Today’s sermon was based on the familiar passage of Luke 2:8-20. Two verses in particular popped out at me (NIV) – emphasis added:
(10) But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
(14) Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.
Certainly my faith has diminished over the last few years while trying to make sense of what I can only call the Calvinist divide. And, irrespective of my good buddy Tim, many who hold dear Calvinist doctrines have been ever gracious and patient while I try to work through my “Calvinisticals”.
Yet, here’s this particular passage – and with a clear reading (at least from my perspective), there’s obviously a disconnect as to whom the Messiah came for:
– all the people (as stated in vs 10)
– those on whom [God’s] favor rests (as stated in vs 14)
Not sure why I hadn’t noticed this particular text over the past few Christmas seasons. Certainly I’ve come across these verses numerous times before. Still, in my feeble mind, it is impossible for Calvinism and Arminianism to logically coexist. Yet, here within these verses is to me a contradiction of the highest order.
And for me, the struggle continues.
I welcome your thoughts.
BTW – The captioned picture, I think, represents well the two doctrines of Calvinism and Arminianism moving down one’s faith path. To me, there is no intersection. Anyway, some fabulous pictures can be found at http://www.lettherebelightfineart.com/
2 Responses
Just a thought- read that second one with a comma after “men”. I think that’s the intent… Also men meaning “mankind”.
Thanks for the response, David. Sometimes, to help in understanding something, I’ve removed all of the prepositional phrases. Granted, one can lose a lot of the meaning of a sentence. However, the basic “core” should remain (at least according to a college English teacher I once had. If done here, the verse would read: Glory to God [in the highest], and [on earth] peace to men [on whom his favor rests]. As such, the verse distills down to: Glory to God and peace to men.
My methodology obviously isn’t perfect as the word “to” is also a preposition but in this case is acting as a direct object identifier. Anyway, to your thought of placing a comma and incorporating the men to mean “mankind”, none of the other versions I looked at did this. As such, it’s my guess that the writer’s intent of this verse is what it is – Glory to God and peace to whom his favor rests.