Behold, It Was Very Good

Behold, It Was Very Good is a companion volume to Trembling Before God: Twelve Homilies Explore the Origin, Development, and Failure of Christianity Today. Both focus on the concept of choice. Choice is choosing between that perceived as either good or evil. Mankind has a strong absurd tendency to believe that God exists. Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and various other types of thinkers strain their imaginations seeking clarifications of God and all tend to find that there is a failure of reason. Faith is a confidence in something that cannot possibly be but is expected to be. Christian faith holds the substance of God is good. If God is the cause of all things, then God cannot escape being the source of all things, including both good and evil. Man lives in a state of an echo of good and evil contained within his separation from God. Humorists develop catchphrases to deflect the unendurable burden of evil: "The devil made me do it" and "What you see is what you get." Examined are the cultures and civilizations of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Austroasiatic, and Mesoamerican that have, for the most part, disappeared. Christianity and Judaism have passed through various struggles in order to survive. The Pew Forum 2009 and 2019 studies and a historical review dating from the time of the American colonies reveal a possible glimpse beginning with the Great Awakenings into the continued failure of contemporary Christian culture in America that finds religion irrelevant. The "welcoming doors" of many contemporary American churches tend to be "revolving doors." There is a rise of the megachurch phenomena and the decline of the mainline churches. God's declaration to Moses of "I Am" becomes lost over time in favor of institutional dogma, political power, and a preponderance of evil.