Weaver1has's Blog

So what is the image of fallen human beings? 

Follow me on this quest through the eyes of one of the greatest late 19th  and early 20th century theologians.  This quest is a real eye opener for me and it will also be for you.

Now we move on to look at the following.

• 1.     Life or existence itself
• 2.     Soul and body and their capabilities
• 3.     Knowledge in the mind and holiness in the will (with scriptural proofs)
• 4.     Natural good and moral good 
• 5.     Human dominion over nature

We will now look at these sections individually and reflect on what Herman Bavinck the Master Theologian is explaining to us.

Life and Existence Itself (1)

So, after the Fall we deserved to die but this did not happen, God still poured out his love for the human race, Genesis. 4:2 “I have gotten a man child with the help of the Lord” Eve cried out””.

At the same time however like the movement of the pendulum, “human life oscillates between Gods forbearance (patience) and his wrath “.

                                            By davide-cantelli-H3giJcTw__w-unsplash

Herman Bavinck then gives us these references.

2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Genesis 1:2

And the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4

God’s Omnipresence and Omniscience. Psalm 139 all of it!

1 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel.

Thus, declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, Zechariah 12:1

22 The LORD’S loving kindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail. Lamentations 3:22

28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Acts 17:28

Bavinck then goes on to say “ We have thus retained something of life, of immortality of the soul”.

I will now quote all of Pslam 139.  I am using the New American Standard Bible, the older version.

God’s Omnipresence and Omniscience.
FOR THE CHOIR DIRECTOR. A PSALM OF DAVID.
​¹ O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
³ You  scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
⁴  Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O LORD, You know it all.
⁵ You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
⁷  Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸  If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
¹² Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
¹³ For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My  frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
¹⁶ Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.
¹⁹ O that You would slay the wicked, O God;
Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed.
²⁰ For they speak against You wickedly,
And Your enemies  take Your name in vain.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
²² I hate them with the utmost hatred;
They have become my enemies.
²³  Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
²⁴ And see if there be any  hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way. Psalms 139

Reflection

To sum this up I think Paul says it really well in Acts 17:28 which is the same verse we quoted earlier

28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Acts 17:28

Nasah’s Lander has sent us a beautiful panoramic view of Mars.  https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/about-the-lander/

We enjoy these sorts of things, but God is so much greater.  He is the Creator of the universe and Bavinck really understood this.  God’s understanding is unfathomable and yet God loves us.  Our life is a gift no matter who we are or where we live.  This is a great place to start and if we talk about natural theology, All the great monotheistic religions would agree with Bavinck on this note.  If you’re a theologian that want to discuss with your neighbour about the creative aspect of God, then I think this is great subject material.  Herman Bavinck at every turn surprises me.  We are so blessed to be able to listen to him.  In schools Religious Studies can get boring for a teacher but I have to say that Bavinck has put meat on the bones of ethics and has given us new lenses to look through.  I will continue to plough through Book 1.  I have a couple more chapters still to do in book one.  He touches on conscience a little bit later.  He takes the philosophers to task and I feel he does a great job.  We will get there eventually.   

Bavinck in a nutshell says that sin wants to destroy everything.  God however has held evil and sin in check through punishments, pestilences, judgements, and devastations by natural forces. Bavinck uses Noah as an example of his time to show this (pages 148-149 Reformed Ethics, by Herman Bavinck edited by John Bolt)

Bavinck then talks about how God in general has held back eternal and temporal death.  Though common grace is still a gift to the unregenerate (unsaved) so we can speak of natural theology, natural morality, and natural law. (page 149)

This is an interesting sentence from the master theologian; “Natural humanity is outside paradise and not yet in the Kingdom of God, but also not yet in hell.” God is active in his forbearance (patience)not only passively “forbearing, suffering, allowing, or permitting.  It should also be understood as active… God causes us to exist, leads up and directs us” (page 150)

REFLECTION

Sin would have completely wiped out the whole of the human race.  The judgement is not completely about getting what we deserve… Judgements are also about God’s mercy to stop evil and sin taking over.  This I find very interesting. Today the pestilence that has hit the world is really bad and many people are either ill or dead.  Yet, the discovery of these vaccines helps us to save many more lives.  I think these come under common grace.  If it wasn’t for the greed of the nations possibly this pestilence would have been stopped.   The USA and China are in the middle of an economic war.  China kept the virus a secret, not to show economic growth and has not been transparent.  Trump has also been selfish unwilling to help his own people.  Let us see how this unfolds. However, having people stuck in their homes for long periods of isolation will have a certain effect.  In the countryside cows are usually kept in for the winter and let out in spring.  When they are released, they literally jump for joy, so do people.   Some sociologist said that at the end of the this covid-19 there will be a modern roaring 20s.  With joy and friendship comes a baby boom.  I am expecting this, but I also hope for less abortions.  It saddens me that there are so many abortions that the common person on the street does not see anything wrong with it. 

