Tag Archives: Genesis

Stephen’s Speech as Legal Argument/Story Part 2

21 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by in Acts, Uncategorized

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THE SAVOIRS/REJECTIONS

At this point, Stephen a series of three saviors who are rejected: Joseph, Moses & and then Jesus. The odd movement here is between the Temple to Jesus

Joseph the Rejected Savior

In verses 9-16, Stephen speaks of Joseph who was sold by his brothers into slavery. From his state of slavery, Joseph rises to ruler and saves the people of Israel. Joseph is then brought back to Shechem and buried in Abraham’s tomb (the only part of the promised land which Abraham obtained was a grave, Gen. 24):

Acts 7:9–16 (ESV)
9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, 16 and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Thus, the man rejected was their savior.

Moses the Rejected Savior

The story begins with the miraculous salvation of Moses to also rise to a position in Egypt. The story proceeds to Moses:

Acts 7:23–25 (ESV)
23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.

Moses is rejected as a savior by Israel:

Acts 7:26–29 (ESV)
26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

Here it appears that the plan of salvation has failed, but God returns Moses to Egypt as savior:

Acts 7:30–34 (ESV)
30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’

The Israelites reject Moses who saved them and also reject God:

Acts 7:35–43 (ESV)
35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
“ ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43  You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

This passage is interesting for many reasons. Here are two. First, Stephen notes the prophecy of Deuteronomy 15:

Deuteronomy 18:15–22 (ESV)

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

The second point of interest is the way in which Stephen uses Amos to tie the Golden Calf to the subsequent history of Israel:

Amos 5:25–27 (ESV)
25 “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 26 You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, 27 and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

The rejection of Moses was the rejection of their true savior God.

The Temple

At this point, it would seem that Stephen could merely move to Jesus and say, In like manner, you rejected the salvation of God in Jesus Christ. But he does not. Stephen moves to the temple. This is peculiar. The people — who have already and continually rejected God — have brought into the land the Temple (and I don’t see the temple as a negative here):

Acts 7:44–50 (ESV)
44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
49  “ ‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
50  Did not my hand make all these things?’
The people have come into the land, built a temple to worship — and yet as Stephen has already said they turned back in their hearts to Egypt and have been worshipping false Gods.

The solution here goes back to Acts 7:7 where Stephen reworks the original material in an interesting way:

The Lukan Stephen also paraphrases the quotation from Exod 3:12. First, note that a quotation from Exodus has been retrojected into the time of Abraham, to explain that the act of Israel’s worship went right back to the time of the Abrahamic covenant. Second, the phrase in Exod 3:12, “on this mountain,” has been replaced with in this place as the site of the returning exiles’ worship (7:7). In the immediate context, “this place” is to be understood as referring to “the land” promised to Abraham (Johnson 1992, 116), but the connection back to the accusation in 6:13–14 (“this man never stops saying things against this holy place”; “we have heard him saying that this Jesus, the Nazarene, will tear down this place”) cannot be missed. First, Stephen again forcefully but indirectly addresses one of the charges against him. He acknowledges that the command to worship in the temple goes back to the very origins of Israelite faith. By making such a positive statement about the temple Stephen creates more tension: “How could the same God command the Israelites to worship Him in this place (indeed, he set them free so that they could do this) and then, at the high point of Israel’s history (in Christian eyes), intend the destruction of the holy place of worship?” (Kilgallen 1976, 39). Stephen’s explanation and resolution of this problem will come later in the speech.

Mikeal C. Parsons, Acts, Paideia Commentaries on The New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 92–93.

The coming into the land was for worship which did not happen.

This leads to the question: How does this involve Jesus?

Stephen’s Speech as Legal Argument/Story Part I

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Acts, Genesis, Uncategorized, Worship

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First, the structure of Steven’s Speech in Acts 7

THE CHARGE:

Acts 6:8–15 (ESV)

8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

DETAILS:

CONCLUSORY CHARGE:
This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law,

EVIDENCE:
14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us

LOGIC STRUCTURE:

IF
Stephen said Jesus will (a) destroy the temple and (b) change Moses customs

THEN
Stephen is blaspheming.

Therefore, Ste

STEPHENS DEFENSE

Stephen anchors his defense in the promise of God to Abraham:

A. God’s appearance to Abraham

1. Acts 7:2–3 (ESV)
2 And Stephen said:
“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’
2. God promises Abraham a homeland
It is probably safe to say that Stephen also implies the totality of the promises made to Abraham.

3. This scene is roughly paralleled by the God of glory’s appearance to Stephen at the end of the story:

Acts 7:54–60 (ESV)

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

B. Abraham’s Obedience (v. 4)
Acts 7:4 (ESV)
4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.

 

C. God explains the delay in the promise being fulfilled/Covenant of Circumcision

1. Acts 7:5–6 (ESV)
5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. 6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.

