What to Do When Someone You Love is Making Bad Choices
is a terrific, well-balanced and courageous message given by Derek Benjamin, senior pastor of New Vision Ministries, a church in Great Abaco, Bahamas. I say courageous because many churches don't want to deal with the fallout of trying to teach their people how to exhort and admonish one another; but without this important show of the love of God, Christian growth is very difficult if not impossible. The link connects to a streaming audio message, so sit back, relax, and listen carefully.
At the Bell n Pomegranate, I want to focus on things of the Spirit and how our beliefs inform our lives in this world. So settle in with a drink of new wine, and put your two cents in with mine. Just remember this is a publick house, and I expect a certain amount of civility; but that does not rule out controversy, nor even passion.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Did Jesus Have a Wife?
Harvard Divinity School historian Karen L. King has announced that an ancient papyrus fragment in Coptic indicates at least the possibility that some early Christians believed that Jesus was married, and of course that the wife may have been Mary Magdelene. Professor King has tried to be careful in how she reported this, but of course the press have got hold of it and are happily presenting her findings as furnishing evidence that "the historical Jesus" may have had a wife. It sells papers, to use an outmoded expression.
I am not surprised that the discussion might have been going on all this time (the fragment indicates it was going on in the second century after his birth) but there are some good theological reasons why Jesus never married during his time on earth in the ministry of the Christ, the Annointed One.
All along, he said his kingdom was not of this world. Unlike Mohammed, Jesus was not interested in setting up a hereditary kingdom of his descendants: the children of God are born not of the flesh but of the spirit. For the Son of God, the New Adam, a New Eve is a-building; a greater metaphor than Adam and Eve is being created. It is the totality of believers, all spiritually built together in Him, that constitute his bride. At the end of the age will come the wedding feast of the Lamb of God and we will all be united with him once and for all. We will be a glorious manifestation of his love.
Looking forward to this event, Jesus was motivated to be celibate. He would not want to join himself to another woman: that would be adultery in the eternal scheme of things. I also believe that there is the matter of equality among believers. We all have to have our own relationship with Him, and nobody, not even his mother, has a special in. If Jesus-Christ had joined himself to a daughter of Eve, she would inevitably have special status, becoming one flesh with Him. He loved us all enough to deny himself this magnificent pleasure and instead, though his suffering, death and resurrection, make it possible for us all to be joined with him in spirit.
I am not surprised that the discussion might have been going on all this time (the fragment indicates it was going on in the second century after his birth) but there are some good theological reasons why Jesus never married during his time on earth in the ministry of the Christ, the Annointed One.
All along, he said his kingdom was not of this world. Unlike Mohammed, Jesus was not interested in setting up a hereditary kingdom of his descendants: the children of God are born not of the flesh but of the spirit. For the Son of God, the New Adam, a New Eve is a-building; a greater metaphor than Adam and Eve is being created. It is the totality of believers, all spiritually built together in Him, that constitute his bride. At the end of the age will come the wedding feast of the Lamb of God and we will all be united with him once and for all. We will be a glorious manifestation of his love.
Looking forward to this event, Jesus was motivated to be celibate. He would not want to join himself to another woman: that would be adultery in the eternal scheme of things. I also believe that there is the matter of equality among believers. We all have to have our own relationship with Him, and nobody, not even his mother, has a special in. If Jesus-Christ had joined himself to a daughter of Eve, she would inevitably have special status, becoming one flesh with Him. He loved us all enough to deny himself this magnificent pleasure and instead, though his suffering, death and resurrection, make it possible for us all to be joined with him in spirit.
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