January 21, 2015 – Judging good and evil
Calling good evil, and evil good.
Plato in the Republic says “The good causes only good things. Therefore God causes only a few things – those that are good [this principle is contrary to common notions and poetical images of Zeus dispensing both the good and ill]. The fact that God causes only good things does not mean that all good things are caused by him. Good things in life are scarce but some are to be attributed to man and his actions. Men are responsible both for all evil and some good things.”
This thinking permeates the church today.
Romans 5:1-4 – We glory in tribulation (which seems bad)
I Timothy 3:16 – justified in the spirit
Luther, in “Works on the Psalms” – Christ in his incarnation and death on the cross “makes us true humans instead of unhappy and proud Gods: humans, that is, in their misery and their sin. … That is the kingdom of faith in which the cross of Christ holds sway, which sets at naught the divinity for which we perversely strive and restores the despised weakness of the flesh which we have perversely abandoned.”
