Something that is a bit uncomfortable to acknowledge, but is also very empowering, is that God and Satan seem to be incahoots at times. Looking back to the Old Testament, for example, God and Satan discuss Job’s righteousness. God is very pleased with Job, and when He and Satan disagree on the motivation for Job’s upright character, God grants Satan the power to essentially wreak havoc on Job’s life. He experiences extreme hardships and we (along with God and Satan) watch to see if Job will stay faithful to God during hard times or if he will break. Looking forward in the New Testament, we can see something similar in Mark Chapter 1. At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “you are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well … [Read more...] about Satan and Suffering as Teachers
Archives for March 2023
Cain and Abel
Jewish thoughts on Cain and Abel are far more extensive than you’d think, given how short the story is. Thanks to Midrash, creative ways the ancient Rabbis explained, understood, and expanded on various biblical themes, we can see stories like Cain and Abel through new eyes and discover a lot of different morals that we otherwise wouldn’t have seen. Cain v. Abel is a fantastic book on this subject written by Rabbi Dan Ornstein and it combines many Midrashic views with his own modern Midrashic spin as well. It’s worth noting that the story he presents is not meant to be taken literally. Jews tend to read the Bible both through surface level reading and by finding the hidden meanings and morals of the stories. As far as midrashic works go, accuracy is far less relevant than the moral teachings underlying them. Another great source for understanding Cain and Abel is the book Messengers of God by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who wrote extensively about Judaism. The Story of … [Read more...] about Cain and Abel
What Is Hinduism?
Hinduism is an extremely complicated religion to explain, mostly due to the fact that it is not a religion, but rather a family of religions. The word “Hindu” was actually a Persian word meant to describe the people of India, not a specific religion. This brings up the point though that Hinduism and India go hand in hand. India is unbelievably diverse in every way; ethnically, geographically, religiously, you name it, and this diversity is celebrated, not feared. India is so diverse that there are 16 major languages spoken and hundreds of dialects, bringing it up to an estimated 850 languages spoken daily. This often makes it difficult for Indians from different parts of the country to talk with each other without a harsh language barrier, typically requiring English to be spoken as the lingua franca. This is all relevant to Hinduism because the family of religions practiced amongst this diverse people is equally diverse, and this diversity is again celebrated, not scorned. … [Read more...] about What Is Hinduism?