Apprentice 2 Jesus

Barth

  • The Readiness of God… and Our Own Readiness

    I fully admit I am a “Johnny come lately” to all things liturgical. Growing up Pentecostal and fundamentalist, I honestly have good experiences. I’ve long said I’m not a bitter, recovering Pentecostal. But I am handicapped. I thought all the liturgical churches were bound for hell. As I’ve grown up I’ve realized I don’t need… Read more

  • Look! A Barth Post!

    Finally, I have braved the thought of trying to pick up Barth again. About every 300 pages I find something I understand… or I think I understand. I don’t know why I’m trying to pick up Barth again. My life is so crammed full of stuff, this isn’t exactly devotional reading. But for today, I try to look… Read more

  • Barth — The Certainty… and the Mystery

    From time to time I attempt to pick Barth back up and see if there is anything I can understand. Occasionally it seems something makes sense. If I get this wrong, please don’t tell me, because this section I read in II.1 is just profound to me as I read it. (Allow me to wallow… Read more

  • Barth — Fearing the One We Love

    “The content of the knowledge of God as bound to the Word of God is the existence of Him whom we must fear above all things because we may love Him above all things.”  (Karl Barth, The Doctrine of God II.I) If we are to know God it will be found in obedience. Simple study,… Read more

  • Love and Fear of God

    I’ve actually made my way into the third volume of Barth’s Church Dogmatics. I think I’ve understood a total of 50 pages in the first two volumes… total. Okay… I’m lying. It’s less than that. In II.1 he takes up the doctrine of God. Barth combines the love of God with the fear of God.… Read more

  • Not Using the Talent is a Grievous Sin

    My text for Sunday is Matthew 25:14-30, variously called the parable of the talents or the parable of the coins or the parable of the gold… something like that. Reading Barth again, I happened on a passage in I.2 where he refers to this parable. He uses this parable as an illustration of the Church… Read more

  • A Barth Quote

    At long last I have made myself pull out Barth again. Thankfully, I have a few notes underlined so I can try to catch up where I was in his volume. This is on the Church confession. It must be distinctively heard in the Church as the distinctively articulated voice of the fathers and brethren… Read more

  • Keep It Simple Saints

    Two days in a row where I actually read something out of Barth that made sense! Look out! This quote is so incredible: “The divine simplicity precedes every man-made complication. Above all the misery of the Church is the glory of the commission with which it is entrusted.” Good stuff. For all the complaining and… Read more

  • Look! A Sentence I Understood in Barth!

    I am almost through the second volume of Church Dogmatics. Every once in awhile I find something I actually understand! “The proclamation of the Church is pure doctrine when the human word spoken in it in confirmation of the bliblical witness to revelation offers and creates obedience to the Word of God.” Okay, I will… Read more

  • Barth — Submitting to the Word

    For Barth, the testimony of Scripture is received when the members of the Church are willing and ready to listen. They want to get into the Scripture and learn it, interpret it, and apply it. “Correspondingly, we must now say that this testimony cannot be received unless those who accept it are ready and willing… Read more