2. Acts 7:8 (ESV)
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

2. Genesis

Stephen’s order matches Genesis:

Genesis 17:1–14 (ESV)

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

THE SAVOIRS/REJECTIONS

At this point, Stephen a series of three saviors who are rejected: Joseph, Moses & and then Jesus. The odd movement here is between the Temple to Jesus

Desire and Sanctification 

26 Thursday Mar 2015

Posted by in Exegeting the Heart, Fear of the Lord

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How can we even hope for sanctification when our desire goes no deeper than the sound of the words?  Here is palpable desire – you can touch it and feel it in your bones.

 

Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Genesis 32:26

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Philo, On Creation.10

01 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by in Genesis, Greek, Philo

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Both a Father with his offspring and an artist with his artwork aim for perseverance: first, by driving off — by any contrivance— loss and injury; and then a strong desire to provide — in any way — that which is needful and profitable: now, no such relationship ever exists between that which has never come into existence and one who is not the Maker.

The prior post may be found https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/philo-on-creation-9/

Greek Text & Notes:

Continue reading →

Philo, On Creation.9

25 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by in Genesis, Greek, New Testament Background, Philo

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So, that part which suffers of itself can neither live nor move; rather it moves, is conformed and lives by means of the mind — which recasts it as a perfect work: the world.

Some say the world is unbegotten — those who don’t realize that they are undercutting the obligation and necessity of piety: foreknowledge. For reason says that the Father and Creator concerns himself with what has been brought to be.

τὸ δὲ παθητὸν ἄψυχον καὶ ἀκίνητον ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ, κινηθὲν δὲ καὶ σχηματισθὲν καὶ ψυχωθὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ νοῦ μετέβαλεν εἰς τὸ τελειότατον ἔργον, τόνδε τὸν κόσμον· ὃν οἱ φάσκοντες ὡς ἔστιν ἀγένητος λελήθασι τὸ ὠφελιμώτατον καὶ ἀναγκαιότατον τῶν εἰς εὐσέβειαν ὑποτεμνόμενοι τὴν πρόνοιαν· τοῦ μὲν γὰρ γεγονότος ἐπιμελεῖσθαι τὸν πατέρα καὶ ποιητὴν αἱρεῖ λόγος·
As in the preceding verse (8), I have translated “patheton” as the part which suffers. It is possible to translate this as “that which is passive”. However, Philo does use the word “that which suffers”. In addition, he seems to be setting up a contrast between passions and reasons — that which suffers & the mind. The parts are passive & active, but such a translation seems to miss passion/reason contrast.

metaballo: literally to change & to throw. It is used in the NT to refer to a change in thinking (metaphorically). It is more than just to “transform” (Yonge) for which there is an adequate Greek word.; it is more like “trans-throw”. I have opted for “recast” to reach for some active transformation. Colson & Whitaker simply translated it as “change” which seems too weak.

Pronoian: foreknowledge, forethought. The word for knowledge or thought looks and sounds similar to the the word for “mind”. Noia (thought) and nous (mind). Thus, there is a bit of pun: by denying the operation of the mind, such persons deny the intention of the mind.

The previous post can be found here:https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/philo-on-creation-7/

Philo, On Creation 6-7

15 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in 1 Clement, Greek, New Testament Background, Philo

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(Philo continues his discussion of how to read and consider the Creation account in Genesis. The previous post in this series will be found )

6. Just as the smallest seal can be conformed to the outward shape of something immense; perhaps those who read the exceeding beauty of the world’s creation in the laws, find their souls overshadowed when encountering such bright flashes of light.

But first we must consider in short the insinuation of that which ought not be passed over in silence.

7. Now there are certain people, amazed by the world rather the world’s Maker, who definitively pronounce the world without beginning and without end; telling impious lies that God remains in continued inactivity; when the contrary is demanded: that such persons be in a continued state of amazement at the powers of Maker and Father—and not pronounce excessive dignity upon the world.

GREEK TEXT & NOTES:  Continue reading →

Sin cannot live single.

08 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by in Genesis, Hamartiology, Literature

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In Genesis 4, 23-24, Lamech sings:

23 Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say:
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for striking me.
24 If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold,
then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”

Drysdale makes the following observation on Lamech:

Lamech, the first polygamist on record, the first notorious violator of the primitive marriage law and family constitution, goes early in the ‘way of Cain,’ and becomes, by his own confession, in intent, if not also in fact, a homocide. Polygamy seems never far from bloodshed. Sin cannot live single. It mates with misery, and both breed their like again, in aggravated form. A breach of the Seventh Commandment is twin-brother with a breach of the Sixth. They are children that go hand in hand. He who speaks to his ‘wives’ is he who speak, or rather singsfamiliarly of ‘slaying a man.’

