Claus Westermann, suggests that an alternative reading of the first verse of the bible could be: “At the beginning of God’s creating…” This is a subtle shift from the usual “In the beginning…” because it puts the emphasis on the continuing creative activity of God. So when we come to the verse in 2Cor. 5:17 “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” we know that the creative activity of God continues as saving act, as the power to transcend the self. He does this by giving us a new type of human being in Jesus, the new man, the new creation. This highlights our mental habits that turn us towards the creation stories whenever we think of God as creator. But even there God creates a world in which the covenant of grace can be played out. The history of Israel and that of the life and death of Christ have to take place in time and sapce. The creation stories set that place up, a place that is not God, is material and not a dream, is dominated by time, contains the freedom for man to rebel, but is essentially good and not demonic. We forget that the creation stories are the prelude to the rest of the bible.

Just as the creation of the world is not historical, neither is the end. They both are necessary to complete a history of time. The end time described in Revelations is necessary because biblical time points to a goal, it is linear. This work of the imagination is a projection of the fulfillment of all things when every tear will be wiped away, it is a sign of hope that beckons us on. When it is treated like a future prediction existing in time it is prey to cranks.

Yep philo, muslins who are at fault, they must be. The christians didn't commit genocide against the native populations of the world, it was in the name of god and good for them. Yes, it is better to deforestate Papua, import dairies and the diseases associated with them. Sells, are you saying that your god doesn't live within time or space and is separate to our universe. When you talk of time and space, aren't you talking about concepts. Time and space are that, concepts created to make sense of things that surround us. Isn't this legend you talk of, the gospels or creation theories, just concepts. You state that here man can rebel but on the whole,“essentially good and not demonic”. Explain the destruction of the environment, the constant violence perpetrated by religions around the world The enslavement of animals so that the religious can exploit, torture, then eat them, as not demonic. Take into account the millions of people that have been destroyed in the name of god, or in spreading the word. Why is it that most pedophiles are from the church. Explain why the majority of crimes against humanity are carried out by god fearing people. It is all well and good to go quoting scripture, but before anyone outside the programmed indoctrination of religion can accept any of this, explain why you only answer questions that fit within biblical expression and won't explain the situation that religion has created on this planet. But then your next step may be to revert to the time old honored approach of religion, if you can't convert them, condemn them or kill them. That is the approach the christian religion is taking around the world. If this way of life is so great, why is it destroying everything those that follow it touch. After all it is the religious who are at this moment controlling the world, and it is not in a peaceful manner. Maybe your god is both good and evil, if so you have it covered and can pick and choose to suit the day.

I have a post to follow about "truly human"... but first a comment regarding the cuckoos who have flown into Sell's nest to make it their own.

Besides being uncharitable, as opposed to honest dissent of thought, their reactive rants appear to me to be devoid of a desire to know; they read as more an arrogant position of claiming a "knowledge" of what "is not" in the world. That we are not "of God", exclaimed as a personal resentment in place of thoughtful deliberation as expressed in other contributors.

Peter Sellick's contributions deserve cogent responses, not rabid rants comprising the most obvious and debunked narrow viewpoints of human history.

I know my contributions are made with the full knowledge that my faith in a man from Nazareth being the Son of God is an offence to reason as an absurdity, and that it is understandable for people to hold that position in the absence of a faith sought but not found. It cannot be argued for or against, only evaluated, in informed awareness and honesty, as being for better or worse in the human journey, to date and into the future.

My understanding with reference to Sell's expression "truly human".

It is to be whole, as is to be "saved, redeemed" ; man desiring of God in response to God's call. It is a becoming, NOT a formula as expressed " Jesus is my Lord and Saviour" = my salvation and redemption.

It is more truly developed and experienced in the muck of life, than in the pristine world of tidy, comfortable parish life, or of late happy, clapping prosperity bargain worship.

It is a response to a God who willed us into being on a planet the equal of which beauty and goodness is yet to be found in the vastness of God's willed existence of galaxial matter; a God who chose a people in history through whom He sought to reveal Himself and His desire for us to be His people; a God who willed a human life into being to walk our journey of grit and dust, fun and laughter, joy and sorrow, to teach truths to bind us to Him in the face of fatal religious autocracy; A God who remained in Spirit with those who responded to Jesus to embolden them as a scared few people to take His message to the world and across generations to come.

Where God is truth, than being fully truly human is the desire for truth, expressed in a loving life of service and purpose defined in one's response to Jesus's call, "follow me" on paths he has walked in a shared humanity. To be patient, to endure, to live, to love, even your enemies. In a way, it is an enlightened self interest in attaining peace and joy in the midst of the "truly human's" consequential life of turmoil.

Where God is not truth, or is not, than let truly human be what you make of it to suit your rational self, generally to be confined by what is reasonable for oneself to attain/maintain one's peace and joy in life.

The Call To God

The Chief Rabbi of Israel and the Pope are in a meeting in Rome. The Rabbi notices an unusually fancy phone on a side table in the Pope's private chambers.

"What is that phone for?" he asks the pontiff.

"It's my direct line to the Lord!"

The Rabbi is sceptical, and the Pope notices. The Holy Father insists that the Rabbi try's it out, and, indeed, he is connected to the Lord. The Rabbi holds a lengthy discussion with Him.

After hanging up the Rabbi says. "Thank you very much. This is great! But listen, I want to pay for my phone charges."

The Pope, of course refuses, but the Rabbi is steadfast and finally, the pontiff gives in. He checks the counter on the phone and says: "All right! The charges were 100,000 Lira."

The Chief Rabbi gladly hands over a packet of bills. A few months later, the Pope is in Jerusalem on an official visit. In the Chief Rabbi's chambers he sees a phone identical to his and learns it also is a direct line to the Lord. The Pope remembers he has an urgent matter that requires divine consultation and asks if he can use the Rabbi's phone.

The Rabbi gladly agrees, hands him the phone, and the Pope chats away. After hanging up, the Pope offers to pay for the phone charges.

The Rabbi looks on the phone counter and says: "1 Shekel 50!"

The Pope looks surprised: "Why so cheap!?!"

The Rabbi smiles: "Local call.

Rainier, nice one.

MJB

Yes, the cuckoos have made a real mess of this page I have often been tempted to tell them to go and play somewhere else.

One being human. One of my favourite lines in scripture comes from the first letter of John:

(1 John 3:2 NRSV) Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

This seems to get it right. It does not tie us down to mere imitation of Jesus since that would be a limited work confined by our conception of him and would lead to a dependent relationship in which freedom would elude us. Rather it leaves the future open as a work of God and trusts that when the final revelation comes we will be found in the image of Christ. In the wider biblical view this process is a reversal of the fall, the loss of the image of God.