In a lecture recently, we had a small discussion about Duns Scottis, which without telling too much about him, I'd actually like to have some theological impute. Duns Scottis suggested that even without the Fall of man, God would have incarnated Himself at some point in time.
A reason for this is that although man was created 1) good and 2) being the image of God, man was not perfect representations of God. This was the point of creation, to eventually have man perfected by the eventual Christ. To go beyond Duns Scottis, perhaps this was the eventual plan after the rest of the earth was subdued and made into the image of the garden.
But how resonable is this? Some of the early church fathers, and especially Calvin later, warned against speculating about silly things such as "what if...". But the theological issue at stake is bigger than "what if" I believe. If God's purpose was to eventually be Incarnate, is it because we needed perfecting in some way pre-Fall? Or if this was never the case, and the Son was only sent after man needed "salvation" (whatever it might entail), then why was the Son "begotten" in the first place? Scripture agrees that the Son was before the beginning of creation (John 1 for sure, Proverbs 8... well that's why we had Nicea, right?), but for what reason? Because God so chooses to express Himself in such a way? Because He had already foreseen (or predestined, or predetermined, or whatever tradition you might be coming from- just please don't deny Adam's free) the Fall and the rebellion of sin?
Certainly who are we to question God, but it does not seem to me that the Father would have "beget" the Son without a better reason than just our "salvation". We have to take into account free will, but to say that God planned the soluntion to the problem BEFORE the problem existed stretches my imagination of God's unique purpose for his creation of Adam/mankind. People who are inclined toward Reformed theology probaly would not have a problem with this "planned solution", but it doesn't fit squarely with me.
Here is where I definately am inclined towards Duns Scottis. If we are made in the image of God, and good, but God wishes for us to me more, then obviously we need the Incarnation. (Whether we need the Fall, however, I cannot agree with. Good means good. Why God would create Good to turn to Bad for better is not only illogical, but says that God is quite a sadistic God. Sorry Reformers!) The reason he could not make us better than "good" (although in theory He did indeed wanted to) was because to make man any better than "good" would make them "gods" themselves. It would be illogical for God to make competiting gods, but if man could become more LIKE God, that is through the sending of the Son, then the problem of why the pre-creational "begetting" of the Son is fixed. The Son was prepared so that man might become complete.
Which leads us to down another road. If our journey (pre-Fall) included becoming more complete, has did the Fall detracted or added anything to that plan? Certainly here the classic theological statement of "knowing salvation MORE" might come into play. That will make the Reformers happy I guess. I don't dare answer this question yet though. Calvin did make a great point. Thinking of "what if..." detracts from more serious thoughts concerning the present and the future. Our thoughts must always be on our own prigramages, and also then on being in the holy city of God after the general resurrection. And never let us loose sight of that...
Shalom
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
First few weeks in Canada
Well I promised that I would use this once I got up here in Canada, so I will. Hopefully people will read it though. First though, if anyone would like to come up to visit, just let me know. Second, if anyone would like to move up here to go to school, definately let me know. Now about people following my great example and coming to Regent to study.
The move into Canda is horrible! First of all, passports are a must people. In fact, just go ahead and get one anyways. It just makes things a lot easier. Expect to fly up to Canada at the beginning of the summer to set up a place to live (for you single people, community housing is a great option), a bank account (unless you want to wait until you have your UBC card which you can only get the week before school starts), insurance (which is relatively cheap actually... the basic (required) takes about 3 months to start up, and the extended is already taken care of through UBC- it really is a nice set-up), and of course setting up for the move itself. Expect most moving companies to take about 2-3 months. You will have to meet them at the border (I think) to sign for your stuff. Truthfully, unless you really need it, I wouldn't recommend taking a lot. It's really easy to live in Canada without a lot of stuff. However I do understand about books/movies so shipping them would be a lot better idea. Me and Melissa just had a lot of personal stuff like furniture, so of course we had to go with a moving company. Just don't do it unless you have to.
All that aside, let me tell you about Vancouver itself. You don't need a car! You can get a bike if you want one, but seriously the bus system is the best there is. You will still have to walk a little bit, but since you get an all-purpose-pass while going to Regent, you can take the bus anywhere. Gas is around a dollar a litre (thats 4 dollars a gallon) so be prepared to pay that much. Also, there isn't any parking, and the roads are horrible to drive on. People might have garages but chose to use them for storage and park on the street, making it impossible to drive on them. Just take the bus.
Food: just condition yourself not to eat fast food, and you'll be fine. The dollar menu at McDonalds is actually 1.40 (which the exchange rate does not justify!) so meals are pricy. The best bet is to eat Asian (sometimes it can be cheap) or just learn to cook for yourself. Fresh veggies are fruits are a "get-used-to-them" because you will be to enticed by their cheapness. But its a good thing because this is actually a great chance to change out into a healthy eating style. And because you know so many great people, there will be chances to eat out probaly more than you should.
UBC: yeah Regent College is RIGHT on University of British Columbia's campus. It's actually affliated with it, so we get to mingle with all the great students. It does actually feel so much more like a university than Western did. I have heard 50,000 students, which by the way is the population of Bowling Green, and 35,000 more than what Western has. So its big, but since Regent is kinda it's own community, you don't have to mingle with them. The student population at Regent is about 700. It's one building, has an AWESOME library. It has journals, ohhh the journals! It is a scholar's dream. I also have access to St. Mark's (a small Catholic) library, the main UBC library, and the Vancouver School of Theology library.
