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{"id":16657,"date":"2016-11-27T01:39:01","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T06:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=16657"},"modified":"2016-11-22T19:41:12","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T00:41:12","slug":"but-if-not-ckb-on-real-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2016\/11\/27\/but-if-not-ckb-on-real-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"‘But if Not’— CKB on Real Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"CK-Barrett--007\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Commenting on Dan.3 on the famous fiery furnace story, CKB notes about the qualifying words \u2018but if not\u2019:<\/p>\n

If you removed these three words you would have a different story\u2014 an adventure yes, but without the heroic element. If you stop at vs. 18, \u2018our God will deliver us out of your hands O, King,\u2019 then the three men know everything will be alright. Of course it will be an adventure to go into the furnace, but only like the adventure of the experienced parachutist. He knows from experience that parachutes do not let you down, and he jumps with a thrill but not with real anxiety. \u2018But if not\u2019\u2026 that means that the fire may harm, the furnace may roast, and we may die in frightful agony. But all the same, our answer is unaltered. We will not serve your gods or worship the golden image. The alternative is: light your furnace and we will put up a better show, spike your guns with a miracle. A different story.
\n\tAnd not a true one. Everyone knows that this book of Daniel was written to encourage Jewish resistance when Antiochus Epiphanes was trying to stamp out Judaism and bring Jews under the one umbrella of Hellenistic life. God did very little to quench his violence. I allow myself a quotation from 2 Macc. 7.3-5: \u2018At that the king, in a fury, gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated. These were quickly heated, and he gave the order to cut out the tongue of the one who had spoken for the others, to scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of his brothers and his mother looked on. When he was completely maimed but still breathing, the king ordered them to carry him to the fire and fry him.\u2019 No quenching of the flames, no supernatural deliverance from horror. The \u2018but if not\u2019 is plain history.
\n\tBut this is more than heroism, and more than a bow to real life. This is faith. Faith is not an optimistic believing that everything will turn out alright. Of course, sometimes they do. Burning fiery furnaces do sometimes lose their power to scorch and kill. But faith is still believing when everything turns out wrong, still going on in obedience to the one true God and having nothing to do with golden images, even when they appear in the form of an electronic bank balance. Faith that lasts only when the going is good, when God turns down the heat, faith that is dependent on convenient miracles worked at the right moment to save both our skins and our faces, may perhaps be better than no faith at all, but it is hardly the real thing. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"