"But if sin and misery is an interloper, an invader—if our subterranean memory or intuition of distant Eden is more than a mere dream—it means that creation itself is susceptible to redemption. If sin entered, it can also exit. If it invaded, it can be expelled. If it wounds, the wound can be healed." Hallelujah.
This was really excellent! I pray Jonah reads it. Money Goldberg quote: "If we’re all just meat and neurons, transcendence is entertainment." Perfect. Like you, I love Jonah and pray the Lord would draw him to saving faith.
Commies were so successful at capturing hearts and minds because they're postmil. They just borrowed Christianity's optimism, based on a counterfeit hope. And inverse ethics.
Measuring Christianity by its explanatory power in terms of how it has "worked so well" is always a fun exercise for us because it increases our faith. As to how it works as evangelism... maybe a mixed bag. The Hollands of the world seem to enjoy it.
But it does fail at some point, as all consequentialist thinking fails, when one realizes... you mean I have to obey unto death and suffering in order for this all to work? That, to our minds, just doesn't seem to be pragmatic or effective.
Utopians is exactly what God wants us to be. Just not bitter ones. We only become bitter when we don't accept the suffering which is necessary in order to spread the leaven of the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. When we don't get what we want in 5 or 10 years, but have to wait for our great grandchildren to have it.
The curmudgeons who like to throw shade on utopianism like to focus on the fall, claiming that since man is fallen, desiring a utopia is a fool's errand. But the Lord's prayer says otherwise. Utopia doesn't not exist... it just happens to be really small at the moment, and difficult to see.
I think the post liberals actually make some fair points about the failure of our institutions. My problem with them isn't acknowledging that democracy has failed by some very crucial measures, or that libertinism tends to infect liberty, or that certain things need to go away. It's that they don't have knowledge with their zeal. They think burning it all down will fix things. And the Christian post liberals seldom seem to want to replace what they burn down with something actually ethically biblical... only whatever their atavistic flavor of the month happens to be, or something which strains biblical ethics past the point of credulity.
"But if sin and misery is an interloper, an invader—if our subterranean memory or intuition of distant Eden is more than a mere dream—it means that creation itself is susceptible to redemption. If sin entered, it can also exit. If it invaded, it can be expelled. If it wounds, the wound can be healed." Hallelujah.
*susceptible to redemption* I like that.
This was really excellent! I pray Jonah reads it. Money Goldberg quote: "If we’re all just meat and neurons, transcendence is entertainment." Perfect. Like you, I love Jonah and pray the Lord would draw him to saving faith.
"We want something else which can hardly be
put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves,
to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with
gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves—that, though we cannot, yet these projections can,
enjoy in themselves that beauty grace, and power of which Nature is the image. That is why the
poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a
human soul; but it can’t. They tell us that “beauty born of murmuring sound” will pass into a
human face; but it won’t. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we
believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of
the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as
history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world,
the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make
us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New
Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we
shall get in. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate
creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of
which Nature is only the first sketch."
From CS Lewis: The Weight of Glory
This aligns closely with your thoughts. Beautiful!
Enjoyed Jonah's essay, and yours.
Commies were so successful at capturing hearts and minds because they're postmil. They just borrowed Christianity's optimism, based on a counterfeit hope. And inverse ethics.
Measuring Christianity by its explanatory power in terms of how it has "worked so well" is always a fun exercise for us because it increases our faith. As to how it works as evangelism... maybe a mixed bag. The Hollands of the world seem to enjoy it.
But it does fail at some point, as all consequentialist thinking fails, when one realizes... you mean I have to obey unto death and suffering in order for this all to work? That, to our minds, just doesn't seem to be pragmatic or effective.
Utopians is exactly what God wants us to be. Just not bitter ones. We only become bitter when we don't accept the suffering which is necessary in order to spread the leaven of the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. When we don't get what we want in 5 or 10 years, but have to wait for our great grandchildren to have it.
The curmudgeons who like to throw shade on utopianism like to focus on the fall, claiming that since man is fallen, desiring a utopia is a fool's errand. But the Lord's prayer says otherwise. Utopia doesn't not exist... it just happens to be really small at the moment, and difficult to see.
I think the post liberals actually make some fair points about the failure of our institutions. My problem with them isn't acknowledging that democracy has failed by some very crucial measures, or that libertinism tends to infect liberty, or that certain things need to go away. It's that they don't have knowledge with their zeal. They think burning it all down will fix things. And the Christian post liberals seldom seem to want to replace what they burn down with something actually ethically biblical... only whatever their atavistic flavor of the month happens to be, or something which strains biblical ethics past the point of credulity.