Category Archives: Terminology

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Bonhoeffer on Listening as a Holy Act

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Christians, especially ministers, so often think that they must always contribute something when they are in company odd others, that this is the one service they have to render. They forget that listening can be a gadget service than speaking.

Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But [the one] who can no longer listen to his brother [or sister] will soon be no longer listening to God either…. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York : Harper and Broadway., 1954), pp. 97-98.

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Apologia, Quote

John Lennox on Creation of the Universe

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What is even more telling, for me as a mathematician, is that Genesis 1 separates God’s creation and organization of the universe into six days, each of which begins with the phrase “And God said …” Now, doubtless this is language that predates modern scientific language, by definition. It would, however, be rather unwise to dismiss it as having nothing significant to say. For the very same emphasis on God speaking that we find in Genesis is also to be found at the beginning of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word … All things were made through him” (John 1:1,3). John informs us that the physical universe owes its existence to God, who is the Logos. The word logos conveys ideas of “word,” “command,” and “information.”[1]

[1] John C. Lennox, Seven Days that Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 141.

Quote, Religion and Spirituality

Ravi Zacharias – Unplugging Truth in a Morally Suicidal Culture

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The pursuit of the Hebrews was idealized and symbolized by light. “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” “The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light.” “This is the light that lighteth every man that comes into the world.” The pursuit of the Greeks was symbolized by knowledge. That’s why the Biblical writers say, “These things are written that you might know that you have eternal life.” For the Hebrews, it was light. For the Greeks, it was knowledge. For the Romans, it was glory. For the Romans, it was glory, the glory of the city of Rome, the glory of the city that wasn’t built in a day. And here we have it. The apostle Paul, a Hebrew by birth, a citizen of Rome, living in a Greek city, had to give to them the ideal of his ethic. And he says this: “God, who caused the light to shine out of darkness, has caused His light to shine in our hearts, to give to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus our Lord.” For the apostle Paul, the ultimate ethic was not an abstraction, not symbolized merely by light, not merely by knowledge, not merely by glory, but in the very face of our Lord. “God who caused the light to shine out of darkness has caused his light to shine in our hearts to give to us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Source: “Unplugging Truth in a Morally Suicidal Culture”

Bible, Biblical Studies, Terminology, Textual Criticism

Friday Phraseology: Codex

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Codex: The “book” form (as opposed to a scroll) of an ancient manuscript of either papyrus or vellum. The codex was first used by the Romans for business and legal transactions but was also utilized by the early church as they collected and bound

complete-madrid-codex

 

Arthur G. Patzia;Anthony J. Petrotta. Pocket Dictionary of Biblical Studies (p. 26). Kindle Edition.

Book Excerpt, Quote, Religion and Spirituality

Sabbatum Excerpt: Klyne Snodgrass on “Foolishness of God”

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“Thus, Paul recommends that instead of clinging to human wisdom, we are to become fools. Paul is not simply singing the praise of folly or calling us to sacrifice our intellects. Rather, he is urging us to perceive that the “foolishness of God” is displayed in the cross. When Paul asks that we become fools, he means we become a fool from this world’s perspective by identifying with the cross of Christ.

Mother Teresa is a good example of such a fool. She and her Missionaries of Charity walk the streets of Calcutta and bring back those who are dying. Their “house” is not a hospital but more of a hospice – a place to die with dignity. IT is true that some recipients of their care improve and are even cured. But the main work is care for the terminally ill patients. Many think this is a foolish. Surely it would be wiser to devote the same energy and devotion instead to those who have a chance to be cured. Why waste time on those already slated to die when there are more deserving patients? It is here that Mother Teresa follows the way of the cross, stubbornly insisting that even the poorest of the poor who are dying are God’s children and thus possess infinite value and are especially deserving of love and care.”

 

Klyne A. Snodgrass, Between TWO Truths: Living with Biblical Tensions (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1990), 58-59).