Plantinga Ch. 5

This chapter caused to raise my brow from time to time. There were concepts, not necessarily ones that he was stressing, or even points he was making. But there were concepts that came across in this chapter that I did not quite agree with. So here is my list of disagreements:

1. When Plantinga talks of a prime citizen of the Kingdom, he says that "A prime citizen has been redeemed far down in her spirit." This strikes an odd chord in me, but perhaps I have an incorrect idea of redemption. In my mind, there are two phases of redemption that we can acquire as long as we are left on this fallen earth. We can either be redeemed or not. We can either ask forgiveness for our sins (and save our souls) or we can neglect to ask forgiveness (and condemn our souls). With that in mind, does someone really get "redeemed far down in her spirit" while someone else only gets redeemed to a small extent?

2. Plantinga first talks about the Kingdom as everything around us, all of creation is God's Kingdom. But when when he talks of involvement in the Kingdom, it seems to me that he refers to it as something that is to come. I have been lead to believe that the Kingdom is something that we participate in now. That we further the Kingdom here and now, that he Holy Spirit works through us while we are still on earth.

3. Plantinga suggests that to become a prime citizen of the Kingdom, the first step is to get involved in the local church. I would very much agree. The only thing that struck me in this section was that he seemed to reinforce the idea of the church as a building. Or maybe just the concept of the church local church being the church, when the church really is all believers everywhere, the body and bride of Christ. I think that we have associated "the church" with "a section of the church." I think that we no longer have a distinction between these two concepts. And perhaps that is why the church does not operate as one body.

It likely seems like I am simply grasping for straws for disagreements sake, but I do not think I am. These topics are so incredibly important, and they must become gut reactions, they must become our stock reactions. I think that every time that "the church" is mentioned, it should be in a sense of the church body, a larger sense then it usually is used. That could help us immeasurably to instill in our brains a sense of unity in the body. Like anything, repetition is the way to convince the brain of something.

In Christ,

Ben