Dancing on the edge

Sorry, this post is about dancing only in the metaphorical sense.  I read alot and the more I read, of the serious theologians, the more I realize that so many of these men are so close.  They are, metaphorically speaking, dancing on the edge of Orthodoxy, but, for some reason, are not willing to dive in and embrace the historic faith.  I am thinking that much of this apprehension is based on a faulty ecclesiology.  If one begins with a right understanding of who and what the church is, they will end up Orthodox.  Some may balk at this, but think of what is being said here.  The church is the body of Christ. The church is the people of God.  The church is that body that God communes with, in a way even greater than what Adam and Eve enjoyed prior to the fall.
It's all about communion with the Triune God.  There is nothing more important, so we need to start from the right place.

Pattern #1

One of the first things to notice is the manner in which God relates to his people.  When God created Adam, he provided for him all that he needed.  He placed him in an already crafted garden, in order to keep it, not organize or work it out.  He gave him authority over all the creatures (i.e., he was to name them) and he gave him a set of rules.  In this first form of relationship, he only had one rule, don't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Because Adam was already perfect and in communion with God, he was already blessed.  God also gave Adam an explanation of what would happen if he disobeyed, death.  Think of this as his response.  Adam only had two choices, he could respond with either disobedience or obedience.
While the name is not used, this was a covenant relationship.  We can determine this by looking ahead in Scripture at the form that the Abrahamic covenant took.  The next step will be to explore the way that this covenant worked out in history.

We all know the story.  At some point after creation and after naming all of the animals, Eve was tempted by the devil, in the form of a serpent, into eating from the tree.  Adam, who was with her at that moment, did not act as leader but was instead led by Eve and ate of the fruit as well.  They immediately lost the grace of God and realizing their nakedness, tried to hide.  God confronted them for their disobedience, provided a covering for them in the form of an animal sacrifice and cast them out of the garden.  

So here is the pattern:  God establishes the covenant between himself and man, sets up the details (rules, blessing, curses), man is confronted with a situation in his maturation time and fails, then the curse of the covenant follows, death.  In the case of Adam, he and Eve lost their covering of grace and were cast out from God's presence.  The final judgment for them was in the form of a global flood.  The world from the time of Adam's initial sin continued in a downward slide into sin.  Scripture describes man at that time as only thinking evil thoughts in his heart all of the time.

My next post will look at the second phase of the Old Covenant, the covenant under Noah.

About prayer

Prayer is something that has befuddled my mind for many years.  As a Protestant, prayer never made any sense to me.  If God is absolutely sovereign, then prayer makes no logical sense.  Why ask for anything if everything is already mapped out.  After a former pastor recommended a book on prayer by John Bunyan, and I found the book seriously lacking, I gave up trying to figure it out.
Becoming Orthodox initially didn't help.  I still approached prayer with a Protestant mindset, and found myself running in circles.  It wasn't until I really began to get a beginning grasp on the Jesus Prayer that things began to fall into place. 
Summarily speaking, we are far too small and sinful to have any idea, at all, about how to pray.  Our sight and understanding is so limited, our minds so corrupted by sin and our hearts so darkened by selfishness, that any prayer that we could fabricate would most likely be ridiculous.  The Jesus Prayer, on the other hand, is perfect.  Handed down for centuries, within the church, we pray, "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."
In this we rightly acknowledge the nature and person of God, we rightly acknowledge our own sinful nature, and we rightly, only, ask for mercy.
It really is that simple.  Because we know our sinfulness screws us up, we cry out to God and ask for mercy. In whatever situation we find ourselves, whatever our need, perceived, imagined or otherwise, we ask God to have mercy on us.  In this we are submitting to God's will.  We are saying, "I don't know what is best, so please just have mercy on me and help me submit to your will."

A pattern worth recognizing

One of the great things about the Old Testament, in fact, the actual main point, is that it leads us and instructs us in our understanding of who Jesus Christ is and how he has fulfilled the salvation of the world.
This instruction is done via story and typology.  We are given, story after story, a pattern of how God interacts with his people.  Learning to recognize this pattern is absolutely invaluable in helping us to understand what God had done through Jesus Christ, to save the world.
In these next few posts, I hope to explore and map out this pattern.  I hope that this will lead us to a better understanding of the New Testament and the plan of salvation.

