The Tragedy of Almightiness by Schaap Sybe;

Author:Schaap, Sybe; [Schaap, Sybe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781498233057
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2016-02-22T08:00:00+00:00

Paul’s radicalness knows no limits. His God of justice breaks the covenant that the former God had entered into with mankind after the Flood. This type of man also no longer exists. Not only must the old world become a thing of the past but also man of old and the God of old must die. Death reigns everywhere in the interests of fulfillment. The new God that arises from this death has to wipe out the final reminders of his ethical predecessor.

Paul’s religious doctrine signifies the death of the God of creation: that God is replaced by the God who makes the radical promise to the people to recreate. The ethical God is dead and thereby also the ethical significance of good and evil. What was once hailed as good loses that qualification and undergoes radical reform. Man who was previously described as very good also has to disappear and make way for new-style man, for a new Adam. In the backward direction everything is ruined. With his promise, hope, and faith, the new, omnipotent God not only propels man forward but also himself. Now it becomes apparent where his envy is pushing him. He cannot rest until an end has been put to all the gods who taught man to live, to live together with others, and who gave him ethical life for that purpose. The nihilistic fulfilling of the law is the final blow for those gods. It becomes clear how much the envy is possessed by a revolutionary spirit. “And so it was with us. During our minority we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe . . . Formerly, when you did not acknowledge God, you were the slaves of beings which in their nature are no gods. But now that you do acknowledge God—or rather, now that he has acknowledged you—how can you turn your back to the mean and beggarly spirits of the elements?” (Gal 4:3, 8–9).

This jealousy makes the old gods, the God of creation included, sinful and, with them, ethical life. Even their after-effect is now seen to be negative: they merely serve to magnify the ruin. This nihilism even made Jesus himself a sinner and, with him, the ethical doctrine. They who expect justice from the law and from ethical life forfeit the grace of the almighty (Gal 5:4). The omnipotent cannot find any peace until he has become everything in everyone. God and man have become unequal, but they must become just as absurdly equal again. Was man able to hold on to this apocalyptic dream when the end of time did not occur?

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