Marginal Christianity

It's the Neutics (Herma and Herman) Again! We promised some further thoughts on the Bible as a love letter to us. Here they are. James McGrath, biblical scholar and popular blogger, says not. Recently he posted this on his blog. “ Few assumptions prevent people from understanding the Bible as much as the idea that it is a love letter from God to them. Every part of that – that God wrote it, that it is a love letter, and that it is written with you in mind – is badly mistaken, and so the combination thereof creates a lens that radically distorts and obscures the Bible.” ( http://www.patheos.com/blogs/exploringourmatrix/2015/10/the-bible-is-not-a-love-letter-from-god-to-you.html )           On the other hand, no less a theologian than Dietrich Bonhoeffer apparently did so describe the Bible. One of his students remembers this from him: "There, before the church struggle, he said to us at the new Alexanderplatz, with a ...

Q & A's 5 and 6 are new Catechism 1.     Who is the Christian God? “I am/will be who I am/will be” (Ex.3:14). God is and will be utterly faithful to himself and to the world he created. 2.     Why did this God create our world? To live with us here in shalom (a world rightly ordered in every way), lavishing love and expending power to bring this state of affairs to be. 3.     Why did God create us? To be divine image-bearers, royal representatives who reflect God's character and will throughout the world and care for and nurture the creation to its full flourishing.                                                           ...

Spend a few minutes pondering this magnificent statement: “We will now try to give the briefest possible outline of what the love of God is which is the real basis of our love to God, determining its character. One thing is certain, that according to Holy Scripture it has nothing to do with mere sentiment, opinion or feeling. On the contrary, it consists in a definite being, relationship and action. God is love in Himself. Being loved by Him we can, as it were, look into His ‘heart.’ The fact that He loves us means that we can know Him as He is. This is all true. But if this picture-language of ‘the heart of God’ is to have any validity, it can refer only to the being of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It reminds us that God’s love for us is an overwhelming, overflowing, free love. It speaks to us of the miracle of this love. We cannot say anything higher or better of the ‘inwardness of God’ than that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and therefore that He is love in Him...

Herma and Herman Neutics Again! The Bible must be read like every other book. Every kind of analysis we can apply to other ancient texts we should apply to the Bible. The Bible must be read like no other book. Only in this book do we have a "love letter" from God. (Don't gag out on the last phrase, friends. No less than Dietrich Bonhoeffer uses it and Herman will share more about that next time.) 

Herma and Herman Neutics Maybe the most important advice for Bible Reading we can give you. Never assume you know what a passage means. Even if you understand every word in English translation don't assume that what it means to you as a 21st century American is what it meant to its ancient readers. Investigate everything. Always ask yourself "What would this word, concept, image, or phrase mean to an ancient Israelite? Here's the deal. The Bible is written for us but not to us. The only way to get the message for us is to do our best to understand what the message was to its original hearers. If we don't get that we won't get what God intends for us to hear, So, doubt (what you think a passage means) and verify (work to discover what it meant to its original hearers in order to hear and obey.

I'm playing around with developing a contemporary catechism (not so much for memorizing as for instruction). love to know what you think, pro and con. First three Q and A's below. Catechism 1.     Who is the Christian God?   “I am/will be who I am/will be” (Ex.3:14). God is and will be utterly faithful to himself and to the world he created.   2.     Why did this God create our world?   To live with us here in shalom (a world rightly ordered in every way), lavishing his love and expending his power to bring this state of affairs to be.   3.     Why did God create us?   To be his image-bearers. That is, his royal representatives who reflect his character and will throughout the world and care for and nurture the creation to its full flourishing.        

Revelation 16: the bowls of God’s wrath 16:1-11 Rev.16 with its bowls of God’s wrath is the third (fourth really but the seven thunders is not rolled out for us (Rev.10) series of seven reflecting the reality and intensity of God’s judgment on the world from Jesus’ resurrection to his return (the 42 weeks, 31/2 years, 1,260 days). Each of the sevens (seals, trumpets, bowls) lead us to judgment and the kingdom of God but in degrees of intensification. The seals affected ¼ of the earth, the trumpets 1/3, and the bowls 100% (perhaps the thunders would have been ½). This is likely a rhetorical device to reflect the inevitability and comprehensiveness of judgment. It’s not going to get better and no one gets out of it! Here the Empire meet its match. It is not the ultimate dispenser of justice or arbiter of punishment. Instead, it is like all else subject to the dictates of divine justice and the reality of divine judgment. The church lives in a world under such judgment, str...