Things I Think..

1. Theologian David Bentley Hart has written a new translation of the New Testament.

I’m not sure about the quality of the translation, but these words from the introduction grabbed me.

Hart:

“What perhaps did impress itself upon me with an entirely unexpected force was a new sense of the utter strangeness of the Christian vision of life in its first dawning—by which I mean, precisely, its strangeness in respect to the Christianity of later centuries. When one truly ventures into the world of the first Christians, one enters a company of “radicals” (for want of a better word), an association of men and women guided by faith in a world-altering revelation, and hence in values almost absolutely inverse to the recognized social, political, economic, and religious truths not only of their own age, but of almost every age of human culture.

The first Christians certainly bore very little resemblance to the faithful of our day, or to any generation of Christians that has felt quite at home in the world, securely sheltered within the available social stations of its time, complacently comfortable with material possessions and national loyalties and civic conventions. In truth, I suspect that very few of us, in even our wildest imaginings, could ever desire to be the kind of persons that the New Testament describes as fitting the pattern of life in Christ. And I do not mean merely that most of us would find the moral requirements laid out in Christian scripture a little onerous—though of course we do.

Rather, I mean that most of us would find Christians truly cast in the New Testament mold fairly obnoxious: civically reprobate, ideologically unsound, economically destructive, politically irresponsible, socially discreditable, and really just a bit indecent. Or, if not that, we would at least be bemused by the sheer, unembellished, unremitting otherworldliness of their understanding of the gospel. We are quite accustomed, after all, to thinking of Christianity as a fairly commonsensical creed as regards the practicalities of life.”

Hart, David Bentley. The New Testament: A Translation (p. 1). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Everything I understand tells me that Hart is correct in both his assessment of the early church…and of the church today.

I do not think, for the most part, that we all practice the same faith as our first believing ancestors…

2. I have wrestled with quotes above and more so with my own thoughts about them. I believe they cut to the core of the current state of much of the church…but those to whom these thoughts would resonate are a remnant without many connections. There is little to gain simply by scolding the same groups over and over…they will not be persuaded. Perhaps I just post them to let a few folks know that they are not crazy….

3. The early church was a strange lot, not just because of their religious beliefs, but because of the love they demonstrated to each other and especially their enemies. They were consumed by the kingdom to come and mainly wanted to avoid the kingdom that was to avoid persecution…todays remnant may soon find themselves in the same situation… without having practiced what it takes to to remain faithful…

4. I confess in prayer every day that as appalled as I am at what is happening to others, I’m mostly concerned with losing the small securities and comforts I have…Lord have mercy on me…

5. There is something perverse and cruel about stopping trucks full of food on the way to food banks knowing all that food will rot…they would rather waste millions of dollars of food than feed the poor…I hopefully will have a front seat at the judgment when those who support such evil explain to Jesus that this isn’t a moral issue…

6. ““And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’” (Matthew 25:45 NLT-SE)

7. I have half a dozen books that talk about how cartels “disappear” people…the objective is to create terror and neutralize dissent…make your own application…

8. They are moving lots of troops to the southern border…this reminds me again of the insight of my late, lamented mentor Bowden…walls are built to keep people out…and keep people in…

9. I’m not a prophecy wonk, but I just bought another two books on Revelation today…just in case…

10. I was lamenting all these things outside yesterday when I saw three deer and a jack rabbit running up the road together…wonder will always cure what ails you…