My favorite text on God's silence is expressed in the story of a suicidal Elijah's flight from Jezebel's soldiers after the miracle on Mount Carmel. Elijah's depressed flight takes him on a 40-day pilgrimage to Mount Horeb (= Sinai). There he is taught that our need for signs can prevent us from discerning the true meaning of holy silence:
"Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was...breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; land after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire,
a sound of sheer silence (1 Kings 19:11-12)."
The Hebrew of the phrase "a sound of sheer silence" can more helpfully be translated "a silence so intense you can hear it," not the less accuarate "still small voice of he KJV). On Sinai, his prayer vigil brings him 3 standard theophanous signs--wind, earthquake, and fire--but he discerns that God is not present in any of these 3 spectacular manifestations. He then rests in "a silence so intense you can hear it." Our desperation for a sign often makes us forget the divinely intended result of our longing for divine clarity: the silence of our own thoughts becomes sacred because the prolonged longing makes us one with the mind of God so profoundly and sweetly that our thoughts actually express God's thoughts and guidance for us! We often miss this guidance because we expect a message directly from God printed on the neon screen of our mind!
@Nancy
You might find this article interesting on why C. S. Lewis believed in Purgatory.
Why the Protestant C.S. Lewis Believed in Purgatory |
Stan's disparagement of this doctrine has prompted me to post a new thread on Catholic biblical grounds for Purgatory. True, the doctrine is a late Catholic confection and has led to manipulative abuse. So most Evangelicals have a cartoon caricature of it and are unaware of its value and biblical underpinnings. So stay tuned for my new thread on Purgatory in the next day or so.