New View: That God wants a diverse creation, in which human beings represent him to the rest in blessing the rest, which returns blessing to humanity, and the whole creation works harmoniously as God intended. Then the theme of representation has several threads. In fallen humanity, a special people represents God to other peoples, prophets represent God to his own people, Jesus Christ is God representing himself to us all in human form, and the church represents God to all.
| Old View | New View |
|---|---|
| Makes 'dominion' ('radah') tyrannical, using rest of creation as mere resource for our enjoyment. | Dominion is for sake of the rest of creation, as expression of love. |
| See http://www.abxn.org/nv/rrrr.html#radah | |
| Divorces justice from love; so there is always tension between them. | Sees justice as deriving from God's love. |
| See http://www.abxn.org/nv/rrrr.html#justice | |
| 'The rest' of people go to destruction; how can God be happy with this? | More emphasis on the wicked condemning themselves by refusing God's wide salvation. |
| See http://www.abxn.org/nv/perplexing.html#selfish | |
| Opens door to humanism. | Puts humanism in its place. |
| See http://www.abxn.org/nv/nonbel.html | |
| Why should we display the character of God? If God's purpose is only to get a special people to have a relationship with, then the main answer is the relatively peripheral reason of trying to attract people to Christ - but that does not make much sense: why does God rely on us attracting people, when he could attract people to Christ directly e.g. via dreams. | That God's representatives display his character is a central element of his purpose. Representation is what we were made for. |
| See http://www.abxn.org/nv/rrrr.html#representation | |
| No positive basis for getting involved in politics etc. | Politics etc. is part of our 'radah' in the world, it is what we were designed for. |
| See http://www.abxn.org/nv/rrrr.html#people | |
| That "judgement begins with the household of God" and God was more severe on his people than on others, does not make much sense. | These make sense because of our high calling to represent God. |
| See http://www.abxn.org/nv/rrrr.html#representation | |
This page is offered to God as on-going work in developing a 'New View' in theology that is appropriate to the days that are coming upon us. Comments, queries welcome.
Copyright (c) Andrew Basden 2010, but you may use this material subject to certain conditions.
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