There is a famous verse in scripture which Christians often like to quote: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11 What most people who quote this verse probably don’t know is the context in which it was given. This statement … Continue reading Thanksgiving Thoughts
Today’s use of the word salvation comes from Luke 3:2-6 the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one shouting in the … Continue reading Salvation 3
Today in my study of the word salvation in the New Testament, we’ll look at Luke 2:30-32. This is the proclamation of Simeon over the infant Jesus as he was brought into the temple for circumcision: “”For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples: a light, for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your … Continue reading Salvation 2
This pobably isn’t the best way to re-start my long dorment blog, but I have a need of doing a word study on the word salvation in the New Testament and I figured that I would do it via a series of blog posts as a way to give it some structure. Sooooo. . . here goes.
We find our first uses of the word salvation in Luke 1:67-80 in the middle of John the Baptist’s father Zechariah’s prophesy over the infant Jesus:
Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,because he has come to help and has redeemed his people. For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from long ago, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us.
He has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant – the oath that he swore to our ancestor, Abraham.
This oath grants that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, may serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him for as long as we live.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s tender mercy the dawn will break upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
And the child kept growing and becoming strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he was revealed to Israel.
OK, first we need to start with some context. At the time of Jesus’ birth, Israel was under the control of the Roman Empire. Historically, those times when Israel was living under the control of other powers, it was understood to be a judgement on Israel for its sin and faithlessness. Therefor, the political condition of Israel and it’s spiritual need for redemption and forgiveness was seen as entertwined. In the past, God had worked through righteous Israeli leaders to bring about the release of Israel from foreign rule. These times were also a time for Israel to be redeemed from their sin and return to following God’s laws. Again, the political and the spiritual are woven together. Continue reading “Salvation 1”
God works. That’s all I can say. You may have heard the howling and gnashing of teeth on both sides over University of Minnesota at Morris professor P.Z. Meyer’s quest to desecrate a eucharist. He finally got his hands on one (I didn’t read closely enough to see if it was a consecrated host or not, which to Catholics would be enormously important of course). … Continue reading I am amazed
We’ve probably all seen a pastor stand up with a bible and declare, “this is God’s instruction manual for life.” Or seen those bumper stickers which say, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” The idea is that we can just flip open the bible and find instructions, directions and formulas for living our lives. Which if your only encounter with scripture comes … Continue reading Is the bible an instruction book?
Last night I wrote about my theory that the church is not effective in large part because of its divisions, that this ineffectiveness and division leave many people wandering and doing what seems best to them and that in order to counter this the church needs to reconsider its basic conception of itself. Today, I want to discuss a bit further what would/will need to happen for us to overcome our divisions and create more effective churches.
A month or so ago, I was involved in a discussion in the comment boxes over at Jesus Creed where regular commenter (and sometimes fill-in blogger) RJS said this:
I am an evangelical Christian and a scholar – but – I would not teach at an evangelical Christian institution with a restrictive statement of faith beyond essentials, even a statement of faith with which I currently agree. I am also ambivalent about church membership in any restrictive denominational church, despite the fact that I think we must affiliate in local congregations. We are called to be part of the body of Christ – the Church.
Attaching much importance to nonessentials sets a bar for Christian fellowship beyond Christian faith. I think that this has at least three, and probably more, truly negative impacts.
(1) It divides Christians, despite the fact that we are called to unity.
(2) It leads many to an unhealthy ironic faith (borrowing Scot’s term) where one may not really believe that to which one gives nominal assent.
(3) It prevents many of us from ever feeling truly secure in Christian fellowship.”
I have thought about this quite a bit since reading it a couple of weeks ago. Can we Christians simply decide that anyone who is willing to affirm the early church creeds (Apostle’s/Nicene Creed) belongs in full fellowship with us? Continue reading “A Gathering of All Believers?”
