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Galli argues that Bell only presents God as agent. He describes the downfalls of this extremely well, explaining that God as agent means God doing things for us. I completely agree with Galli that God as agent misses the Gospel, with God as lover as a more accurate and deeper understanding of God. This is one of my criticisms of most of the neo-Calvinist movement--I only see them presenting God as agent and leave out the whole relationship thing. At the same time, to be fair, this may be my reading of them, just as that is Galli's reading of Love Wins. I actually read that lover element in Bell's work far more than an emphasis of God as agent. If Bell limited God to this agent role, I would be in complete agreement with this criticism.
Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty
The LORD thy God is in the midst of thee, A Mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over thee with joy, He will be silent in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.' The answer to Habakkuk's cry is to be patient? Is that the type of thing a compassionate God tells his anguished people? Apparently. And it's an answer that Habakkuk accepts at face value: "I have heard all about you, Lord," he says, "I am filled with awe by your amazing works. … I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us" (Habakkuk 3:2, 16). None of Job's Business His ultimate answer to everything, unsurprisingly, is "We're not dealing with logic, we're dealing with what God says is true [...] The answer, as strange as it is simple, is that we can trust Him [to decide wisely and fairly]." That's easy to say, but when you hear the stories of the capricious, vindictive God of the Old Testament, or read Galli's assertion that God purposely chooses people who won't be saved (including those who never hear the gospel due to circumstance), The biggest issue I had with Galli was his discussion of free will and predestination, although that's too big an issue to get into in a book review. I also found his response to the Christus Victor view - that we have to take responsibility for our sins - contradictory, if forgiveness is, as claimed, truly perfect.This doesn't mean we can't ask them. In Christ, we have the freedom to speak what's on our hearts and minds. God isn't going to cast us from his presence because we ask him some tough questions. It just means that we shouldn't take our questions too seriously because apparently God doesn't take them too seriously. I earned more money in 4 weeks than the previous 6 months of the job I lost through the pandemic thanks to this course”
God Wins | Christianity Today
The story is written with delightful literary skill. The Hebrew text is full of wordplays and poetic devices. The ultimate wordplay is in verse 9, where Babel is played off the Hebrew balel, meaning “confusion.” Babylonian accounts tell how their city was built in heaven by the gods, proudly referring to it as “Babili” (“the gate of God”). But God says, “So you want to make a name for yourselves, do you? You call your city the gate of God? How about ‘confusion’ instead?” Again, that's a lot to take in. And the thing that bothers Zechariah is the thing that bothers Mary: biology. "How can I be sure this will happen?" he asks the angel. "I am an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years." Strong's 4192: (a) labor, toil, (b) pain, anguish, distress, suffering. From the base of penes; toil, i.e. anguish. What we see in these two incidents is that God seems relatively unconcerned with giving specific answers to the anguished questions of Habakkuk and Job. He answers them, but not point for point. That suggests that all our questions about God's wisdom and justice and love may not be all that important to God in the end—or at least not as important as other things.The point is that questions are not just questions. There is no such thing as a neutral inquiry when it comes to questions about God.
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