Vernon Jenkins wrote:
> George,
>
> Yes, thank you for making this important point. However, it is
> abundantly clear that we are some considerable way from the fulfilment
> of Phil.2:9-11: "...God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name
> which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should
> bow...and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the
> glory of God the Father." In other words, we have yet to witness _in
> fact_ the destruction of the 'wisdom of the wise'. I therefore suggest
> that in 1Cor.1:19 Paul is speaking of what _must_ eventually occur on
> earth _because of the cross_.
Paul does not speak of this as a future event but as something God has
already accomplished:
"Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" & how God does this is not
simply by the cross as an historical event but by "the word of the cross" - i.e.,
the proclamation of Christ crucified by which Christ is made present to hearers.
Thus Paul is speaking about something that is neither purely future nor purely
past but as something present whenever Christ crucified is preached.
& the "wisdom of the wise" that God makes foolish is the ideas of those
who insist in one way or another (Jews & Greeks) that God has to conform to their
concepts of what kind of God God must be. The signs & wonders God & the God who
insists on "leaving his fingerprints all over the evidence" are a couple of
examples of such "wisdom."
..............................
> I therefore see no reason to retract or modify what I've already said.
I would hope that more careful attention to what Paul actually says in I
Cor.1 & 2 would persuade you to reconsider.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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