Observations From Hadleyville: DIVINE MANIFESTATION

Sunday, October 30, 2011

DIVINE MANIFESTATION

My Theology professor, Dr. William Hendricks, told us that Manifestation is, “God coming into time and space to give normative witness to himself and his purpose.” That's Theologian talk for, "God interacts with mankind any way He wants to." Most people see God's revelation to man as simply the Divine being--or an angelic stand-in--appearing to people in their house or maybe in dreams. God is so much more creative than that. God has bombarded the human race with a myriad of revelations. He has used vehicles from every class of thing that exists.
1. Inanimate objects: Lilies of the field, the star in the East.
2. Spiritual beings:     Angels
3. Theophanies:        Personal appearances
4. Animals:                Balaam’s ass
5. Humans:                 From Adam on
6. Written language:   Stone tablets, leather and papyrus scrolls
7. God, the Spirit:   Brooding on the surface of the water, resting on & dwelling in
     believers
8. INCARNATION: Which is Different from theophany: The Incarnation of God-in-Christ is Written in red, bold, italic, and underlined CAPITOL letters.

The defining characteristics of Divine revelation include the facts that they,
1. Appear in the Historical records of mankind
2. In every case they must be correctly Interpreted
3. They are Holy; Separated, set apart, different from me and you.
4. Revelation's purpose is always Redemptive: It seeks to establish redemptive
     relationships with men and women.
5. It is Positively ethical; moral, rather than “im” or a-moral
6. It is Limited: God doesn’t tell us everything we would like to know

One last thing about Divine revelation. Christians believe that Jesus, the Messiah, is, if not the last revelation to be given, certainly is the Highest revelation. Jesus is not "divine", with a lower case "d". He is not god junior-grade. He is not a good, holy man. Christianity proclaimes with gauche bluntness, that Jesus is God Himself. God became one of us to redeem the lost and fallen world.Jesus is the Last and Highest revelation of God, Creator of the world.

Want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus.

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WORDS OF WISDOM FOR WRITERS

The secret of becoming a writer is that you have to write. You have to write a lot. You also have to finish what you write, even though no one wants it yet. If you don't learn to finish your work, no one will ever want to see it. The biggest mistake new writers make is carrying around copies of unfinished work to inflict on their friends.

I am sure it has been done with less, but you should be prepared to write and throw away a million words of finished material. By finished, I mean completed, done, ready to submit, and written as well as you know how at the time you wrote it.
-Jerry Pournelle

WHAT'S THIS HADLEYVILLE THING?

Those of you familiar with Mark Twain’s works might recognize my blog title. As Samuel Clemons grew older, he became increasingly disillusioned with humanity. Towards the end he began referring to the Damned Human Race; employing the secular and religious epithet at one stroke.

I find I’ve not reached that level of despair myself. I still believe in redemption and I still see signs of nobility even among we fallen, damned creatures. So, I could not bring myself to call this blog “On the Damned Human Race.” I do however, resonate with another of Clemmons stories; “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.” And viola, there you have it. “Observations From Hadleyville.”