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Andrew Sneckvik on Bible
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: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.
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