After I retired from full-time Pastoral Ministry, I thinned out my professional library considerably. I did so by giving many of my books to a younger generation of ministers. But I certainly did not part with all my theological books. The reason? I have begun writing novels; and more than one of those I have planned have plots involving Biblical and/or theological issues.
One set of books I kept was what might be termed the magnum opus of theologian Karl Barth: the multivolume work Church Dogmatics. Barth rose to prominence when he wrote the Barmen Declaration, which rejected the influence of Nazism on German Christianity by arguing that “the Church's allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ should give it the impetus and resources to resist the influence of other lords, such as the German Führer, Adolf Hitler”.
Rejecting the liberal theology of the nineteenth century, he helped to found the Confessing Church in Germany before settling in as a Professor of Theology at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
Thereafter, he set about writing his Church Dogmatics, in which he laid out his Christian beliefs. The five volume, 9,000 page, 6,000,000 word work was still unfinished at the time of his death. But it became the foundation of the Neo-Orthodox movement within Christian theology, rejecting the liberal theology of the preceding century.
I share this to tell the following story, which I first heard while in seminary. It seems that in 1962, while in his mid-seventies, Barth was asked to be a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago Divinity School. At the end of a captivating closing lecture, the president of the seminary announced that Dr. Barth was not well and was quite tired, and though he thought that Dr. Barth would like to be open for questions, he shouldn’t be expected to handle the strain.
Then he said, "Therefore, I will ask just one question on behalf of all of us." He turned to the renowned theologian and asked, "Of all the theological insights you have ever had, which do you consider to be the greatest of them all?"
It was the perfect question for a man who had written literally tens of thousands of pages of some of the most sophisticated theology ever put into print. The students held pencils right up against their writing pads, ready to take down verbatim the premier insight of the greatest theologian of their time.
Karl Barth closed his tired eyes, and he thought for a minute, and then he half smiled, opened his eyes, and said to those young seminarians, "The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!'"
Wow! There you have it! Summed up in one simple line by one of the greatest Christian theologians who ever lived is the greatest truth of the Christian faith! "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!"
I love this story; and share it here at Christmas time because of its relevance. For in the New Testament Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16, we have the proof of this: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John’s statement here, taken directly from the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself, comes shortly after his own comments on the incarnation in chapter 1, verses 1-18:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
And that is the great truth of Christmas… The Word was made flesh, in order that we might become the children of God! This is a truth so profound that its implications cannot begin to be exhausted, not even by the most gifted of minds; and yet it is so simple that even a child can comprehend it!
STORY SOURCE:
Available widely on the internet. See, for example:
https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/84078/one-of-the-greatest-theologians-that-ever-liv-by-lalachan-abraham.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/john/3-16.htm;
https://biblehub.com/niv/john/1.htm.
SEE ALSO:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Barth;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-orthodoxy;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Loves_Me.
In the last article, note the following statement: "Jesus Loves Me" is a Christian hymn written by Anna Bartlett Warner (1827–1915). The lyrics first appeared as a poem in the context of an 1860 novel called Say and Seal, written by her older sister Susan Warner (1819–1885), in which the words were spoken as a comforting poem to a dying child.
One set of books I kept was what might be termed the magnum opus of theologian Karl Barth: the multivolume work Church Dogmatics. Barth rose to prominence when he wrote the Barmen Declaration, which rejected the influence of Nazism on German Christianity by arguing that “the Church's allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ should give it the impetus and resources to resist the influence of other lords, such as the German Führer, Adolf Hitler”.
Rejecting the liberal theology of the nineteenth century, he helped to found the Confessing Church in Germany before settling in as a Professor of Theology at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
Thereafter, he set about writing his Church Dogmatics, in which he laid out his Christian beliefs. The five volume, 9,000 page, 6,000,000 word work was still unfinished at the time of his death. But it became the foundation of the Neo-Orthodox movement within Christian theology, rejecting the liberal theology of the preceding century.
I share this to tell the following story, which I first heard while in seminary. It seems that in 1962, while in his mid-seventies, Barth was asked to be a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago Divinity School. At the end of a captivating closing lecture, the president of the seminary announced that Dr. Barth was not well and was quite tired, and though he thought that Dr. Barth would like to be open for questions, he shouldn’t be expected to handle the strain.
Then he said, "Therefore, I will ask just one question on behalf of all of us." He turned to the renowned theologian and asked, "Of all the theological insights you have ever had, which do you consider to be the greatest of them all?"
It was the perfect question for a man who had written literally tens of thousands of pages of some of the most sophisticated theology ever put into print. The students held pencils right up against their writing pads, ready to take down verbatim the premier insight of the greatest theologian of their time.
Karl Barth closed his tired eyes, and he thought for a minute, and then he half smiled, opened his eyes, and said to those young seminarians, "The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!'"
Wow! There you have it! Summed up in one simple line by one of the greatest Christian theologians who ever lived is the greatest truth of the Christian faith! "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!"
I love this story; and share it here at Christmas time because of its relevance. For in the New Testament Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16, we have the proof of this: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John’s statement here, taken directly from the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself, comes shortly after his own comments on the incarnation in chapter 1, verses 1-18:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
And that is the great truth of Christmas… The Word was made flesh, in order that we might become the children of God! This is a truth so profound that its implications cannot begin to be exhausted, not even by the most gifted of minds; and yet it is so simple that even a child can comprehend it!
STORY SOURCE:
Available widely on the internet. See, for example:
https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/84078/one-of-the-greatest-theologians-that-ever-liv-by-lalachan-abraham.
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/john/3-16.htm;
https://biblehub.com/niv/john/1.htm.
SEE ALSO:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Barth;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-orthodoxy;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Loves_Me.
In the last article, note the following statement: "Jesus Loves Me" is a Christian hymn written by Anna Bartlett Warner (1827–1915). The lyrics first appeared as a poem in the context of an 1860 novel called Say and Seal, written by her older sister Susan Warner (1819–1885), in which the words were spoken as a comforting poem to a dying child.