Re: [asa] biblical miracles

wjp wrote:
> Moorad:
>
> In the NT we have the Incarnate God that lives and dwells among us.
> In the OT we have at least something similar. God is intimately
> involved in the affairs of men, both naturally (sending famines and
> drought) and through nations (Babylon). Read, for example, Habakkuk
> chapter 1, or Amos 4. Outside of the Gospels and Revelation, the NT
> often appears Bloodless and "theological" when compared to the OT,
> and esp. the Prophets.
>
> I remember when a fire came through our town, wiping out 400 homes,
> threatening more, and evacuating 30,000 people that I was reading
> Calvin. Calvin believes that God is at work in all the affairs of the
> world at all times, including the fire that came against us, even that
> which took one persons home and not the one next to it.
>
> Reading the OT, one can more easily adopt such a view.
> BTW, I have no trouble with adopting such a view even in the light of
> the evil associated with it. Indeed, it was the theme of the Prophets.
>
> bill
>
This [notion/conviction of God's hand in both good and bad] needs more
affirmation in theological discussions today. And while you are right
that O.T. prophets were much less squeamish about attributing to God
events of horrible affliction, I wonder what passages in the 'softer'
N.T. we take refuge in to defend our kind old cosmic grandfather image
of God from whom we expect nothing but showers of blessings?
Certainly we learn from the N.T. that God is Love, and even in the O.T.
we can still find verses for exclusive focus such as the promise to the
exiles: "I have plans for your welfare and not for calamity --to give
you a future and a hope." which gives us warm fuzzies and sympathy card
material as we include ourselves with the receiving audience. We never
quote the apparently more cruel: "The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh
away; blessed be the name of the Lord".

Recently looking through Ecclesiastes, I was struck by the verse (7:13)
"Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has
made crooked?" --which I think has very interesting connotations for
today's evolutionary flavored questions regarding the "messiness" of how
we got here and our churchy disbelief that God would ever create
something that couldn't be featured on a Sierra club calendar.
Balanced theology needs to respect both sides of this, but instead we
get a 'judgment camp' of those who apparently delight in the wrath of
God (on others) and we have the 'cosmic grandfather' camp (probably most
big western denominations today) who begin cringing if a preacher even
begins to come near the forbidden 's' word ('sin' that is) and a great
chasm fixed between those camps. Both may insist that they are
supplying a corrective to the deficiency of the other side, but unless a
person takes the blinders off while reading Scripture, I suggest his
theology will always be seriously impaired. Permanently wrestling
over this, leaves mystery and tension in place, but a more complete
Biblical theology.

I sometimes wonder if O.T. prophets wouldn't have had a much easier time
with evolutionary concepts because they weren't so hung up as we are
today with the 'God who only takes us out for ice cream and would never
make a mosquito'.

--Merv

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Sat Apr 25 12:25:03 2009