Paul's assertion that in Christ...
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Paul's assertion that in Christ we are "new creatures" is one of the most startling claims in the New Testament. Is it "symbolic language," something we can "spiritualize" — or should we expect to take it literally?
Lowell O. Erdahl, in a new book on the Ten Commandments,* makes a startling assertion of his own. He indicates that for the first three hundred years of the Christian church's existence, conscientious members of The Way refused to serve in the military service. The Empire simply had to find alternative service for them. Why? Because they took literally the words of Jesus, "Those who live by the sword will perish by the sword ... If your enemy strikes you, turn the other cheek ..." For them, this meant that participating in an enterprise bent on killing was an impossibility.
What is so striking about what those early Christians felt conscience-led to do is not only that they did it, but that it is so remarkable to us to think about it! New creatures? Literally! Somewhere in the Middle Ages, after Constantine "legitimized" the establishment of Christianity, this separate style of conscience-driven living seems to have relaxed, then disappeared. "New creatureliness" was left behind. But it surfaced again in colonial America, among the Society of Friends (the Quakers). People on the streets of Philadelphia wondered how intelligent people could be so stupid as to espouse the peace principles they did — and for which they endured laughter, ridicule, persecution, and jail. For the Quakers it was very clear: they saw themselves to be new creatures, and it was not merely "spiritual" change.
Today we face the threat of nuclear destruction. In that context, what does being a "new creature" mean?
*Ten For Our Time: A New Look at the Ten Commandments, CSS Publishing Co., 1986 (No.6804)
Lowell O. Erdahl, in a new book on the Ten Commandments,* makes a startling assertion of his own. He indicates that for the first three hundred years of the Christian church's existence, conscientious members of The Way refused to serve in the military service. The Empire simply had to find alternative service for them. Why? Because they took literally the words of Jesus, "Those who live by the sword will perish by the sword ... If your enemy strikes you, turn the other cheek ..." For them, this meant that participating in an enterprise bent on killing was an impossibility.
What is so striking about what those early Christians felt conscience-led to do is not only that they did it, but that it is so remarkable to us to think about it! New creatures? Literally! Somewhere in the Middle Ages, after Constantine "legitimized" the establishment of Christianity, this separate style of conscience-driven living seems to have relaxed, then disappeared. "New creatureliness" was left behind. But it surfaced again in colonial America, among the Society of Friends (the Quakers). People on the streets of Philadelphia wondered how intelligent people could be so stupid as to espouse the peace principles they did — and for which they endured laughter, ridicule, persecution, and jail. For the Quakers it was very clear: they saw themselves to be new creatures, and it was not merely "spiritual" change.
Today we face the threat of nuclear destruction. In that context, what does being a "new creature" mean?
*Ten For Our Time: A New Look at the Ten Commandments, CSS Publishing Co., 1986 (No.6804)
