Years ago, back in the 70s, three of us came up for ordination. We were all controversial. Karen Zeigler and Shelley Hamilton were far more theologically advanced then than I was. I was a simple Bible teacher who held that God had no gender; that all the words we use for God are merely metaphors. We can tell you what God is like but we cannot tell you what God is. Shelley and Karen were wearing T-shirts that announced Heretic 1 and Heretic 2. I was so much older, I figured mine should have said Heretic Emerita! Well, Im at it again. Is salvation the be-all and end-all of our Christianity? Why should there be saved and unsaved? Paul gets his metaphors from the Hebrew sacrificial system. If you sin, you make it right by sacrificing an animal to pay for your sins. It follows that humanity has sinned and someone/something has to payfor those sins. Which works if you have cattle, goats, sheep and pigeons, and an outdoor area for slaughtet and burning. But when Israel and Judah went into exile they did not have the temple or the availability of the sacrifice. They had to find another kind of relationship to God. Christianity comes along and Paul is part of that sacrificial system. To put us right with God he asserts that the pure, unblemished payment for our sins is Christ. Which makes God the demander of human sacrifice, which Judaism had stopped with Abraham and Isaac, when a ram was interposed. All of this writing of sin and sacrifice gives us a picture (metaphor) of a caring God, who demanded no less than his own child as a sacrifice, unconditional love? which supposedly buys our salvation. Would Jesus have portrayed God that way? Was salvation what Jesus was offering? Or is that Paul interposing upon Jesus teaching the sacrificial system? Does God is love say that God loves only those who buy into the sacrificial system OR is God unconditional love? Is salvation necessary to my relationship with God, or am I a child of God because it is Gods nature to love? Thoughts!?
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 19:33:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015