Don: We pause from our discussion of the “I Am” statements that tell us about the nature of God as described in 2,000-year-old scriptures, to reflect on what they might mean to people of the distant future—say, a thousand years from now (assuming Armageddon does not come first). What if this class were still running a thousand years from now, with different people of course, and had the very same discussion we have been having about the nature of—the truth about—God? Would their view of that truth be any different from ours? To put it another way: Will the “I Am” statements about the attributes of God as the Light, the Door, the Bread, the Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Vine, and so on be understood by our distant descendants as we understand these attributes today?
Since the beginning of time, Man has worshiped things that are powerful and not understood—the sun, moon, stars, wind, fire, and so on. But science has advanced and we have more and more knowledge of how the universe works, with the result that things we used to ascribe to God we now ascribe to Nature. For this reason, God has been called “the God of the Gaps” to indicate that we invoke him whenever there is a gap in our understanding of how the universe works. The gaps appear to grow smaller as our ability to penetrate the secrets of the universe through science grows larger. Where will God go if science eventually fills in all, or most of, the gaps?
For something to be True, it must be True everywhere and for all time past, present, and future. Truth cannot be invented—it can only be discovered or revealed. Jesus revealed these Truths: That we find God personified in those who are in need; that the innocent should lead, that the first will be last, that grace is the way of life, that every individual is invaluable to God, that forgiveness is imperative and that reconciliation must be striven for, especially for interpersonal conflicts. These core principals of the kingdom of heaven add up to a Magna Carta, so to speak, both for heaven itself and for the kingdom of heaven on earth.
If science closes the gaps in our knowledge of the universe, what happens to these principles? Will they—and will God—still be relevant? The strategy that the God of the Old Testament and the God (Jesus) of the New Testament seems to employ to establish and maintain his relevance is not to close the gaps—not to answer our questions—but to keep at least some gaps open by asking questions. Job found this out the hard way—but in the end, he found God’s questions more fulfilling and enlightening than if God had given him pat answers. God’s questions gave Job deeper insight into the Truth about God—and that is what we all seek.
A thousand years from now, will the “four great mysteries”—the deep, fundamental questions mankind has pursued through the ages—about God be fully revealed? Will our search be ended? Or will the mysteries still inspire a search for God? Can we ever fully understand the nature of good/godliness, of evil, of a God of all mankind, and of resurrection? Will the Magna Carta of the faith community of the future still be the one that Jesus gave? Will the practice of religion, including prayer, have a future?
We have often remarked on Paul’s great “Love chapter”:
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13)
According to this passage, a religion of the future that is based on knowledge and prophecies (statistical probabilities) will not last. Many scriptural passages (in Malachi, James, Numbers, and Psalms, among others) affirm the immutable nature of God. But our approach to God—seeking him in the ever-dwindling gaps—seems perilous unless we can come up with a more comprehensive view of what it is to understand or encounter God. Is it possible that a thousand years from now, when we understand more completely what his plan for us might be and when more is revealed about the great mysteries, that we might still have a meaningful, rich, and deep experience with God?
David: The God of the Gaps theory apparently has much explanatory power and is therefore a powerful one. If it is correct, or only thought to be correct, then it is vital to know what is happening to those gaps and whether the great mysteries and the core principles expounded by Jesus are gaps and therefore subject to change over time as we learn more. Paul pointed to Love as the ultimate, unchanging attribute of Godliness. Is even that final principle potentially explicable as a natural, as opposed to a divine, principle? Could a machine love and be loved?
Besides love, other gaps that believers insist can only be ascribed to God include immortality and life creation. We cannot now (and by definition can never as mortals) claim immortality, but there is no doubt in my mind that science is increasingly able to keep us alive such that eventually human lifespan will be indefinite and we could be considered eternal—absent cataclysmic events. Clearly, this is not the same as the immortality promised by God, but a thousand years from now, death may be so rare that immortality is assumed. Therefore, countering the gaps argument with the argument that we will never ultimately defeat death, even if that counter argument were correct, would not be productive. It seems to me better to focus on the gaps where the theory fails because there would seem to be no scientific basis for them even in principle. I am referring to the gaps of Goodness, Love, and Grace, which as often as not appear to operate with utter disregard for both natural law and religious canons.
As the future accelerates towards us through accelerating technological advance, knocking down straw-man gaps in its way, religious belief (both organized and personal) and scriptures and the God as presented to us by religion and scripture will come under increasing assault. Treating the Bible as a book of questions rather than answers may help to reveal the immutable, divine, fundamental principles—the unshrinkable gaps. But how many people today read the Bible as a book of questions? And how many people are likely to do so a thousand years from now? Whether we do or not changes nothing about the ultimate nature or fate of God, but it is likely to have an enormous impact on religion, spirituality, and human behavior.