A.H. Drysdale Early Bible Song, “The Song of the Sword,” TheReligious Tract Society, Piccadilly: 1890; p. 155

Brief Directions Unto a Godly Life (Paul Baynes)

18 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Genesis, Mortification, Paul Baynes, Puritan

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(To the best of my knowledge, this book by Puritan Paul Baynes has remained unpublished since the 17th century. Here is the first bit of the book. I have modernized the spelling and some punctuation.)

Brief Directions Onto a Godly Life:

Wherein every Christian is furnished with most necessary helps for the furthering of him in a godly course here upon earth, that he so may attain eternal happiness.

Written by Mr. Paul Bayne, minister of God’s Word, to Mr. Nicholas Jordane, his brother.
London
Printed by A.G. for I.N. and are to be sold by Samuel Enderby at the Starre in Pope’s Head Alley, 1637

The Epistle Dedicatory

To the right worshipful, Mr. Nicholas Jordane, Esquire, and one of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace and Quorum, in the County of Suffolk’s,

Sir,
It has been an ancient custom to reserve some lively representation of worthy friends deceased, to thereby continue the remembrance of their virtues, persons, and love. This holy treatise ensuing has served you to that purpose, and that very fitly; for herein you have a true representation and remembrance of your most worthy and loving brother, especially of the most noble and worthy part of it, I mean of his excellent understanding of the mystery of godliness, his most zealous and earnest will and desire of all men’s practice of godliness; and a sincere love unto you in particular, unto whom he primarily directed these directions onto a godly life; which as they do lively express that he had put on the new man, created and renewed in knowledge, righteousness and true holiness. So it is most worthy of our reservation, both in the remembrance in imitation of him. Yea, I confidently affirm, that this faithful remembrance is most worthy and fit always to be carried about us, and daily to be looked upon by us: for it will help us well to put on that new man, and to be conformable to our head Jesus Christ, and to walk before the Lord in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. For there is this difference between those former corporeal images of earthly bodies and this that men with too much love and use of them, easily fell into superstitious wickedness; but this the more it is loved and used of man, the more will all wickedness be rooted out of their hearts, and the more will they glorify God by a holy life and conversation [conversation means the sum total of on’s conduct] having received this holy treatise at your worship’s hands to publish unto to the world, I am bold to return it unto you for safeguard, both that the world may know unto whom it is obliged for so excellent a monument, as also for the great benefit that shall be reaped thereby. So, Sir, accounting it a wise part in him that cannot speak well, to say but little; I commend you and this treatise to God’s grace which is able to build us up further, even to do wondrously above all that we can ask or think.
Your Worship’s humbly at command,
N.N. (N.N. means anonymous — it would something like “so-and-so”).

Sure it is, that it was not thus with mankind in the beginning as now it is.

God created man happy, ye mutable [subject to change, able to change]; but Satan by deceit did cast him from that happy condition; whereby besides the loss of that felicity, he was plunged into extreme misery, which consists in two things.

First, in sin.

Second, the curse following upon it.

First, sin is not only that first transgression of Adam whereby we are all guilty, but also that infection of soul and body arising from the former. Hence it is that the understanding is filled with blindness; the conscience wounded, seared and defiled; the memory forgetting good things, or not remembering anything right.

The will captive, of no strength to good but only to evil; the affections altogether disordered. The cogitations about heavenly matters are error, falsehood, and lies. The wishes and desires of the heart are earthly and fleshly. The outward behavior is nothing else but a giving up of the members of the body as instruments of sin.

The curse makes them subject in this life for his use of the creatures to dearths, famine, etc. For his body, to sickness and other pains.

In his sense for his friends to like calamities; in his soul to vile affections, to blindness, hardness of heart, desperation, madness, etc. And both body and soul to endless and easeless torture in the world to come.

Objection: all are not in this case or estate.
Answer: all are subject by nature to the same wrath of God; they which feel it not, that case is no better, but rather worse than the other.

Translation and Notes: 1 Clement 10:4-5

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in 1 Clement, Ante-Nicene, Genesis, Greek

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καὶ πάλιν ἐν τῷ διαχωρισθῆναι αὐτὸν ἀπὸ Λὼτ εἴπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Θεός. + Ἀναβλέψας τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς σου, ἴδε ἀπὸ τοῦ τόπου, οὗ νῦν σὺ εἶ, πρὸς βορρᾶν καὶ λίβα καὶ ἀνατολὰς καὶ θάλασσαν· ὅτι πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν, ἥν σὺ ὁρᾷς, σοὶ δώσω αὐτὴν καὶ τῷ σπέρματί σου ἕως αἰῶνος· 5 καὶ ποιήσω τό σπέρμα σου ὡς τὴν ἄμμον τῆς γῆς εἰ δύναταί τις ἐξαριθμῆσαι τὴν ἄμμον τὴς γῆς, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα σου ἐξαριθμηθήσεται

Translation: And again, at the time of the separation from Lot, God said to him, Lift up your eyes and look about from where you stand, to the north and south, from the rising of the sun even to the sea – this is the place which I shall give to you and forever to your descendants; I will make your descendants as numerous as the sand of earth.  If one is able to count the sand of the earth, then will your descendants be numbered.

