God’s act (the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection) comes first: the earliest theological analysis of it comes in the Epistles: then, when the generation who had known the Lord was dying out, the Gospels were composed to provide for believers a record of the great Act and of some of the Lord’s sayings. The ordinary popular conception has put everything upside down. Nor is the cause far to seek. In the earlier history of every rebellion there is a stage of which you do no yet attack the King in person. You say, ‘The King is all right. It is his Ministers who are wrong. They misrepresent him and corrupt all his plans—which, I’m sure, are good plans if only the Ministers would let them take effect.’ And the first victory consists in beheading a few Ministers: only at a later stage do you go on and behead the King himself. In the same way, the nineteenth-century attack on St. Paul was really on a stage in the revolt against Christ. Men were not ready in large numbers to attack Christ Himself. They made the normal first move—that of attacking on of His principal ministers. Everything they disliked in Christianity was therefore attributed to St Paul. It as unfortunate that their case could not impress anyone who had really read the Gospels and the Epistle with attention: but apparently few people had, and so the first victory was won. St Paul as impeached and banished and the world went on to the next step—the attack on the King Himself. - C.S.Lewis
Posted on: Tue, 21 May 2013 21:58:07 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015