What is the nature of God? Is God just?

Photo source: Wikipedia

A friend of mine posted this quote on Facebook the other day:

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."

Naturally, there was a bit of discussion on this post about the nature of God. For example, here was one [part] of a response:

"Wouldn't a truly 'just' God require either perfection or some debt to be paid to establish a right standing before Him? Unless, of course, the author of the quote actually meant 'lenient' instead of 'just.' I'll have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that a just God would allow Himself to accept 'but I tried hard' without laughing at us with pity... The same as an earthly judge would if I offered as my defense to a speeding ticket that I hadn't hurt anyone and that I have otherwise been a good citizen. Those facts --while admirable-- don't erase the penalty for my error/crime."

I know a LOT of people that understand God this way. And for most of my life, this was my own understanding of God. But not anymore.

I remember one particularly nagging question that always bothered me when we'd talk about "the unsaved" at church: "What if some woman in a remote village in Africa never hears the Gospel? Would a loving and 'just' God send her to hell?"

And the answer I always, ALWAYS, came up with, was, "No." 

I have struggled a lot over the years, particularly with understanding what God is, and the nature of God. First of all, I don't believe we will ever be able to come close to describing what God is.

"So when we talk about God we're using language, language that employs a vast array of words and phrases and forms to describe a reality that is fundamentally beyond words and phrases and forms." (Rob Bell, "What We Talk About When We Talk About God")

I have a feeling I will always be tweaking my explanation, or view, of God and I don't really think it matters to anyone but me. God is so impossible to describe that I doubt he/she/it cares much about how right we are. You can believe God is an energy, a spirit, or an old man perched on his throne in the clouds. I think all that matters is that you have some way of imagining God that works for you. That feels right to you.

The more important matter, I believe, than describing God, is knowing God. 

And here's where things get tricky, and I'm sure to make some people uncomfortable.

Despite the different ways we have of describing God, and telling people exactly what we think God is, God's essence is unchanged. God can go by any name, and still be God. Call him/her Allah, the Divine, Yahweh, Sat Nam, or Joe, and you won't be changing the essence of God, but just what you call him. So, I believe that God can be called all these different things, among all these different people, and all these different faiths, and we're still talking to, and getting to know, the same God.

Which brings me to this startling revelation: that there is more than one path to God. 

Which then brings us back towards the original question at the beginning of this post: What is the nature of God? Is God 'just'?

When I think about my children, there is absolutely nothing on Earth that they could do to make me stop loving them. They could murder someone, or 100 someones, and I would still love them. Would I be angry? Sure. Heartbroken? Definitely. Disappointed? Immensely. But the love would still be there, even if buried deep down beneath it all.

Isn't the love of God supposed to be even greater than that? If I couldn't banish my children to Hell for all eternity - even for murdering someone - then how could God do the same to millions of people?

"Have billions of people been created only to spend eternity in conscious punishment and torment, suffering infinitely for the finite sins they committed in the few years they spent on earth? [...] Is God our friend, our provider, our protector, our father - or is God the kind of judge who may in the end declare that we deserve to spend forever separated from our Father?" (Rob Bell, "Love Wins")

"Could God say to someone truly humbled, broken, and desperate for reconciliation, 'Sorry, too late'? Many have refused to accept the scenario in which somebody is pounding on the door, apologizing, repenting, and asking God to be let in, only to hear God say through the keyhole: 'Door's locked. Sorry. If you had been here earlier, I could have done something. But now, it's too late." (Rob Bell, "Love Wins")

Hell, as some terrible place full of punishment, pain, and torture, is not compatible with what I believe to be the nature of God. I believe God wants everyone to be awakened, to live more conscious, loving lives, and that God wants to pull humanity forward, closer towards all that God is and intends for us to be. And, for me, believing that there is only one way for God to do this - through ONE religion/doctrine/dogma - puts limits on a limitless God.

So I don't know how God will reach everyone or when it will happen, but I certainly don't put it past him.

"Restoration brings God glory; eternal torment doesn't. Reconciliation brings God glory; endless anguish doesn't. Renewal and return cause God's greatness to shine through the universe; never-ending punishment doesn't." (Rob Bell, "Love Wins")

Thank you for reading if you've gotten this far. This is a very complicated subject and one that I have been considering writing about for the past week. I'd love to hear some of your thoughts.