Keeping God Alive
Man-made gods die once a year. On the darkest day of the year, when the sun shines for the shortest time, it becomes necessary to save the earth from death, and the sun-god's people must find some way to encourage the sun to shine again and to call back their departed god.
Other man-made gods die as their maker's ability to sustain them dwindles. Their territory invaded by people who worship other god's, their temples destroyed and their oracles spurned they fade into history. Only their memory and the stories devised by their makers remain.
The Jewish God never dies. Not needing the support of man's imagination, he is free to be hidden, or inaccessible. He never goes away.
Would Jesus die? The Jewish God did not die, the other gods died often, what would happen if God-made-visible-in-Jesus died?
If he were to die, thought Peter, then all his power to reveal God and heal humanity would also die. Peter would have left his fishing industry and devoted years of his life to nothing. That must never be; Peter must prevent it. He, Peter, had been pronounced blessed by Jesus. Peter's strong statement of faith when he declared that Jesus was the son of living God, had placed him at the head of the band of disciples, therefore he could begin to act as chief counsellor to Jesus. He would be advised by and advise Jesus as they both began their God-empowered drive to impose God's law on Peter's nation and all other nations.
Under the rule of Jesus and Peter, (and perhaps some of the others) all people would live moral lives and God would be pleased and peace would prevail, and prosperity would follow.
Peter spoke urgently to Jesus, explaining that God himself would not be served if Jesus gave up the fight at this point. "This must not happen!" he cried. Jesus replied, and Peter stood gasping, amazed and frightened by what he began to say. .
Matthew 16:21-28[21] From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. [22] And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." [23] But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
Other man-made gods die as their maker's ability to sustain them dwindles. Their territory invaded by people who worship other god's, their temples destroyed and their oracles spurned they fade into history. Only their memory and the stories devised by their makers remain.
The Jewish God never dies. Not needing the support of man's imagination, he is free to be hidden, or inaccessible. He never goes away.
Would Jesus die? The Jewish God did not die, the other gods died often, what would happen if God-made-visible-in-Jesus died?
If he were to die, thought Peter, then all his power to reveal God and heal humanity would also die. Peter would have left his fishing industry and devoted years of his life to nothing. That must never be; Peter must prevent it. He, Peter, had been pronounced blessed by Jesus. Peter's strong statement of faith when he declared that Jesus was the son of living God, had placed him at the head of the band of disciples, therefore he could begin to act as chief counsellor to Jesus. He would be advised by and advise Jesus as they both began their God-empowered drive to impose God's law on Peter's nation and all other nations.
Under the rule of Jesus and Peter, (and perhaps some of the others) all people would live moral lives and God would be pleased and peace would prevail, and prosperity would follow.
Peter spoke urgently to Jesus, explaining that God himself would not be served if Jesus gave up the fight at this point. "This must not happen!" he cried. Jesus replied, and Peter stood gasping, amazed and frightened by what he began to say. .
Matthew 16:21-28[21] From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. [22] And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." [23] But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
Labels: theocracy
posted by Jessie Coates at 8:59 PM
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