My wife Tammy and I just recently finished watching a Netflix show called "Manifest." It's kind of a fantasy drama, based on Romans 8:28, We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
The premise is that a plane full of people get on Flight 828, but when they land, they find out five and a half years have gone by since they took off. The world considered them lost, but they landed like they thought everything was normal, except they landed in a world where over 5 years have gone by, and many of their loved ones have moved on without them.
I recommend the show for anyone who watches Netflix shows. It's not perfect in its theology, but it's good enough to generate a lot of good conversation, it's thought-provoking, and it does tackle questions like: What does it mean that "all things work [together] for good"? I don't want to spoil it, but it also very subtly takes on the question: Does this mean "all things work together for the good of everyone? and you already know the answer to that, because that's not what the passage says, and yet people in the show are constantly quoting it as though it means everything works out good for everyone, but all the while the events in the show question that premise. So you might want to check it out.
On a side note, I was working with this passage in my book on prayer in the early church (the one coming out in the spring) and I had to note - in my ongoing crusade against lamentable translation errors - that it really should not be read: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. That's because "who are called according to his purpose" makes no sense, since what would it mean to be called, but not according to his purpose? The phrase, "according to his purpose" should go with "all things work for good" - in other words, here is how Romans 8:28 should really be translated:
We know that all things work for good, according to his purpose, for those who love God, who are called.
You could paraphrase it like this:
We trust that, for everyone who is called by God and who has responded to that call by loving God - for those people - everything works together toward the good, according to his will.
In other words, what is "good" is defined by the will of God, not by our definition of good, and not by our limited view of what is good (or comfortable) for us right now. It is often the case that what is good is painful. Nasty-tasting medicine, painful surgery, a parent's discipline of a child - none of these things feel good in the short term, and yet they are good in the long term. And so God's providence, that divine "everything working together" is always with the big picture in mind - which is a picture we cannot see.
Here's a short (about a minute) video I took going around the Holy Column in the church of Santa Prassede. This is the column that Jesus was tied to when he was scourged by Pontius Pilate. They don't always have the barrier down, so you usually don't get to see it from all the way around. I wanted to get video of the whole thing all the way around because I ran across a note in an ancient document that said that those who made a pilgrimage (at that time to the Holy Land, since it was still in Jerusalem) could visit the Holy Column, and could see marks left from the hands of Jesus where he gripped it as he was being whipped. I assume that this is pious legend, but I figured since the column has that dark & light marble, maybe there's a place where the dark parts look like hands. I did not see it, but if you do, let me know!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
Here is our next set of texts - as we get into John chapter 6, we first encounter Jesus feeding the multitudes - in this case 5,000 families!
Now, as you know, there is also an account o Jesus feeding 4,000, and so you may also know that some scholars might speculate that these are just different versions of the same story that circulated and were handed down orally, until they were written down. Even the fact that both stories occur in the same gospel would not stop that kind of speculation. So I thought the first question I would have to ask was whether the Church fathers thought this was one event or two - BUT (and you see where this is going) I forgot that Jesus himself makes reference to two separate events (in Matthew 16 and in Mark 8) so there is no question for the Church fathers - these are two separate events. So it seems that Jesus performed this sign (miracle) of the feeding of the multitudes on two occasions. It's not just one event told two different ways, and it's also ...
My voice was still recovering from a bad cold, so not sounding my best, but this was a great conversation about pilgrimage, for the Jubilee year - more of this coming in other interviews! (FYI, I think I was the third of three guests that day, so you will have to fast forward to find me)
It seems that one way or another we need to talk about different kinds, or different levels of heresy. What I have been calling heresy vs. heterodoxy, others call heresy on fundamental doctrines vs. heresy on less fundamental doctrines. In other words, Heresy with a capital H (over fundamental doctrines like the Trinity and christology) are the kinds of heresies that move one outside the boundaries of what Christianity is, and that's because the very definition of Christianity is defined according to these fundamental doctrines. To refuse to sign the Creed at the Council of Nicaea in 325, or the Council of Constantinople in 381 - and indeed to reject any of the contents of the Creed today - means that a person is NOT a Christian.
So are the non-chalcedonians, such as the miaphysites (including St. Gregory of Narek, and today's Coptic Christians) - are they heretics? Well, like it is with a lot of things, that depends on your definition of heresy. If you include in your definition of ...
