How many kids grow up with the nagging feeling that the whole “flood thing” was a bit of an overreaction? Look at the felt board and listen to Mr. Sunday School Teach, and you’ll get the impression that people had a big party, stayed up too late, and maybe got a little tipsy. And so God . . . smote the earth, collapsed the sky, and sent the continents spinning like air hockey pucks, killing pretty much EVERYTHING?
Muting the black distorts God. Revealing it is frequently theodicy.
via The Rabbit Room. In which N. D. Wilson responds to a comment thread on an excellent plug for his book 100 cupboards.
I’m always conflicted when this topic comes up (and I run in the kind of circles where it does, occasionally.) There’s a lot of merit in the pint, but I wonder if this kind of thing isn’t something that is “grown into” to some extent. Give the kids the facts as scripture gives them, so that they have the basis for understanding, but if they don’t get as creeped out over sin and judgment as we think they should, isn’t that just a function of them not really grasping abstract stuff well anyway? I’m not sure. Sugarcoating isn’t the answer, but I’m not sure drawing ugly pictures of things that aren’t drawn explicitly in scripture is, either. Now when you’re preaching on the major prophets, that’s a different story….
N.D. Wilson is the LeBron James of writing. His gift with words is staggering.