He reminds his readers that he is “speaking of the Jesus Christ attested in Scripture,” who “is not then the creation of free speculation based on direct experience.” The biblical picture of Jesus “is not a picture arbitrarily invented and constructed by others. Arguably, as with other aspects of fideism, the fideist view of Scripture owes something to Martin Luther. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. If we confess the miracle, we may very well, at least partially and by degrees, accept additional light from the miracles as necessary signs of the miracle. . God’s Word declares, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16, NIV). Miracle is thus an attribute of revelation. Atheists who ask for proof are asking for something that would disprove Christianity. “For if the God does not exist it would of course be impossible to prove it; and if he does exist it would be folly to attempt it.”4. Instead, the only appropriate “proof” of God’s existence is an expression of submission: “one proves God’s existence by worship . God is closer than the world ever dared to imagine.” Rev. Toward the end of the Church Dogmatics Barth explains why the church is not arrogant to claim that Jesus Christ is the only self-revelation of God. . Tim Chester: God wrote the Bible to communicate to us and to draw us into a relationship with himself. Making us as Himself was God’s plan from the beginning, as quoted from Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Knowing that we are made in the same image as God, this establishes an unbreakable bond we share with the Father and a solid form of intimacy that cannot be replicated with any other god or human. His presence creates the worship sanctuary, forming the bounds of its community and unifying its members. You can not encounter God and remain the same. In this chapter we will see that the answer to these questions is yes. (JP 2877, 3:275; similarly JP 3860, 4:18). If we don’t encounter God on a regular basis, it’s not because God is hiding from us. God's Work In Us Ears Hearing God's Voice Insight Not Seeing God. From the roots of this rationalistic view of religion and revelation eventually emerged the destructive developments typified in the thought of Wolff, Kant, Schleiermacher, Strauss, Feuerbach, Ritschl, and Troeltsch. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul wrote, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. Why it is important to understand what a spiritual encounter means is to teach us at all times where our spirit is and how we can abide in faith to the word of God. But creation means that our existence and existence generally as distinct from God are opposed to nothing, to non-existence. Luther went so far as to question the inclusion of the epistle of James in the canon of the New Testament. Prayer to God includes our praises, confessions, thanksgivings, and requests. (Rom. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. He’s omnipotent, omni- present, and omniscient. Then let us know how it went! Barth is content, then, simply to present Jesus Christ as He has revealed himself to us and to explain what Christians believe about Christ. (CD IV/3/1, 103-104). The key message of the Bible is plain. Likewise, Barth held that God gave Job no answer to the problem of suffering, but simply asked Job to trust him: “He [God] does not ask for his understanding, agreement or applause. Or if so, it is only the apologetics which is a necessary function of dogmatics to the extent that this must prepare an exact account of the presupposition, limits, meaning and basis of the statements of the Christian confession, and thus be able to give this account to any who may demand it. It is this consciousness which paganism lacks” (JP 452, 1:179). This is the question to which we must make answer to ourselves and others. Romans 15:4 - "...through patience and comfort of the scriptures we might have hope." 15 The Bible promises: “There are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting,” and “in these righteousness is to dwell.” (2 Peter 3:13; Isaiah 65:17) Sometimes when the Bible talks about “the earth,” it’s talking about the people who live on the earth. Faith does not need it; aye, it must even regard the proof as its enemy. . Suffering will indeed come, but God can give us grace and power to overcome every trial and to fulfill our purpose and mission in His kingdom. “He was the Scriptures given life” (JP 342, 1:143). 11 C. Stephen Evans, “Apologetic Arguments in Philosophical Fragments,” in “Philosophical Fragments” and “Johannes Climacus,” ed. Do you long for a safe place to encounter God in the midst of the noise of your daily routines? Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. (CD I/2, 65), Years later Barth was asked about this statement. Rather than trying to justify God to the unbelieving world by constructing speculative, rational arguments, the church needs to show in its own response to human suffering that it is a people who know and trust God. Absolutely not. That is, God’s Word is an event, the event of God speaking through the human words of Scripture. If we abide strictly by that analogy—and we are dealing not merely with an analogy, but in a comprehensive sense with the thing itself—we need have no hesitation in saying that the Christian religion is the true religion. How do we come to assert that it can, if it has not already done so? This is the old view that something may be true in philosophy which is not true in theology. The word 'encounter' simply means to ‘run into’; and running into God is the best thing that can happen to us! We do that by pressing the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the Word of God. 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