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ohmartyrme
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Name: Patrick
Birthday: 2/5/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: religion, music, recording arts, theology, radio, cooking, vegetarianism, tons of fun stuff.
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
5/12/2006
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| Yesterday on one of the places I frequently post, we got in a discussion about Genesis 1:26 and subduing the earth.
"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" - Genesis 1:26
The guy said that it still looked like it wasn't speaking so much of subduing the earth as being a stewardship. My comment on the text was that in verse 28 we see the following:
"God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."" - Genesis 1:28
In verse 28 it actually says subdue. Verse 26 is God talking about creating man, then he created man in verse 27, and then he told us what we were to do. You'll notice it says to subdue the earth and then continues with a list. At least that’s how I read it. I guess the real question is what subduing the earth means? To me it feels like it was an extension of multiplying and filling the earth more so than anything else. God says in verse 26 that he will let man rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth. And then when he tells us what to do he also adds that we are to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. To me it seems that subdue would be more linked with the spread of man than dominion over animals, which God gives us also.
I personally belief that we were put here in more of a stewardship role. I think respecting creation is showing respect to God. Now, given that is my personal belief and that might be a bit slanted because of my vegetarian dietary beliefs, and I'm no expert in any ancient languages these texts were written in. Someone else pointed out that this was done and then we were put in the Garden in chapter 2 and that its a little strange for God to tell use to subdue the world and then place us in the garden to till and serve the garden. I agree it is strange. Maybe that further points to the word subdue more so as conquering the earth not with an iron fist, but rather by spreading to the corners of the earth. From what I’ve read about the verse though, the Hebrew word for subdue has a very strong use here, once again, I’m not versed in ancient Hebrew.
Now the whole conversation came up because he was curious to see what other Christians with an "environmental" outlook thought about it. I’ll be honest. I haven’t tried to find a justification within the bible for my environmental leanings. Although I do believe that there is no way that we can continue to be fruitful and multiply if we destroy the earth to a point where our children will not survive. Kind of reminds me of the same issue a lot of people see with giving to the poor. They say, "God will take care of the poor, he'll watch over them, so I do not need to." But I think what these people fail to see is that God uses US to take care of those people and the orphans and so on. I think it’s the same thing here. Only people say "God will protect the earth and make it livable for our children, he'll watch over them, so we do not need to, we can be wasteful and pollute and destroy the earth." Whose to say God doesn’t expect US to take care of these things for him. I'll be researching this topic some more and perhaps reflecting upon it again, but for now ill leave it to this verse that someone showed me concerning this discussion.
"The nations were angry; and your wrath has come.
The time has come for judging the dead,
and for rewarding your servants the prophets
and your saints and those who reverence your name,
both small and great—
and for destroying those who destroy the earth."
- Revelations 11:18
I really need to pick one translation to stick with primarily from post to post. I will say I've enjoyed using my Young's Literal Translation quite a bit more than I thought I would. It's a great cross-reference. It always seems that I never use the same translation as anyone else I know. I guess I'll have to stick with my NKJV Nelson Study for now, which I will also say I've been making good use of as well.
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| I've been neglecting xanga. However, I have had rather good reasons. One being that I've been working a lot. Another being that I've been preparing for school to returned, which happens tomorrow. Good news, I finally finished that Stanley Hauerwas book and I have to say that it ended up being enlightening in a lot of ways towards the end.
Resident Alien starts our talking about the Christian colony, and how to survive living in this alien world while remaining Christian. Abstract, no? Well as you get further in it actually begins talking about the church organization, and how some of the people we look to for leadership in the colony, our pastors, end up severely depressed. And so the book turns to the inner conflict in the church between the pastor and the congregation. So, the way I see this book structured is the following. Life in as a Christian in a foriegn land as our current world is very difficult. So, we rely on the Church, sometimes a bit too much organizationally, to make us feel content with ourselves, which is infact a distraction. Not that going to Church is bad, but going to Church for the wrong reasons is that which arises. Church becomes the feel-good place, the place you go to make yourself feel better and this isn't what it should be. Such a self-centered attitude is hardly Christian, and shows further more the penetration of the outside world into our colony, paganization if you will of the pillars of our faith. It's not about loving each other, it becomes loving ones self. So, there is the struggle to survive in the world, and the struggle to survive as a church with integrity, and then from the pastoral perspective, surviving your own church. Surviving in the sense of not compromising the truth to suit the congregations expectations. Being faithful to God first because doing otherwise would compromise the colony.