Frank: If we compare behavior and technology in the time of the Old Testament to behavior and technology today, perhaps that can give us a hint of the magnitude of the difference in human behavior a thousand years from now. I believe that technology is actually killing humanity, in the sense that people turn to technology rather than to God. Technology is becoming a plague. It cannot deliver the love, mercy, and grace we all need and that can only come from God, but people of the future will have lost that hope. Atheism is growing stronger.
Michael: I am sure that many things will change but I am not sure that people’s view of God is one of them. There will always be people who look to fill gaps and people who look to open gaps—who look for mysteries. This was so a thousand years ago, is so today, and may well be so a thousand years from now. Maybe there will be increased awareness of the unshrinkable gaps. Technology is materialistic and ultimately delivers emptiness. At that point, people will feel the urge to peer more deeply into the mysteries of the unshrinkable gaps, and God will be revealed to them in that way.
Jason: God is a god of the past, the present, and the future. He stands outside of time. He is all-encompassing. The gaps that appear to us to close, at different stages of human history and fashion, will not alter God’s plan for our salvation one bit. We might gain knowledge, but even beneficial knowledge is meaningless to a God whose sole concern is redeeming love and grace. Unlike technology, love and grace cannot be discontinued or go out of fashion. Technology can be a great evangelistic tool to spread God’s word and save many. So can money. But they cannot prevent God from saving us despite ourselves.
David: I agree. God’s concern is to save us, period. How he does it as we change is the question. Jesus did it by trying to show that we are saved when we love our fellow human being, when we are Good Samaritans; not when we go to church and pray and pay tithes. Which (to me) begs the question: Does God want, or need, a future for himself as a worshiped Being? Wouldn’t he be happiest if we turned our world into a kingdom of heaven on earth, as defined by everyone loving one another? Jesus was very clear (it seems to me) that there was nothing more important to God.
It seems to me also that society is, over time, becoming more communist, in the best sense of a community of mutual care. We have voted for welfare statutes and (more or less willingly) pay taxes to support welfare for the poor and sick. This is hardly God-like but isn’t it a step toward that kingdom of heaven on earth? I am optimistic that a thousand years hence all the hatred and inequality we see today will be replaced by peace and loving care for our neighbor no matter who they are.
I don’t think God cares whether scriptures or religions or places of worship exist a thousand years from now. I think his plan is to save us by helping us to share his goodness, love, and grace with everyone. (Key to that is the revelation of the mystery that God is the God of all mankind.) And from the evidence of our growing communal humanity (welfare systems, etc.), I think that his plan is working, despite our misuse of technology, despite our religious divisions, and despite our behavioral lapses.
Jazlin: I don’t see the knowledge gaps as shrinking. On the contrary: They are growing bigger. The more we know, the more we know we don’t know! Even in heaven, God said, we will continue to learn and be faced with mysteries.
The difference may be one of visibility. Love and faith and grace are invisible. Less fundamental things are visible and increasingly amenable to observation, analysis, interpretation, and application as a result of technology. But our interpretations are shifting sands, grounded in space and time. God is not.
Danny Shelton wrote in his 2015 book [title garbled] that because of 3ABN [Three Angels Broadcasting Network, a 24-hour Christian television and radio network] there are 18 million Seventh Day Adventists. Because of technology, the message has gone around the world. Jesus said that when he was preached throughout the world he would come again. Shelton said that before 3ABN there were only six million Adventists. So technology is doing something very powerful to propagate the gospel. That said, I don’t see God changing. He is eternal and his grace, love, and faith are immutable, though they may increase through the world over time.
Jeff: I am less optimistic about societal trends, even given the technologies that extend or otherwise improve the body or the mind. I just don’t see any solution, other than God, to the problem of the flawed, sinful human being. No matter how far technology takes us, no matter what sort of a Utopia we envision, we seem incapable of building one on our own.
There was a Fall, sin was introduced, and God is the only solution. We don’t really know how it will work out but the Bible gives us pointers.
Eb: [Eb read passages from a book—I could not find copyable text online—DE] I attribute my long life and ability to climb 61 steps every day to having developed a sense of patience—patience that God will take care of everything in his own good time. We just have to continue to believe. If Abraham had continued to argue with God over the sacrifice of Isaac, there would have been a problem. With God, you just have to accept.
Chris: There will always be gaps, and as long as the character of God is desired by Man, God will always be there. He is the author of that character. For God to have no future, his character would have to go away—and that can’t happen.
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