To many of us "Spirit" is a colourless and vague word. The Holy Spirit is a faceless enigma beyond the grasp of our understanding. Yet, He - not "it" - is the One responsible for applying salvation to believers.
In the last two days I have heard of an engagement and an imminent adoption. It struck me as I have been studying for an exam on the Holy Spirit and salvation that in spite of the fact that often doctrine courses can leave students in the clouds (or on occassion, at sea), marriage and adoption are exquisite shadows of a reality that the Spirit actualises.
From lying in a game of Survivor in front of millions of viewers in order to win the million dollars, to a dummy pass in rugby for a clear run to the try line: a great deal of gameplay involves deceit to some degree. The question raised is, how much of this is innocent fun and how much is sinful?
I wanted to make the title, "God is History" but that doesn't work practically as well as "Theology is History". Of course, "Theology is History" doesn't have quite the same provocative effect. So instead, I went with something that actually describes the content of this post. I've been thinking recently about the relationship between history and theology. This, particularly with reference to Old Testament narrative; how we are to regard the literary nature of narrative arguing theology to actual history. I've come up with three points because Bible college has had an effect on the structure of my thinking. This is my thinking thus far:
