tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736201.post933341629374209400..comments2023-10-10T08:46:17.713-04:00Comments on drulogion: The Ethics of God (Bible Brain Busters)JohnLDruryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01120179182431573460noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736201.post-36688681768563138332007-02-06T23:02:00.000-05:002007-02-06T23:02:00.000-05:00Does the defense that God created us, and therefor...Does the defense that God created us, and therefore has the right at any time to take our life... hold merit with you?<br />In other words, what's right for God wouldn't be right for us because we're not divine?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736201.post-10390778067462992282007-02-05T13:59:00.000-05:002007-02-05T13:59:00.000-05:00I have been stopping by lately and found this bust...I have been stopping by lately and found this buster to be the most intriguing to me so far.<br /><br />I have three thoughts:<br /><br />1) Any question as to Godly ethics in the Mosaic period seems to be partly (if not fully) addressed by Jesus when he speaks of Mosaic divorce. This seems to weigh towards some kind of progressive method where God is making value judgments and prioritizing between competing values which are in conflict because of sin in His creatures. What I have in mind is similar to but does not seem to fit into either of your progressive categories. The conflict over divorce could be framed as orderliness vs. God-ordained marriage and family or fertility vs fidelity. Maybe this part of the Barth discussion the previous post is talking about.<br /><br />2) Many of the ethical brain busters seem to involve war and death. Those death busters that come to mind suggest to me more than just a Godly accommodation driven by sinfulness but possibly a fundamental flaw in our understanding of death and its function as a curse. As creatures subject to the curse of death we are far more troubled by death, its timing, and the various ways it comes about than God. This might fall into the indeterminacy of knowledge category suggested above. Death casts a sweeping pall over our view of the world and looms large in our moral valuations. In our 21st century culture, there is no greater wrong than genocide and war; however from God's perspective its difficult to say how issues like dying now rather than later and in large groups compared to dying individually weigh-in. <br /><br />3) Fear and Trembling. Kierkegaard. For me a brain busting treatment of the Ethics of God. After wrestling with Kierkegaard, I think was personally more into the accepting mode. If the great brains of the past couldn't figure these things out, I better accept Scripture and do my best to wrestle with the puzzles from a position of faith and belief.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736201.post-2677269813258805582007-02-05T11:25:00.000-05:002007-02-05T11:25:00.000-05:00While I am definately drawn to 5 & 6 theologically...While I am definately drawn to 5 & 6 theologically I can't help but wonder if #2 is more of a possiblity than we give it credit for.<br /><br />Perhaps some of the ways we've described God are more limiting characteristics and more utopian -- perhaps we describe God's character as "what we would like God to be like."<br /><br />Some people would say that we're just summarizing what revelation says about God in those characteristics--but don't these ethically troubling passages of that same revelation "hold the same weight" in describing God as other portions of scripture?<br /><br />I suppose what I'm trying to say is that perhaps God's actions in history sometimes have "macro-plans" of love but that require "micro-problems" of pain and suffering and ethical dilemas for us. <br /><br />That's my attempt so far to align to God's Ethics as much as possible instead of trying to fit Him into my ethics.David Druryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11935888468388634009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736201.post-66359744586241584882007-02-05T09:53:00.000-05:002007-02-05T09:53:00.000-05:00Wouldn't it seem in a general sense that #6 is the...Wouldn't it seem in a general sense that #6 is the most logical of your options? I think of the doctrine of the Trinity, which took a long time to formulate and become official teaching of the church. Or take the doctrine of Entire Sanctification as taught by the Holiness Movement and others. It is hard to find a whole host of places in scripture that insist on a second definite experience after coming to Christ. Some insist there are none, really. And it seems that Paul could have used far more specific language in his letters to the churches if he was Wesleyan :) in his doctrine. So the teachings seem to be more implicit than explicit. One might wonder if there are other things in the word that we have not discovered, simply because there are no "proof texts" to explain, reveal or validate a certain belief or experience. <br />I am not a theologian; I freely admit to being in over my head on discussions such as this. <br />But that's my two cents. Or less.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14736201.post-7405791285464351592007-02-02T11:55:00.000-05:002007-02-02T11:55:00.000-05:00You won't be surprised to hear me say that a mecha...You won't be surprised to hear me say that a mechanism external to the Bible is always involved in any matter of this sort, for the Bible does not and cannot tell us how to prioritize and integrate its particulars, especially when we read them in their most likely particularity. <br /><br />It was fun to see Barth's "culling" mechanism on marriage and divorce this week. At one point he pulls some historical critical research out, at another he prioritizes certain OT passages over others. But it is he who is doing it. He may have the Word behind it, but I have no way to know this--it is he himself that is the integrator, not the Bible!<br /><br />My approach is to assume that that the twin love ethic gives a core Christian ethic (to look to Christ as core tells me almost nothing because I am left to determine what that means). To keep faith with orthodoxy I assume God acts consistent with this ethic in this creation (as you know leaving open the possibility that He could create other ethical universes).<br /><br />I am then left with various biblical stories to conclude a certain indeterminacy of knowledge: 1) that in some cases we simply do not know how God's actions cohered with this ethic, but by faith they did and 2) in other circumstances the biblical authors may not have had a clear understanding of what was really going on.<br /><br />My thoughts...Ken Schenckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09745548537303356655noreply@blogger.com