The Biblical Horizons website offers a number of James B. Jordan’s books and essays as free PDF downloads. The latest addition is his “Rebellion, Tyranny, and Dominion in the Book of Genesis.” You can find this essay and others here.
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Hi, Jim. Have you guys considered creating a message board for others to post their own topics? I know it might require a bit of “monitoring,” but it may also give you guys a chance to respond to what others are thinking (rather than have to come up with as many “original” posts on your own).
For example, here’s a post I really wanted to share with you guys to see what kind of thoughts you may want to share with the rest of us:
It’s been a while since I studied Ecclesiastes, so I decided to begin reading it again last night. In the context of the economic turmoil in which we are currently living, in which stock market crashes can now come and go in the matter of 14 minutes (“I survived the crash of 2:45pm”), I was immediately struck by these verses from Ecclesiastes 2:14-16:
“The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all. So I said in my heart, ‘As it happens to the fool, it also happens to me, and why was I then more wise?’ Then I said in my heart, ‘This also is vanity.’ For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool!”
Wow! Pretty relevant, right? While we should definitely want to be wise in these times, and to take actions which will best protect our families, how truly freeing it is to remember that we are called not to “buy gold,” but to be witnesses for the hope that is in us in Christ Jesus, trusting that the Lord will provide for us.
I keep thinking of Eugen Rosenstock Huessy, who says that our challenge is to live in the center of the cross, with the faith to die to ourselves in each moment, believing that by doing so, God will give us new life in Christ, who Himself rose from the dead to save us. When we live our lives as a series of opportunity-filled, death-to-life, moments, seeking, as ERH puts it “to select the right deed, the divine, value-creating act at any given moment,” then we truly experience the “freedom” of Christ — unencumbered by fears spawned by past or future, the world outside of us, or our inner desires for peace and personal satisfaction.
We desire to be witnesses for the things which are not “vanity.” Freed from the fears of time, whether past or future, we can take the time to listen to each other, in order that we may select the divine, value-creating act in each moment.
As Ecclesiastes says, the end of the wise man and the fool may be the same on this earth, and all earthly treasures are vanity. But to the wise man — the Christian — life is lived from death to life, and not the other way around. Could there be a better message for today’s “bailout” world, which seeks to keep dead enterprises alive through shear foolery? Unless we have the faith to die, we will have no life. “For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! (1 Cor. 15:16-17)”
If you care to share some of your own thoughts on Ecclesiastes, I would love to hear them. Thanks!