Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Good News (2)
Today I was meditating on the gospel. You know, the good news that Jesus came to earth as a man; that He was crucified, died, and was buried; that He rose again on the third day, so that our sins might be forgiven. (1 Cor. 15:1-4) I was thinking in my meditations that people today—especially modern Americans—don't really have a good analogy to understand just what this meant in the ancient world. In the ancient world the good news was the announcement that was made when a new king or emperor was crowned, or the announcement of a messenger that a great battle had been fought and their side had been victorious. (Think of Phidippides' announcement to Athens after the Greeks were victorious at the battle on the plain of Marathon.) But in our day of instant communication such good news of this sort often gets swallowed up in the cacophony going on around us. There are some examples that might work from our time though.
Every four years this country has a nationwide election for our president. Each network wants to be the first to make the announcement of who won the election. This caused some problems when they tried to make the announcement even before all of the polls were closed. but each side eagerly awaits the "official" announcement of who our next president will be. Now not everyone receives the announcement as good news. The side that loses often resorts to "wailing and gnashing of teeth." The left did this in 2000 and 2004, and the right did it in 2008.
The point of this is that the event is momentous and we are concerned about the outcome. In the ancient world kings and emperors were crowned many times. And today we elect a new president every four years. But the good news of Jesus Christ is that came, died, and rose once. He was victorious once, and that is enough. He doesn't need to do it again. This is the most momentous event ever; this is truly the Good News!
. . . [Jesus Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:26–28, ESV)
Every four years this country has a nationwide election for our president. Each network wants to be the first to make the announcement of who won the election. This caused some problems when they tried to make the announcement even before all of the polls were closed. but each side eagerly awaits the "official" announcement of who our next president will be. Now not everyone receives the announcement as good news. The side that loses often resorts to "wailing and gnashing of teeth." The left did this in 2000 and 2004, and the right did it in 2008.
The point of this is that the event is momentous and we are concerned about the outcome. In the ancient world kings and emperors were crowned many times. And today we elect a new president every four years. But the good news of Jesus Christ is that came, died, and rose once. He was victorious once, and that is enough. He doesn't need to do it again. This is the most momentous event ever; this is truly the Good News!
. . . [Jesus Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgement, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:26–28, ESV)
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Revelation: science & Scripture
Dr. James Anderson (proginosko) has some excellent thoughts on hwo to deal with [supposed] contradictions between Scripture and science at his blog Analogical Thoughts.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Milestones
Last weekend was the fortieth reunion of my high school graduating class—Bear Creek H.S. class of 1969. I didn't go.
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