More NT Wright
I heard this from one of Bishop Tom Wright's (see below) lectures, too (summarized in my own words):
I often hear very conservative Christians talk addess environmental issues this way: If God will restore all things in the end of time, why should we work hard now? If God will create a new heavens and new earth, why should we work so hard to preserve the old one?
I usually ask those people, If someone comes to your church looking for help with a terrible sin problem, do you give the same advice? "Ok, so you've got a terrible alcohol problem. Don't worry too much, God will save you in the end, and you'll not have a problem at all. Just wait until then." Of course not. Just as God wants us to work earnestly toward the redemption of our sinful destructive behaviors, he also wants us to work earnestly toward the redemption of social structures and the physical world (to name just a few things). Of course, we will never reach perfection with any of these things, but that should not deter us from our earnesty -- for we can make real progress, and we ought to do so.
I often hear very conservative Christians talk addess environmental issues this way: If God will restore all things in the end of time, why should we work hard now? If God will create a new heavens and new earth, why should we work so hard to preserve the old one?
I usually ask those people, If someone comes to your church looking for help with a terrible sin problem, do you give the same advice? "Ok, so you've got a terrible alcohol problem. Don't worry too much, God will save you in the end, and you'll not have a problem at all. Just wait until then." Of course not. Just as God wants us to work earnestly toward the redemption of our sinful destructive behaviors, he also wants us to work earnestly toward the redemption of social structures and the physical world (to name just a few things). Of course, we will never reach perfection with any of these things, but that should not deter us from our earnesty -- for we can make real progress, and we ought to do so.
Labels: culture, morals, quote, spirituality, theology
posted by William Sofield at 12:25 PM
1 Comments:
I went to the Evangelical Theological Society conference a couple of years ago. I attended a "debate" (it wasn't really a debate, just two guys presenting their papers and each guy responding to the other) between N.T. Wright and the "Jesus Seminar" scholar John Dominic Crossan. I left with the conclusion that N.T. Wright was the most engaging brilliant man I had ever known. (Actually, Crossan is not far behind, but he is just so dangerously wrong on such key issues that he is in another category.)
In college and at seminary I have known a handfull or so of truly brilliant people. Very few of them were brilliant and engaging. Wright is both, and probably both more brilliant and more engaging than any of them I have known.
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