Is God a Moral Monster?

Awhile back I read Paul Copan’s book Is God a Moral Monster? and found it very enlightening. In the past I perused the discussion boards on the internet and at times found it difficult to defend what God did in the Old Testament against the accusations of some of today’s modern critics. Knowing that God is a God of love, helped me to understand that the problem lay not in the idea that he couldn’t be defended, but that I lacked the knowledge in order to do so. I prayed, always prayed, while debating those folks that I would be able to reply adequately. Admittedly, some of my replies were weak, and I knew it, but I also hoped to get better.

God answers prayer, but not always in the moment we would like, and not always in the affirmative. I believe I had to grow a little before God answered that particular prayer. I think it was necessary for me to feel shame and defeat in the presence of my accusers and defamers of God. After all, wasn’t Jesus, himself, set at naught (Luke 23:11; Acts 4:11). It seems, therefore, at times we must also share in Christ’s shame and defeat. before we are enabled to respond adequately to those who treat us so. While in such circumstances, it doesn’t feel like we who are shamed and defeated are being honored, but we are (2Corinthians 4:6-11).

Probably it is necessary to know shame and defeat before we are armed with the truth or the answers to our questions. Why so? I think the reason lay in the idea that we are not to use such things as weapons to defeat our opponent. Rather the love of Christ must shine through the replies we offer the one who speaks against our God. To know shame and defeat seems necessary if the one who presumes to answer for Christ is to respond from the heart of Christ (1Corinthians 4:12-13).

I loved reading Is God a Moral Monster? and felt both blessed and armed with the truth. I’ve decided to make this wonderful book the source of my ideas for my next series of blogs. I hope I do justice to Paul’s work, but in the end, as always, although I have derived my ideas from his works, I take full responsibility for what I write in my blogs. I hope I don’t stray too far from the context of the book, for after all, one should be able to read my blogs and understand that they were inspired by Paul’s work which I recommend to all who read what I have to say.

Finally, I wish to point out that some areas of the book seemed to be lacking in thoroughness or at least not addressing some of the questions posed by some critics. For these questions I consulted Glenn Miller’s work on the web at his Christian Think Tank. In those particular posts I referenced Glenn’s work with the proper link to his studies. However, as concerning the work of Dr. Copan, I take full responsibility for what I have written and my interpretation of Glenn Miller’s works.