Emil Brunner on Providence

Ever wondered what to think when the next Grammy-award winner thanks Jesus for her success? Hear Brunner:

If the Cross of Christ be the greatstumbling-block of the world, then the visible fate of so many Christians in the olrd, measured by the standards of the world, is also a stumbling-block. Things do not happen as they do in little pious tracts; they do not 'always turn out for the best'. God does not take sides with his own, in the sense of the secular idea of good fortune or happiness....

But this does not mean that there are no visible signs fo divine help and guidance. A purely ascetic and heroic conception of Divine Providence is just as untrue as an exaggerated eudaemonistic idea of the experience of faith or of the divine promise. The undercurrent of divine co-operation comes to the surface now and again. To try to eliminate this feature from the life of the saints...would be to act in a very arbirtrary manner. God constatly give his own 'signs' of His fatherly guidance; clear witness to this truth is given by those apostles who had such a full share in the suferings of Christ that they have a valid claim to the title of 'martyrs'.
The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, p. 158-9

Emil Brunner on the Devil

Rationalism has always made short work of the devil - at least in theory!

The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption p. 137

Emil Brunner was my late teacher Bruce Smith's favourite. In many ways he was a lesser Barth, but he wrote in his own distinctive voice. Because, unlike Barth, he believed in the business of apologetics (though he called it somewhat enigmatically 'eristics') his work has dated not so well: the contemporary references and issues have died away somewhat and left Brunner's most urgent work sounding shrill.

However - and this is what Bruce was hoping we would see I think - Brunner writes with faithfulness to the witness of Christ and perception of the depths of the message of the Bible, his great source. I enjoyed this:

The most important truth about the Devil is this: Jesus Christ has conquered him. The Cross is the exact opposit of, and therefore the reaction against the 'fall of Lucifer': the rebellion against God of that being who could not endrue not to be equal with God. The Cross is the Sign of the Devil's defeat, and a continual reminder of Him who conquered him; it is alos the Sign of Him who 'emptied Himself' of His Divine power in order to express in His own person the Divine self-giving to the uttermost. p. 145