Before I talk about some of the areas we will delve into in the God Can’t series based on the book by Thomas Jay Oord of the same name, I need you to do some preparatory work.  I will explain why after you take the following two assessments. *

What are your thoughts about free will? 

Circle your answer for each statement.

Strongly Agree <-> Strongly Disagree

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

1.       My exercise of free will is limited by my upbringing.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

2.       Because of my background influences, I have no real free will.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

3.       I will have free will all of my life.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

4.       I have free will in life, regardless of group expectations or pressures.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

5.       My behaviors are determined by conditioning and life experiences.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

6.       My choices are limited by God’s plan for my life.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

7.       My wealth, class, race, and gender determine my decisions and behavior.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

8.       My choices are constrained by God.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

9.       I am free to make choices in my life regardless of social conditions.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

10.    I have total free will.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

11.    My free will is limited by such social conditions as wealth, career, and class.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

12.    My decisions fit into and thus are limited by a larger plan.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

13.    My present behavior is totally a result of my childhood experiences.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

14.    God’s will determines the choices I make.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

15.    God has my life planned out.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

16.    My behaviors are limited by my background.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

17.    When things are going well for me, I consider it die to a run of good luck.

1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9

 

What words describe God?

 

Rate each word using the following valuations:

1: The word does not describe God.

2: The word describes God.

3: The word describes God particularly well.

1.       ___ Absolute

2.       ___ Active

3.       ___ All-wise

4.       ___ Avenging

5.       ___ Blessed

6.       ___ Blunt

7.       ___ Charitable

8.       ___ Comforting

9.       ___ Considerate

10.    ___ Controlling

11.    ___ Creative

12.    ___ Critical

13.    ___ Cruel

14.    ___ Damning

15.    ___ Dangerous

16.    ___ Demanding

17.    ___ Democratic

18.    ___ Distant

19.    ___ Divine

20.    ___ Eternal

21.    ___ Everlasting

22.    ___ Fair

23.    ___ Faithful

24.    ___ False

25.    ___ Fast

26.    ___ Fatherly

27.    ___ Fearful

28.    ___ Feeble

29.    ___ Firm

30.    ___ Forgiving

31.    ___ Formal

32.    ___ Gentle

33.    ___ Glorious

34.    ___ Gracious

35.    ___ Guiding

36.    ___ Hard

37.    ___ Helpful

38.    ___ Holy

39.    ___ Impersonal

40.    ___ Important

41.    ___ Inaccessible

42.    ___ Infinite

43.    ___ Jealous

44.    ___ Just

45.    ___ Kind

46.    ___ Kingly

47.    ___ Lenient

48.    ___ Loving

49.    ___ Majestic

50.    ___ Matchless

51.    ___ Meaningful

52.    ___ Meek

53.    ___ Merciful

54.    ___ Moving

55.    ___ Mythical

56.    ___ Omnipotent

57.    ___ Omnipresent

58.    ___ Omniscient

59.    ___ Patient

60.    ___ Passive

61.    ___ Permissive

62.    ___ Powerful

63.    ___ Protective

64.    ___ Punishing

65.    ___ Real

66.    ___ Redeeming

67.    ___ Restrictive

68.    ___ Righteous

69.    ___ Safe

70.    ___ Severe

71.    ___ Sharp

72.    ___ Slow

73.    ___ Soft

74.    ___ Sovereign

75.    ___ Steadfast

76.    ___ Stern

77.    ___ Still

78.    ___ Strong

79.    ___ Supporting

80.    ___ Timely

81.    ___ Tough

82.    ___ True

83.    ___ Unchanging

84.    ___ Unyielding

85.    ___ Valuable

86.    ___ Vigorous

87.    ___ Weak

88.    ___ Warm

89.    ___ Worthless

90.    ___ Wrathful

91.    ___ Yielding

 

Reviewing these two assessments – even without knowing quite how to score them – will give you a rough idea where you land on two areas of interest: your take on free will versus determinism and what adjectives you use to describe the nature of God.  Knowing these before we launch into thoughtful consideration of some deep theological weeds is critical if you want to be helped by this series.  If you don’t do this preliminary step, this series over time will be largely forgettable.  I mean that quite literally.  Because until we know what we believe, we really can’t believe otherwise.

From the moment we are born we take in loads of information and organize it into complex construct.  Since we are raised by human beings, we are naturally influenced by them – our eyes are radically shaped by their perspective, and so, therefore, are our constructs.  When we entertain new information that doesn’t fit into our constructs, we first engage it with curiosity.  However, if the new information cannot fit within our existing conceptual framework, we will reject the new information as absurd, and may even forget we ever heard about it.  When we first identify our construct so that we can compare and contrast the new construct with our existing one, we have the opportunity to truly compare them to one another and allow the new construct the capacity to transform or even replace our existing one (especially if that new concept is affirmed by supportive community over time).  Until we know what we believe, it is highly unlikely that we will believe otherwise, even to our detriment.

The new bus terminal in San Francisco provides a good example of this phenomenon in action.  The beautiful, new $2.2 billion terminal that was supposed to be a model for the future for other large cities trying to encourage mass transportation usage opened with great fanfare about a year ago, and then closed six weeks later after a maintenance worker noticed a massive crack running through a girder that was holding up a ceiling/parking garage as well as a deck for buses.  Luckily, the problem was caught before any large structural failure took place.  After expert evaluation, all involved recognized that the problem had to do with what the construction workers (or their supervisors) believed about the welding and cutting holes in steel.  They believed it didn’t make any difference which came first.  It turns out, however, that it made the difference between success and failure.  The information was likely available, and the engineers likely made a notation about how important it was that the welding preceded the hole cutting.  But if you have in your mind that it doesn’t make any difference, will you believe it does?  In this case, nope.  You can read the article here.

Until you are aware of what you believe, you will not likely believe anything else.  There is just not any room for it.

Most of us only acknowledge a problem when we can no longer ignore it.  Our drinking has caused too many problems.  Our anger is destroying relationships.  Or the realization is so profound that we cannot see the world the same again. This was the case for Jesus.  We’re not sure about all that went into the transformation, but his message was profoundly different from that which was being peddled around him.  So different that the system he was challenging killed him.  For a taste of his new ideas, read his famous Sermon on the Mount, where nearly everything he said challenged the status quo.  Jesus was a radical with radically different thoughts about God and life.  So was Paul.  As was the disciple, Peter.  Each of whom had their worlds turned upside down after they saw something they couldn’t unsee.  Unfortunately, it is often only when we are brought to our knees that we are humble enough to finally see, finally listen, finally change. 

Taking the above assessments is a proactive way to get into a mental space where you can think through what you believe so that when you hear something different, you can truly engage it and consider new constructs that will be helpful in your life and faith.  If you don’t bother with such a waste of time and energy, don’t worry: the human experience brings crises in abundance that will strain your construct like a parking deck and bus platform on a transportation hub in San Francisco.  Hopefully you will recognize the crack and fix it before the whole thing collapses…

 *The first test is the Free Will-Determinism Scale (Stroessner & Green, 1990), and the second is Adjective Ratings of God (Gorsuch, 1968).