I think that unbelievers have a more objective perspective of what the Bible says and are therefore the best judges of what its message is. The unbeliever can look at a vague passage and say that it has no clear meaning as the Christians debate among themselves about which of them has the correct interpretation of what is essentially poetry.
The unbeliever can see an example of moral or intellectual failure by the deity and call it that, whereas the believer must sanitize the passage and convert it into something moral or reasonable, or just shrug his shoulders and say that God;s infinite goodness and intelligence transcends our puny minds' ability to understand that what appears monstrous or absurd really isn';t in some inexplicable way.
Ask an unbeliever what the story of Job tells us, and he'll agree with just about every other unbeliever: It is the story of a capricious god unjustly toying with the life of a good man as a demonstration to a demon. That's simply not acceptable to anyone, so the believer adds to the story to make it more palatable. Maybe God was punishing Job for an unstated sin, or training him to be a better person, or whatever one can improvise to justify what is unjustifiable without the ad hoc, just-so explanation.[/QUOTE
There is certainly some truth to your assertion, but it is ultimately untrue. The unbeliever is not able to know the contents of scripture in the same way that a believer is. Your presupposition is that Christianity operates the same way as any other religion, which would be true is Christianity was of this world. But as Jesus said Himself, His kingdom is not of this world. The texts of the Bible are divinely inspired. Thus, those are still a part of this world can not see them for all that they are. Also, I believe Satan blinds people to the truth through lies, deceptions, false religions, fallen cultures, etc. God will also blind people as a punishment.
I can see how an non-Christian could decipher a vague passage when Christians can't. We Christians tend to mysticise or allegorize passages that we feel are empty of meaning. Not that they are empty of meaning. We just feel like they are sometimes. Or we find it too hard to resist the flow of our particular leaning. I find it that I want to see Calvinism in everything, because I am a Calvinist and that is just the way it is.
As for the story of the Job, God did as He pleased. It was exactly as you described, except that God is not capricious, He is not unjust, and He was not toying with Job. Job is a sinner. Like every other sinner, Job did not love the Lord his God, Creator, and sustainer, with all of his being. He did not love his God with perfection. Just like every other sinner, Job never did love his neighbor with perfection. He never forgave with perfection, worshipped with perfection, gave thanks with perfection, or did any other good thing with perfection. Rather, lingering over every good deed Job ever did was the stain of Job's sins, which the God of the Bible cannot and will not accept. Hence comes the cross.
Job was a sinner, and just like every other sinner, including me, Job deserves God's eternal wrath. So the reality is, Job deserved literally none of his blessings. He was not entitled to them just as I am not entitled to my blessings. I don't really understand all the reasons behind what God allowed to happen to Job, but I can accept it knowing that we honestly don't deserve any better, and it was only for a time. Job is reunited with his family right now.
I appreciate that you didn't use your opinion as a blugeon like so many others do; I am not trying to offend or insult you, so I hope nothing I said will cause any undue offense.