Classes and Professors: Okay this is just from what I've noticed right off hand. My Old Testament class is really boring, the book is from an evangelical mindset, and isn't very good. My Greek class is weird, the book (by William Mounce) is horrible, but a nice review. Most of you that have taken Greek should be able to test out of it actually. Hebrew is awesome fun, and very easy. My Christian Thought and Culture is awesome class, with different lecturers every week. Every Christian should take this class. It really talks about what XP (Christianity) has done for culture, and the main thinkings that are good XP, and bad XP.
David Clemens (languages): great language professor. Polly Long (Greek), horrible teacher. Iain Provan: OT and moderator of CTC 1 this semester, great professor, really knows his stuff. Rick Watts and Bob Derrenbacker: NT studies, AWESOME! They spoke about the beginnings of XP this past week, and I really felt I had learned something from God during their lectures. I'm so going to look forward to them. I'll tell about other professors later, but needless to say MOST of the full time staff are really cool, and very competent.
We have Chapel (worship) every Tuesday, and 2 dollar soup afterwards, with Community Groups right after that. Community groups are whatever you want to make of them, and I swear my group leader is another Rachel Smith! O Zeu indeed!
Churches: There are churches of almost every denomination up here. There are baptist, Anglican, non-denominational, and even a Messianic congregation that me and Melissa are going to try out. From what we've seen online, it looks sound and really cool.
Anyways, I'm out. Shoot me e-mails, and we should have internet and phone Tuesday, so I will actually be able to respond. Later.
The move into Canda is horrible! First of all, passports are a must people. In fact, just go ahead and get one anyways. It just makes things a lot easier. Expect to fly up to Canada at the beginning of the summer to set up a place to live (for you single people, community housing is a great option), a bank account (unless you want to wait until you have your UBC card which you can only get the week before school starts), insurance (which is relatively cheap actually... the basic (required) takes about 3 months to start up, and the extended is already taken care of through UBC- it really is a nice set-up), and of course setting up for the move itself. Expect most moving companies to take about 2-3 months. You will have to meet them at the border (I think) to sign for your stuff. Truthfully, unless you really need it, I wouldn't recommend taking a lot. It's really easy to live in Canada without a lot of stuff. However I do understand about books/movies so shipping them would be a lot better idea. Me and Melissa just had a lot of personal stuff like furniture, so of course we had to go with a moving company. Just don't do it unless you have to.
All that aside, let me tell you about Vancouver itself. You don't need a car! You can get a bike if you want one, but seriously the bus system is the best there is. You will still have to walk a little bit, but since you get an all-purpose-pass while going to Regent, you can take the bus anywhere. Gas is around a dollar a litre (thats 4 dollars a gallon) so be prepared to pay that much. Also, there isn't any parking, and the roads are horrible to drive on. People might have garages but chose to use them for storage and park on the street, making it impossible to drive on them. Just take the bus.
Food: just condition yourself not to eat fast food, and you'll be fine. The dollar menu at McDonalds is actually 1.40 (which the exchange rate does not justify!) so meals are pricy. The best bet is to eat Asian (sometimes it can be cheap) or just learn to cook for yourself. Fresh veggies are fruits are a "get-used-to-them" because you will be to enticed by their cheapness. But its a good thing because this is actually a great chance to change out into a healthy eating style. And because you know so many great people, there will be chances to eat out probaly more than you should.
UBC: yeah Regent College is RIGHT on University of British Columbia's campus. It's actually affliated with it, so we get to mingle with all the great students. It does actually feel so much more like a university than Western did. I have heard 50,000 students, which by the way is the population of Bowling Green, and 35,000 more than what Western has. So its big, but since Regent is kinda it's own community, you don't have to mingle with them. The student population at Regent is about 700. It's one building, has an AWESOME library. It has journals, ohhh the journals! It is a scholar's dream. I also have access to St. Mark's (a small Catholic) library, the main UBC library, and the Vancouver School of Theology library.
Classes and Professors: Okay this is just from what I've noticed right off hand. My Old Testament class is really boring, the book is from an evangelical mindset, and isn't very good. My Greek class is weird, the book (by William Mounce) is horrible, but a nice review. Most of you that have taken Greek should be able to test out of it actually. Hebrew is awesome fun, and very easy. My Christian Thought and Culture is awesome class, with different lecturers every week. Every Christian should take this class. It really talks about what XP (Christianity) has done for culture, and the main thinkings that are good XP, and bad XP.
David Clemens (languages): great language professor. Polly Long (Greek), horrible teacher. Iain Provan: OT and moderator of CTC 1 this semester, great professor, really knows his stuff. Rick Watts and Bob Derrenbacker: NT studies, AWESOME! They spoke about the beginnings of XP this past week, and I really felt I had learned something from God during their lectures. I'm so going to look forward to them. I'll tell about other professors later, but needless to say MOST of the full time staff are really cool, and very competent.
We have Chapel (worship) every Tuesday, and 2 dollar soup afterwards, with Community Groups right after that. Community groups are whatever you want to make of them, and I swear my group leader is another Rachel Smith! O Zeu indeed!
Churches: There are churches of almost every denomination up here. There are baptist, Anglican, non-denominational, and even a Messianic congregation that me and Melissa are going to try out. From what we've seen online, it looks sound and really cool.
Anyways, I'm out. Shoot me e-mails, and we should have internet and phone Tuesday, so I will actually be able to respond. Later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
