The second principle of the chaos theory is that while God originally created a beautiful and orderly universe that functioned in beautiful symmetry, once free agents used their freedom to rebel against God, many elements of God’s creation spun out of control, that is, they no longer work in coordination with all the other parts of God’s creation.
There is a whole theology behind this idea, but let me try to summarize it here and in the next post.
God’s Created Order
God created a world which contains powerful natural and spiritual forces, all of which are interconnected. In God’s original design, all elements and aspects of creation were intended to work together in a symphony of joy and beauty. Cycles of light and darkness along with seasons of cold and warmth provided opportunities for work and rest.
The animals and natural elements were perfectly balanced to support and sustain one another. Plants, trees, and vegetation provided sustenance for the animals, while the animals helped tend and guide the growth of plants. There were waters below and waters above, working together with the heat of the sun and the movement of the air to bring growth, light, and refreshment to all. It was beautiful.
At the pinnacle of this creation God placed mankind, both male and female. Together, they were to work in a partnership with God and with each other to serve as a conductor over this orchestra of creation. Humans were to partner with the plants and with the animals to guide, help, and direct all things to work together in unison and for the purpose God intended.
The Principalities and Powers
Part of this symphony also involved the angels.
As we try to understand the theology behind the idea that on the cross, Jesus reveals to us what God was doing in the Old Testament, we are in a section where we recognize that there are no “pat answers” to the problem of evil in the world, and that the situation is much more complex than most of us realize. I have about six points to a “
This post contains three more ways to develop friendships with your neighbors. 
When we learned that our neighbor’s cancer had returned, we started spending time with her. When she told us that she wanted watermelon, we found a store that had watermelon in January. When she couldn’t keep down any food we made her lots of batches of “pear pudding,” the only thing she could keep down. We looked at her pictures with her and her husband – the church where they married, vacations they had taken, and other pictures from her life. We prayed with them. We tried to answer their questions about God. We sat by her bedside the night before she died. We hugged her every time we saw her. We cried with her, and then again with her husband after she passed.
I 
And let me tell you, he NAILED it. He basically said the same thing I have been saying in my series on this blog.
Before we can look at specific Bible passages regarding the violence of God in Scripture, it is important to develop a framework which helps us understand what is going on within and behind these violent texts. I have six points of this framework, which I call “
So before we look at any specific passages, I want to briefly present a framework for how to understand what is going on behind many of the violent and destructive passages in Scripture. In this post I will present the basic framework, and in the following couple of posts I will present what I call the “Six Principles of Chaos Theory.” Only then will be well prepared to begin looking at some of the violent texts of Scripture to see how they do not reveal a violent and bloody God, but a God that looks surprisingly like Jesus Christ.
Thankfully, this is not the God that created the world, nor is it the God portrayed in Scripture, nor especially is it the God revealed in Jesus Christ. The true God, the God who created heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who raised up Kings and Prophets in Israel to carry His message, the God ultimately revealed in Jesus Christ, and carried now by the Spirit through His Church, is a God of infinite love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, long-suffering, patience, kindness, and grace. This is the God who desires a relationship with each person on earth.
An analogy might be helpful. You probably remember the scene from “Jurassic Park” where the wild-eyed scientist, Dr. Ian Malcom, talks about “chaos theory” and illustrates it by watching drops of water roll off his knuckle. He shows that even though the drop of water lands in the same place each time, it rarely goes in the same direction.
How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?
There are numerous ways of doing this, but let me mention just seven that have worked well for my wife and I as we seek to build relationships in our neighborhood. This post will contain the first four, and the next post in this series will contain the final three. 
On other occasions we walked by neighbor’s houses and saw water running out of the house from under the garage door or front door. This indicates a broken water pipe indoors and a flooded house. After determining that no one is home, we try to find a neighbor with a large wrench so we can turn the water off at the street, or I run home to find such a wrench. After the water is off, we try to contact a neighbor who can reach the homeowner so they can return home to start the massive cleanup. At least three times the homeowners have later told me that our quick action saved them thousands of dollars in damages and prevented them from having to move out of the house while it was being repaired.
This is a summary post from much of what I have been writing over the past two weeks or so about the violence of God in the Old Testament. The reason I am summarizing it is because I want to begin looking at some of the key biblical passages which are affected by my proposal to see how we can read and understand these texts.
God is an eternal ocean of grace, mercy, love, and righteousness and knows that no amount of sin can diminish or overcome His holiness. Sin does not taint God, but rather, God soaks up all sin. When, in the person of Jesus Christ, God steps into the evil of the world, it does not overpower Him, but He overcomes it.