My mechanistic view of God

I was reading A New Kind of Christian ( the book Rob Bell...it all goes back to him doesn't it...haha...and his wife read right before starting Mars Hill) and I was wondering if any of this hit you guys like it hit me.

First off, do you ever think of modernity vs. postmodernity? That is a huge discussion in itself.

Is it possible to have a faith that transcends the historical situation we find ourselves in?

What does it mean to say that God is in control? When we think of the word control, we think of someone controlling a car or a machine. We probably can not think of it without thinking of it mechanistically. But, before the modern world, there were no complex machines. Whatever a person in ancient Biblical times would have meant by saying "God is in control" is almost certainly very different from what we mean today. For that person, God's control was associated with farmers controlling animals or parents controlling children or kings controlling subjects - all very different from an operator controlling a machine.

What would that do to the question of how can God be in control if there is so much evil in the world now that the definition of control has been radically changed? If a driver wrecks a car, then its the drivers fault, but if a child is raised to do right and then when he is older he doesn't, then its not the parents fault. Even though the child is thought to be under his parents control, he is still free to make his own decisions.

That example of control is just the tip of the differences between looking at God through a modern lens and looking at Him through a medieval lens or even a postmodern lens.

What do you guys think?

Bought and OWNED!!! (Romans 1:1, Isaiah 26:8)

G