You are very kind! I think I have a lot to learn. I think you have a very good heart. A lot of what you say are things I told my own parents about 30 years ago, too, when I was in my teens and 20s. So I agree strongly. I don’t know the answers to all of this, but I was happy to read that some of the big guys struggle about that, too.
These are good questions; perhaps we should try another thread; it’s hard to know. The mods can add.
Regarding Macdonald’s quote, I wasn’t clear. He was referring to reading the OT and NT–so, if it seems that God did something unjust, it’s possibly filtered through our eyes–but God can’t be unjust, if He exists, I think. So, the Bible may be wrong, or our translation, or copy, or something–but rather that than try to change good to evil.
MacDonald and Lewis propose that God never lets us go–is always willing to hear us out.
Good question on vindication and correction. I still am trying to understand it, but here’s how I have heard it so far. If you observe a mean parent who really doesn’t care about a child’s behavior so much as how he appears as a parent, or if he looks good–for example, punishes a child for doing something foolish in front of others, but didn’t mean anything wrong–that’s a parent who operates on a selfish whim. It’s the vindication of his majesty, not of righteousness. If you have a good parent, who doesn’t care how she looks when a child makes a mistake, but kindly takes a long time to explain things and protect her child from others–that is a corrective parent. You can see a good parent firmly punishing children till they finally get the hint (Roy Rogers said that some people learn by seeing, some by hearing, and some just have to pee on the electric fence). Sometimes, there is a role for firmness–but then it’s about the action, not about my dignity.
It can hurt like crazy. I like C S Lewis’ image of purgatory
Our souls demand Purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, “It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drop with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy.”? Should we not reply, “With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I’d rather be cleaned first.” “It may hurt, you know.”–“Even so, sir.”
I assume that the process of purification will normally involve suffering. Partly from tradition; partly because most real good that has been done me in this life has involved it.” ( Letters to Malcolm , Letter XX)
Also, he describes God taking off our old self like when the boy Eustace loses his dragon skin to become a boy again:
“Then the lion said - but I don’t know if it spoke – ‘You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.
“The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you’ve ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.”
…
*“Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off … And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again…" - C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader*
Sometimes, we don’t even know that we desire righteousness–but all our enjoyment of this world really ends up being useless, till we know what really matters.
I look forward to other thoughts.
Thanks