Kirsopp Lake:  4 And again, when he was separated from Lot, God said to him, “Lift up thine eyes and look from the place where thou art now, to the North and to the South and to the East and to the West; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed for ever.  5 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. If a man can number the dust of the earth thy seed shall also be numbered.”

Translation notes:

καὶ πάλιν ἐν τῷ διαχωρισθῆναι αὐτὸν ἀπὸ Λὼτ εἴπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Θεός

And again, in the division (in the to have been divided) he from Lot, he said to him, (that) is God (said)

And again, when God spoke to him to depart from Lot

ὁ Θεός:  Being in the nominative and being articular, God is plainly marked as the subject. Moreover, it matches the number of the verb “he said” εἴπεν.

αὐτῷ: that is, Abraham, the one to whom God spoke.

τῷ διαχωρισθῆναι:  infinitive (here an aorist passive infinitive) of indirect discourse. This is seen, in part, by being matched to a verb of perception or communication which is a marker for the infinitive of indirect discourse (Wallace, 603-605). The verb form marks this as the summary of the communication from God.  Wallace notes, “The general principle for these infinitives is th the infinitive of indirect discourse retains the tense of the direct discourse and usually represents either an imperative or a indicative” (Wallace, 604).

Ἀναβλέψας τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς σου: Lifting up the eyes of you (your eyes).

Ἀναβλέψας: aorist participle of attendant circumstance: 1) it is in the aorist; 2) the main verb (“see”) is aorist; 3) the mood of the main verb is imperatival; 4) the participle precedes the main verb; and 5) occurs in narrative.

τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς σου: the thing seen would be in the accusative (see, e.g., Matt. 14:19), the eyes, being moved are in the dative.

ἴδε ἀπὸ τοῦ τόπου: look from this place.

τοῦ: the article is deictic; that is, it refers to the particular place at hand. Translate as a demonstrative, this.

οὗ νῦν σὺ εἶ: where now you are.

Note: hou (the genitive of hos) means “where”; it marks a place. Ou (without the rough breathing) means no.

 

πρὸς βορρᾶν καὶ λίβα καὶ ἀνατολὰς καὶ θάλασσαν: to the north and south and rising (sun) (east) and sea (west).

ὅτι πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν: namely, all the land. This is an appositional use of the hoti: it elaborates the hen (that) of the next clause. Wallace, 458-4459.

ἥν σὺ ὁρᾷς: that you see

σοὶ δώσω αὐτὴν καὶ τῷ σπέρματί σου ἕως αἰῶνος: to you I shall give it and to the see of you until the ages.

σοὶ: to you, dative as indirect object.

δώσω αὐτὴν: I shall give it (that is the land; note feminine form)

καὶ τῷ σπέρματί σου: and to your seed (descendants). Dative of indirect object. The kai and indicates that the give to the descendants is parallel to the gift to Abraham.

ἕως αἰῶνος:

In other passages we have the expressions εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, εἰς τοὺς αἰώνας, ἕως αἰῶνος, εἰς τοὺς αἰώνας τῶν αἰώνων; see, e.g., Luke 1:33, 55; John 12:34, 13:8; Rom. 9:5; Gal. 1:5; 1 Tim. 1:17. Some translators have rendered these passages literally, and without respect to their usage in the LXX; (e.g. ‘unto the age,’ ‘unto the ages,’ &c.). In 1 Tim. 1:17, God is called ‘the King of ages’ (A. V. King Eternal); whilst in Heb. 1:2, 11:3, He is said to have made ‘the ages’ (A. V. the worlds). The rendering of the A. V. is no doubt right in the first case, and probably in the second also. Ages and worlds bear the same relation to one another as time and space do, and the process of creating worlds was the means of bringing ages into being.

 

Robert Baker Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament: Their Bearing on Christian Doctrine. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1998), 318.

That God should remember his commitment to Abraham is the theme of Exod 2:24; 32:13; Deut 9:27 and Ps 104 [105]:8–11, 42. His mercy to the patriarchs or David appears in 2 Sam 22:51; Ps 97 [98]:3; Mic 7:20. Appeal to what was spoken to the patriarchs is also found in Deut 7:8, 12; Josh 1:6; 5:6; etc In language, “mercy—just as he spoke to our fathers—to Abraham” is close to Mic 7:20, but not closer to LXX than MT while “mercy to … and to his seed forever” could echo 2 Sam 22:51 (for “forever” Luke has εἰς τὸναἰῶνα [only here in Luke-Acts] rather than LXX ἕως αίῶνος). The first allusion underlines the eschatological coloring of the Magnificat. The second may draw in a messianic note, but probably only reflects the Jewish application to the nation of OT promises to the royal line.

