God, the Refuge (2 of 5)
Series: Nahum: God Has Not Forgotten His People
Wyman Richardson
Nahum 1:7
Read Nahum 1:7
7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.
I think that one of the more fascinating books I have ever read is the publication of historian Larry Hurtado's lecture entitled Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? In it, Hurtado unpacks that question by considering the high costs one paid for becoming a Christian in the first three centuries of the movement and then by asking what it was about Christianity that made it so unique and attractive when compared to the many religious offerings of the paganism of the time. Among his many interesting conclusions, he proposes that Christianity presented a view of God that the pagans had never encountered before and that love was at the root of that strange image. He writes:
In high pagan piety to be sure, particular gods could be praised as benign and generous, but it is hard to find references to any deities either loving humans or being loved by them in Roman-era pagan discourse (setting aside the myths of the erotic adventures of various male deities with human females). As MacMullen noted, loving gods or love for gods simply did not figure in pagan piety.
So is it too much to suggest that the early Christian portrayal of ''God'' was an attractive and affecting factor for converts? From the frequency of references to the Christian deity as both all-powerful and powerfully loving, it seems to me entirely plausible. In a world of many deities, early Christianity proclaimed one almighty deity in absolute sovereignty over all, beneath whom all other beings were mere creatures, unworthy of cultic reverence. And this all-powerful sovereign deity was moved by a powerful love, so Christian teaching claimed, and so sought and offered a direct relationship with people. I suspect that this was heady stuff, and certain ...
Series: Nahum: God Has Not Forgotten His People
Wyman Richardson
Nahum 1:7
Read Nahum 1:7
7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.
I think that one of the more fascinating books I have ever read is the publication of historian Larry Hurtado's lecture entitled Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? In it, Hurtado unpacks that question by considering the high costs one paid for becoming a Christian in the first three centuries of the movement and then by asking what it was about Christianity that made it so unique and attractive when compared to the many religious offerings of the paganism of the time. Among his many interesting conclusions, he proposes that Christianity presented a view of God that the pagans had never encountered before and that love was at the root of that strange image. He writes:
In high pagan piety to be sure, particular gods could be praised as benign and generous, but it is hard to find references to any deities either loving humans or being loved by them in Roman-era pagan discourse (setting aside the myths of the erotic adventures of various male deities with human females). As MacMullen noted, loving gods or love for gods simply did not figure in pagan piety.
So is it too much to suggest that the early Christian portrayal of ''God'' was an attractive and affecting factor for converts? From the frequency of references to the Christian deity as both all-powerful and powerfully loving, it seems to me entirely plausible. In a world of many deities, early Christianity proclaimed one almighty deity in absolute sovereignty over all, beneath whom all other beings were mere creatures, unworthy of cultic reverence. And this all-powerful sovereign deity was moved by a powerful love, so Christian teaching claimed, and so sought and offered a direct relationship with people. I suspect that this was heady stuff, and certain ...
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