Reading The Bible Right
by Brian Zahnd
It’s a STORY
We’re telling news here
Keeping alive an ancient epic
The grand narrative of paradise lost and paradise regained
The greatest “Once upon a time” tale every told
The beautiful story which moves relentlessly toward—
“They lived happily ever after”
Never, never, NEVER forget that before its anything else it’s a story Read more
Because I was speaking to a gathering of pastors yesterday my Thinking Day is making an unusual Tuesday appearance. Perhaps I can think a little bit online.
Saturday morning I saw some Christian television (I was on my way to ESPN College Game Day and came across it. Strange how I feel the need to qualify why I was watching Christian television). Anyway, the star of the show was promoting a new sermon series, “You Can Have It All.” Included in the package was a book entitled, How To Be A Millionaire God’s Way. Whatever.
A little bit later I remarked to Peri, “Did you know you can have it all?”
She replied, “What, my empire of dirt?”
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God formed man
From the dust of the earth
Breathed into him the breath of life
Man became a human being.
Genesis 2:7
Humanity did not spring fully formed from the head of Zeus like Athena or fall from the sky like one of the gods of Greek mythology. Humanity did not have a pre-existent state in the non-spatial, non-temporal realm of perfect forms as Plato imagined. Humanity did not come from somewhere other than the earth. Humanity’s only home has been the spinning blue orb third from the sun. If this world is not our home (as the Gnostics claimed) we are homeless.
Humanity was formed.
Formed by God.
Formed from the earth.
All living things share common ancestry
The dust of the earth.
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