My mind was idly thinking of the things that have to get done, when I remembered it was also time to do taxes. "Blech!" I thought. Then up popped Benjamin Franklin's famous quote, "Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes." Of course, I said sagely to myself ... and stopped cold! Huh?! Nothing is certain!? Wait a minute!!
The next thought that rambled into my head was "The only constant is change." Huh?! The only?! I don't know how many times I've said that. It's been around since the philosopher Heraclitus (in some form or another). The situation comes up where either of these seems appropriate and out they pop!
On the surface, both these statements are truisms. And yet........ We unfortunately get into trouble when we start throwing around such absolutes as 'nothing is certain' and 'the only' without thinking about them a little deeper. Especially as Christians, I wonder why we haven't examined either of these. I really don't want my only certainties to be 'death and taxes' nor the only constant in my life to be 'change'.
And they aren't! "Love never ends." (1 Corinthians 13:8) A constant - unlike change - always there. Ok - human love doesn't always fill the bill, but the love Paul's talking about is the love of God in Christ Jesus. Eternal. Unendling. There whether we claim it or not. That's a certainty that I want to hold close in this time when everything still has an unsettled iffiness to it.
I find I need to hear again and again "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35, 37-39)
The Apostle Paul knew where his certainties and constants were and are. I do, too, when I don't get caught up in the temporary and human things in life. Ah, well! "You can't change the past." (Guess I'll have to give you that one! As much as the science fiction addict in me would love to have some events of the past changed, I'd really feel uncomfortable if there (itallics) was (end itallics) someone who could just change whatever they wanted whenever it didn't work out right, according to their definition!) But I can change the way I approach things in the future. And, starting right now, I'm planning to give those familiar absolutes that we humans come up with a good looking over ........... and carry within me the one sure and certain constant: "Lo, I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20)
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On "absolutes," this looked interesting ...
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/new-abso.html
Interesting, yes. And there are even some parts I found myself nodding agreement to.
Then I hit the section on "Freedom From Religion". There is a very subtle shift at that point and the language becomes 'God/Christ in a box'-ish. In other words, only if you believe in Christianity in the same way the authors of the two items do, then there is no salvation for you. It's not said quite that explicitly, but it's there.
I personally have raised a fuss about prayer at a high school graduation - not because the prayer was given, but because the prayer was exclusive.
"Either there is salvation through Jesus, or there is enlightenment through meditation, or there is some other way to find fulfillment. Not all of these can be true in reality." OK. My Christianity sort of agrees with this; however, it also says 'But who am I to say that one does not encounter Christ in emlightenment through meditation or through some other way to find fulfillment and thus is saved?" I have no control over how or when or where Christ works in our lives. It is not my place to put Christ in a box.
There is an insidious logic in the article which slowly but surely begins to shift toward an exclusivist absolutism, and actually encourages a return to that perspective.
Got my curiosity peaked! Looked into Probe Ministries. Their very first value is that the Bible is the infallible word of God. Ahem! You got humans in the pot, there's bound to be fallible attached to it!
Don't get me wrong! That which is in the Bible is a guiding force in my life, but it's the Boss who has hand on tiller and is sailing this ship. I'll admit - I blow it regularly. Haven't met a human yet who could perfectly explain all of the inherent contradictions in that 66 chapter book, which often come from the context of their writing and the context of our living. So.... I have to depend on the One who created all to help me in the interpretation, listening with human ears and doing the best I can! The rest - well, that's up to the Triune God, and I couldn't ask for a better Advocate, Mediator, and Jury!
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