Greeted them from afar

"These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar" (Heb 11:13)

What a great image (... and not just the still from Lawrence of Arabia)!

I think that helps with progressive revelation. They didn't trust the shadows, but the person of Christ who was to come. Nevertheless, he hadn't arrived and they couldn't see him as clearly as we can. Also, on an emotional level, "greeting from afar" implies they were full of joy to see Jesus on the horizon and welcomed him.

Because it is true

"The Christian faith is not true because it works; it works because it is true. It is not true because we experience it; we experience it - deeply and gloriously - because it is true. It is not simply "true for us"; it is true for any who seek in order to find"

(p.79, Os Guiness, Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype, and Spin [Thanks to Ed Shaw])

Paul Miller on one use of 'the law'

We don't know how bad we are until we try to be good.

(p.31, Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life)

Paul Miller talks about this in relation to prayer. Mark Galli talks about it in his excellent article "Giving Up Self-Discipline for Lent". Its one of the uses of 'the law' at the end of the day, in whatever form 'the law' comes to us.

Kierkegaard on tilting at windmills

People try to persuade us that the objections against Christianity spring from doubt. The objections against Christianity spring from insubordination, the dislike of obedience, rebellion against all authority. As a result people have hitherto been beating the air in their struggle against objections, because they have fought intellectually with doubt instead of fighting morally with rebellion.

(Soron Kierkegaard cited in Stephen Williams, Revelation and Reconciliation)

Of course the objections spring not just insubordination, but distrust, disordered loves etc. But, intellectual doubt is certainly not the wellspring.

A heart for God

In one of my all time favourite talks, Tim Saleska tells the story of his room-mate at college. His room-mate was engaged, but his fiancée broke up from him leaving him totally devastated.

The room-mate tried everything he could to win the girl he loved back. He probably gave her space, bombarded her with love letters, sent gifts, drove across the country to tell her all he felt for her, guilt-tripped her, even threatened. Nothing worked.

As Tim Saleska said, you cannot do anything to make someone love. It's something beyond the control of Aladdin's Genie and it's certainly beyond me. I cannot even make myself love something. There's a reason its called "falling in love" and why we talk about being "captivated"... its something beyond our control.

So, we cannot persuade our friends, family, colleagues and strangers to love Christ. We cannot threaten them enough with the consequences of not loving him, or present him as so attractive that he is irresistible. Their hearts are not won to Christ. The Father sets his love upon them and through the Word and by his Spirit gives them a heart transplant - killing the old heart and giving them a new one that beats for him.

The Bible is basically about...

Is the Bible basically about us or about Jesus?

Perhaps both, but in different ways.

Jesus is the subject of the Bible, and we are the object.

"Here is a trustworthy saying..'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'--and I am the worst of them all." (NLT)

As Philip Cary summarises Luther's teaching on the Gospel, the Bible is:

• A story
• about Christ
• for us

Three branches of salvation

I have heard it said that there are three main branches of philosophy are metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics (logic could be fourth, and no doubt others could be added). The Gospel is the news of our salvation in all three branches:

• We are saved from the destruction of our being and reality which is death and hell to become like God.
• We are saved from and ignorance of God to knowing him.
• We are saved from our sins to righteousness.

I wonder if Western Christianity (particularly post-Augustine) should be characterised as mainly dealing with salvation in the realm of ethics, much modern Christianity (in response to atheism and agnosticism) in the realm of epistemology, and Eastern Christianity being the only one that is that concerned with being in its doctrine of deification.

I can several of many Bible passages which deal with salvation in the three different ways and often they are closely linked. But, is there one branch which has priority as the one which leads to either curse or blessing in the others?

What about logic and aesthetics though?

Creation ethics

Listening to: Vivaldi: Magnificat

I used to think that it was best not to ask individuals or society to obey a 'Christian ethic' until they became Christians. This was borne out of a concern that we give the impression that you are Christian by living an ethical life.

But, I now think the problem was the idea of a 'Christian ethic' at all. Isn't it really a 'Creation ethic' written into our very beings as people made in the image of God? In which case, you're not giving anyone the impression that they are Christian by being ethical. They're just being human.