All Things Seen & Unseen

'That's just your opinion! Where's your proof!'  How often are we confronted with this retort with regard to our confession of the Christian Trinitarian Faith! And of course, such retorts imply that the proofs ought to be logical, or empirical ones.  This position ignores the fact that most of what we know, we know on the basis of authority! Someone or some group (parents, family, friends, the media, 'science', etc.) has told us what we now believe and know. The scene alluded to in this post title comes from the aftermath of Jesus' teaching ministry in Samaria (see John 4.42). At first, the Samaritans had believed the testimony of the woman who had met Jesus at Jacob's Well.  But at the end of Jesus' time with them, they now have heard for themselves and say, 'we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world' (Jn 4.42, kjv). Whatever divinity belief a person, group or community holds, implicitly each knows and t...

Of all the sections in the fourth gospel account (FGA) Jesus' discourse with the Samaritan woman (Jn 4.7-26) fascinates me the most. I t's loaded with material that could keep any teacher at work in any interested group for a good while. The discourse has 3 stages: first, water (vv7-15); then, her ' husband ' (16-19); finally the worship place (20-26). The gospel's question is, Who is Jesus ? The writer focuses on her answers to this question as in each section her understanding becomes greater.

Like just about everything to do with the Scriptures, debate occurs about what the 'signs' in the fourth gospel account (FGA) 1 are and even how many there might be.  I've decided that it's better to adopt a seven-sign approach (see next paragraph) and understand them as beginning with the water into wine, then the nobleman's servant, the paralytic man at Bethesda, the feeding of the 5000, Jesus walking on water, the man born blind healed, and the raising of Lazarus. And why be restricted to seven you might be asking? Seven (7) is a highly significant number in the scriptures  as in Genesis 1, the Pentateuch, the prophets, the Book of the Revelation here , and in the FGA, here .  Let's look at the beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee.

The fourth gospel account (FGA), traditionally known as 'the gospel according to John', is like the other gospel accounts with interrelated purposes 1 and intentions.  The most obvious purpose in the FGA is the evangelistic aim stated in John 20.30f. The context of these words is the occasion in which the risen Lord confronts Thomas, one of the 12 disciples, with his unbelief about His resurrection. 

In my last post about the charity collector, I mentioned something of importance that I would like now to talk about further. Using My Story With Apologies I enter the realm of personal experience hesitantly, knowing that it is open misunderstanding. (At least one good friend of mine doubts whether I actually know the Lord even now simply because my experience is different from that of others!)

I was speaking with one of the mall charity collectors at our local shopping centre who frequently buttonhole shoppers with pleas to sign up for contributions to all manner of causes.  We got onto the topic of belief in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Who did she think He was? After the collector told me that she wasn't a Christian, she also told me that all religions were the same because they all have a belief in one supreme god.

The title of this post takes its cue from a book written by Tom Smail (1928-2012) on the first person in the Trinity, God the Father, a study, which I heartily recommend. Smail had a Church of Scotland background but later entered the Anglican ordained ministry; he was evangelical, and charismatic (but with reservations later in his career ) in churchmanship. He was a learned theologian and a godly man who wrote with care about church teachings-practices which he believed were becoming lopsided in emphasis.