What God Is Like
Keeping in Step with the Spirit
Intentional Preaching, 2010-2012

The Background
The Schedule

The Background

Roger Shattuck, a professor at Boston University, made a striking observation that puts many things in perspective.

"In the long perspective of four thousand years, the Western world has discovered or invented only two master plots, two narratives of high explanatory power ... The sequence of Hebrew covenants followed by the New Testament Redemption story offers an account of things bestowed on us from on high by a single God ... The new story of life emerging uncreated out of the primal slime and finding its upward way by natural elimination ... has partially displaced the old story without destroying its teachings and ideals ... We have barely begun the momentous struggle between these two master plots, Christian and Darwinian." (Forbidden Knowledge, pg. 302)

These two master plots raise questions about God. Secular culture assumes certain answers to these questions, and it insinuates its answer on us without much discussion through movies, TV, and political correctness.

This series tries to articulate the questions clearly, state their assumptions fairly, and offer equally credible, alternative answers to those questions.

The Schedule

January 10
Why Does God Allow Suffering?
If God is all-powerful and doesn't stop suffering, then He can't be a God of love. If God is love and doesn't stop suffering, then He can't be all-powerful.

January 17
Doesn't Christianity Squelch Personality?
Do Christians really have the freedom to think for themselves? Don't their narrow views of morality make them unable to realize their full potential as human beings?

January 24
Isn't the Church Responsible for Injustice in the World?
In the name of Christ, haven't Christians gone to war in the Crusades, burned people at the stake, and supported slavery and racism?

January 31
How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?
The idea that He would send people to hell just means that Christianity is a primitive religion that has no place in modern life. And why did Christ have to die before God would forgive us? Why didn't He just forgive us?

February 14
Hasn't Science Disproved Christianity?
How can a thinking person believe the Bible's account of creation, when science has shown evolution to be true? Doesn't science disprove all the miracles of the Bible?

February 21
Do I Have to Take the Bible Literally?
Much of the Bible's literal teaching is out-of-date, such as what it says about women and slaves. A lot of the Bible is historically inaccurate. So, how can a thinking person accept the Bible as an authority for how to think and how to live?

February 28
Is Christianity Really the Only True Religion?
It's arrogant to say that Christianity is the only true religion. As long as Christians or adherents of any other religion think they have the only true religion, the world will never know peace.