Son of Man?

As a younger Christian I was much puzzled by this term. Not helped by the poor Christian education provided by my church, of course.

One minister, RS, offered a suggestion that it had something to do with the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13; and this has some weight, I think.

Perhaps it was merely the human-like form of the vision, that attracted the title, but even here, it seems to denote something of greater significance, a sort of summative title.

The son is usually the inheritor, so what does the 'son of man' inherit?

I think it might be that, as the incarnate (to be, in Daniel) God...the Son, he inherits all that man as created was to be, pre-fall. He also, as the Lamb of God, inherits the consequence of the fall for man as created. This bears out both his conduct on earth pre-resurrection, but as the divine adopting human form, and his accepting the punishment given for sin (the repudiation of God-ness, and of God himself): death, despite him not meriting it. He accepted it to defeat it. 

Not the words I use

In his article "Christian Apologetics" in Hooper's anthology: C. S. Lewis "God in the Dock", Lewis put his finger on the problem of communicating the gospel to non-churched people.

He listed words that have either no meaning, or a mistaken meaning to them:

Here's a selection. I've updated some of Lewis' explanations.

ATONEMENT

People have no idea what this means.

BEING

This may or may not be understood as 'person', as 'human being'. For example the Holy Spirit as a 'being' may not be understood as a person: a 'centre of consciousness'.

CATHOLIC

The Roman church, rather than the church universal.

CHARITY

An organization that helps people for no charge, instead of 'love in action'.

CHRISTIAN

A nice person, a person who is ordinarily 'moral' or 'nice'.

CHURCH

A building they'd never step inside, rather than a gathering of saints.

CREATIVE

Description of an artist, designer or sometimes writer or film-maker (photoplay maker: I like that older term).

CREATURE

An animal.

CRUCIFIXION, CROSS

A ceremonial religious emblem rather than an instrument of cruel torturous death.

DOGMA

Unreasoning and stubbornly held statement of opinion.

MORALITY

Being 'good', rather the general behaviour category of values.

PERSONAL

Applicable to oneself exclusively: my personal wardrobe, computer, equipment, tools.

PRIMITIVE

Not fully developed as in 'primitive man' uses sticks for weapons and stones for pillows.

SACRIFICE

Something you give up, usually at tolerable personal cost.

SAINT 

A super-spritual person, usually related to episcopal church usage for special religious people.

SPIRITUAL

Immaterial, usually related to aesthetics or emotions. 

The lesson? In talking to people outside your church circle, use common language that communicates meaningfully to your listener.

Get 'em in!

I came across this church website: St. Swithuns (sic), but not in England, In Oz. That may explain the odd spelling.

This is a 'brochure' type site, with info about the church programs, etc. OK as far as it goes, but just how far does it in fact go?

I clicked on Hope25, because this looked like something I should  know but clearly don't. That means its addressed to an 'in' crowd. 

OK, so its a special activity. I'll screen shot it because it will disappear after the event, I guess.

The special activity advertised these 'gripping' themes:

The Sermon Topics

11 May: Hope for the Despairing

18 May: Hope for the Stressed

25 May: Hope for the Lonely

1 June: Hope for the Ageing (that's all of us!)

We'd love to welcome you to any of these services. If you'd like a friendly church member to be looking out for you and/or sit beside you, please contact Andy on XXXXXXX or by email XXXXXX

Observations

1. The "sermon". This is 'in-talk'. What's a 'sermon' to most people? Either no clue, or a boring discourse on some irrelevant topic or a moralistic exhortation without an argued basis.
2. The topics are framed to attract people who self-identify as some sort of 'can't cope' loser. Or I may be wrong, a whole lot of people from the community will say to themselves, 'heck, I'm despairing after the recent elections, I'll toddle along'. Not.
3. If you need a 'dial-a-pal' we'll supply one.

It really seems to be an anti-advert. Framed for the weak-at-heart, and not for adults with serious challenging questions of our common lot.

I predict it will attract no new person along. It may even discourage a few of the regulars who don't want to be marked as 'despairing', 'stressed' (and not on top of it), 'lonely' (and therefore unpopular), or not able to deal with the inevitable aging.

The 'dial-a-friend' service would be about as attractive as admitting that one dates paid 'escorts'.

It also suggests that the church has no confidence in the capability of its doormen or ushers.

