IGWSHA: would that make it all right?
Christopher W Jenkins ([email protected])
Wed, 8 Jul 1998 02:08:01 -0400 (EDT)
That is the question right? And the answer is? "Yes," for the
self-interested, but I'd argue Bono is telegraphing a "No" here. Same lack
of faith question as "Wake Up Dead Man". Yes, like WUDM, but not so
despairing, it is similar to David in the Psalms crying out to God, but
also like WUDM it is simultaneously an attack on the lack of faith. The
problem of evil in the end has little to do with simply removing its
consequences -- that is the argument right?
Over the course of events in the Bible the form and extent of divine
intervention changes. The intervention of angels is Old Testament -- yeah,
Jacob and all that -- if you're looking for the song title try Daniel
3:28, 6:22, etc., but as the angels fade and the prophets disappear and
you get into the New Testament, humanity must save itself: "And if God
will send a sign..." -- "Then the Pharisees came out and began to argue
with him. To test him they asked for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply
and said, 'Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you: no
sign shall be given to this generation.'" Mark 8:11-12; "At this some of
the scribes and Pharisees said, 'Teacher, we would like you to show us a
sign.' He answered: 'It is a wicked, godless generation that asks for a
sign, and the only sign that will be given is the sign of the prophet
Jonah. ..." Matthew 12:38-39
Couple other lines to touch on:
"hope, faith, her vanity" -- In God's Country
"So where is the hope, and where is the faith, and the love?" -- IGWSHA
1 Corinthians 13:13 "There are three things that last for ever: faith,
hope, and love; and the greatest of the three is love."
"And if you listen I can't call/And if you jump you just might fall/And if
you shout I'll only hear you" -- Stay (Faraway, So Close)
"God's got his phone off the hook babe -- would he even pick up if he
could?" -- IGWSHA
Zechariah 7:13 "As they did not listen when I called, so I would not
listen when they called." (see also 1 John5:14-15)
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on Tue Jul 07 1998 - 23:11:32 PDT