PeterK:
Peter Holter,
I appreciated your nice thorough even-handed response to Ben. I wish I could have produced the same. It’s diffficult not to pontificate in these forums. But some questions bring it out. For example, Ben’s question seemed like a “gotcha” post.
Anyway I respecct the labor you put into your response. It was a generous thing to do especially over Christmas.
Pax,
PeterK
Wow! Thank you for this very encouraging post!
I also enjoyed your post. It reminded me of Jesus’ question that He put to the Pharisees…
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’?
If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. – Matthew 22:41-46
It reminded me of it in this way… that Jesus turns our attention away from His being the
Son of David and turns it towards His being the
Lord of David. Perhaps the Scriptures foresaw such a struggle as Ben Masada is now having.
It also reminds me of Peter’s response to Jesus after the Bread of Life discourse: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69). In other words, We don’t really understand what You’ve just said or in what way Your words could be true, but because of the things we’ve seen You do, and because of the knowable truth of other things You’ve said, we believe that even
these words are true - although we know not in what way - because based on everything else, we believe that
You are the Holy One of God!
Ben’s struggle also reminds me of Augustine’s stirring conclusion to his
102nd Epistle:
I have answered to the best of my power the questions proposed; but let him who proposed them become now a Christian at once, lest, if he delay until he has finished the discussion of all difficulties connected with the sacred books, he come to the end of this life before he pass from death to life. For it is reasonable that he inquire as to the resurrection of the dead before he is admitted to the Christian sacraments. Perhaps he ought also to be allowed to insist on preliminary discussion of the question proposed concerning Christ—why He came so late in the world’s history, and of a few great questions besides, to which all others are subordinate. But to think of finishing all such questions as those concerning the words, “In what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you,” and concerning Jonah, before he becomes a Christian, is to betray great unmindfulness of man’s limited capacities, and of the shortness of the life which remains to him. For there are innumerable questions the solution of which is not to be demanded before we believe, lest life be finished by us in unbelief. When, however, the Christian faith has been thoroughly received, these questions behoove to be studied with the utmost diligence for the pious satisfaction of the minds of believers. Whatever is discovered by such study ought to be imparted to others without vain self-complacency; if anything still remain hidden, we must bear with patience an imperfection of knowledge which is not prejudicial to salvation.
Thanks again for your
very encouraging post! May the LORD bless you and keep you!
