The Paradox of the Cross
First Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (Holy Bible: English Standard Version 2002) For mankind death is a point of inevitability, yet death is not part of God’s original plans. There is evidence of this in the verse in John chapter 11 that says “Jesus wept” this is not just Jesus crying over his dead friend, but Jesus is crying over the whole of mankind and its disconnect of God’s original plan. God’s plan is then reconnected with mans inevitable demise through the death of God himself. Jesus Christ was put to death on a cross but in doing so he took on the sin of the world that would condemn man and crushes it securing salvation for them. So in this one act of sacrifice the cross is death and salvation wrapped into one moment. Hugh of St. Victor said this on the death and salvation of Christ, “He (Jesus) did this so that the redemption to be offered might have a connection is us, through its being taken fro what is ours. We are truly made to be partakers in this redemption if we are united through faith to the redeemer who has entered into fellowship with us through his flesh. Now human nature had become corrupted by sin, and had this become liable to condemnation on its account. But grace came, and chose some from the mass of humanity through mercy for salvation, while it allowed others to remain for condemnation through justice.” (McGrath 2007) Again through this symbol of death those who have fellowship with the Christ find grace, mercy, and salvation. Hastings Rashdall said this of the crucifixion, “The atoning efficacy of Christ’s work is not limited to death. The whole life of Christ, the whole revelation of God which is constituted by that life, excites the love of man, moves his gratitude, shows him what God would have him be, enables him to be in his imperfect way what Christ alone was perfectly, and so make at-one-ment, restores between God and man the union which sin has destroyed.” (McGrath 2007) Dorothee Sölle says in his writing on Suffering and Redemption that, “The cross is either a ‘metaphysic of punitive death,’ that is from the perspective of the God who ordains suffering who finally has a chance to complete Abraham’s sacrifice, or it is a ‘mysticism of consolation for death,’ which people receive for their own suffering and dying view of the cross. But the cross is neither a symbol expressing the relationship between God the Father and his Son nor a symbol of masochism which needs suffering in order to convince itself of love. It is above all a symbol of reality, Love does not ‘require’ the cross, but de facto it ends up on the cross. De facto Jesus of Nazareth was crucified; de facto the crosses of the rebellious slaves under Spartacus adorned the streets of the Roman Empire.” (McGrath 2007) The cross is a work of man for death, the cross became a place of glory for Jesus, and God transformed the death on the cross to a life-bearing symbol requiring fellowship.
Works Cited
McGrath, Alister E. The Chrstian Theology Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
An Idiots Guide to Theology: Christology
Jesus’ Glory
Jesus’ glory takes two forms in the Gospels the first is the glory that he reflects back to God the Father that people praise him for but the glory given him was in God the Father’s will so that he may be revealed to them. The second is when God the Father chooses to glorify the God the Son, this glory being death on a cross that is described in the Gospel of John.
The first type of glory looks and sounds like this, John 14:8-11 says, “Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. "Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.” (Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2002) Through out the Gospel of John Jesus is revealed as having a deep connection with the Father even through out his ministry on Earth, Jesus always pointing the glory given him to the power and majesty back to God the Father. Earlier in the book of John after coming to Lazarus’ tomb Jesus must again explain himself according to God’s glory the Gospel writer writes, “Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." John 11:40-42. (Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2002) Finally in John 17:1-5 it says that Jesus prays this about his glory and the glory that belongs to the Father, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” From this we see that Jesus glorified the Father through the works that he did here on earth so that people would believe. Second we see Jesus praying that the time for the second type of glory to be his and the God the father would glorify him. In a daily commentary online we find a new definition of Glory. “John has hinted throughout his gospel that Jesus would redefine glory. The word for exalt or glorify actually means to lift up on high. For Jesus, his glory will involve his being lifted up on high on the Cross out of love for us and in obedience to God. He will bring the Father glory by fulfilling the Father's plan to bring us out of our bondage to sin and death through his death, burial and resurrection” (Heartlight, 2001)
Works Cited
Heartlight. (2001). Retrieved March 2010 from A new Definition of Glory: http://www.heartlight.org/wjd/john/0917-wjd.html
Jesus’ glory takes two forms in the Gospels the first is the glory that he reflects back to God the Father that people praise him for but the glory given him was in God the Father’s will so that he may be revealed to them. The second is when God the Father chooses to glorify the God the Son, this glory being death on a cross that is described in the Gospel of John.
