“Creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.” (Romans 8:19)
That is, I think, an intriguing statement.
“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. .” (Romans 8:14)
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:26-27)
Isn’t this just religious “mumbo-jumbo”? What does any of this have to do with epistemology, ontology, and cosmology?
Charles Spurgeon, a Christian leader of the 19th century once said: “There is no room for indifference where the gospel is concerned — it is either the most astounding of impostures, or the most amazing of revelations; no man can safely remain undecided about it, it is too weighty, too solemn to be snuffed at as a matter of no concern. Foes and friends alike confess that the mystery of godliness is great: it is no rippling rill of dogma, but a broad ocean of thought, no molehill of discovery, but an Alp of revelation, no single beam of light but a sun shining at its strength.”
imposture = "an instance of pretending to be someone else in order to deceive others." (Bing)
What did he mean by the mystery of godliness? He tells us:
“(It is) the union of the divine and human in the Lord Jesus…”
Charles Spurgeon on The Great Mystery of Godliness
Paul (the apostle) said as much when he wrote:
” God chose to make known…the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Colossians 1:27
What is this saying?
A very popular and influential Christian named Chuck Smith once said:
“God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins, to provide forgiveness for my sins. And then…He did something else, He rose from the dead. And then He said, ‘Now, I will come and dwell in you and by My dwelling in you, I will give to you the power to walk this path. You don’t have it in yourself; you can’t do it in yourself, but I will dwell in you, and I will live in you, empowering you to do it.’ …That basically is the chief difference between Christianity and the other religions of the world. With Christianity, the power is imparted by the indwelling of Jesus Christ. It isn’t just pointing to the path and saying, ‘That’s the way you should walk.’ But it is coming in and giving you the capacity and the power to do it.”
Christianity submits a number of propositions, which it expects us to believe, and then it submits the life of Jesus of Nazareth as evidence of their veracity.
So what about the veracity of its ontological statements?
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
2nd Corinthians 5:17
What kind of creature?
My first thought is of “Superman” (as in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Übermensch).
Britannica.com says–regarding Nietzche’s overman:
“This superior man would not be a product of long evolution; rather, he would emerge when any man with superior potential completely masters himself and strikes off conventional Christian ‘herd morality’ to create his own values, which are completely rooted in life on this earth. …His goal was a ‘Caesar with Christ’s soul….’”
I don’t think we’re talking about that.
Think, instead, of the scene from Captain America: The First Avenger.
“This is why you were chosen. Because the strong man who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows… compassion.”
“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God
1st Corinthians 1:27-29
Christianity, then, must be, therefore, what Spurgeon said it was:
“One of the most extraordinary doctrines that was ever de-
Charles H. Spurgeon
clared in human hearing…”
The New Testament does not seem to be attempting to say that Christians are “super-soldiers.” What the Bible does seem to be saying is that the smallest of us–when united with the Spirit of Christ–can do far greater deeds than he ever could have done on his own.
“I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John (the baptist). Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
Luke 7:28
” For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.”
Psalm 18:29
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13
What that implies, then, is that a timid young girl can stand up before a crowd and perform her viola recital successfully (and then go on to spend much of her life on various stages), or the fearful old man–when told by his physical therapist that his full recovery from a stroke could only come if he overcame his fear of walking on his own legs–somehow can summon the courage to stand and take those first steps to a full life.
Christianity professes to be filled (on a normal and continuing basis) with miracles that come when foolish and weak and timid and lowly Christians rise up to do good, noble, and even great things.
And this seems to have been true throughout history.
One article I found, says: “Former professor of sociology Dr. Alvin Schmidt notes Elwood Cubberly’s observation that the biblical teachings of Jesus Christ challenged ‘almost everything for which the Roman world had stood…’ (How Christianity Changed the World, Schmidt, p. 44).”
It goes on to say: “Dr. James Kennedy writes, ‘Life was expendable prior to Christianity’s influence… In (the days of the Romans) abortion was rampant. Abandonment was commonplace: It was common for infirm babies or unwanted little ones to be taken out into the forest or the mountainside, to be consumed by wild animals or to starve… They often abandoned female babies because women were considered inferior’ (What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?, pp. 9–11).”
Another site talks about Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland: “He was a Roman citizen of Britain (known as Patricius) who was captured by pirates at the age of sixteen and sold into slavery in Ireland. He escaped back to Britain, became ordained as a bishop, and returned to the land of his captivity as a missionary in c. 432/433 (A.D.). He is credited with expanding literacy in Ireland through the monastic orders he established, revising and codifying the Brehon Laws, and converting the country to Christianity.”
Researching further, I found this: “(In the Renaissance) Christianity brought caring communities with indiscriminate personalised care for the ill and aged. This ultimately led to the creation of hospitals as we know them today. Monastic institutions appeared which often had hospitals, and provided a degree of medical scholarship. “
And further: “A solitary monk who shook the world”–Martin Luther, who stood alone against the greatest powers of his day–the Catholic Church, and the Holy Roman Emperor.
And still further, in Britannica.com: “Though the impulses for transformation of the social order according to the spirit of the Christian ethic came more strongly from the Free churches, state and territorial churches made positive contributions in improving the status quo. In 17th- and 18th-century Germany, Lutheran clergy, such as August Francke (1663–1727), were active in establishing poorhouses, orphanages, schools, and hospitals.
” In England, Anglican clerics (and, especially, John Wesley and the Methodists)…began a Christian social movement during the Industrial Revolution that brought Christian influence to the conditions of life and work in industry…(and) in 1848, the year of the publication of the Communist Manifesto and a wave of revolutions across Europe (English Christians) were concerned with social issues, prison reform, and care of the mentally ill.”
Britannica.com also tells us about William Wilberforce, whose “abolitionism was derived in part from evangelical Christianity, to which he was converted in 1784–85. His spiritual adviser became John Newton, a former slave trader who had repented and who had been the pastor at Wilberforce’s church when he was a child. In 1787 Wilberforce helped to found…the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade—the latter more commonly called the Anti-Slavery Society.”
And lastly, we quote from David McCullough’s wonderful book, 1776:
“(George Washington) was not a brilliant strategist or tactician (like Napoleon)… At several crucial moments he had shown marked indecisiveness. He had made serious mistakes in judgment…(but) he never gave up… (And) for those who had been with Washington and who know what a close call it was at the beginning–how often circumstance, storms, contrary winds, the oddities or strengths of individual character had made the difference–the outcome (of the America War for Independence) seemed little short of a miracle.”
David McCullough, 1776
A prayer attributed to Washington reads: “Oh, eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of Thy son, Jesus Christ, that living in Thy fear, and dying in Thy favor, I may in thy appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life. Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy son, Jesus Christ.”
