Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Wednesday, April 24, 2002 Thought for a Sunny Day (from my book Contentions) 95 Human language is of such unreliability for conveying the reality of God that God himself did not depend on it or trust it to convey his revelation in Jesus. No, God depended on resurrection to prove his spiritual, personal (not intellectual) reality. He relied on the experience of people by appearing to them to make his statement of truth in person and in his person/Godhead. The idea that salvation depends on reading the Bible in a certain, narrow way is inimical to God and his own manner of action in people's lives. This extends to the Church - that somehow a body of people can define reality in such a way as to speak wholly for God goes against God and his manner of expressing himself, Truth. Yet, God calls people and sends them into the churches to be raised up in faith and discipleship. That's where fellowship and the words of eternal life may be found to propel, sustain, and challenge a person in faith. God keeps sending his prophets, though, and they keep getting rejected. Rejection appears to be deliberately intended by God to cause his children suffering so that they may be refined in fire, all dross purged. Purity of heart requires great misery in order to destroy every vestige of pride and self-will. Faith depends on revelation of experience, yet it also depends on perspective which can only come through understanding - discovering and comparing the experiences of others and allowing the Spirit to guide examination and conclusions about Truth. The Bible is the great source of wisdom of God as others have experienced it. It provides great and multiple perspectives to be absorbed, tested, and evaluated. It is infallible only to the extent that people are infallible. It can only proclaim facts about Truth, and not Truth essentially itself. For example, if it claims that God is real and that Jesus is God and risen, it proclaims a simple fact. (Whether that fact is accepted or rejected is another matter.) But when it tries to predict how God will act in the future and how He evaluates human beings after death, and what the afterlife is like - then the Bible is speculative and not factual (no matter how many insist it is reliably prophetic). Like all literature, the Bible has to be experienced first, and interpreted second. Too often the second precedes the first - the tail wags the dog - and faith is lost because people put their trust in ideas about God rather than in God as he is. Turning the Bible into propaganda obscures its beauty and wisdom. It tries to make Love dance to monotony. But trying to make God endorse every personal thought or private revelation about him makes egotists and monsters of every convert, too. Faith depends on wisdom to grow. Wisdom is found in a variety of ways - through others, through books, through prayer, through graceful insights, through study and examination, and through Art, Beauty, Music, Liturgy, and Play. More than anything, it is found through love and patience, I think. posted by Mark Butterworth | 1:36 PM | |
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