I suppose one of the main reasons why people have so much difficulty in coming to terms with Christian teachings is because of the way God is presented in the Bible. If one literally takes some of the characters of God that have been described in the good book, it becomes difficult to reconcile them with the nature of God. The reason is because God being all good, all powerful, all knowing, and all present, it then becomes difficult to understand why such a magnificent being should possess some of the petty characteristics that often annoy us as humans. For example, if a person understands God as Love, how then can that person account for emotions such as jealousy and anger that are obvious derivatives of fear? In the face of such contradictions, any person who thinks for themselves cannot convince himself or herself that God is for real.
The fact that different people often preach in the same church, and each of these preachers interprets the Bible differently, it almost seems like there is a different God for every week. On one Sunday, He is a God of Love and compassion, while on another He is a God of wrath and vengeance. And then when one preacher dedicates the sermon to talk about a God who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, a person struggling to know more about God becomes hopelessly bewildered.
It is as confusing as a magician who grandly announces that he will pull out a rabbit from a hat and ends up pulling out a bunch of handkerchiefs. It leaves the audience impressed, but with some lingering doubt about how magic really works. If the magician was to ask for a volunteer for his next trick, a person might be hesitant to step up to the stage since he or she might not be sure whether the magic will work as expected. In a similar manner, a person with doubts about the true character of God will not voluntarily step forward during an alter call in church to receive Christ as the savior.
My confusion about the Bible stories came quite early in life. As a child, I had trouble understanding how Jesus and his disciples could eat bread all the time. The reason is because while growing up, bread was a very precious commodity since it was not readily available at home. In the place for bread at breakfast, we used to eat traditional foods such as arrowroots, sweet potatoes, or plain old porridge. Although we were not poor, I reasoned that the only reason why we did not eat bread every day was because we could not afford it. My young mind then concluded that a person had to be quite affluent to afford to eat bread all the time. And yet, our Sunday school teacher told us that Jesus was from a humble background. Between the Bible and my religious teacher, who was telling the truth?
But even as I was having my bread quagmire, I could see that the adults were not faring so well either. Many of them would justify getting drunk by quoting a verse where the Bible advises taking some little wine as a tonic for the stomach. These people went ahead to wonder loudly, “If drinking was bad, would Jesus have turned water into wine?!” These arguments would throw off the preachers since they offered wine in church as part of the Holy Communion.
The Bible was written in the backdrop of a culture where bread and wine formed part of an ordinary meal. In my culture, most people mainly drink beer which is relatively cheap and readily available. Getting sloshed is part of the drinking culture, and most people will not value an evening out without being inebriated. I suppose that the people who argued that the Bible advocated drinking rigged the verses in their favor to justify walking into church with a hangover on a Sunday morning. Actually, matter got even more complicated when the White catholic priests sent by the parent church in Rome would smoke and drink openly, while still wearing their priestly collars. In those days, being in the proximity of the White priests from Rome was as close to God an African child could get without going to heaven. So, was smoking and drinking bad or not?
I suppose the teachings from the Bible should also include a mention of the context in which the events took place. I imagine that the reason why the parables that Jesus used are so successful in passing their messages is because they are taken in the context of what they are: Stories with similes that provoke thought, and not to be taken literally.
I would say that the reason why the Bible gives God some human characteristics is so that we may be able to understand and encompass Him in our minds – no matter how simple. At the very basic level we all communicate through emotions. For example, human beings not only understand fear, they readily respond to it. As a result, attributing fearful thoughts to God when a person sins will make the person respond by attempting to correct the situation. Attributing Loving thoughts to God when a person does good encourages him or her to continue doing good. This has to be the very basic way of explaining the will of God in the human life, understandable by a child just as clearly as by the guru levitating somewhere in the mountains. In fact, it is by bringing thought into it, that makes everything suddenly very complicated. And perhaps this explains why God seems to be more understandable and believable by a person who never went to school than by the gentleman who went to all the schools.
As a person moves closer to God, His words unfold in his or her heart and things that seemed unclear are gradually revealed. As a friend of mine puts it, words literally jump at you from the pages of the Bible, and that which would have seemed like a contradiction suddenly makes sense. Let us move closer to God.
23:49 
You call it freedom
18:50 
16:05 
13:09 
12:24 
7:05