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Bultmann and Barth: Not your Sunday school Christianity

The standard Christian view of sin and salvation is not a pretty one. Salvation is being saved from the righteous judgment of God. Salvation doesn’t mean being saved from yourself or the devil. Salvation is being saved from God’s wrath, which condemns to hell all who have broken his law.

All of us have sinned against God and deserve judgment. But Jesus never sinned. He lived the Law of God perfectly. Jesus is perfectly righteous. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Through his crucifixion, Jesus bore our sins in His body and suffered in our place.

Escaping the judgment of God means having faith in Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with doing good works. “Through grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8) You are saved by grace through faith.

When you have faith in Christ, then Christ’s righteousness is given to you, and you give your sins to Jesus. “It’s like a trade. He gets your sin. You get His righteousness.” (https://carm.org/what-is-salvation) It sounds more like blackmail to me. Be righteous because God will send you to hell forever if you aren’t.

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Gospel of John: Christ’s return is now

Gospel of John: Christ’s return is now

This post covers a number of different aspects of John’s gospel. I especially like what is called John’s realized eschatology, his theory of the end time. We should not and need not wait for Advent. It appeared when Christ appeared. If we have faith in Christ and follow his commandments then we have already been saved. I’ll cover some other topics as well

Almost everyone agrees that John is unique among the gospels. While the other three gospels indirectly refer to each other or a common source, often using almost identical language, John doesn’t. For this reason, the gospels are often divided into the three synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke), and John. The opening of John’s gospel resembles none of the other gospels. Nor does John’s Jesus speak in parables. There are other differences.

John’s gospel was written no later than 90 AD, and possibly a decade or two before. It is sometimes argued that the apostle John was the author, but while this is possible (Christ was crucified around 30 AD), the main argument against it is that there is an intellectual complexity to John that seems unlikely in a fisherman with no formal education, even if he had learned to read and write Greek. John’s Greek is simple, but his story is not.

It is also argued that the Gospel was written in layers, often called form criticism. It’s probably true, but I’m not going to go into that.

God’s relationship with Jesus

God is identical with Jesus, but Jesus stands in a relationship to God. In which case they can’t be identical. I think this summarizes chapter 1, verses 1-14 pretty well. And it’s confusing.

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A Christmas message, or does it matter if the Bible is myth?

A Christmas message, or does it matter if the Bible is myth? Ask Rudolf Bultmann.

We cannot use electric lights and radios and, in the event of illness, avail ourselves of modern medical and clinical means and at the same time believe in the spirit and wonder world of the New Testament.

Who wrote this about the wonder world of the New Testament? One of the many aggressive atheists who contend with religion these days? No, one of the most distinguished theologians of the twentieth-century, Rudolf Bultmann (1984, p 4). The mythological world of the New Testament was the everyday world of men and women over two thousand years ago. Demons were everywhere, and heaven and hell were real places. Many Christians no longer believe in this magical world. The result is to question the relevance of the gospel. Needed, says Bultmann (1984), is a demythologizing interpretation that retains the truth of the kerygma.

What sense does it make to confess today ‘he descended into hell’ or ‘he ascended into heaven,’ if the confessor no longer shares the underlying mythical world picture of a three-story world? (p 4)

What’s kerygma?

Kerygma (κῆρυγμα) means preaching, and it refers to the message of the gospels. Whatever that is, it’s not the Apostle’s Creed or Nicene Creed; both refer to the three-story world. For Bultmann (1984, p 12), the kerygma refers to God’s decisive act in Christ, above all his death and resurrection. The question of course is why isn’t this just as mythical as a three-story world filled with angels and demons?

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Apocalypse now: The Gospel of Mark

Today almost all scholars agree that Mark was the first Gospel, written around 60-70 AD. Mark was not a witness to the events he recounts. No one knows who Mark was, and his Greek is not elegant. But there is a simplicity and power to the Gospel missing in the longer and more elaborated gospels of Matthew and Luke, both of whom draw on Mark. The Gospel of John is unique, and I will discuss it in another post.

I don’t think anyone can understand Mark without understanding the world he lived in, a world full of demons. Both mental and physical illness were attributed to demonic power. Jesus demonstrated his power by casting out of demons. Demons were the first to recognize Jesus as the son of God (1:21-28; 5:1-20; 9:14-29).

How are we to make sense of Mark today, for most of us don’t live in a world infested by demons? Brendan Byrne (p xii) argues that the demons represent powers humans are unable to master. If so, then we too are captive to demons: the demons of social, economic, and technological change beyond our control. We don’t call them demons (at least not usually), but what else are these changes but forces unleashed by human ambition that sometimes seem to take on a life of their own? The comic version is Walt Disney’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a tale for our times.

From the demonic to the forces of science, technology, and economics seems a bit of a stretch, and I’m not as convinced as Byrne that it’s a good analogy. Nevertheless, it is important to grasp that while Jesus’ message is universal, its historical context was particular. It was an apocalyptic era, in which the overthrow of world order seemed not far away. Most contemporary science fiction is apocalyptic in this sense. So are some Christians.

