Posted on 03/16/2002 6:42:19 AM PST by LarryLied
It's the most familiar symbol you can imagine, but ponder for a moment how odd it is that Christians display an "emblem of suffering and shame," as the hymn says.
The cross reminds us that Jesus was executed as a common criminal, hardly the upbeat message a publicist might choose.
Yet two decades after Calvary, the Apostle Paul wrote, "Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14). Under this mysterious emblem, the early Christians vanquished the empire that had crucified Jesus.
The symbol holds 21st-century power. Two days after the World Trade Center attack, a rescue worker wept as he discovered a 20-foot cross -- two fused metal beams buried in the rubble. This cross provided comfort to impromptu worshippers amid the mourning.
Yet the cross is spurned by Christian liberals Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker. They find belief in Jesus' saving death repellent, saying this sanctifies violence and submission to evil.
"To say that Jesus' executioners did what was historically necessary for salvation is to say that state terrorism is a good thing, that torture and murder are the will of God," they say in their book Proverbs of Ashes (Beacon).
Brock, a Harvard Divinity researcher, has chaired the joint global ministries board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ, and was a theology speaker at the Disciples's national assembly last year. Parker is a United Methodist Church minister and president of the Unitarian Universalist seminary in Berkeley, Calif.
Roman Catholic leftist John Dominic Crossan has joined in, hailing the authors' attack upon what he considers "the most unfortunately successful idea in the history of Christian thought." And the current Unitarian Universalist magazine features Brock and Parker in a cover story headlined "Violence and Doctrine: How Christianity Twists the Meaning of Jesus' Death."
"Perfect . . . sacrifice"
By contrast, another current author joins Paul in glorying in the cross. Fleming Rutledge, a traveling Episcopal preacher who lives in Port Chester, N.Y., embraces the Book of Common Prayer's Communion affirmation that Jesus Christ made "a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world."
Rutledge has collected seasonal meditations in her book The Undoing of Death (Eerdmans). Though sermons often fall flat on the printed page, this book is unusually readable devotional fare.
She believes the cross is misunderstood if we forget that Jesus the Son is equally God along with the Father (which liberal Christians and Unitarians deny). And some conservatives portray "a wrathful Father piling condemnation on an innocent, victimized Son. This mistake must be strenuously resisted," she writes.
The heart of the atoning sacrifice on the cross, Rutledge insists, is "the fact that the Father's will and the Son's will are one. This is an action that the Father and the Son are taking together." They are "accomplishing our redemption together," acting in united love for humanity.
However, her Good Friday sermons worry less about such liberal or conservative theories than about people's inclination to pretend their sins aren't all that bad so they have no need of a Savior.
"We do not like to believe that we deserve condemnation," she says.
Some seek to justify themselves by the kind of people they like to think they are -- more moral, sensitive, loving, intelligent, thoughtful, patriotic, fashionable or socially aware than others. Then there's the opposite, people who tell themselves they're more misunderstood, long-suffering and deserving than anyone else.
But Christianity says we're all sinners in the light of God's holiness. Despite sin, Rutledge believes, when Christ looks at someone "he sees a person that he loves more than life, more than glory, more than power, more than riches, more than divinity itself."
She also contends that the cross shows us Christianity is true. The reason? Mere human imagination or wishful thinking would never have concocted "a despised and rejected Messiah."
You must be laboring under the mistaken impression that it is our purpose or our function to draw men to Christ.
Sell it to me like I am a brand new Christian without denigrating Arminians
Wouldn't try to. We will each of us have our own private opinions about the spiritual state of others on the thread. My only request is that Calvinists will only publicly identify those holding to Fatal Heresy as definitely being Non-Believers. In this way we may easily distinguish between those who we preach Warning, and those to whom we preach Correction.
As to the private doubt of his regeneration to which his bad-spirited language might provoke you, I know where you are coming from. It's just a matter of choosing which battles we want to fight, and/or how we are going to fight them, that's all.
best,
OP
Lots of luck trying to figure out how you are made and exact image of 3 seperate gods..
I am bumping this to OP .because one time I remember him making a comment on there needing to be an amount of spiritual maturity before some one can "grasp" the doctrine..
I think that all of us would present the gospel of the cross and the empty tomb..in the same way..we are talking here not of milk for new babes ..but meat for those with teeth.. ..
Nope, I was just interested in getting you to return to the facts.
Jean
Dick and Jane said Run Spot Run..the writers of the Bible tried to use words that would make God understandable.
I say that from the foundation of the world God had envisioned a special and particular people for Himself to display the greatness and majesty of His glory by bestowing grace where we deserved none. He has hunted us with the zeal of His whole heart and soul, sparing not even the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the world. Therefore, if any man feels the great burden of His sin, he should repent and believe.And I don't worry if I am offensive to anyone just as Christ did not worry if He was offensive in preaching the gospel:
So, If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
Let us straighten out something real quick. Show me where I am denigrating Arminians.
Woody - take a few deep breaths - I said sell me Calvinism without denigrating Arminians- thats something entirely different -and I think you know that -
yet I dont hear a sales pitch
BTW - with the "pearls" post -"This, my friend, for all the world to see, is quite juvenile arguing tactics"
are you doing a SNL "superior" dance yet? - trust me, youre done in this conversation as far as Im concerned
no prob
No need to. Only need to preach Christ crucified. The Holy Spirit will do the 'selling'.
"BTW - with the "pearls" post -"This, my friend, for all the world to see, is quite juvenile arguing tactics""
And your point is?
"are you doing a SNL "superior" dance yet?..."
Not interested
"- trust me, youre done in this conversation as far as Im concerned"
OP can handle himself just fine, it's you I was worried about. But now that we can see you have left the facts again and are resorting to personal attacks -I'm not much interested either.
Jean
I dont see any poop from here - just some really tight BVD's on a few
"redhots"
did you end up ordering any?
Thanks for the address and I am trying to get
a major produce market here, to handle the " R & W Hot's".
I called them and told them I would fax information to them.
I know by April or May I will order them.
I also think the mustard might be an important part of the fixin's.
I didn't see the post that you're referring to, but here is a little of the type of shorthand I use for evaluating spiritual maturity/immaturity:
Show me a Christian who can't say "damn", and I'll show you a neurotic legalist.
What a tongue where do you get that stuff.
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