Part V Matthew: Isolating This Gospel from All the Others

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 31 October 2013 4 Comments
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Question

Thank you for your insightful scholarship. My question has to do with free will. If we believe we have free will this helps explain the rampant, human-induced evil in the world. On the other hand, the Lord's Prayer, wherein we ask that "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" must have been uttered millions of times to no apparent avail. Those who believe in a benevolent God who answers prayers must be stymied and dismayed that these millions of prayers go unanswered in the face of evil or - if they are answered - that God’s will included mayhem. My take is that there is not a God that answers these prayers and that we are on our own - or God’s will is to endorse our free will to carry on as usual. Your comments on free will, the will of God and, in this context, evil itself would be greatly appreciated.

Answer

Dear Ken,

The debate between free will and determinism will not be solved in this question and reply format. The issues are far too deep, far too complex and our knowledge’s far too limited. Just the insights from the field of psychology alone help us to understand how much we are motivated by the realm of the unconscious.

At the same time to treat God as an external power ready to be supplicated to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves is a product of the childhood of our humanity that we are outgrowing more with each passing generation. People interpret this as the death of God. I see it as the death of our human projection and believe that this death will actually open us to a new birth into a new dimension of spirituality.

I see nothing wrong with giving voice to our yearning that God’s will might be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” The problem with most of us is that we identify God’s will with our desires. They are not the same.

To say that there is not a God who answers prayers is not to say that there is no God. It is to say that the popular image of God is woefully inadequate. People often in the immaturity of their childish theism confuse God with Santa Claus. They are not the same!

John Shelby Spong

 

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