This is a draft. I will add links tonight... :)
I have been talking to my blogging friend (MoJoey – Photo Blogger) and I realize I really have been off topic for about a month. My topic is centered on “describing the experience”. Whether it is discipleship relationships or prayer or leadership, in order to really make the topic practical and to communicate in a way that almost assures comprehension, I like to describe my own experience. From the description of the experience or the practice as I experience it, then I go onto explain or define the theory. This is my method. All learning is founded on doing and then when we have done it then we can discuss it. This method is the “observation, imitation, discussion” model. For example what does it look like to be a person that knows the Sovereignty of God? What does it look like to be a humble person? What does it look like to enter into worship? What does it look like (describe it) to know God? This is my story and I am in need of sticking to it.
In my last post I talked about Leslie Newbigin’s theory of “Knowing God”. We learned that the quest for irrefutable evidence like the greeks or a perfect rational like Descartes’ rational method is totally inappropriate when talking about either knowing people, which is contingent on self-revelation of the object and for predicting the outcomes of story. In fact Einstein (or some smart guy) had a dictum that went something like the following, “Mathematics is great so long as you don’t apply it to anything real”. The meaning of this dictum is that the types of assurances you have in math do not work when time and space are introduced into the equation. So how do we know God and His story?
Paul says this, “Jews seek for signs..greeks for wisdom but I preach the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit”. Paul says in 2 Cor 5, “God is speaking through us saying “be reconciled to God”. When Paul speaks the Gospel in the power of the Spirit or when anyone sent by God to preach preaches in the name of Jesus and in the power of the Spirit, “God is actually speaking”. This process of God speaking through people who speak His word is simply a fact. I cannot prove it. And it isn’t a fact that has deniability. You can not disprove it. This fact is not verifiable at all. It cannot be tested by science. It cannot be proven by rational method. But it is true nonetheless.
This fact that God is speaking through the prophets and through the apostles and in every way through the word and deed of Jesus, the son of God, is admittedly foolish to the rational method. Post-modernists say every culture has their own self-appreciating meta narrative. Cultures create themes about themselves that give them purpose and meaning to life BUT they are not true. The post-modern mind denies all meta-narratives (statements of the theme of the story of life) but we Christians say there is one that is true. The Hebrew meta-narrative is true. We believe this tiny people is God’s one and only special revelation about the theme of history. Everything about their story can be understood in the life of Jesus Christ and the cross which brings the humble forgiveness and the weak power. Every aspect of Jesus’ life and work and words speaks to the theme of history and the purpose of life. This Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the life of the Hebrew people is the essential theme of the book of Matthew and we as Christians believe that God has spoke to all of mankind in this one story and it is indeed the ultimate Good News that speaks meaning and purpose to every history lived on earth of both individuals and communities to the Glory of God.
God Bless,
brad
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