John Nolland, vol. 35A, Luke 1:1–9:20, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2002), 73.

καὶ ποιήσω τό σπέρμα σου: and I shall make the seed of you.

The kai (and) again draws a parallel, this time between the gift of the land and the extent of Abraham’s descendants.

ὡς τὴν ἄμμον τῆς γῆς εἰ δύναταί τις ἐξαριθμῆσαι τὴν ἄμμον τὴς γῆς: as the dust fo the earth – if you would be able anyone to number the dust of the earth.

ὡς τὴν ἄμμον: modifies “your seed” and thus matches the case (accusative).

Ammos, sand/dust is used idiomatically in the LXX fo something which cannot be numbered:

 

 

Gen 13:16

καὶ ποιήσω τὸ σπέρμα σου ὡς τὴν ἄμμον τῆς γῆς, εἰ δύναταί τις ἐξαριθμῆσαι τὴν ἄμμον τῆς γῆς, καὶ τὸ σπέρμα σου ἐξαριθμηθήσεται.

 

I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.

 

Gen 22:17

ἦ μὴν εὐλογῶν εὐλογήσω σε καὶ πληθύνων πληθυνῶ τὸ σπέρμα σου ὡς τοὺς ἀστέρας τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ὡς τὴν ἄμμον τὴν παρὰ τὸ χεῖλος τῆς θαλάσσης, καὶ κληρονομήσει τὸ σπέρμα σου τὰς πόλεις τῶν ὑπεναντίων,

 

I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,

 

Gen 28:14

καὶ ἔσται τὸ σπέρμα σου ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς γῆς καὶ πλατυνθήσεται ἐπὶ θάλασσαν καὶ ἐπὶ λίβα καὶ ἐπὶ βορρᾶν καὶ ἐπʼ ἀνατολάς, καὶ ἐνευλογηθήσονται ἐν σοὶ πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐν τῷ σπέρματί σου.

 

Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

 

Gen 32:13

σὺ δὲ εἶπας Καλῶς εὖ σε ποιήσω καὶ θήσω τὸ σπέρμα σου ὡς τὴν ἄμμον τῆς θαλάσσης, ἣ οὐκ ἀριθμηθήσεται ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους.

 

But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”

 

Gen 41:49

καὶ συνήγαγεν Ιωσηφ σῖτον ὡσεὶ τὴν ἄμμον τῆς θαλάσσης πολὺν σφόδρα, ἕως οὐκ ἠδύναντο ἀριθμῆσαι, οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀριθμός.

 

And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.

 

Exod 2:12

περιβλεψάμενος δὲ ὧδε καὶ ὧδε οὐχ ὁρᾷ οὐδένα καὶ πατάξας τὸν Αἰγύπτιον ἔκρυψεν αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ ἄμμῳ.

 

He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

 

Josh 11:4

καὶ ἐξῆλθον αὐτοὶ καὶ οἱ βασιλεῖς αὐτῶν μετʼ αὐτῶν ὥσπερ ἡ ἄμμος τῆς θαλάσσης τῷ πλήθει καὶ ἵπποι καὶ ἅρματα πολλὰ σφόδρα.

 

And they came out with all their troops, a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.

 

Judg 7:12

καὶ Μαδιαμ καὶ Αμαληκ καὶ πάντες οἱ υἱοὶ ἀνατολῶν παρεμβεβλήκεισαν ἐν τῇ κοιλάδι ὡς ἀκρὶς εἰς πλῆθος, καὶ ταῖς καμήλοις αὐτῶν οὐκ ἦν ἀριθμός, ἀλλʼ ἦσαν ὥσπερ ἡ ἄμμος ἡ ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖλος τῆς θαλάσσης εἰς πλῆθος.

 

And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance.

 

1 Kgdms 13:5

καὶ οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι συνάγονται εἰς πόλεμον ἐπὶ Ισραηλ, καὶ ἀναβαίνουσιν ἐπὶ Ισραηλ τριάκοντα χιλιάδες ἁρμάτων καὶ ἓξ χιλιάδες ἱππέων καὶ λαὸς ὡς ἡ ἄμμος ἡ παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν τῷ πλήθει, καὶ ἀναβαίνουσιν καὶ παρεμβάλλουσιν ἐν Μαχεμας ἐξ ἐναντίας Βαιθων κατὰ νότου.

 

And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven.

