Who God is and who we think God is are two different things. We might be happy with who we think God is, but would He be happy being described like that?
I went to an enlightening teaching at my church on Sunday, which was given by the Principal of the UK's Northern Baptist College, Richard Kidd. It made me think of Elton John, and countless other people I know, as well as myself.
Looking at Mark Chapter 13 from the Bible, in which Jesus warns of what will happen in the future, it shows the shape of the future. He tells his disciples not to be surprised that the generations of the years to come will suffer from wars and the threats of wars, from earthquakes, famines, torture and terrible destruction. Why? Because people mislead each other, people change and people betray each other.
What an odd thing for someone like Jesus to say. I always used to think that religion was one of the causes of war until I began to understand it, but here Jesus seems like the prophet of doom painting a picture of a miserable future.
But what he actually says is that these things will always happen because people are just people and nature is nature. What we need to do is keep our eyes on heaven and God, which are unchanging and a crook of support through the tough times. And I think if people understood the real message of religion, rather than the false prophets Jesus and other great prophets warned of, religious intolerance wouldn’t even need to be in the dictionary.
