Monday, October 2, 2017

This means that we do not know what are the limits of human history, but it does not mean that there are no real limits. It is important to assert this, because if we do not do so, the limit which we know apart from Christ becomes determinative of our outlook. That limit is death—the death of the individual, and the death of the social structure in which his corporate personality is embodied. When these are the only limits that men know, then they are left in a hopeless alternation between hope for an individual survival of death, which evacuates their corporate life of ultimate significance, and hope for the eternity of some social or political or cultural achievement, which evacuates personal existence of ultimate significance. This false alternation is overcome in Christ in whom we are brought into relation with the true limit—a consummation of all things in which both the significance of each personal life and the significance of history as a whole are to be gathered up.

... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 155-156 (see the book; see also Matt. 24:35-36; 19:29; Mark 10:28-30; Luke 18:28-30; John 3:14-17; 1 Cor. 14:26; Eph. 1:22-23; more at Christ, Death, Eternity, Existence, Historical, Hope, Hopelessness, Knowledge, Life)

 
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Last updated: 09/19/17

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