We are all Herod. We would-every one of us-snuff out the cries of the Babe in its mother's arms rather than have to hear His words from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Forgive us, indeed. We will have none of that.
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'" Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." When they had heard the king, they set out....And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road....
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more." (Matt. 2:1-9a, 12, 16-18, NRSV)
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1 [ Back ] George Barna, Marketing the Church: What They Never Taught You about Church Growth (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1988), p. 50.
2 [ Back ] Charles Finney, Systematic Theology (Bethany House).
3 [ Back ] Of course, we think in all sorts of other ways, too. But language is one of the few ways in which we can concretely reproduce our thought processes into something outside of us which others can experience. I can not always reproduce on paper a picture which I see in my mind's eye, but I can always say the words that I am thinking. For a related discussion, see Max Black, "The Labyrinth of Language," Reclaiming the Imagination ed. by Ann E. Berthoff, (Portsmouth, N.H.: Boynton/Cook, 1984), pp. 72-83.
4 [ Back ] Ironically, secular historians can see that this is the core of Christianity better than some professing Christians: "From the very beginning, Christianity was a 'historical' religion, seeing the world as a stage for divine action, and the life of Christ as God's supreme intervention in its affairs." Stephen Toulmin and June Goodfield, The Discovery of Time, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956), p. 56.
5 [ Back ] Gerhard Forde, "Naming the One Who is Above Us," Speaking the Christian God—The Holy Trinity and the Challenge of Feminism, ed. by Alvin F. Kimel, Jr., (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1992), p. 114.
6 [ Back ] Robert D. Preus, The Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism, V2, God and His Creation (St. Louis: Concordia, 1972), pp. 171-172.
7 [ Back ] Chris Falson, "The First Time," Standing on the Rock, Copyright 1994, Maranatha! Music, 38597-1020-2.
8 [ Back ] John Newton, "Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder," From Book III of the Olney Hymnbook.
9 [ Back ] George Steiner, "The Retreat from the World," A Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 301.
10 [ Back ] Forde, op. cit.
11 [ Back ] For a brilliant reaction to the current state of literacy studies in American universities, see the essay in Lionel Trilliing in Gertrude Himmelfarb's On Looking Into the Abyss—Untimely Thoughts on Culture and Society, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), pp. 3-26.
12 [ Back ] George Steiner, Real Presences (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989).
13 [ Back ] In the Spirit-Filled Life Bible, ed. by Jack Hayford (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), a study note on Genesis 3:15, written by Mr. Hayford, says of the promised Messiah, "He will be completely human, yet divinely begotten" (p. 9). One hopes that Mr. Hayford is advocating the ancient heresy of adoptionism only by accident and a very careless use of words. But he has, nevertheless, denied the historical idea of the Incarnation: God became Man, fully man yet fully God.
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Issue: "The Word Became Flesh" Nov./Dec. 1994 Vol. 3 No. 6 Page number(s): 14-17
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