Over at Jesus Creed, a regular comment box writer who goes by RJS has been doing a series of posts on a book called The Reason for God. It has been a great series, but for whatever reason, today’s installment particularly struck me. It discusses Chapter 13 of the book, which is The (True) Story of the Cross. IMO, there is a tendency on the part of evangelical Christians to view the cross as simply a matter of forgiven sins and little else. OTOH, there is a tendency in some progressive circles to see the cross as foolishness – almost an embarrassingly outdated myth. While of course, I agree much more with the evangelical view of the cross, it seems to me that it actually reduces the cross to frame it as simply a quid pro quo for our sins. In the discussion at Jesus Creed, RJS presents part of what the book has to say in regards to the issue of sacrificial/substitutional nature of Jesus’ death on the cross:
The Gospel of Christ – the good news – is wrapped up in the story of the cross. This story however causes a great deal of consternation in our western world. Why was sacrifice required? Why did Jesus die? Isn’t the appeasement of the wrath of God best classed as divine child abuse — a remnant of an older more primitive society? . . . Forgiveness always requires sacrifice. When we forgive we bear the consequence, the suffering, ourselves rather than demanding retribution. No one “just forgives” any grievous wrong. How much more then for God? God did not, then, inflict pain on someone else, but rather on the Cross absorbed the pain, violence, and evil of the world into himself.”
That last part is probably the best explanation of the sacrificial nature of the cross which I have read. RJS, goes on to talk about how death on the cross also helped us to understand that God can identify with our pain, injustice and oppression. In conclusion he asks: Continue reading “Our Suffering and the Cross”
At the start of Chapter 3 of The Book of Job, we find Job, having sat in silence with his 3 friends for 7 days, ready to talk. (Text of Chapter 3 here.) What comes out of his mouth is one of the more heartbreaking of the laments found in scriptures. Job does not curse God or Satan or even his misfortune. Rather, it is his very existence which is the subject of his lament.
One of the notable things about Chapter 3 is that it is where the Book of Job ceases to be a narrative story and becomes an extended series of poems. We are of course reading a translation which can make it hard for us to appreciate the poetry involved. In addition, Hebrew poetry uses something called parallelism where an idea is stated and then restated. This can happen between lines, within lines, between stanzas or withing stanzas. For example, verse 17: “There the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest” is an example of parallelism within a line. We can see it in the repetition of the sentence structure and the repetition of the first word of each phrase. There is also a pairing relationship between the wicked and the weary and ceasing from trouble and being at rest (ceasing to be troubled).
People with more patience and attention to detail than I have/can spend oodles of time teasing out these structures and themes. For the rest of us, however, the result is often that the text becomes repetative and we can get so caught up in the flow that we lose track of what is going on. Like I said, I am not a good detail person, so having to wade through a bunch of lines which repeat themselves with variations over and over again is not my cup of tea. I have found it helpful to look at these sections as what they are: poems. I try to break the poem into thematic sections which are usually composed of the same or similar number of lines. For this chapter, it looks like this: Continue reading “Book of Job Chapter 3: Ever Wanted to Die?”
Well, I figured I would pick up my slow-mo study of the Book of Job again tonight. (Here’s my take on Chapter 1.) Tonight we’ll look at Chapter 2. (Text of Chapter 2 here.)
Chapter 2 starts with a repeat of the scene from Chapter 1 with a gathering before God at which Satan appears. Once again, God points out Job’s integrity – this time in the face of enormous suffering.
One of the challenges of the Book of Job is God’s complicity in Job’s suffering. As I said in my comments on Chapter 1, God not only allows Satan to visit tragedy on Job, but He actually offers Job up as a target for this treatment. This doesn’t sit well at all with our understanding of God as a protective force for His people. This difficult state of affairs continues in Chapter 2. Here we find an oddly worded sentence which points both to the fact that God is manipulating Satan and that He is willing to take responsibility for causing Job’s suffering. Verse 3 says, “you incited me against him to ruin him without cause”. The Netbible translates “incite me” as “stirred me up”. This is a rather odd thing to say as it was God who actually provoked Satan’s desire to ruin (lit “swallow up”) Job. But, like a manager who allows an employee to think their new assignment was their own idea, God allows Satan to think that he rather than God is in control of this situation. The other odd thing about the sentence is the imprecise pronouns which obscure who is bringing about ruin. God does not say, “you incited me against him so that you could ruin him without cause.” Rather, by simply saying “to ruin him”, God leaves open the possibility that it is not Satan, but God who has brought Job to ruin. In which case, Satan is merely the tool by which God has done this work. Satan, of course misses this distinction (as do most of us, come to think of it).
Now, I do know that I am treading in some ugly territory here. Continue reading “Book of Job Chapter 2: Lowering the Boom”
The Upside Down World 