To the Cross

"What sort of knowledge of God’s action in Christ’s death may we have? That a man named Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate about AD 30 is common historical knowledge, but Christian beliefs about his divine identity and the significance of his dying cannot be deduced from that fact alone. What further sort of knowledge about the cross, then, may Christians enjoy? The answer, we may say, is faith-knowledge: by faith we know that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Yes, indeed; but what sort of knowledge is faith-knowledge? It is a kind of knowledge of which God is both giver and content. It is a Spirit-given acquaintance with divine realities, given through acquaintance with God’s word. It is a kind of knowledge which makes the knower say in one and the same breath both ‘whereas I was blind, now I see’ (Jn 9:25) and also ‘now we see as in a mirror, darkly . . . now I know in part’ (1 Cor. 13:12). For it is a unique kind of knowledge which, though real, is n...

"I do find it rather comical anyway that you need to scrabble around for ‘evidence’ (often pretty dodgy evidence) when it suits and then spend ages refuting any empirically tested evidence with all ‘sound and fury’ when it doesn’t suit." (A comment posted to me on an earlier post) I have yet to see any empirically tested evidence that a creator God does not exist. Or that Jesus did not resurrect from the dead. Or That after receiving the 'death sentence' from doctors my friend wasn't miraculously healed of cancer IMMEDIATELY after another friend prayed and heard Jesus say that he (Jesus) was going to heal him - even the doctors were quoted in the papers as stating this was a miracle! If there is empiracally tested evidence for such things, why is that many who I suspect are greater and more intelligent thinkers even then those who post negatively on my blog (if that be possible - given the rudeness and patronsisation of some 'intellectual' protestors) beli...