| Taking
a fundamentalist interpretation of the nature of God from
the Old Testament is totally at odds with the
revelation of God in Jesus Christ, and the revealed nature
of the Holy Spirit.
There are a number
of different 'Christianities' based on a number of
different 'Christs', and a number of different
interpretations of the Judeo-Christian scriptures.
Interpretations of
scripture range from the extreme fundamentalist 'the bible
is the infallible mediator between God and humanity, and
everything in it must be taken literally as the 'Word of
God', through a spectrum of increasingly more liberal
viewpoints to those who radically deconstruct the
scriptures.
There are probably as
many radically different views of Christ as there are
interpretations of the bible.
The 'Jericho
Thought Experiment' is an unpleasant but useful tool to
identify these differing 'Christs'.
The
Jericho Thought Experiment
In Dostoevsky's
'The Brothers Karamazov' there is a profound text known as
'The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor'.
In the story
we see the compassionate Christ making a brief bodily
appearance in the middle ages, and his presence is at odds
with the religious powers of the day.
Ivan
Karamazov begins his story-
My story is
laid in Spain, in Seville, in the most terrible time of
the Inquisition, when fires were lighted every day to
the glory of God, and 'in the splendid auto da fe the
wicked heretics were burnt.' Oh, of course, this was not
the coming in which He will appear, according to His
promise, at the end of time in all His heavenly glory,
and which will be sudden 'as lightning flashing from
east to west.' No, He visited His children only for a
moment, and there where the flames were crackling round
the heretics. In His infinite mercy He came once more
among men in that human shape in which He walked among
men for thirty-three years fifteen centuries ago.
However in our
thought experiment, we will imagine that Jesus has made an
unannounced bodily appearance in Jericho at about 1400
BC.
Imagine a soldier
in 'God's army' invading Canaan under the leadership of
Joshua. The army is sacking and burning Jericho and Joshua
the Commander points this soldier towards one particular
building. He runs to it, sword at the ready. The door is
barred from the inside, so he kicks it in.
Inside he finds a
pre-school, perhaps a Canaanite girl of eighteen, and a
dozen or so 4 year olds in her charge.
With a swift
thrust of his blade, the older girl lies dying on the
floor, and now the 4 year olds all huddle into a corner
looking at him with well founded fear, their eyes pleading
for mercy. (see Joshua 6: 20, 21)
At this point
Jesus enters the room.
How
does the dynamic change?
(for those unfamiliar
with the character and mindset of Jesus read- Luke 18:16,
Matthew 18:1-6, John 8:3-10) |