 

2 Kgdms 17:11

ὅτι οὕτως συμβουλεύων ἐγὼ συνεβούλευσα, καὶ συναγόμενος συναχθήσεται ἐπὶ σὲ πᾶς Ισραηλ ἀπὸ Δαν καὶ ἕως Βηρσαβεε ὡς ἡ ἄμμος ἡ ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης εἰς πλῆθος, καὶ τὸ πρόσωπόν σου πορευόμενον ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν,

 

But my counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, as the sand by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle in person.

 

3 Kgdms 2:35a

Καὶ ἔδωκεν κύριος φρόνησιν τῷ Σαλωμων καὶ σοφίαν πολλὴν σφόδρα καὶ πλάτος καρδίας ὡς ἡ ἄμμος ἡ παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν,

 

 

 

3 Kgdms 2:46a

Καὶ ἦν ὁ βασιλεὺς Σαλωμων φρόνιμος σφόδρα καὶ σοφός, καὶ Ιουδα καὶ Ισραηλ πολλοὶ σφόδρα ὡς ἡ ἄμμος ἡ ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης εἰς πλῆθος, ἐσθίοντες καὶ πίνοντες καὶ χαίροντες,

 

 

 

3 Kgdms 5:9

Καὶ ἔδωκεν κύριος φρόνησιν τῷ Σαλωμων καὶ σοφίαν πολλὴν σφόδρα καὶ χύμα καρδίας ὡς ἡ ἄμμος ἡ παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν,

 

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore,

 

Jdth 2:20

καὶ πολὺς ὁ ἐπίμικτος ὡς ἀκρὶς συνεξῆλθον αὐτοῖς καὶ ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς γῆς, οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἀριθμὸς ἀπὸ πλήθους αὐτῶν.

 

 

 

1 Macc 11:1

Καὶ βασιλεὺς Αἰγύπτου ἤθροισεν δυνάμεις πολλὰς ὡς ἡ ἄμμος ἡ παρὰ τὸ χεῖλος τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ πλοῖα πολλὰ καὶ ἐζήτησε κατακρατῆσαι τῆς βασιλείας Ἀλεξάνδρου δόλῳ καὶ προσθεῖναι αὐτὴν τῇ βασιλείᾳ αὐτοῦ.

 

 

 

Ps 77:27

καὶ ἔβρεξεν ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς ὡσεὶ χοῦν σάρκας καὶ ὡσεὶ ἄμμον θαλασσῶν πετεινὰ πτερωτά,

 

he rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas;

 

Ps 138:18

ἐξαριθμήσομαι αὐτούς, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἄμμον πληθυνθήσονται, ἐξηγέρθην καὶ ἔτι εἰμὶ μετὰ σοῦ.

 

If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.

 

Odes 7:36

οἷς ἐλάλησας πρὸς αὐτοὺς λέγων πληθῦναι τὸ σπέρμα αὐτῶν ὡς τὰ ἄστρα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ὡς τὴν ἄμμον τὴν παρὰ τὸ χεῖλος τῆς θαλάσσης.

 

 

 

Prov 27:3

βαρὺ λίθος καὶ δυσβάστακτον ἄμμος, ὀργὴ δὲ ἄφρονος βαρυτέρα ἀμφοτέρων.

 

A stone is heavy, and sand is weighty, but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.

 

Job 6:3

καὶ δὴ ἄμμου παραλίας βαρυτέρα ἔσται, ἀλλʼ ὡς ἔοικεν, τὰ ῥήματά μού ἐστιν φαῦλα.

 

For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash.

 

Sirach 1:2

ἄμμον θαλασσῶν καὶ σταγόνας ὑετοῦ καὶ ἡμέρας αἰῶνος τίς ἐξαριθμήσει;

 

 

 

Sirach 18:10

ὡς σταγὼν ὕδατος ἀπὸ θαλάσσης καὶ ψῆφος ἄμμου, οὕτως ὀλίγα ἔτη ἐν ἡμέρᾳ αἰῶνος.

 

 

 

Sirach 22:15

ἄμμον καὶ ἅλα καὶ βῶλον σιδήρου εὔκοπον ὑπενεγκεῖν ἢ ἄνθρωπον ἀσύνετον.

 

 

 

Hos 2:1

Καὶ ἦν ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν υἱῶν Ισραηλ ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς θαλάσσης, ἣ οὐκ ἐκμετρηθήσεται οὐδὲ ἐξαριθμηθήσεται, καὶ ἔσται ἐν τῷ τόπῳ, οὗ ἐρρέθη αὐτοῖς Οὐ λαός μου ὑμεῖς, ἐκεῖ κληθήσονται υἱοὶ θεοῦ ζῶντος.

 

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”

 

Hab 1:9

συντέλεια εἰς ἀσεβεῖς ἥξει ἀνθεστηκότας προσώποις αὐτῶν ἐξ ἐναντίας καὶ συνάξει ὡς ἄμμον αἰχμαλωσίαν.