Questions

·        1.  What would happen if God did not intervene?

·        2.  Should God’s judgements always be seen in a negative light?

·        3.  What does Bavinck mean by ‘common grace’?

·        4.  Bavinck uses the word ‘natural’ when talking about theology and morality.  What         does he mean by natural?

We are still on the Fallen image of God next page 148; Reformed Ethics; Herman Bavinck.

I feel it is important to look at his opening statements because Bavinck is the type of theologian not to leave any stone unturned. 

He says

“Furthermore, Reformed theologians believed that the moral virtues of the pagans came from the general operation of the Holy Spirit and did not arise from any innate ability of the human will. That is why some preferred to use the term “virtue” for pagan morality and reserve the term “good works” for Christian morality. The former is considered under philosophical ethics, and the latter under specifically Christian ethics. These two differ in their foundations, their norms, and their goals. Human dominion over nature has been weakened and robbed of its spiritual character, but not eliminated; it has been impeded, but not destroyed. Science and scholarship hear witness to the human yearning for knowledge of earthly things.  Philosophy and the natural sciences are gifts from God that must know the rejected or despised. Art in the broader sense of subjecting the earth and making it an instrument for the blessing of humanity is a power, like science, that can be used for or against God. Scripture, however, does point to progress in culture.”

Hmm I seriously have problems with this; That virtues of the Pagans are the general operation of the Holy Spirit and not from any innate ability of the human will.  I can understand why this was done; I think this was done to protect the sovereignty of God.  I cannot accept this premise because it makes human beings into dummies who cannot work things out.  Obviously without the work of the Holy Spirit everything would collapse. 

So virtue for Pagans and Good works for Christians. 

What does virtue mean then?

“Virtue is the quality of being morally good. If you’re writing a screenplay and you want it to be a real tearjerker, make sure your hero is full of virtue.

The word virtuecomes from the Latin root vir, for man. At first virtue meant manliness or valor, but over time it settled into the sense of moral excellence. Virtue can also mean excellence in general. One of your virtues might be your generous willingness to help out your friends. The phrase by virtue of means “as a result of” or “by authority of.” You will achieve success by virtue of hard work (or by virtue of inside connections).”

Taken from https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/virtue

From this definition virtue is about what noble thing one achieves from one’s own resources.  Virtue understood in this way is not compatible with grace and faith.  I agree with that. 

The problem I have is that knowledge is a part of the universe trying to work out a logical problem is not a virtue or a good work In the same way that nuclear can make people better in a hospital or blow the earth to smithereens.

Yes, I certainly agree with Bavinck in the last of this introduction that knowledge is a gift of God. 

What do you think? 

Should Christians use Pagan resources to defend Christian truths?

Next week we will continue to look at what Bavinck thinks.  Whether we agree with him or not, we will learn a lot more than we know now and I hope and pray that our faith in Christ becomes stronger.

  Was Calvin Correct not to use Aristotle in his Institutes of the Christian Religion?

We are still on the Fallen image of God and the last paragraph page 147; Reformed Ethics; Herman Bavinck

At the same time, not only do we retain natural goods like eating, drinking, sleeping, and walking; some relative moral good also remains. We agree with Augustine that there can be no virtue without righteousness and no righteousness without faith, that the virtues of the pagans are but *splendid vices.” Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge gradations in evil even when pagans seek virtue to entertain themselves, to fulfil their desires, to exalt themselves in their own eyes. Acknowledging that certain pagan philosophers (Plato) said some sensible things about God and spiritual matters, Calvin judged that this only heightened their inexcusability; because they lacked faith, they also lacked true knowledge and true virtue.

What is this talk about splendid vices? As John Calvin says according to Bavinck that the Pagans did not have faith and they understood things about God and nature.  I remember a theologian from the USA say to me and a friend that there isn’t a lot of Aristotle in the Institutes of the Christian Religion.   I actually looked for references on Aristotle and I cannot remember if I saw any.  So Yes, Bavinck has done his homework.  I think epistemology is a very large and lively field (study of knowledge). 

I don’t agree with Bavinck, Calvin or Barth on writing the pagans off by the stroke of a pen.  The reason I say this is because science, ‘Scientia’, knowledge has to use the tools appropriate to its field.  The great T.F. Torrance in his theological science makes a point like that.  A lot of the questions we have about divinity were in a sense thrashed out by the Greek philosophers. The gods were found to be capricious and did things on a whim. 

