Quote by Karl Bart ~ God's power then mercy

There’s a great Protestant thinker, a theologian named Karl Bart, who said, “Until God can establish his power over the false gods, until he can show that he can kill and make alive, that he can cast down, that he can raise up, and that he is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, then that God cannot really show mercy.” Because if he would show mercy without showing his power, people would think that he didn’t have the power, and that’s certainly a teaching of the Old Testament. God has to establish his power, and the way you establish your power is by killing your enemies. Sadly, that’s the truth.
   Now, if that were the last word, then we would really have a scandal on our hands, but for Christianity that is not the last word, as we will see in a second and as we already know, I hope. In Jesus Christ, you do not have that any more. You have a radical reversal of God’s activity, because once he has established his power, then he can send his Son to show mercy and to show what the power of God really is, which is the power of truth, the power of righteousness, the power of love, which is absolutely, fully, completely, and totally revealed in the Cross of Christ and in the crucified Messiah.


thanks to source:

http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/hopko/war_and_violence_in_the_ot

around the 26th minute


Comment:

   So this is how Love enters the world with a loud Crack! With a definitive bang! Before the bang, before the power, mercy would just be an idle and dead word. What would one ask mercy from or from whom? "We receive mercy from the world our god and pharaoh. Who do you receive mercy from?" Pharaoh had power and therefore mercy can only come from someone who has the power to do you ill. If they can't do you any ill or kill you or have the power to force you into prison, exile you, etc., then their mercy is meaningless. Mercy from someone who has no power is like saying the murder you committed has no punishment and never has had a punishment. There is no Governor nor court of law or judge. You can do as you like and kill whomever you wish with impunity. Now what does mercy mean in this situation? People would then become accustomed to committing crimes and do so without fear. Now try to explain mercy to them.

   If we imagine Pharaoh without any power over his people, he would not be able to even give meaning to the word mercy. The people would just walk away from him and his mercy given or not given would be equal to zero.

  Similar to how the law serves as a power over us if we do wrong. We fear it and thus it can give meaning to mercy by freeing us from the law's judgment. It serves as a custodian over us until the Incarnation of Christ. Once Christ arrives, mercy (love) is fulfilled. The law then is removed only from the Christ's saints (communing with the energies of God) who no longer live in this duality of live and death. They are free in the Love of God: life and death, fear and joy, war and peace and all contraries are removed; with God there is no death, fear, war or anything else needed; with God man is completely fulfilled and in need of nothing. For the rest of humanity it remains a process towards communion with God, and for others they do not want it and will remain as they are for eternity experiencing the love of God as evil, darkness, and torment.

Thanks to:
Karl Bart
Fr. Hopko


May all Glory go to God. And may we all be granted a rich entry into His eternal kingdom in Christ's name where there is no more death, weeping and pain.