 

They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.

 

Isa 10:22

καὶ ἐὰν γένηται ὁ λαὸς Ισραηλ ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τῆς θαλάσσης, τὸ κατάλειμμα αὐτῶν σωθήσεται, λόγον γὰρ συντελῶν καὶ συντέμνων ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ,

 

For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

 

Isa 48:19

καὶ ἐγένετο ἂν ὡς ἡ ἄμμος τὸ σπέρμα σου καὶ τὰ ἔκγονα τῆς κοιλίας σου ὡς ὁ χοῦς τῆς γῆς, οὐδὲ νῦν οὐ μὴ ἐξολεθρευθῇς, οὐδὲ ἀπολεῖται τὸ ὄνομά σου ἐνώπιόν μου.

 

your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.”

 

Jer 5:22

μὴ ἐμὲ οὐ φοβηθήσεσθε; λέγει κύριος, ἢ ἀπὸ προσώπου μου οὐκ εὐλαβηθήσεσθε; τὸν τάξαντα ἄμμον ὅριον τῇ θαλάσσῃ, πρόσταγμα αἰώνιον, καὶ οὐχ ὑπερβήσεται αὐτό, καὶ ταραχθήσεται καὶ οὐ δυνήσεται, καὶ ἠχήσουσιν τὰ κύματα αὐτῆς καὶ οὐχ ὑπερβήσεται αὐτό.

 

Do you not fear me? declares the Lord. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

 

Jer 15:8

ἐπληθύνθησαν χῆραι αὐτῶν ὑπὲρ τὴν ἄμμον τῆς θαλάσσης, ἐπήγαγον ἐπὶ μητέρα νεανίσκου ταλαιπωρίαν ἐν μεσημβρίᾳ, ἐπέρριψα ἐπʼ αὐτὴν ἐξαίφνης τρόμον καὶ σπουδήν.

 

I have made their widows more in number than the sand of the seas; I have brought against the mothers of young men a destroyer at noonday; I have made anguish and terror fall upon them suddenly.

 

Jer 26:22

φωνὴ ὡς ὄφεως συρίζοντος, ὅτι ἐν ἄμμῳ πορεύσονται, ἐν ἀξίναις ἥξουσιν ἐπʼ αὐτὴν ὡς κόπτοντες ξύλα.

 

“She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away; for her enemies march in force and come against her with axes like those who fell trees.

 

Dan 3:36

οἷς ἐλάλησας πρὸς αὐτοὺς λέγων πληθῦναι τὸ σπέρμα αὐτῶν ὡς τὰ ἄστρα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ὡς τὴν ἄμμον τὴν παρὰ τὸ χεῖλος τῆς θαλάσσης.

 

 

 

 

εἰ δύναταί τις ἐξαριθμῆσαι: if one (anyone, tis) to number.

To number is a complementary infinitive (Wallace 598-599); it gives content to “to be able” which requires an additional action to make a complete thought. The preposition on “to count” does not seem to add any intensive force to the base verb “to count”. Perhaps it means something like “thoroughly count”, but such a sense seems to be limited. There are instances of it being used with very large numbers, (Herodotus, 2.143.2, “counting them out to the very large number”; 4.87.1, counting out 700,000 calvary; 7.59.2, Xeres counting his troops). The verb is used only in this sentence in the entire addition of the apostolic fathers.

καὶ τὸ σπέρμα σου ἐξαριθμηθήσεται: and (then) the seed of you (your descendants) shall be counted (future passive).

The Crisis of Word and Truth

17 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Apologetics, Carl F Henry, Genesis, John

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The Crisis of Word and Truth

NO FACT OF CONTEMPORARY Western life is more evident than its growing distrust of final truth and its implacable questioning of any sure word.[1]

The first essay in Henry’s six volumes, God Revelation and Authority is “The Crisis of Word and Truth”. He notes the conflict between two worldviews: The God of revelation who speaks versus a meaningless and incoherent “word”. The sound of words has remained and human beings still function and interact, but Word as a primary and stable truth – the Logos of God – that has come under attack.[2]

He wrote this essay without a discussion of deconstruction (my college copy of Spivak’s English version of Of Grammatology is dated 1974, 1976; the first printing of Henry’s essays are dated 1976) or the (for obvious reasons) the Internet. Thus, his discussions of both distance between meaning and words, as well as the ubiquity of media, not only remain true but have actually become more certain.

On one hand we have the Word of God. Christianity posits Spirit and Word as the primary constitutes of existence. First, God is spirit (John 4:24). As the Westminster Shorter Catechism has it:

Q: What is God?

A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

John 1:1 famously explains “The Word was God.” The knowledge of God comes about because God speaks. Nothing would exist apart from the Speaking God: “God said, Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). The material world of images comes after the Spirit and Word.[3] The world itself exists, because the Word of God upholds it, continually (John 1:3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:3).

