The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

The wrath of God

It was good to have Sam Waldron preaching with us Sunday morning. He spoke on the wrath of God from Psalm 90:11. It was theological but from the heart - logic on fire. he began by remarking that wrath is really a tertiary attribute in God, something nto manifest until after the creation. He also pointed out that it is not like a human passion. He then spoke of the context, the content and the consequences from his text.
The context is, of course, death in the wilderness - the constant deaths of the generation that left Egypt  and entered the wilderness but did not see Canaan.
The text speaks of God's anger and fury and the impossibility of understanding the power of it. People object, of course, and say how can finite people suffer infinitely but the sin never stops and is against an infinite God.
The text shoudl wake us to reality and lead us to pray for a heart of wisdom - to understand how to be saved, to see the shortness of life and the need to use time well, to make our consciences tender, etc. His final powerful point was that the one person who can answer the question affirmatively is Jesus Christ, who suffered damnation on the cross - the wrath of God -  to save his people.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ah, we had him on Sunday evening on the impassibility of God - stonking stuff, warmly applied.