christocentric monotheism: part two (ohh!)

Yahweh’s claim is absolute—it claims all. “When God invades man’s consciousness, man’s reliance on ‘peace and security’ vanishes from every nook of his existence. His life as a single whole becomes vulnerable. Broken down are the bulkheads between the chambers which confine explosions to one compartment. When God chooses man, He invests him with full responsibility for total obedience to an absolute demand.” Yahweh’s lordship is at once complete and graceful salvation as well as total unqualified demand, In Biblical faith; salvation and lordship are inextricably linked.

So in the Hebraic perspective, monotheism is not so much a statement about God as eternal being in essential oneness, as it was for the Hellenist theologians, but rather an existential claim that there is only one God and He is Lord of every aspect of life. Again, here the concrete and practical nature of Hebraic thinking comes to the fore. Polytheists can compartmentalize life and distribute it among many powers. But as Maurice Friedman says “The [person] of faith in the Israelite world…is not distinguished from the ‘heathen’ by a merely ‘spiritual’ view of the Godhead, but [rather] by the exclusiveness of his relationship to God, and by his reference of all things to him.” Monotheists (authentic biblical believers) have only one reference point for life and existence—namely God. The shema is in the first and original instance of this complete and systemic claim on our lives. It is thus a call to covenant loyalty, rather than being a statement of theological ontology (nature of being.) The implications are far reaching, not just for theology, but for worldview—for orienting the believer towards life itself. This must influence how we conceive of life and faith itself.

Listen to theologian Paul Minear again

“The sole sovereignty of God is realized only by stern struggle with other gods, with all the forces that oppose his will. this is to say that, to the biblical writers themselves, monotheism begins, not as a stage of metaphysical speculation, not as a final step in the development out of polytheism, not as a merging of all gods into one (as in Hinduism), but when one God becomes the decisive reality for a particular man and thereby calls for the dethronement of all his other gods.

This helps explain why early Christians found in the total obedience of Jesus a supreme and final manifestation of God…It points to the reason why in dying with him to the world, they themselves experienced true knowledge of God and true power from God. And the message of the oneness of God intensified their struggle against false gods. To them, the conflict with heathen gods had entered its final stage.

Christian belief does not consist in merely saying “There is One God.” The devil knows that. Christians respond to the God by faith in his deeds, trust in his power, hope in his promise, and passionate abandonment of self to do his will. Only within the context of such a passionate vocation does the knowledge of the one Lord live. And this knowledge necessitates rather than eliminates the struggle with the devil and all his works. Only in unconditional obedience, spurred by infinite passion, infinite resignation, infinite enthusiasm is such “monotheism” wholly manifested in human existence, as for example, in Jesus.

The ‘jealousy’ of God must be understood in this light (Ex.20:5, 34:12, Dt.4:24, etc.) It is a refusal in God to share his exclusive claim to rule over the lives of his people. It is not a negative emotional response in God; it is simply the outworking of his claim of over against the claim of the idols. God will not simply share us with false gods. But it is because idolatry will damage and fracture us not simply because God ‘feels jealous.’

June 20, 2007 | Filed Under christology, the forgotten ways, theological musings |  

Comments

5 Responses to “christocentric monotheism: part two (ohh!)”

  1. John Santic on June 20th, 2007 4:11 pm

    Alan, it was good to hear you speak today. I look forward to reading more of your stuff and what you said about discipleship and practices was much appreciated.

    Hope to see your speak again sometime.

    John

  2. Matt Stone on June 20th, 2007 10:52 pm

    It is interesting to note the rise in polytheism in the west and the rise of polyamory in recent decades is intertwined to a certain extent ( see http://www.wildhunt.org/2007/06/paganism-and-polyamory.html and note that Mormons ain’t strictly monotheist either). One form of “poly” begets another.

  3. Jeff on June 22nd, 2007 1:34 am

    Would like to contact you about possibly coming to our church. How do I do so?

  4. Patrick on June 23rd, 2007 4:09 am

    “But it is because idolatry will damage and fracture us not simply because God ‘feels jealous.’”

    This is it, and I think an aspect of developing theology in contrast to theology or ministry emphases of the past. So much of Christianity has focused on the negative, making guilt into the driving force. Yet, God is seeking our best. He wants more from us than we want from ourselves, and certainly more from this world. He yearns for our wholeness, as that was his original goal.

  5. Peggy Brown on June 24th, 2007 6:40 am

    It’s the whole “looking out for the best interest of our covenant partners” aspect that so few seem to see or recognize–either in God or in their interactions with the brothers and sisters.

    We tell our children to be careful to protect them, not to spoil their fun!

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