The following is written by my husband, Robert Shepherd.
Eric Hoffer quotes the Bible
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: That no flesh should glory in his [own] presence. I Cor 1:27, 28
Eric Hoffer, longshoreman, farmworker, fruit-picker, a very common man who worked with common men. Like the Hebrew prophet Amos he was "uneducated." Like the disciple Peter he lacked rabbinic/ biblical training. (See Eccl. 7:16) Like the Galileans of the gospels his learning was all on his own, he was self-taught, an 'auto-didact.' Yet he was surely a clear-sighted and insightful philosopher, if not a "prophet" of sorts for our time.
Man started out as a 'weak thing of the world' and endured to 'confound the things that are mighty.' And within the human species, too, the weak often develop aptitudes and devices which enable them not only to survive but to prevail over the strong. Indeed, the formidableness of the human species stems from the survival of the weak. Were it not for the compassion that moves us to care for the sick, the crippled, and the old, there probably would have been neither culture nor civilization. The crippled warrior who had to stay behind while the manhood of the tribe went out to war was the first storyteller, teacher, and artisan. The old and sick had a hand in the development of the arts of healing and of cooking. One thinks of the venerable sage, the unhinged medicine man, the epileptic prophet, the blind bard, and the witty hunchback and dwarf.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound:
There is something about the gospel of Jesus that was so unprecedented, so radical, that it could not possibly have come from the mind of man, or the religion of man, without that ineffable something external and transcendent, without the inspiration of that divine creative POWER that the Bible tells us about. Salvation is of the Jews, i.e., the scriptures , the writings, contained in God’s holy word. This concept is so revolutionary, so scandalous, that the old fundamentalists among the Jews were deeply offended. The Pharisees were orthodox and fundamental. They knew God had appeared unto their prophets, had revealed his salvation unto them. But they were exclusivists, elitists, and sacerdotalists. “We’re on the inside,” (and everyone else is outside). They had turned God’s Salvation as revealed to the Hebrew people, into a private possession, an exclusive RELIGION. Salvation is of the Jews. Yes, but it was not to be ‘Religion’ (private) - at least not to remain such.
Jesus said to the fundamentalists of his day, the scribes of the law. That they had taken away the key of knowledge. They neither entered in themselves, and those that wanted to enter, they hindered. (Luke 11:52)
The danger we Christians face in our own day is this temptation to make God’s free gift into a private possession, a religion over which we exercise some kind of proprietary dominion. We must not make God’s free gift into some kind of hierarchy, and ourselves the chosen elite. Are we taking away the key of knowledge? Do we hinder those who wish to enter? Are we afraid that they may somehow “show us up”?
The Glorious Message of the core theme of the Bible is something indeed so scandalous precisely because it is utterly radical and revolutionary. It is a message that is without any conditions, and without any strings attached, or legalistic stipulations. It is a gospel “to save to the uttermost”-- a gospel of WHOSOEVER WILL.
Whosoever Will
That grand “open door” to all nations is a recurring motif throughout the biblical writings both in Hebrew as well as Greek. (See Isaiah 60:3 for starts). It is the scandal of Jesus (Matthew 2:43) It forms the commission of St. Paul’s commission to the gentiles. And it is at the heart of the grand finale in that last chapter in the Bible. Revelations 22:17:
…the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
This blessed hope includes you, Friend. Consider yourself invited.
