CADRE Comments

[Note: The contents page for this series can be found here. The previous entry, Chapter 54, can be found here. ] [This entry constitutes Chapter 55.] I have no clear idea of how this Child would think, as He grows into manhood. God will have poured Himself out, continuing to enact His own specific part in the story of humanity. We might say the finger of God will be gently touching the earth; a mere hum of His voice; a finite trickle out of the river of His eternity. I can only use metaphors, and I am well aware of the problems involved in imagining this accurately--which, I am also well aware, is likely to prove a stumbling block for an honest sceptic. But I appeal to the reasonableness of what I have said before. I am quite sure God exists, and has particular characteristics including a particular personal character. I am quite sure of my own sin and corrupted character. And I am reasonably sure of how this all fits together. Consequently, I am quite sure that sooner or later, God ...

[Note: The contents page for this series can be found here. The previous entry, Chapter 50, can be found here. ] [This entry constitutes Chapter 51.] If God is going to maintain all the various balances in His creation, while still working to His utmost to help effect our salvation from our own sins and the sins of our predecessors, then He will have to go about it within our history--not merely within the stories we tell ourselves (although He will do some work along those lines, too), but within the real natural reality we inhabit as synthetic creatures. This means He will act within a historical context, and it will be a context of His choosing: designed and guided, even 'tweaked' by Him to fit His plans; but also incorporating the choices of the people, the families, the nations, who will be a part of this particular story of history. But those people will not be sock-puppets. They will be real people; they will be fallible, even though God works with them to the best of ...

I know Black History Month is over and Martin Luther King, Jr. day was weeks ago but belatedly I would like to honor his legacy by quoting at length a remarkable passage from one of his essays. Whenever I despair about the state of the world and the immensity of human cruelty, these words inspire me to hope, and remind me that such hope cannot be based upon faith in human goodness, but only the power of God's love: In recent months I have also become more and more convinced of the reality of a personal God. True, I have always believed in the personality of God. But in past years the idea of a personal God was little more than a metaphysical category which I found theologically and philosophically satisfying. Now it is a living reality that has been validated in the experiences of everyday life. Perhaps the suffering, frustration and agonizing moments which I have had to undergo occasionally as a result of my involvement in a difficult struggle have drawn me closer to God. Whatever...

By now, many of you will have heard of the recent shootings in Colorado (and were probably wondering when someone from the Cadre would try to make hay about it...) In case you hadn't heard, Matthew Murray, a young man (early 20s) who seems to have been mentally disturbed, attacked and killed two workers at a youth missionary training camp in Arvada, CO, from which he had been previously rejected (for mental instability, according to the director). Several hours later, he attacked a local megachurch (New Life Church in Colorado Springs), where he shot three people in the parking lot (a father and two daughters; the daughters died) before entering the building and being crippled by security guard Jeanne Assam (herself a devout Christian who had just completed a three-day religious fast. I can't tell yet from news articles if she was officially on duty at the time.) Matthew then proceeded to kill himself with a shot to the head. Matthew himself was raised and home-schooled by a ve...