Location and non-corporeality

My wife and I recently had a conversation instigated by a book she is currently reading about angels.  The question came to mind about angels/spirits being "somewhere".  My responsive thought process went something like this:  it seems like we cannot speak of an angel or demon actually being anywhere because they do not possess a physical body.  Yet they truly exist.  The closest thing to which I can compare it, is to a concept.  We can point to a chair, but not the concept of a chair.  A concept is a non corporeal thing, yet still real.  The difference of course, is that an angel is a rational being. 
I would suggest that this non-location-based existence explains how a spiritual entity can seemingly be an influence everywhere at once.
This also might help explain how we can pray to the saints and understand that they can hear our petitions and pray for us.

Considering responsibilities in interpretation

The subject of the book of Revelation has again come to the fore, so I thought I would bring up my thoughts on responsibility in interpretation. 
It seems that the wide variety of thoughts on how to understand the book of Revelation bring out the worst in people.  It really is unfortunate that people can't just have simple dialog and discussion on this aspect of Scripture.  It is especially odd because of this books place in history.  For quite some time, the church did not include the book in the canon.  Obviously, they eventually did, but even now, there are no liturgical reading from the book.  These facts in themselves should provide us with slight apprehension and caution in approaching this book dogmatically or passionately.
I would like to suggest a couple of things as we approach this book.  First, we must recognize its Old Testament/covenant nature.  One honestly could view the book as Daniel part two.  The book of Revelation is opening up and revealing what Daniel had concealed.  The imagery used to communicate its message is clearly old covenant.  The people of the first century would understand the symbols and typology used by God through the apostle John, whereas we, many centuries later, miss very much. 
Second, we have to take the clear messages for what they are saying.  It simply is not honest to twist words so as to fit our preconceived theological framework.  For example, the book begins with and ends with the message, "These things will shortly take place." (1:1, 22:10, 22:12, 22:20).
And third, it must be acknowledged that the term "the antichrist" is never used in the book.  And even more pointed, the term "THE" antichrist is never used, period, anywhere.  The book of First John uses the term "antichrist" without the definite article.  As a side note, First John identifies "his current time" as the last hour, with many antichrists (2:18).
I may cover more on all of this later.

Considering Job, 3

So when one decides to dive in and read the book of Job, one begins and finds the first two chapters a very readable narrative.  So far, so good.  But then they reach chapter three, where the extended monologues and dialogs begin.  It is at this point that so many other things begin to appear more appealing. Any one who plows through and reads the entire book with understanding, ought to be commended.
That being said, chapters three through forty one consist of the thoughts and ideas of Job and his friends on why Job is suffering such tragedies.  These also contain God's words that silence the speculative ruminations of Job and his friends. The final chapter is a closing narrative, showing God's old covenant blessing upon Job, for his faithfulness. 
I really would like to merely offer a summary explanation of this large, central, monologic portion.  In essence, each person, Job included, offers his or her take on why Job is suffering.  What it simply comes down to is that men are sinful, men are weak and men are lacking in understanding.  Regardless of how hard we work, how good we try to be our how often we succeed or fail, God is covenantally faithful, but also extremely gracious.  God is a God of love.  As small minded and extremely limited in our vision and understanding, we cannot even begin to guess as to the final end result of the occurrences of history.  What God is doing, why he is doing it and how we fit into the picture, is typically and uncomfortably beyond our grasp.  Our fallen, sinful natures cannot and usually don't want to understand what God is going.
But the summary of it all is this: God loves and is working out all things for our good.  We may not understand it but we don't have to. Our responsibility is to faithfully trust God, do what he had commanded us to do, and use the tools he has given us to mold our wills to seek after and love only him.
Humility, obedience and trust that God will be faithful, even when we can't see it.  The things that he has promised, he will do.  God has put us in a relationship with him.  It is our responsibility to respond in faith.