If the [Incarnation] happened, it was the central event in the history of the Earth葉he very thing that the whole story has been about. Since it happened only once, it is by Hume’s standards infinitely improbable. But then, the whole history of the Earth has also happened only once: is it therefore incredible? Hence the difficulty, which weighs upon Christian and atheist alike, of estimating the probability of the Incarnation. It is like asking whether the existence of nature herself is intrinsically probable. That is why it is easier to argue, on historical grounds, that the Incarnation actually occurred than to show, on philosophical grounds, the probability of its occurrence.
Rather sends regards to Orton
By Tom Kubat, Journal and Courier
After reading a story recently in the New York Times about how as a youngster Orton — who has said that someday he might like to run for office — would follow the political scene by watching the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather fired off a note to the Purdue quarterback. The note said: Dear Kyle, Just a note of support and encouragement. I was admiring and pulling for you before someone in the newspaper noted that you and your family were watchers of The CBS Evening News. As a one-time alleged pass-catching end (started in high school; rode the pine mostly in college), I, naturally, have a liking for good-throwing quarterbacks. Keep charging and know — just know — that I’m always hoping the best for you and believing in you. Strength and honor, my young friend from afar. Sometime, anytime you’re in New York, let’s have a cup of coffee and talk politics. My best to your family. Sincerely, Dan Rather
One secret act of self-denial, one sacrifice of inclination to duty, is worth all the mere good thoughts, warm feelings, passionate prayers, in which idle people indulge themselves.
Any single verse of the Bible, taken in isolation, may actually be dangerous to your spiritual health. Every part of it must be read in relation to the whole message.
A life devoted unto God, looking wholly unto Him in all our actions, and doing all things suitably to His glory, is so far from being dull and uncomfortable, that it creates new comforts in everything that we do.
One of Paul’s most important teachings… is the doctrine of what we call “justification by faith”. It frequently appears to the non-Christian mind that this is an immoral or at least unmoral doctrine. Paul appears to be saying that a man is justified before God, not by his goodness or badness, not by his good deeds or bad deeds, but by believing in a certain doctrine of Atonement. Of course, when we come to examine the matter more closely, we can see that there is nothing unmoral in this teaching at all. For if “faith” means using a God-given faculty to apprehend the unseen divine order, and means, moreover, involving oneself in that order by personal commitment, we can at once see how different that is from merely accepting a certain view of Christian redemption… That which man in every religion, every century, every country, was powerless to affect, God has achieved by the devastating humility of His action and suffering in Jesus Christ. Now, accepting such an action as a fait accompli is only possible by this perceptive faculty of “faith”. It requires not merely intellectual assent but a shifting of personal trust from the achievements of the self to the completely undeserved action of God. To accept this teaching by mind and heart does, indeed, require a metanoia [“transformation”], a revolution in the outlook of both heart and mind.
… J. B. Phillips (1906-1982),
New Testament Christianity [1956]
There is a cowardice in this age which is not Christian. We shrink from the consequences of truth. We look round and cling dependently. We ask what men will think; what others will say; whether they will not stare in astonishment. Perhaps they will; but he who is calculating that, will accomplish nothing in this life. The Father — the Father which is with us and in us — what does He think? God’s work cannot be done without a spirit of independence. A man has got some way in the Christian life when he has learned to say, humbly yet majestically, “I dare to be alone.”
