Sunday, April 08, 2007

Redemption Question:

My pastor asked me a question the other day, and we had a lively discussion about it. I would like to hear views and opinions on it. I'll weigh in eventually.

"Are the redemption of souls and the redemption of the world separate or are the synonymous? If they are two different things, how are they related and do they necessarily involve eachother at every turn? Is our life work to strive toward the redemption of souls? The whole world? How do these interact for us?"

Thought you all may want to comment.
Posted by at

5 comments:

troyfoster said...

Hooray! Joe's blogging again. About damn time...
It's just my opinion, but I hav now idea how to answer this. I've had some really strange encounters this past year, and I have come to realize that there's a lot that we just can't understand.
My gut tellls me that these are two seperate actions. Don't have any great theological reasion why. It's just a gut reaction. I think that maybe there's more to redemption than we know or understand. I guess it's all a matter of whether or not you think that the Bible has all of the answers or not. I tend to think that it's not packed full of answers, just enough to get us asking the right questions.
Maybe I'm just on my third glass of wine and it's almost 2AM.
t

Monday, April 23, 2007 12:54:00 AM
Joe Graber said...

Troy,

My only concern with separating them is that we can end up taking things too far. Do we work to improve the earth (ie, earth day) for the sake of the earth or for the sake of mankind or for the sake of the command of god to take dominion over it? Was Johnny Appleseed an evangelist of sorts redeeming the earth?

Also, it seems that God uses the really low points in our lives sometimes to open our eyes to see him, but if I run around trying to keep people from hitting a low point, am I sometimes working against God? Obviously, we rely on his sovereign control, but sometimes I wonder. I do think there is an aspect of us as humans wanting to make everything better, like wanting everyone to be happy, when God knows that making people happy now would lead to their destruction.

Just some thoughts....Joe

Monday, April 23, 2007 8:50:00 AM
troyfoster said...

I have to completely agree with the low point in our lives building us. I also agree with the taking of things to extremes. We are commanded to subdue the earth, does that mean that we should use up all that it has to offer? Should we live our lives worrying about global warming just to die from an ulcer caused by that worry?
I think that we can find a healthy balance, an equilibrium that let's us both live our life while protecting the earth that we've been given.
I also think that people are more important to God than the evironment is. Extremism in either direction can be detrimental.
Just my thoughts.

Monday, April 23, 2007 11:39:00 AM
Joe Graber said...

I have a friend named Brett McAtee who is a CRC pastor in Charlotte, MI. He says he envisions a healthy Christian life as a hollow body that is held together with bungee cords on the inside. If one of the cords becomes broke or disconnected then we tend to distend in the opposit direction and distort the Christian walk.

Monday, April 23, 2007 12:50:00 PM
troyfoster said...

That's a pretty good analogy.
I've got lot's of 'distensions' (or whatever the correct word would be)

Monday, April 23, 2007 1:01:00 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)