What I like about Mark: the suffering humanity of Jesus

I like the simplicity of Mark’s story, particularly the way in which Christ’s human side is portrayed. As Edwards (p 13) puts it,

Mark is most ready of the four Evangelists to portray the humanness of Jesus, including his sorrow (14:34), disappointment (8:12), displeasure (10:14), anger (11:15-17), amazement (6:6), fatigue (4:38), and even ignorance (13:32).

Particularly powerful is the portrayal of Christ’s suffering. As he awaits his arrest and crucifixion in Gethsemane, “we see him go to pieces before our eyes . . . Nowhere else in the gospels do we see Jesus so humanly presented.” (Byrne, p 224)

Many historical figures who go to their deaths with equanimity. Socrates goes serenely to his execution, even as he is unsure about the afterlife (Phaedo, Crito). Socrates is not certain of much, but he knows that no evil can befall a truly good man (Apology 41d).

Christ is different because Christ despairs. His disciples have fled in fear; the last supper was attended by traitors and cowards. At the moment of his death on the cross, Jesus fears that he is abandoned by God. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (15:34) It may be of interest to Sunday school teachers that this is a quote from the twenty-second Psalm (v 1), but Jesus wasn’t just quoting scripture.

As fully human, Jesus experienced every feeling and fear that humans experience. Not everyone fears death, but all humans fear torture. At least as much, all humans fear a humiliating death marked by the abandonment of friends, followers (three women, including Mary Magdalene stood watch at a distance), and God. Who wouldn’t despair? The son of God you might answer and you would be right, except that in Mark, as nowhere else, Jesus Christ is so fully human that not even this is a comfort at the end.

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Christ: vindicator or lamb of God?

If Jesus Christ is the Lord’s vindicator, how can he be at the same time the Lamb of God? In trying to understand this and more, I’m going to follow the lead of a marvelous work of scholarly imagination by Jack Miles, Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God. This does not mean that I agree with it.

The winnowing fork

Consider the image of the winnowing fork, which Christ uses to separate the wheat from the chaff, burning the chaff in an endless fire. Attributed to John the Baptist by Matthew (3:12), the image captures perfectly Christ’s self-description of his mission: to bring hope to the pious and powerless, and punishment to the rich, who have had their reward in this world (Luke: 6:23-24). But the statement I will never understand is Christ’s explanation of why he speaks in parables.

And when he was alone, those who were about him with the twelve asked him concerning the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables;so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven.” (Mark 4.10-12)

No matter how many times it is explained to me in terms of Christ’s regret and understandable anger at those who will never understand (Young 1998, pp 263-264), I cannot make sense of Christ’s claim. Why would he speak in code? Are there no second chances? This is not the statement of a loving God. Christ’s statement has been explained as “the wistful longing of frustrated love,” but it doesn’t sound very wistful to me.

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What’s so great about faith?

What’s so great about faith? It depends on what you mean. Most people today seem to regard faith as a so-called “leap of faith,” in which we simply choose to believe something that can’t be demonstrated or proven. Society, or one’s own needy self, says that I need to believe, and I do, keeping quiet about my doubts, if I even let myself have any.

Real faith is given by the grace of God. We don’t choose faith; faith chooses us. Nevertheless, there are things we can do to receive it. Prime among these is humility, and living as Christ would have us live, as though we were men or women who deserve grace.

But how do I know if I have received grace?

There are two answers. If you have to ask, you haven’t. If you think you have received grace, you haven’t. Just continue to live as though you were worthy of grace. In the end perhaps this is the most we can hope for. What’s more important: to know that you have grace, or to be worthy of it?

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Blogging about God has created a problem for me

Blogging about God has created a problem for me. I realize that I pray to an interventionist God while I believe in a distant God. Since I blog about God to help me figure out what I believe, this is good. It just doesn’t bring me peace.

Most of my posts are about what other people believe about God. Since they are smarter than I am that seems a good start. None seem to believe in God quite like I do, but that’s OK too.

I believe in a creator God, one who has stepped back from his handiwork. Why is there something rather than nothing? Philosophers ask this question, and they are serious. People, zebras, bugs, the earth, the cosmos: everything there is has no need to exist. It just does, and I can see no other ultimate answer than God. Alfred North Whitehead believed something like this.

This works on a less cosmic level as well. Every night I thank God for the gift of my life that day, and for the wonder and beauty that exists in this world. I pray for those I love and care about. And I pray for desperate, afflicted people, such as the Rohingya Muslims. That’s about it.

I try not to pray for myself. That seems too much like asking God for a bicycle for Christmas. But, what would I pray for if I were seriously ill? That I be open to God’s presence. I’d pray for the same thing for my wife, and others whom I love.

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Can one man change history? Martin Luther

Can one man change history? Martin Luther? Hitler?

October is the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church. Or so the story goes. It might even be true, but there is no need to be overly dramatic. The church door served as a kind of community bulletin board.

An angry man

Luther was an angry, troubled man, who brought not just the church, but the medieval world, to the threshold of the modern. In 2000, Life magazine ranked Martin Luther third among the one hundred most important figures of the millennium (Kolb, p 1). I don’t think many people pay that much attention to Luther any more, but he was a big deal.

What I can’t figure out is the relationship between Luther’s life and the transformation he wrought, brought, heralded, or led. Or perhaps it was time for these changes to happen anyway, and Luther just happened to be there. In any case, the transformation of the world that began in Luther’s era made our world possible.

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