A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life

A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life
___
I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, –that unless I believed, I should not understand.-- St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)

Friday, July 31, 2009

The Quotable C.S. Lewis #21: It's About the One True God

"The Christians are not claiming that simply 'God' was incarnate in Jesus. They are claiming that the one true God is He whom the Jews worshipped as Jahweh, and that it is He who has descended. Now the double character of Jahweh is this. On the one hand, He is the God of Nature, her glad Creator. It is He who sends rain into the furrows till the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing. The trees of the wood rejoice before Him and His voice causes the wild deer to bring forth their young. He is the God of wheat and wine and oil. In that respect He is constantly doing all things that Nature-Gods do: He is Bacchus, Venus, Ceres all rolled into one. ...."

"On the other hand, Jahweh is clearly not a Nature-God. He does not die and come to life each year as a true Corn-king should. ....He is not the soul of Nature nor of any part of Nature. He inhabits eternity: He dwells in the high and holy place: heaven is His throne, not His vehicle, earth is His footstool, not His vesture. One day He will dismantle both and make a new heaven and a new earth. He is not to be identified even with the 'divine spark' in man. He is 'God and not man'. ...."

"Jahweh is neither the soul of Nature nor her enemy. .... She is His creature. He is not a Nature-God, but the God of Nature-- her inventor, maker, owner, and controller. To everyone who reads this book the conception has been familiar from childhood, we therefore easily think it is the most ordinary conception in the world. 'If people are going to believe in a God at all,' we ask, 'what other kind would they believe in?' But the answer of history is, 'Almost any other kind'."

--Miracles

1 comment:

Ted M. Gossard said...

Very sad ending. We humans have a propensity to believe in a god, but not the one true God, revealed in Jesus Christ.