The old Baptist preacher had been around long enough to know a fraud when he saw one. And he had grown tired of listening to this one regaling audiences in the shade of a pecan grove with fanciful tales of God that lacked any proper exegesis and rational hermeneutical lens. So, he carefully picked his question and planned his attack like a biblical chessmaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeacher, I\u2019m confused\u201d he called out, his pleasant drawl lazily floating on the ripples of the humid, Georgia heat. \u201cChristians can\u2019t seem to agree on just about anything. Sometimes it seems like they are worshiping completely different gods, to say nothing of the pagans and heathens who worship false gods. So, with all these gods running around in our heads, how do we know which god is the true God?\u201d<\/p>\n
The teacher finished his long pull on a Mason jar of sweet tea. \u201cWell, what does it say in the Bible? What\u2019s your take?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Baptist preacher, pleased to have the stage and perhaps set some erring minds in the audience straight, cleared his throat. \u201c\u2018Well, God is good, just, loving and hates evil.'\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly, my friend,\u201d the teacher replied. \u201cWorship this God and you will live.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the man wanted to prove a point, that the teacher wasn\u2019t worshiping this God at all. \u201cBut everybody says this is the God they serve, but clearly they can\u2019t all be right, can they? There is only one God, as the Bible says, not many.\u201d<\/p>\n
In reply, the teacher told another story.<\/p>\n
\u201cA man was going over to Atlanta from Birmingham, when he found himself in a deserted rest area on I-59. As he was getting out of his car to stretch his legs, a bunch of robbers approached him and pistol whipped him. They left him in his underwear, bloodied, bruised and unable to move. They left him half-dead, stripped of his money, credit cards and jewelry.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, a man arrived at the rest area and saw the poor beat up man lying in a pool of his own blood. He began to approach, but then noticed the multi-colored gay pride flag on his bumper. Instead of helping, he nodded in approval. The beaten man obviously was a heretical abomination and this beating was just, deserved punishment. So, he dragged the near-dead body into the bushes so no one else could help and continued to reign down righteous blows on him.<\/p>\n
A little while later, another traveler stopped at the rest area and heard some rather painful moaning coming from the nearby bushes. He was shocked at the state of the beaten man, eyes swollen, blood-matted hair and the incoherent groaning in pain. He looked down in pity.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d he said to the beaten man. \u201cYou might be in excruciating pain now, but you won\u2019t be once you get to heaven, which from the looks of your general state, won\u2019t be too long from now. Rejoice in your suffering and count it a blessing! Soon you will be in paradise!\u201d<\/p>\n
On that happy note, he left, hoping the man\u2019s suffering would purify him and joyful that another person would die on earth but live forever in heaven.<\/p>\n
A third person arrived at the rest area. He had darker skin than the others and spoke with in heavily accented English. He too heard the moans of the beaten man.<\/p>\n
When he saw the state of the wounded, he immediately gathered the man\u2019s body into his arms and laid it in his back seat. After compressing the wounds, he sped to the nearby hospital where the nurse admitted the man but informed the kind traveler that without insurance they would stabilize him and send him home. The traveler pulled out a credit card and said to give the man the best care available. I\u2019ll come back and pay anything my credit limit won\u2019t cover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which of these three do you think is God, the one who condemned and continued to torture him with hellish assaults; the one who told him to look to the world beyond; or the one who cared for him?\u201d<\/p>\n
The preacher replied, \u201cThe one who had unconditional mercy on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGo and serve this God, wherever you may find this God,\u201d Jesus said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Here\u2019s a parable from unorthodoxology: The old Baptist preacher had been around long enough to know a fraud when he saw one. And he had grown tired of listening to this one regaling audiences in the shade of a pecan grove with fanciful tales of God that lacked any proper exegesis and rational hermeneutical lens. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
The God Samaritan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's a parable from unorthodoxology:The old Baptist preacher had been around long enough to know a fraud when he saw one. And he had grown tired of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/08\/the-god-samaritan.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The God Samaritan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here's a parable from unorthodoxology:The old Baptist preacher had been around long enough to know a fraud when he saw one. 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