The first type of glory looks and sounds like this, John 14:8-11 says, “Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. "Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.” (Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2002) Through out the Gospel of John Jesus is revealed as having a deep connection with the Father even through out his ministry on Earth, Jesus always pointing the glory given him to the power and majesty back to God the Father. Earlier in the book of John after coming to Lazarus’ tomb Jesus must again explain himself according to God’s glory the Gospel writer writes, “Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." John 11:40-42. (Holy Bible: English Standard Version, 2002) Finally in John 17:1-5 it says that Jesus prays this about his glory and the glory that belongs to the Father, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” From this we see that Jesus glorified the Father through the works that he did here on earth so that people would believe. Second we see Jesus praying that the time for the second type of glory to be his and the God the father would glorify him. In a daily commentary online we find a new definition of Glory. “John has hinted throughout his gospel that Jesus would redefine glory. The word for exalt or glorify actually means to lift up on high. For Jesus, his glory will involve his being lifted up on high on the Cross out of love for us and in obedience to God. He will bring the Father glory by fulfilling the Father's plan to bring us out of our bondage to sin and death through his death, burial and resurrection” (Heartlight, 2001)
Works Cited
Heartlight. (2001). Retrieved March 2010 from A new Definition of Glory: http://www.heartlight.org/wjd/john/0917-wjd.html
An Idiots Guide to Theology: Pneumatology
Divinity of the Holy Spirit
Scripture points to the idea that the Spirit was with God in the beginning in Genesis 1:1-2 it says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (English Standard Version Genesis 1:1-2) (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version) pointing to the idea that the Spirit has been around from at least the beginning Origen says “Up to the present time, we have been able to find no statement in Holy Scripture in which the Holy Spirit could be said to be made or created—not even in the way in which we have shown above that the Divine Wisdom is spoken of by Solomon.” (Origen) Origen is pointing to the idea that God the Father and God the son and God the spirit are all one entity but able to move independently but all remaining Divine. Origen goes on to say later in his writing, “Let no one indeed suppose that we . . . give a preference to the Holy Spirit over the Father and the Son, or assert that His dignity is greater, which certainly would be a very illogical conclusion.” (Origen)
Assuming that the Bible is the inspired word of God some logical questions are raised with how the words were inspired and what the catalyst was that spurred on the writing. I argue that the inspiration was carried to the prophets and the writers through the Spirit of the Lord or The Holy Spirit. Athenagoras writes, “The Holy Spirit Himself, who operates in the prophets, we assert to be an effluence of God, flowing from Him, and returning back again like a beam of the sun.”(Athenagoras) In his writing Athenagoras poses the idea that the Holy Spirit is a part of God that moves between God in the heavens and the creatures of the Earth. This pointing back to the idea that God in heaven in the beginning and then back to his Spirit hovering of the waters of the void. The Holy Spirit plays a major role in God blessing his son while Jesus is on Earth again moving between the two plains “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”(Luke 3:21-22) This begins the connection that Christ has with the Holy Spirit. “The source of the entire Holy Spirit remains in Christ, so that from Him could be drawn streams of gifts and works, while the Holy Spirit dwelled richly in Christ.”(Novatian). Finally Augustine argues a point of dependence of the three parts. Augustine says, “If any bodes exist which cannot be severed or divided in any way, they must still consist of their parts or they would not be bodies. Part and whole are related terms, since every part belongs to some whole, and the whole is whole on account of its totality of parts. But since the body part and whole, these exist not only as mutually related terms but as substances.” (Alister) Since the Holy Spirit is part of the whole it is part of God it is safe to assume according to Augustine that the Holy Spirit is as divine, since God is fully divine the Holy Spirit is full divine.
Works Cited
Athenagoras (c. 175, E), 2.133.
Alister, E. McGrath. The Chrstian Theology Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
Origen (c. 225, E), 4.253.
Origen (c. 225, E), 4.254, 255.
Novatian (c. 235, W), 5.641.