On the other hand stands the cacophony of media. Now, Henry does not denigrate or despise the media because it is media. Rather the trouble lies in what it does. It has taken the pre-existing problem of meaning and world (which human beings attempt to escape; Romans 1:18). However, it has “indubitably widened and compounded the crisis of word and truth” (18).

Henry notes the common criticism that the nature of the media is such that it does not respond to matters of significance with significant attention.  He quotes Malcolm Muggeridge, “’the fact that the medium has no message. In the last resort, the media have nothing to say ….’” (18).

The media portray matters for the purpose of gaining attention and thus,

Final truth, changeless good, and the one true and living God are by default largely programed out of the real world. Despite occasional ethical commentary and some special coverage of religious events and moral issues, the media tend more to accommodate than to critique the theological and ethical ambiguities of our time. Their main devotion to what gratifies the viewing and reading audiences plays no small part in eclipsing God and fixed moral principles from contemporary life (18-19).

The barrage of immediate gratification removes the sense of shame and horror that should accompany the sight of such.  Public degradation engenders sports, not shame and sorrow. He again Muggeridge on the matter of “’accustoming us to the gradual deterioration of our values’” (19). While every age has thought itself (at least by some) to be the depths of depravity, it goes without saying that much which would have been unthinkable at the time of the essay would be unremarkable in public media today.[4]

Should I read this morning’s news, I would learn of extraordinary acts of pain and sorrow throughout the world. My view of the matter would be incessant, vivid, personal – and yet, there would be (and is) not easy matter of involvement. Thus, I come to human suffering (and glory) as peeping Tom. I cannot form an appropriate moral response – I cannot really do much. Hucksters will try to take my money. Politicians will use words to gain some immediate attention (and most often do nothing remotely useful).

This process affects human beings spiritually. It is a direct affront to the proclamation of God’s truth. It is an affront to the bare concept of “truth” – which ultimately lies with the primal temptation wherein the Serpent questions, word and meaning and logic:

4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4–5 (ESV)

While individual actors seek to turn truth word to manipulation and sales-pitch for personal gain (I pity the poor soul who takes political rhetoric at face value, much like one how gives a scorpion a ride[5]), the ultimate object is spiritual: it is an attack upon the very concept of revelation by God in Word – which is the heart of Christianity.

Some may think that little loss. However, the basis of Christian revelation is also the basis of what it is to be human:[6]

To strip words of any necessary or legitimate role as a revelatory resource denies not only the intelligibility of revelation, but also the very rationality of human existence. Nonverbal experience cannot supply today’s generation with fruitful alternatives to the spiritual emptiness of the times; the cavernous silence of a speechless world echoes not a single syllable of hope. To deverbalize an already depersonalized society is all the more to dehumanize it.

How can one engage in either true personal interaction or societal and corporate interaction when words are stripped of stability, and promise of its hold? Robert Frost ends his wonderful poem, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” with marvelous point,

            But I have promises to keep ….

What human interaction can there be without promise? Yes, human beings can live and breathe and die. Yes, by sheer force and violence a political entity can force itself along. But what humanity remains? What truth or beauty, what love or charm remain?

Henry ends with the proposition that it is the duty of the Christian to not succumb to the spirit of this age, but rather proclaim the “divine invasion” of the Logos, the truth of God, the prophetic Word.

Robert Frost reading, “Stopping by the Woods”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfOxdZfo0gs

 

[1] Carl Ferdinand Howard Henry, vol. 1, God, Revelation, and Authority (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 16-17.

[2] Although not discussed in this essay, Nietzsche’s arguments in Genealogy of Morals would certainly have an interesting bearing upon the point.

[3] This does require any Gnostic “fall” into matter. The physical world was created “very good.” The distress of the physical derives from sin (Romans 8:20). The redemption of humanity is not out of the physical world into a purely “spiritual” existence, as if the trouble were physicality. Rather, the redemption is to a resurrection, to a New Heavens and New Earth (1 Cor. 15:42-49; Rev. 21 & 22). Thus, Christianity differs strongly from either a Gnostic spite of the physical or a materialist’s denial of the spiritual.

[4] Some may point to matters of “racism” [I have word in quotations, because as a Christian, I must consider the matter of “races” itself suspect and repellant; there is a single human race; there are various cultural structures which people create, but these have no ground separate grounds of human value and being] as an area of advancement.  However, polite society has in some instances moved around certain discourse markers, the same nonsensical “racial” beliefs still exist. I remember being perplexed as a child that somehow George Washington Carver did not “belong” to me – even though he was a an American (as I was) and Christian (as was I) and a Scientist (which I longed to be), but that his skin color put him into a different and alien category – why is that primary to anything?

[6] As a Christian, I think it obvious that the correlative lies in the fundamental truth of the Christian claim.