Saturday, May 28, 2011

Fallen


"I have met the enemy and it is me" - G. K. Chesterton

There have been several movies about fallen angels who are on earth trying to redeem themselves. Even though the biblical story suggests its these principalities and powers that are reaping destruction and havoc on our planet, Christians for the most part have ignored the possibility of redemption for fallen angels.

This reminds me of yesterdays musings. Why are some people so intent on all humans being saved in the end but not Satan and his angels? Doesn't all the justice and God needs to play fair cards thrown down apply to them as well? It seems like a certain selectivity and anthropocentric gospels have a lot more to unpack when it comes to justice, holiness, and the goodness or fairness of God.

My problem and everyone else for that matter is when we read the Bible, we read it with a fallen nature. Because of sin, it's like we have all been effected by "Satan's insidious nature." We shake our fists at God or demand that God or God's Word conform to our way of thinking and doing things. And followers of Jesus are just as guilty of doing this as those who are not following Jesus.


This has been "the year of tornadoes." What do we make of these natural forces that maim, kill, and destroy lives? Some Christians simply retreat to all suffering and bad things come from the Devil and his fallen angles and all good comes from God. But is that what we see in the Bible? Does God ever make use of these forces as agents of judgment?

And then there are so many Jesus followers who think their sole task is to point out the errors of everyone else. Is that really the gift of discernment that the Bible talks about? Everything from all revivals are not really moves of God but forms of deception to Christian mysticism is evil and really from the Devil. Really? And then there is all that Catholic bashing to even the new monasticism is bad. Probably sounds too Catholic? Do we not find ourselves calling bad what God calls good? Maybe we should try to follow G. K. Chesterton's example and look for fallenness not somewhere else, but take a really hard look in the mirror. For if we don't look for it there first, we have no right to be looking for it some place else.

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