Scripture points to the idea that the Spirit was with God in the beginning in Genesis 1:1-2 it says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (English Standard Version Genesis 1:1-2) (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version) pointing to the idea that the Spirit has been around from at least the beginning Origen says “Up to the present time, we have been able to find no statement in Holy Scripture in which the Holy Spirit could be said to be made or created—not even in the way in which we have shown above that the Divine Wisdom is spoken of by Solomon.” (Origen) Origen is pointing to the idea that God the Father and God the son and God the spirit are all one entity but able to move independently but all remaining Divine. Origen goes on to say later in his writing, “Let no one indeed suppose that we . . . give a preference to the Holy Spirit over the Father and the Son, or assert that His dignity is greater, which certainly would be a very illogical conclusion.” (Origen)
Assuming that the Bible is the inspired word of God some logical questions are raised with how the words were inspired and what the catalyst was that spurred on the writing. I argue that the inspiration was carried to the prophets and the writers through the Spirit of the Lord or The Holy Spirit. Athenagoras writes, “The Holy Spirit Himself, who operates in the prophets, we assert to be an effluence of God, flowing from Him, and returning back again like a beam of the sun.”(Athenagoras) In his writing Athenagoras poses the idea that the Holy Spirit is a part of God that moves between God in the heavens and the creatures of the Earth. This pointing back to the idea that God in heaven in the beginning and then back to his Spirit hovering of the waters of the void. The Holy Spirit plays a major role in God blessing his son while Jesus is on Earth again moving between the two plains “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”(Luke 3:21-22) This begins the connection that Christ has with the Holy Spirit. “The source of the entire Holy Spirit remains in Christ, so that from Him could be drawn streams of gifts and works, while the Holy Spirit dwelled richly in Christ.”(Novatian). Finally Augustine argues a point of dependence of the three parts. Augustine says, “If any bodes exist which cannot be severed or divided in any way, they must still consist of their parts or they would not be bodies. Part and whole are related terms, since every part belongs to some whole, and the whole is whole on account of its totality of parts. But since the body part and whole, these exist not only as mutually related terms but as substances.” (Alister) Since the Holy Spirit is part of the whole it is part of God it is safe to assume according to Augustine that the Holy Spirit is as divine, since God is fully divine the Holy Spirit is full divine.
Works Cited
Athenagoras (c. 175, E), 2.133.
Alister, E. McGrath. The Chrstian Theology Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
Origen (c. 225, E), 4.253.
Origen (c. 225, E), 4.254, 255.
Novatian (c. 235, W), 5.641.
An Idiots Guide to Theology: Eschatology
The Restoration in the End Times
In the book of Revelation the apostle John speaks of a new heaven and a new earth becoming one, a restoration of the old into the new. John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."(Revelation 21:1-4) This passage shows the idea that in the end times there will be a restoration of all creation. The old is passing away but a new creation is found coming form heaven unto earth. Some may argue that the new creation that John writes about is Jesus entering to Earth, which is completely reasonable yet what if John is speaking of the second coming of Christ and the new creation that he brings is for everyone who calls upon the Lord. The prophet Joel talks about this in his writings, “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.”(Joel 2:30) In 2nd Corinthians the writer says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Alister McGrath uses a passage from Irenaeus’ book “Against Heresies” to point out the restoration of creation that must happen so that God can enter into this plane of existence. Irenaeus says, “For God is rich in all things and all things are his (Romans 10:12). Therefore this created order must be restored to its first condition and be made subject to the righteousness without hindrance; and this Apostle shows in the Epistle to the Romans, when he says, The earnest expectation of the creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19-21)” (McGrath) For God to enter back into this creation it needs to be redone. The first coming of Christ was the catalyst for the end times and for God to come again but the next time all of creation will be redone not just those who call upon the Lord.
Work Cited
McGrath, Alister E. The Chrstian Theology Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
In the book of Revelation the apostle John speaks of a new heaven and a new earth becoming one, a restoration of the old into the new. John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."(Revelation 21:1-4) This passage shows the idea that in the end times there will be a restoration of all creation. The old is passing away but a new creation is found coming form heaven unto earth. Some may argue that the new creation that John writes about is Jesus entering to Earth, which is completely reasonable yet what if John is speaking of the second coming of Christ and the new creation that he brings is for everyone who calls upon the Lord. The prophet Joel talks about this in his writings, “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.”(Joel 2:30) In 2nd Corinthians the writer says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Alister McGrath uses a passage from Irenaeus’ book “Against Heresies” to point out the restoration of creation that must happen so that God can enter into this plane of existence. Irenaeus says, “For God is rich in all things and all things are his (Romans 10:12). Therefore this created order must be restored to its first condition and be made subject to the righteousness without hindrance; and this Apostle shows in the Epistle to the Romans, when he says, The earnest expectation of the creation awaits the revelation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19-21)” (McGrath) For God to enter back into this creation it needs to be redone. The first coming of Christ was the catalyst for the end times and for God to come again but the next time all of creation will be redone not just those who call upon the Lord.
