Kruse Kronicle

The Central Question of the Biblical Narrative

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by

mwkruse
in

Daniel Kirk, NT professor at Fuller Seminary, wrote a post recently about issues stemming from 1 Corinthians 15. Within it, he wrote:

…The story Paul tells is one in which the earth has been subjected to other powers: God had originally subjected it to people, but people ceded that rule to the likes of sin, of death, of the spirit of this world, of the prince of the powers of the air.

Thus, the question the whole biblical narrative must answer: will God’s plan–God’s plan to have humans rule the world, enthroned as the kings over God’s kingdom–come to fruition, or will Satan, in the end, prove too powerful?

While we tend to think of God definitively answering that and finishing that story with Jesus’ resurrection and enthronement, Paul sees another climactic episode ahead. …

Kirk goes on to discuss the submission of all power and authority by the Son to the Father, but I loved the way he frames the central question … the conflict to be resolved … of the biblical narrative in the second paragraph.

 

Comments

3 responses to “The Central Question of the Biblical Narrative”

  1. John Avatar
    John

    Did this “learned” dude ever meet Jesus up close and personal so as to receive comprehensive instruction as to how to live a Spiritual Way of Life?
    Did he/they ever meet Paul?
    Did Paul ever meet Jesus up close and personal?
    Did he/they ever meet the various writers of the books of the Old Testament. Or more importantly the people who wrote or fabricated the variousbooks of the New Testament?
    Did he/they ever meet the church “fathers” who fabricated what is now called the New Testament. So as to consolidate THEIR worldly power. Fabricated from the many Christian writings that were available at the time.
    Did he/they ask these “fathers” why they included and EDITED the available texts that they did. Why they even fabricated stories about “events” that never, indeed could not have happened. And why they excluded others, especially of a more “gnostic” persuasion?
    Meanwhile Jesus taught entirely within the then existing tradition of Judaism.Which is to say that he was a Jew, as were his direct disciples.
    None of them would have considered themselves to be Christians. The word Christian did not even exist while Jesus was alive.
    And of course the entire Christian tradition about Jesus was invented by others, most (even all) of whom never ever met Jesus up close and personal.
    Jesus could not have created the death-and-resurrection dogma which became the central tenet of the Christian belief system.
    Dead human beings are obviously totally incapable of creating religions about themselves

    Reply
  2. Michael W. Kruse Avatar
    Michael W. Kruse

    Well, you are certainly right that Jesus and early followers were Jews and that early followers saw themselves as a sect withing Judaism. It was only around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE that Christ followers began to take on a separate identity. As Peter Enns has noted, the Talmud was the Jews struggling with dilemma of seeing themselves as the chosen people yet living in exile in their own land for centuries. The New Testament is Jews struggling with a resurrected messiah who did not restore Israel in the manner they expected. As gentiles become included many of the Jewish traditional practices waned.
    You wrote:
    “And of course the entire Christian tradition about Jesus was invented by others, most (even all) of whom never ever met Jesus up close and personal.”
    You also keep repeating with authoritative certainty that the NT books are fabrications, fabricating according to a specific agenda
    Really? Did you ever meet Jesus up close and personal so as to receive comprehensive instruction as to how to live a Spiritual Way of Life?
    Did you ever meet Paul?
    Did you ever meet Jesus up close and personal?
    Did you ever meet the various writers of the books of the Old Testament? etc.. etc.,
    So how about we drop this silly line disputation (which you come here to this blog and make repeatedly) that someone had to know historical figures personally to make assessments about happened in the past?

    Reply
  3. vanskaamper Avatar
    vanskaamper

    Dead human beings are obviously totally incapable of creating religions about themselves
    That is so true…which is why it’s so very odd, don’t you think, that history tells us all but one of Jesus’ disciples was martyred for telling a story that, according to you, they all knew was false.
    Amazing.

    Reply

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