2 posts tagged “truth”
More from Newbigin, on the occasion of Easter:
The truths which Buddhism teaches would (as Buddhists understand them) be true whether or not Gautama had discovered and promulgated them. But the whole of Christian teaching would fall to the ground if it were the case that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were not real events in history but stories told to illustrate truths which are valid apart from these happenings. (the Gospel in a Pluralist Society)
The Christian message--what is radical about the Message of the Gospel--is that it is not, as with other faiths, other religions, about "truth for life." It is about Truth in History.
The Gospel is not a myth in the sense that it communicates principles or generic notions of truth. Newbigin shows that it is true in the sense that it relates to Events Which Took Place in History.
So, this connects to what a friend said to me yesterday: "I believe all people in all cultures are good." I agreed, and added: some people in some cultures are decidedly better than many professing Christians. Still, something else must be said: it isn't about whether or not I am good or not...or you are good or not.
It is about whether He was dead and rose again. That makes all the difference.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard Bill Cosby said something funny that had the ring of truth to it--true truth, as Schaeffer and Van Til spoke of. Recently I heard another great statement by Prophet Bill, which goes like this:
I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
What is broken about the world is in part a fear of man--the paralysis that comes over a person when he or she attempts to make everybody happy.
I read today about an autistic girl who finally found her voice; for years she was mute and wouldn't and couldn't talk. Everyone had given up on her except her parents, and then she discovered the keyboard. Out gushed words upon words upon words.
The girl, named Carly Fleischmann, writes, "It is hard to be autistic because no one understands me." Carly's agony is a special form of what sickens everyone's heart.
After all, if people did really understood us, would they want us to please them? Of course not. If people really understood us, they would know that pleasing God is what will bring us greatest happiness. They would get out of the way, and we wouldn't be distracted by such trifles.
Later, in that article, the author writes, "Therapists say the key lesson from Carly's story is for families never to give up and to be ever creative in helping children with autism find their voice."
Hear hear. And not only children with autism. The broken heart cries out to a Redeeming God: Oh God! Help me find my voice! Help me be the me you made me to be. Free me from the fear of man. Help me be a Pleaser of Thee.