Work Cited
McGrath, Alister E. The Chrstian Theology Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
An Idiots Guide to Theology: Anthropology
God in the Image of Man
Often in our search for God we try to define him, we try to personify him with words that make Him (i.e. Him) more human. But if we look to scripture we see that God is more like intangible things, in scripture it describes God as Love, Jealous, Light, and the Logos. These are not human physical qualities like the picture of an old man with a great beard and lightening bolts in his hand but rather I would say these are more like ideas. In reality to really understand the nature of God we need to understand the nature of man and how he responds to God.
The duelist view of man is the idea that there is a physical man and an ideal or immaterial form somewhere in the land of ideas. But if we look to scripture we find that we are all soul and all man/woman. In class it was described in this way. “The soul is something that is part of us. We are a unitary whole that can be viewed from different angles. The idea that the soul is a separate entity that is disconnected from our bodies this idea comes from classic Greek dualism, which draws from Plato. Rene Descartes brings this into the for front of philosophical theology leaving a distinct divide between matter and spirit.” But there just could not be a division between our souls and ourselves because there is something that draws us in on the teachings of Christ and I believe that if our soul and our bodies are disconnected that personal draw just would not be there. Thomas Aquinas described our connection with God as follows “When we are trying to order our desires we need to remind ourselves of our orientation of our goals. Every aspect of our lives need to love God. And if we set these as our goals we shall be good.” With each generation we begin to look at God through the lens of that generational cultural phenomenon and the God of that generation, but today we are slowly coming to the realization that we are historical beings. Again in our notes there is an explanation of this that I find very helpful, “The post modern world has not caught up with the idea that we are historical beings. Much of post modernism is modernism warmed over, yet as post moderns we realize that we are historical beings we will have a huge shift in all parts of our culture. Most philosophers are being challenged with the ideas that we see all things through our own lenses of our history. Our identities are constituted by our traditions, or histories.” Later on in class we discussed the ideas that Paul posses in Ephesians, “we are created in God’s image but we are corrupted by our sin in Ephesians it talks about our lives as children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Paul later talks in Ephesians about were greedy to practice every kind of impunity throw off that life and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” What we need to do as faithful beings is construct our ideas of God in new ways but recognizing that many ideas and traditions about God have come from the past and we can ride those waves into the present.
Often in our search for God we try to define him, we try to personify him with words that make Him (i.e. Him) more human. But if we look to scripture we see that God is more like intangible things, in scripture it describes God as Love, Jealous, Light, and the Logos. These are not human physical qualities like the picture of an old man with a great beard and lightening bolts in his hand but rather I would say these are more like ideas. In reality to really understand the nature of God we need to understand the nature of man and how he responds to God.
The duelist view of man is the idea that there is a physical man and an ideal or immaterial form somewhere in the land of ideas. But if we look to scripture we find that we are all soul and all man/woman. In class it was described in this way. “The soul is something that is part of us. We are a unitary whole that can be viewed from different angles. The idea that the soul is a separate entity that is disconnected from our bodies this idea comes from classic Greek dualism, which draws from Plato. Rene Descartes brings this into the for front of philosophical theology leaving a distinct divide between matter and spirit.” But there just could not be a division between our souls and ourselves because there is something that draws us in on the teachings of Christ and I believe that if our soul and our bodies are disconnected that personal draw just would not be there. Thomas Aquinas described our connection with God as follows “When we are trying to order our desires we need to remind ourselves of our orientation of our goals. Every aspect of our lives need to love God. And if we set these as our goals we shall be good.” With each generation we begin to look at God through the lens of that generational cultural phenomenon and the God of that generation, but today we are slowly coming to the realization that we are historical beings. Again in our notes there is an explanation of this that I find very helpful, “The post modern world has not caught up with the idea that we are historical beings. Much of post modernism is modernism warmed over, yet as post moderns we realize that we are historical beings we will have a huge shift in all parts of our culture. Most philosophers are being challenged with the ideas that we see all things through our own lenses of our history. Our identities are constituted by our traditions, or histories.” Later on in class we discussed the ideas that Paul posses in Ephesians, “we are created in God’s image but we are corrupted by our sin in Ephesians it talks about our lives as children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Paul later talks in Ephesians about were greedy to practice every kind of impunity throw off that life and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” What we need to do as faithful beings is construct our ideas of God in new ways but recognizing that many ideas and traditions about God have come from the past and we can ride those waves into the present.
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