Does it matter if Christians are consistent in our beliefs or behavior?
Comments
No.
Atheists claim being good in the land of the Toughest Survive, Tooth and Claw, in which the Self who Survives is King, is reasonable and does not speak towards the truth/falsehood of atheism. Likewise, the Christian who knows otherwise, that the Self who Dies is King, and yet places Self above Other, also lives a life which does not speak toward the truth/falsehood of Christianity. The bloodiest century in history is that of the Nietzschian and Athesitic approaches to social construction, yet we hear "we can be good on whim". Likewise, "we can be bad on whim" spoken by the Christian has just as little impact on the Truth/Falsehood of one's worldview.
Having said all that nonsense, Christ tells us that our lives are books, and, our lives are testaments that others, both people and God, will all read. So perhaps it matters after all. And, Love being the Highest Ethic, it "matters" in a very, and ultimate, concrete fashion.
How do we travel from Babel’s Tower to the Upper Room? How do we travel from Isaiah 53 to “It is better for you if I go, for if I go the Comforter will come into you……”? Perhaps we have to be careful to avoid thinking a Gap in Perspective is an actual inconsistency. Whether we speak of Faith or of Science this journey through temporal gaps and possible inconsistencies is the same: “"The Quantum behavior of elementary particles still present problems which for the moment outstrip our reason, intuition, and powers of imagination. The same is true of human consciousness; no one understands it and there is no generally agreed upon theory: in this situation for research to continue requires faith. Faith that nature’s intelligibility and order will not pitter out into unintelligibility and chaos. For all we know we may have to get our minds around an order of intelligibility far higher than any of our minds can presently grasp. Indeed one could even say that faith in something that has not yet been proved still is and always has been a prerequisite for scientific investigation. So if the Atheist thinks that Faith is irrational and delusional they will have to say that the science on which they pin all their hopes is also irrational." (John Lennox)
Current Physics seems somehow full of Gaps and so we reach outward into “other laws of physics which gave birth to our current laws of physics” in sheer philosophy, but, “it must be” rides the undercurrent: “………even the evolution of the laws of nature and changes to the constants follow certain laws……. We’re still left with the question of how these "deeper" laws originated. No matter how far you push back the properties of the universe as somehow "emergent," their very emergence has to follow certain prior laws.' So multiverse or not, we still have to come to terms with the origin of the laws of nature……..” (Flew)
An inconsistency is far different than a Gap, and with this God Who Is-Love I’ve often seen more clearly over my shoulder looking backward, and “That was Him” fills in the prior Gap more often than when I look forward in Faith and hope to see Him coming and say, “Here He comes, see, now it makes sense.” I say “often” only as a measure of my own experience.
How do we tell Isaiah of the New Man of Romans 8? The words are there, but until one actually “becomes”, actually tastes, actually sees, the words are just words, just Hope, just Some-Day. But Romans 8 did come. Isaiah had to trust the Messenger more than the Message, and he had good reason to, as do we still today.
Once we ferret out any overt or blatant inconsistencies where A really does make B impossible (but how can we know from this side of B?) then we will still be left with “possible” inconsistencies, which are not inconsistencies at all, but are only temporal gaps. This brings in Wait. This brings in Faith. Here His Known and Tasted Company trumps the temporal Gap. The Created-Self will never be Self-Sufficient, as is the Uncreated-Self. This Reliance-On-Other cannot be otherwise, and probably never will be, for the Derived by its very nature cannot ever be Its own Origin in any given moment. “Trust” is never going to go away perhaps. Or, perhaps Trust will, but an innate Need-To-Lean cannot, perhaps, given this necessary inequitable between the Uncreated-Self and any Created-Self. But, when we have such good reasons to trust Him, and we do, then the choice is simple. I have no idea how to get from Romans 8 to Revelations 22, or even what Revelations 22 may be, but, I’m not really worried. The God Who Is-Love has proven Himself faithful. I trust the Messenger, and I wait for the Message to be Made-Flesh yet again, and yet again, and yet again…………………
No.
