“As a serious Bible reader, I’m a little uneasy because I know of some

other images of God that are found in the Bible, violent images, cruel

images, un-Christ-like images. I find a character named God who sends a

flood that destroys all humanity except Noah’s family ...

unthinkable…. hardly worthy of belief much less worship.”

Brian McLaren

A New Kind of Christianity?

1. God Employs Evil for Good Purposes

2. God is Never Guilty of Moral Evil

3. God Calls the Guilty to Account

“If all this appears self-contradictory—Amen, be it so. The various elements of truth stand in

perpetual antithesis, sometimes requiring us to believe apparent opposites while we wait for the moment when we shall know as we are known. Then truth which now appears to be in conflict

with itself will arise in shining unity and it will be seen that the conflict has not been in the truth

but in our sin-damaged minds.”

A. W. Tozer

Faith in the face of frustrations:

4. The Guilty Do Exactly What They Want

“[O]ne mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him [who knows who God is]….That mighty

burden is his obligation to God. It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and

soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship Him acceptably. And when the man’s laboring conscience

tells him that he has done none of these things, but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolt against the Majesty in the heavens, the inner pressure of self-

accusation may become too heavy to bear.”

A. W. Tozer

How can God show mercy?

5. God’s Purpose is Salvation for His Glory