Starting from a hypothesis and working to a conclusion is something we inherited from these Greek philosophers. These tools have been refined over the centuries, so we owe them something. When it comes to theology however and Christian theology; Is it appropriate to use the same tools as for example Aristotle and Plato used.

I think yes and no.   Some branches of the church have gone in full on and taken the Unmoved Mover in to its teachings.  Was this a good thing?  In some ways yes and in some ways no.  There is a relationship between the infinite and the finite.  Between God and the world.  This is a fact.

However, I think the content matter is found in the Bible and Theologians can come to it by faith and also using the natural faculties that God has given us by the Holy Spirit.  So as Christians I think we need to stick to the Biblical witnesses and use the tools of faith to come to conclusions.  I think Karl Barth’s idea of the infinite breaking into our time and space is one way forward.  What about natural theology?  I don’t have a problem with faith seeking understanding and find clues through the effects of creation, ‘Gods handprint’.  The problem I have is when theologians start by doubt like a good scientist in a laboratory.  This certainly does not work.  We need faith to seek understanding and the understanding is found in that loving relationship.  So, for me Calvin did the right thing to give Paganism the boot from his Institutes but at the same time it is a mistake not to interrogate the Pagans… We may grow and mature in our faith if we humble ourselves and realize that no one person has all the answers.

I am still in Bavinck’s introduction of chapter 4 about the fallen image of God page 147.  The reason I am not leaving the introduction is because there are very deeps things that have been said. 

“

What is impaired but not lost is the soul’s mastery over the body, our bodies are often prisons for our souls and eventually our bodies completely fail our souls. What is lost completely is true knowledge in the mind and holiness in the will; we are spiritually dead and incapable of any spiritual good. Holy Scripture does not call the supernatural life that conforms to God “moral “but “holy,” using words like” righteousness,” “sanctification,” “godliness,” and expressions like the fear of God.” The ability to do the good, the supernatural, God-pleasing, eternal-life-deserving good, is totally lost.”” (Page 147 intro on the fallen image of God)

I find the first sentence very interesting because the relationship of the soul is something that all the major religions have to make sense of.

What is the relationship of the soul to the body?  Obviously various religions and Christianity have come to different conclusions.  Timelines can also be different.  Hinduism sees timelines in terms of cycles and not a straight line and the West sees time in a linear form.  I don’t think this is such a big problem.  First of all, what is Bavinck’s understanding of this issue?

I think he is saying that the Fall broke the soul’s mastery of the body.  (If something is broken it can be fixed).

He then says that ‘often our bodies are prisons’.  I think he mean that a person who has some type of disease can be trapped and not have full mobility.

He then goes on and gives us in two areas where something from God has been lost.

The mind = true knowledge has been lost

The will = Holiness has been lost.

In a nutshell in ourselves and our humanity we cannot do the good and think the good that God expects.  He then makes a demarcation between moral and holy.

I suppose he is separating the type of ethics that are in heaven and earth.  In God’s Kingdom Holiness is not only act it is also a state of being.  ‘Moral’ on the other hand is ethics in the day to day living of our lives in which we have to make moral choices.  I Think Bavinck here has to be rather careful because there is overlap of meaning between these two areas.  I have to say that even at this juncture we need to make sense of these terms.  Being a Religious Educator and breaking concepts down so that a child can understand it is very important.   I am not any different to a child in learning so let us look at this diagram:

We have to be careful though because God created humans at the Creation event before the Fall to be moral beings with the choice of right and wrong.

Reflection

The relationship of the soul to the body is a very important concept in the East as well as the West and how do we make sense of it. In Gnosticism and Eastern religions, the body which is made up of material matter is seen as a bad thing.  The soul needs to be liberated from the body which is a prison.   I cannot accept this because if the soul does not have a body; How can we recognize each other? The fact is we cannot because we are in spirit form and things work differently there.  In Hinduism the freeing of the soul (Moksha) is the goal. 

Christianity does not accept this.  When God created Adam and Eve, they were perfect.  We lost our way but through Christ we will have resurrected bodies (1 Corinthians 15).  When the soul and the body are reunited, we will know each other again for all eternity.  Being united in Christ is a home coming and we are going to be like him.  If we are only souls; Then what is the point of having a physical heaven for a dwelling?  This does not make sense and it is illogical.

Concerning morality and holiness.  Both words share a space the heavenly and earthly realms.  There is overlap and I still don’t know exactly in which direction Bavinck will take these concepts.  I am looking forward to finding out in later blogs.