Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Men Comprise History, Not Ideas
On September 22, Hugh Hewitt interviewed Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower - which is in essence, the history of Al Queda and how we got to 9-11.
As I listened to the interview, the book is in the "to be read" pile, I was struck by how much history is written by men, not ideas. The story of Al Queda is the story of a few men doing stuff. It's not the story of Wahabism, though that contributes, it's not even the story of hatred towards America. It's the story of a few guys that hate America and have some ideas.
Men have ideas, men promote ideas, but it is the men that make the history. Let me rephrase it this way - no idea ever "changed the world" save that people adopted and promoted it. It's true with good ideas, say constitutional democracy, and bad ideas, say Nazism. No idea, no matter how good it is, has caused change on its own. No idea, no matter how good, has travelled the globe and revolutionized people's thinking, save that other people promoted it.
Obvious notion when you think about, but sometimes the deepest stuff lies in coming to terms with the obvious. If people make history, is it not therefore infinitely wise that God chose to change history's course as a man? Furthermore, isn't it then obvious that any changes God choses to wrought in the future, He will do through the use of men?
What Jesus said matters, but not as much as you may want to think. But He did not say anything that a good, open-eyed reading of the Old Testament won't reveal. Jesus mattered. The ideas of the Reformation were important, but they were not what really changed hsitory - it was Luther, and Calvin, and Knox, and.... Those same ideas in the hands of lesser individuals would have accomplished naught.
One of the ways we tend to dodge the transformation that God wants to manifest in our lives is by spending all our time with ideas. We think the ideas matter, but they don't - we matter. Despite my love of Calvinism, I'll take a Christ-like Arminian over a jerk Calvinist any day of the week. I also think that Arminian will do more to spread the love of Christ and to change the world than the jerk Calvinist can ever dream about.
We also need to remember that our goal here is not to spread "the gospel story" - our goal is to spread Jesus and to allow Jesus to change the lives of those to whom we offer Him.
The gospel is not an idea, its not a story, its a person.
Related Tags: history, ideas, man, woman, person, Jesus, gospel, Christ, Christianity
As I listened to the interview, the book is in the "to be read" pile, I was struck by how much history is written by men, not ideas. The story of Al Queda is the story of a few men doing stuff. It's not the story of Wahabism, though that contributes, it's not even the story of hatred towards America. It's the story of a few guys that hate America and have some ideas.
Men have ideas, men promote ideas, but it is the men that make the history. Let me rephrase it this way - no idea ever "changed the world" save that people adopted and promoted it. It's true with good ideas, say constitutional democracy, and bad ideas, say Nazism. No idea, no matter how good it is, has caused change on its own. No idea, no matter how good, has travelled the globe and revolutionized people's thinking, save that other people promoted it.
Obvious notion when you think about, but sometimes the deepest stuff lies in coming to terms with the obvious. If people make history, is it not therefore infinitely wise that God chose to change history's course as a man? Furthermore, isn't it then obvious that any changes God choses to wrought in the future, He will do through the use of men?
What Jesus said matters, but not as much as you may want to think. But He did not say anything that a good, open-eyed reading of the Old Testament won't reveal. Jesus mattered. The ideas of the Reformation were important, but they were not what really changed hsitory - it was Luther, and Calvin, and Knox, and.... Those same ideas in the hands of lesser individuals would have accomplished naught.
One of the ways we tend to dodge the transformation that God wants to manifest in our lives is by spending all our time with ideas. We think the ideas matter, but they don't - we matter. Despite my love of Calvinism, I'll take a Christ-like Arminian over a jerk Calvinist any day of the week. I also think that Arminian will do more to spread the love of Christ and to change the world than the jerk Calvinist can ever dream about.
We also need to remember that our goal here is not to spread "the gospel story" - our goal is to spread Jesus and to allow Jesus to change the lives of those to whom we offer Him.
The gospel is not an idea, its not a story, its a person.
Related Tags: history, ideas, man, woman, person, Jesus, gospel, Christ, Christianity
