NOOMA 1562

I was intending to post the second of my articles on salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven, and I will try to do so over the next couple of days, but I decided to take a detour.

Over the past couple of days Doug and I have been struggling with the obvious tension in the Kingdom of God being “at hand” --- almost... but not yet. One part of the Kingdom of God is the actual triumph of God at the end of history through Jesus. There is no real use for any economic model there---God’s reign will make the attributes of economics irrelevant. But the other part of the Kingdom is “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” for which Doug and I believe economics can have a great deal to say.

Doug and I were discussing the parallel question of the timing of judgment: God’s forgiveness now contrasted (?) with the judgment that takes place when “He shall come to judge the living and the dead.” I instinctively reached for one of my favorite sources, the Heidelberg Catechism, and Question 52:
Q? What comfort does the return of Christ “to judge the living and the dead” give you?
A. That in all affliction and persecution I may await with head held high the very Judge from heaven who has already submitted himself to the judgment of God for me and has removed all the curse from me; the he will cast all his enemies and mine into everlasting condemnation, but he shall take me, together with all his elect, to himself into heavenly joy and glory.

I don’t want to debate whether everyone would agree that this is a good answer to the question (I'm sure the answer is "no"). What I want to talk about here was why it was that when Doug was asking me what I believed that I instinctively turned to this tract from almost 450 years ago. Rob Bell says that theology is just the springs on the trampoline, and I think he’s correct. But theology is just a way of different people telling the same story at a different time and place. When Rob Bell makes a NOOMA video that says that theology is only the springs on the trampoline, the irony is that he is doing theology, as he is in all of his videos. One reason I am sure Rob Bell is so popular is that he is an excellent story-teller, he makes a good point, and he makes it memorable. 450 years ago, people made their point and made it memorable by writing it in a series of questions that people could memorize: a catechism. The Heidelberg is my favorite.

One problem of course is that, as they say in Three Amigos, the Church has had a plethora of catechisms and creeds until the springs on the trampoline have twisted into one another; that’s not healthy. But, despite the dated debates with the Catholic Church, I really treasure the Heidelberg Catechism. And, it’s instructive to remember that the two authors were 28 and 26 years old. Let me close with the famous first question.
Q? What is your only comfort, in life and in death?
A. That I belong – body and soul, in life and in death – not to myself but to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

This last part about making "me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him" is the sanctification that Doug just discussed and that I am certain you will hear more about from this blog.