CADRE Comments

So I was catching up with the half-season finale of Season Two of The Flash this week (the modern hit on the CW network, not the 90s version), which was also the Christmas episode, and what to my wondering ears should appear but a character (Caitlin) tries to explain Christmas to someone (Jay) she thinks has never heard of it. "Oh! -- uh, well, it's this holiday we have where we cut down trees and sing songs to celebrate the birth of a baby two thousand years ago, but then the Romans killed him, so we give each other gifts..." Admittedly, a third character in the scene (Cisco) is making a face during this and as she runs out of any idea for Christmas he snarks, " That's your explanation?" But he leaves soon afterward, and Jay reveals he was joking, he knows what Christmas is, and let's just move on to the important thing which is Caitlin and Jay making googly eyes at one another. This is just the kind of reply we could expect from writers who, wh...

This is my third post on the issue of divine hiddenness. The first post laid out the so-called problem of divine hiddenness, flagged some of its limitations as an argument against God's existence, and offered a number of suggested answers to the objections usually associated with divine hiddenness. One of those suggestions was: Or perhaps the "epistemic distance" is in fact a mercy. That the more clear, the closer, is God's presence to humans the closer and swifter his judgment must be. God is, after all, an "all consuming fire." Heb. 12:29. Perhaps God has balanced the level of evidence of His presence with His desire to give more time for the spread of the Gospel before His judgment must come. This post expands on this point. A recurring theme throughout the Old Testament is that human beings cannot stand the full presence of God, at least not in their current condition. In Exodus 3:5-6, God revealed himself to Moses through a burning bush, but even s...

Introductory note from Jason Pratt: see here for the previous entry; and see here for the first entry of the series. (It explains what I'm doing, and how, and contains the Johannine prologue.) Dinners and Proposals (7 and 6 days until the end...) Now entering Jericho (says the Scholar, on the way westward to Jerusalem), He was passing through. And look!--a man whose name is called Zaccheus, and he was chief of tax collectors (for the area) and he was rich! Yet he sought to see who Jesus is, and was not able for the crowd, for he was short in height. [Plotnote: also indicating that the crowd had no respect for him, despite (or because!) of his position in the community.] Now running on ahead, he climbed up on a mulberry-fig, in order to see Him, seeing that He would be passing through that way. [Plotnote: a relatively short tree with very thick foliage; Zaccheus is trying to hide from being seen by the crowd, so that he will not be mocked by them. Moreover, this probably takes pla...

Introductory note from Jason Pratt: see here for the previous entry; and see here for the first entry of the series. (It explains what I'm doing, and how, and contains the Johannine prologue.) Be aware, this is an especially long entry. Lawyers and Second Comings (8 and 7 days until the end...) Now it happened that when Jesus finished these declarations (says the Disciple, seconded by the Follower, meaning the teaching on forgiveness seven times and seventy-times-and-seven, while back in Capernaum before the final mission-tour to Jerusalem had begun), He got up and went from Galilee; (eventually) coming into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan (past Jericho, east of Jerusalem 20 miles or more). Now the Passover of the Jews was near (the Evangelist says, taking his turn of the story for a moment), and many went up out of the countryside into Jerusalem before the Passover, in order to purify themselves (in the week before the Night itself). So they sought Jesus, and they said as ...

Introductory note from Jason Pratt: see here for the previous entry; and see here for the first entry of the series. (It explains what I'm doing, and how, and contains the Johannine prologue.) The Sending Through the Kingdom Now after these things (says the Scholar, taking the lead for this part of the tale), the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them two by two ahead of Him ('before His face') to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. [See second comment below for a footnote here.] And He was saying to them (similar instructions to how He had sent out the Twelve the year before): "The harvest indeed is vast! Yet, the workers are few. So, earnestly ask the Lord of the harvest, that He should be rapidly sending out workers into His harvest! "Go! See!--I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves! "Carry no purse, nor bag (for they are not beggars), nor even sandals--and greet no one along the way! [See third comment below for a footn...

Introductory note from Jason Pratt: see here for the previous entry; and see here for the first entry of the series. (It explains what I'm doing, and how, and contains the Johannine prologue.) The Salting In Capernaum Now from there (the mountain country near Caesarea Philippi, where the Transfiguration occurred), they went out and began to pass through Galilee; but He was unwilling for anyone to know about it. And while they were conspiring into Galilee, Jesus said to them: "The Son of Man will soon be given up into the hands of men; and they will kill Him; but when He has been killed, then on the third day He will be raised up." [See first comment below for a footnote here.] But this word they did not understand; and they feared to ask Him of it--and were deeply grieved. ....... Now they came into Capernaum. And when they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the double-drachma came to Peter and said, "Does your Rabbi not pay the double-drachma?” (i.e. the t...