Atheists claim being good in the land of the Toughest Survive, Tooth and Claw, in which the Self who Survives is King, is reasonable and does not speak towards the truth/falsehood of atheism. Likewise, the Christian who knows otherwise, that the Self who Dies is King, and yet places Self above Other, also lives a life which does not speak toward the truth/falsehood of Christianity. The bloodiest century in history is that of the Nietzschian and Athesitic approaches to social construction, yet we hear "we can be good on whim". Likewise, "we can be bad on whim" spoken by the Christian has just as little impact on the Truth/Falsehood of one's worldview.
Having said all that nonsense, Christ tells us that our lives are books, and, our lives are testaments that others, both people and God, will all read. So perhaps it matters after all. And, Love being the Highest Ethic, it "matters" in a very, and ultimate, concrete fashion.
Posted by: scbrownlhrm | July 30, 2012 at 05:50 AM
How do we travel from Babel’s Tower to the Upper Room? How do we travel from Isaiah 53 to “It is better for you if I go, for if I go the Comforter will come into you……”? Perhaps we have to be careful to avoid thinking a Gap in Perspective is an actual inconsistency. Whether we speak of Faith or of Science this journey through temporal gaps and possible inconsistencies is the same: “"The Quantum behavior of elementary particles still present problems which for the moment outstrip our reason, intuition, and powers of imagination. The same is true of human consciousness; no one understands it and there is no generally agreed upon theory: in this situation for research to continue requires faith. Faith that nature’s intelligibility and order will not pitter out into unintelligibility and chaos. For all we know we may have to get our minds around an order of intelligibility far higher than any of our minds can presently grasp. Indeed one could even say that faith in something that has not yet been proved still is and always has been a prerequisite for scientific investigation. So if the Atheist thinks that Faith is irrational and delusional they will have to say that the science on which they pin all their hopes is also irrational." (John Lennox)
Current Physics seems somehow full of Gaps and so we reach outward into “other laws of physics which gave birth to our current laws of physics” in sheer philosophy, but, “it must be” rides the undercurrent: “………even the evolution of the laws of nature and changes to the constants follow certain laws……. We’re still left with the question of how these "deeper" laws originated. No matter how far you push back the properties of the universe as somehow "emergent," their very emergence has to follow certain prior laws.' So multiverse or not, we still have to come to terms with the origin of the laws of nature……..” (Flew)
An inconsistency is far different than a Gap, and with this God Who Is-Love I’ve often seen more clearly over my shoulder looking backward, and “That was Him” fills in the prior Gap more often than when I look forward in Faith and hope to see Him coming and say, “Here He comes, see, now it makes sense.” I say “often” only as a measure of my own experience.
How do we tell Isaiah of the New Man of Romans 8? The words are there, but until one actually “becomes”, actually tastes, actually sees, the words are just words, just Hope, just Some-Day. But Romans 8 did come. Isaiah had to trust the Messenger more than the Message, and he had good reason to, as do we still today.
Once we ferret out any overt or blatant inconsistencies where A really does make B impossible (but how can we know from this side of B?) then we will still be left with “possible” inconsistencies, which are not inconsistencies at all, but are only temporal gaps. This brings in Wait. This brings in Faith. Here His Known and Tasted Company trumps the temporal Gap. The Created-Self will never be Self-Sufficient, as is the Uncreated-Self. This Reliance-On-Other cannot be otherwise, and probably never will be, for the Derived by its very nature cannot ever be Its own Origin in any given moment. “Trust” is never going to go away perhaps. Or, perhaps Trust will, but an innate Need-To-Lean cannot, perhaps, given this necessary inequitable between the Uncreated-Self and any Created-Self. But, when we have such good reasons to trust Him, and we do, then the choice is simple. I have no idea how to get from Romans 8 to Revelations 22, or even what Revelations 22 may be, but, I’m not really worried. The God Who Is-Love has proven Himself faithful. I trust the Messenger, and I wait for the Message to be Made-Flesh yet again, and yet again, and yet again…………………
Posted by: scbrownlhrm | July 31, 2012 at 05:19 AM