The descriptions of the pastorial depression was rather shocking to me. But as I read, I began to see this in our own congregation. We are stuck in our traditions and ways. We show up everyday and want the preacher to give his sermon and then go home. We don't ask him to challenge our hearts and minds, that would be inconvient. Further more, the pastor himself probably feels rather useless stuck in a congregation such as ours because of the resistance he encounters anytime he tries to move forward. Perhaps its no wonder that most of thier hair goes gray much sooner it seems than ours. That thought in itself that the pastor suffers just as much, if not more than us, just because of the expectations of someone in position. He's expected more so than anyone else in the Church to be more perfect and christ-like than any of us. And falling short can be a major blow to thier self-esteem. I really sympathize with them, because its a feeling that I know, but I have trouble imagining how much of this is supressed by them internally to make them appear as though their cup is filled. Either way, the book was a good look at what is to be done with ourselves as Christians in this enviroment and centered on being faithful, even with all the psychology.
I'm back to working on Tolstoy. I am about to put in an order for a Young's Literal Translation Bible. Unsure how much I'll use it, but it'll be a nice cross reference and companion to my usual bible. With school coming in, I fear I will be too busy to get anything done. Sometimes it feels like a bit of a distraction. Once again, it's myself feeling that tension between being what God wants me to be, and being what the world wants me to be.
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| i know i haven't updated for a few days and things have been hectic. i plan to post a couple long entries here in a day or two and hopefully i wont get distracted. anyways, i havent finished my tolstoy yet, but i started reading my library copy of Stanley Hauerwas's "Resident
Aliens." i have to say that it is a profound book and has sucked me in. i'm going to have to pick up some more of his stuff such as "The Peacable Kingdom" and get a better grasp on him. he's very straight forward and clear. he talks very concisely and i like that. dont get me wrong, i love the elegant way that tolstoy writes, but it isnt always as direct even though he is quite the psychologist. the book is overdue, so im trying to finish it by the next time i can make it to the library, which is tuesday. I hate having overdue books, but i suppose its good because it helps the library make money, even though im not respecting my library priviledges. it's not on purpose i was going to renew it again on the day it was due, but they closed at 5pm on thursday, and ive been working evenings since wednseday.
i'll have to update more later. sorry for the terrible grammar. there is no time to edit this. more updates soon.
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| I read a bit more today of the Tolstoy I've been working on. It has been going quite slow, but thats fine. Chapter 3 starts of brutal and really gets into arguing a good case against the church. and I'm beginning to understand that Tolstoy isn't so much mad at the ideas of the church, but more so how they force thier version of the "infallable truth" on to thier practitioners.
I found a few lines that struck really hard with me, very quotable, and worth posting, but I'm going to wait and collect several others and then write some commentary on them.
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| I've been really busy so I haven't had time or the motivation to sit
down and finish reading the books i was working on. I have to go back
to the library and return my syriac grammar book. I've decided I am
going to find a better one to learn from. The one I was using was very
very very hard to get past the first lesson. I need something that
teaches me in a more traditional manner than transliterating gibberish
that to me, means nothing, back and forth. Although it was dry and hard
to understand just what they were saying, particularly with the vowels
because appearently there are 3 different kinds of vowels that
originated from 3 different languages that influenced Syriac.
While I was at the library I found a book called "The Religious
Writings of Leo Tolstoi". Well, I opened up the front cover and under
the title "By Leo Tolstoy" written in blue ball point pen someone had
written "... is not an Athiest!" I'm glad someone else thought it was
stranged it was filed with the rest of the Athiest literature, as was
Jacques Ellul's "New Demons". It's also good to know that someone else
in the area likes reading Tolstoy's religious writings.
Anyways, I read a few more pages of TKoGiWY while on the bus and it was
mostly Tolstoy's arguement on "what is heresy?" To be honest I really
liked these pages because it outlined how divided the body of Christ
is, just for the sake of gaining some sort of interchurch political
power over "subordinates." So, although I was having doubts about
Tolstoy being hard on the church, he has begun to take that extreme
accusation and show it in more practical and historical terms, which
really helps me connection with what he's saying. It seems like a
distant echo of the Reformation except with an unending drive to fix
what he believes is wrong with the Church. At first I thought he wanted
the Church itself disolved, but now I believe he actually wanted it,
but in the sense of a truely open armed community for all believers. A
nice utopian dream if I do say so myself.
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