Hayley is Back!

Now I can sleep at night… And eat proper food… and have someone to talk to.. and …
I am glad she is back.

Make sure you have all voted in the latest poll. The topic is Dancing. And that may seem a little random for Bloggin Bro’s but all will be revealed soon enough….

The Narnia Chronicles, by C S Lewis are being made into movies. The first one (“The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”) is due to be released on boxing day 2005. It looks fantastic! You can download the trailer from nariaweb.com. The official site, is really quite an interesting, complicated piece of work, but a bit of fun for a while. Hint: You need to work out a bit of a trick to getting into the site from the main page. If you have seen any of the other efforts to make these books into movies you will know what I mean when I say that they were very poorly done. This set of movies however, from viewing the trailer and the hype about them, will be up there with the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. It is very highly anticipated by me (and I am a “the” authority on movies), so you should all go and line up for tickets now.

Something further that I have been thinking about recently. Can text from the bible have two different meanings? The passage that actually brought this to mind is Luke 13: 6-9.

6 And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Some commentators say that it is definitely speaking about the Jews, or Israel. Because Israel was often portrayed as a fig tree in the old testament. And also because Israel were bearing no fruit so they were cut off. But Matthew Henry for example seems to think that it primarily refers to the Jews, but also refers to the visible church. Us. Now. But the question is, what did Jesus mean when he said those words? Was Jesus talking about the Jews, or was he talking about Christians in General? Or was he somehow talking about one and referring to the other at the same time?

There is certainly many occasions where the warnings to Israel in the old testament can be transferred through to modern day Christians. So perhaps God has a way of inspiring the writers of the Bible to write in such a way that the text does sometimes have more than one meaning or audience.

The question then becomes, “How far can that concept be taken?”. Can I take the passage above and say that it is referring to frogs? Saying that frogs dont bear good fruit? I dont think so. But what about saying that Jesus is talking about the life principle of “Pruning the bad out of your life”. The principle of getting rid of the pieces of your life that are bearing no fruit? Is that allowed?

At what point does the Bible stop saying what it actually says? Hmm.. throw in the Holy Spirit who helps us understand God’s word and I would say its not a totally hopeless question to figure out at all. But definitely a pertinent one in today’s world where people seem to be pulling all sorts of things out of the Bible that never “used to” be there.