strange experience, and it does help to have someone with more scholarly hermeneutics to bounce things off, and help us not to arrive at faulty conclusions.
Here are some resources for interpretive assistance from those a little more studious than yours truly:
All that said, I’m not encouraging anyone to get all hung up on “biblical inerrancy”, obsess over poking holes in the historicity, or to individually discern what’s a metaphor and what’s literal from an over 2000-year-old conglomeration of genealogies, narratives, parables, and poetry that’s stood the test of time better than any of us will.
(I encourage you to read Andrew Springer’s “I Believe in Jesus, Not the Bible” article here on Medium!)
One of the more encouraging verses I’ve encountered as I’ve returned to faith is 2 Peter 3:8-9.
Below are some variations in translation:
“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
-KJV
“But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
-NLT
“Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.”
-The Message
The days lately have felt like an epoch apiece, yet somehow also rushed, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that regard. The experience of the passage of time is at least as confusing, troubling, and odd as any Bible verse, but the theory of relativity intertwining space and time, as cool as it is to be able to predict things like black holes and neutron stars, does nothing to lessen the oddity of it experientially, and provides no comfort when my heart inevitably stops pumping blood and my neurons stop firing.
Synchronicity may well be dismissed as merely pareidolia rather than a pointing towards there being intelligent design behind our experiences. However, at a certain point, one has to ask themselves how much coincidence is unsatisfactorily explained simply by happenstance or traditionally understood “rational” determinations. For instance, Tim Tebow’s 3:16 game. I’m not a football fan, personally, but it’s a pretty big accusation of conspiracy to suggest that during the game exactly 3 years after Tim Tebow put “John 3:16” under his eyes, he managed to pull off exactly 316 passing yards, with an average 31.6 yards per completion, while the Steelers managed 31 minutes and 6 seconds of possession time, and getting the ratings to peak at 31.6.
While I’m certainly eager to experience Heaven (or the New Earth, or whatever) I’m also in no rush to count anyone out either.
“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth,
and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.”
-Isaiah 65:17 (NLT)
Alhamdulillah
Ho’oponopono
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