The topics themselves are real issues, but to attract those who might be interested, the titles have to be affirming and encouraging, not deprecating.

Perhaps less pointed language:

"The challenge of despair" our human lot.

"Success and its stresses"

"Alone again, naturally: we all go there sometimes." 

"Dynamic aging"

Not brilliant, I'd admit, but I'd call them 'themes' not 'sermon's, and include structured interviews with 'successful' people who would deal with the topics. And optional 'focus' groups to follow up.

Natural Theology: its place and purpose

For those who say NT is not a 'salvation' issue.

From Bray, 2012 God is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology, p., 27

"Natural theology has its importance and is taken seriously in the Bible,  but it is a preparation for the gospel and not a substitute for it. It gives people enough knowledge for people to be able to respond to the message of salvation, but not enough to work it out for themselves."

Emphasis, mine.

The days of Genesis do this by placing creation and God's direct action in the history that we are in and showing that God is close, active in history, communicative, and personal. And we are connected to him by his word.

Salvation by diagram

I found this neat diagram to explain salvation to the average Joe. Only I don't like it. Penal Substitution cuts no ice with me (or the NT, more importantly). Nowhere is Christ 'punished' for our sins in a pen-sub manner. He takes the punishment that we are under, he even takes our sin. But he is not punished for it, he conquers it.

So, I redraw the otherwise excellent diagram

Chosen?

I commented to a post on FreeGrace blog on Ephesians 1:

You wrote: "Verses 4-6 expound on how the Father is involved in the church’s salvation: He chose us."

They DO NOT. This passage is not about salvation, but about  the blessings from God by our position as saints based on our being 'in Christ'. This phrase or its analogue 'in him' is the drum-beat of the first chapter, and they are all showing that our blessings revolved around our being 'in him'.

The passage is about Christ not about us. It is about us, being regenerated we are 'in Christ' for the purpose that we would be holy and blameless being in him.

Correspondingly, we are not predestined for salvation, but being saved we have a destination previously set by God for those who would be in Christ: adoption as sons!

 Incidentally, if we are talking about salvation, the order of salvation is set out in 1:13, 14:

In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

See the order: Listened--Believed--Sealed (regenerated).

We could set it out thus:

    "In him, you also, after

    listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also

    believed, you were

    sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance,

[For?]

    with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."

 

Train, educate, or get out of the way!

Great video. I was one of those arrogant Calvinists! Happily no longer, so I know the feeling you are talking about.

What started me on the Calvinist path, many decades ago, was a Bible study group that an old (but not that close) friend invited me to join. In my church I was demographically and intellectually isolated. My friend's group was people of my age and all university qualified. Even here, though, the Calvinism was trickled. Firstly by recommending books (the tedious Puritans), and finally a Bible college where I did some summer courses and made some friends, including with the principal and his son. But what distinguished this church to mine was an emphasis on knowledge, on reading theology and 'pious' conversations about what we read.

My church was intellectually  barren. One deacon in discussion vowed to read the italics in his Bible with due emphasis, not being aware that italicized words were translators' additions. An elder, when I asked about a Schaeffer book, told me it had 'too many big words' (it didn't). In this church I was given youth teaching and 'leading' roles for which I was unequipped and given no training. In fact, no one was trained for anything. This intellectual (knowledge) vacuum made me ripe for not only Calvinism, but would have made me ripe for any cult that promised knowledge of the Bible. It also rendered me useless for the roles given. Note, this was way before the Internet age and resources were hard to find and expensive...and I was not even aware that they might exist.

Here's what I now would expect for all new Christians, or Christians from the age of, say 16: a one year course of maybe fortnightly sessions during school terms on Bible basics, an outline of church history, and a thorough grounding in soteriology, if not Christology at the appropriate level. It might also include 'workshops' on the basic questions Christians get asked. A couple of weekend 'consolidation' conferences could be added in.

Similar, but shorter courses should have been available, perhaps at the denominational/conference level on Sunday School teaching and youth ministry. These being ubiquitous and constant needs in 'volunteer' ministry.

The fact that most churches rely on either a weekly 'talk' (aka the sermon) and other forms of osmotic learning is a real derogation of the duty of the church to make disciples. Our biggest effort should be training to 'make disciples' rather than no training, which makes for ineffectiveness or complete passivity.