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+Andrew Sneckvik on Bible
+########################
+
+:date: 2005-07-07T21:07:00
+:category: faith
+
+Andrew began to talk about misconceptions that discourages us to join in
+God’s story:
+
+Bible is a set of timeless truths.
+   Unfortunately, takeway from this is that believing Bible won’t
+   change anything fundamental about the nature of our life. We live in
+   a timeless vacuum and in the end the only way I’ll know if I
+   succeeded is to compare myself to these abstract principles of good
+   living or succes of others. Bible is therefore just a set of
+   principles, which leads us into our rat race to run slightly faster
+   than other rats.
+
+   This stress on abstract concepts and theoretical truths is according
+   to Andrew coming from the Greek philosophy (which was all about
+   searching for the timeless truths and their application for the
+   practical life) and it was totally alien to the original Biblical
+   Hebrew thinking. Unfortuantely, this stress was renewed in the
+   Reformation (Calvin). Opposition to this trend is postmodern
+   theology (and some of its precursors, e. g., Jonathan Edwards).
+
+Old Testament was the first way God tried to relate but it didn’t work.
+   Takeaway is that we have little to offer that will make a difference
+   since we are so below standard.
+
+New Testament is about this free gift that costs us nothing.
+   OK, this what made Bonhoeffer to write *“The Cost of Discipleship”*
+   and of course the main takeway from this statement would be that
+   nothing we do in our lives will significantly impact cosmic history,
+   so that the only question in our life is that whether we’ve got the
+   ticket to heaven and the rest of the life doesn’t really matter
+   (maybe we can give the same ticket to others, but that’s it).
+
+Early church was perfect embodiment of church
+   We are part of the ship that is going down. You can try hard to do
+   things better but good luck. The glory days are over.
+
+The alternative Andrew has to these statements (and who of us did not
+find herself believing at least some of them?) is understanding Bible as
+a story, or as a report about part of the story God creates in the
+history (from the begining till today and still further until the end).
+
+Beginning of the story is before the begining of Bible itself—God lives
+in perfect unity and harmony within itself (Trinity), but wants to
+extend this unity, love, and fellowship with other creatures. So he
+creates first angels and then humans. Unfortuantely, angels first misuse
+freedom he gave and under the leadership of Lucipher they make revolt
+against God so that Lucipher may take some of God’s glory. Then the
+Lucipher’s revolt is broken and he is rejected from the heaven to the
+earth. Why is then the world as it is and what should we do
+here—obviously we should fight and these little us can help the world to
+make at least small difference in the war (story of Abram).
+
+Therefore, what was around the Garden of Eden? Huge wasteland [Ge 2.5]
+and the land under the rule of Satan (which is how it happened that a
+serpent was around the Garden of Eden). Adam and Eve were not sent to
+the Earth to be happy, enjoy each other, and name animals, but as a
+paratroopers to the area occupied by the enemy. (Which reminds me of
+John Wimber's comment on church: if the church is a ship, then it is not
+a cruise ship ready for departure to Carribean, but battleship leaving
+for war.)
+
+*Andrew’s conclusion:* Rather than wanting a people who never make
+mistakes we learn that God is looking for weak, fallible people who are
+willing to take risks on God to provide for them exclusively. People
+experiencing God’s incredible goodness directly through their radical
+dependence on Him become unbelievably motivated (using all their
+resources) to bring as many others into this same place of radical
+dependence on God. Radical dependence leads to experiencing God’s
+radical goodness, which leads to involvment in God’s radical purposes.