Re: Morality
Terry M. Gray (grayt@Calvin.edu)
Mon, 18 Nov 1996 20:37:15 -0500We're perilously close to the edge of topics appropriate for this group,
but I can't resist throwing in my two bits. While I'm not prepared to give
a definive answer on the Gestapo case study, here are some thoughts on the
Rahab case. I'm indebted to Meredith G. Kline of Gordon-Conwell Seminary
and Westminster Seminary in California for some of these ideas. His book
*The Structure of Biblical Authority* introduces the concept of *intrusion
ethics*. The conquest of Canaan was an intrusion of the final judgment
into the here and now--normal ethics did not apply. God's people were
executors of the divine judgment. The cup of the Canaanites' iniquity was
full--they deserved the wrath of God and received it by the hand of the
Israelites. Rahab was under no obligation to tell the truth to the Jericho
authorities--in fact she was under obligation to lie to them if she was to
identify with Israel and her God. In the day of judgment, the day of grace
will be over and the enemies of God will also be the enemies of God's
people, and we better be ready to draw the sword against God's enemies--as
ready as Israel was to draw the sword against Jericho.
This explanation also works neatly for the imprecatory Psalms.
Because Nazi Germany is not so clearly equivalent to Canaan, I'm not sure
that the ethics arguments carries over.
TG
_____________________________________________________________
Terry M. Gray, Ph.D. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Calvin College 3201 Burton SE Grand Rapids, MI 40546
Office: (616) 957-7187 FAX: (616) 957-6501
Email: grayt@calvin.edu http://www.calvin.edu/~grayt
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