THIS IS NOT THE PART OF THE CHAPTER YOU SAY GETS BETTER, WE TRUST?!
Ha ha ha! No.
THANK HEAVEN! BECAUSE HIS APPLICATION OF THAT PAINTING AMOUNTS TO THE WORST KIND OF LITERAL-IMAGE-MONGERING AT BEST!
Yeahhhh… um… that continues for a while I’m afraid.
HE CONTINUES MAKING FUN OF IMAGERY OF HEAVEN AS THOUGH IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE TAKEN SUPER-LITERALLY?
Oh yes.
BUT SURELY HE KNOWS IT ISN’T SUPPOSED TO BE TAKEN THAT SUPER-LITERALLY!
Oh yes. But he doesn’t bother to mention that Arm and Calv teachers and scholars don’t take that imagery super-literally either, and try to instruct people otherwise themselves. The closest he comes is a jibe about a dull pastor (and admittedly I’ve heard some clueless ones go this route) trying to tell people heaven is unlike anything we can comprehend and then using the image of “a church service that goes on forever” to try to help people comprehend it anyway.
WELL ADMITTEDLY THAT TYPE OF TEACHER IS A NIT!
Also admittedly, there are (or were) not a few people whose best ideas of a holy life involve worshiping in church. More to the point, it’s a scriptural image–mostly from the Old Testament, but not to be disrespected on that account!
Rob does make a good point in passing that two people might be crying at a church service, thinking about heaven, for two very different reasons: one because she expects to be reunited with the people she loves, and the other because she expects most of the people she loves to be hopelessly lost (and probably suffering endless torments). And indeed that second woman would be “troubled and confused” if she was told that she’ll be having so much fun (or joy rather, but Rob represents it merely as “fun”) worshiping God that the ongoing death and destruction of the other people she loves won’t matter to her: because they do matter to her now!
BUT ARMS AND CALVS HAVE VARIOUS REASONS TO EXPECT THAT TO BE TRUE!
Yes, and those reasons ought to be looked at. But Rob doesn’t bother to.
SOUNDS LIKE THIS WHOLE FIRST PART OF CHAPTER 3 IS ENTIRELY AN EMOTIONAL SETUP AND APPEAL FROM BEGINNING TO END.
Yep!–not only for sake of assuaging Rob’s own emotions, but for trying to introduce an important topic as if Arms and Calvs never bother to discuss it.
WHICH MEANS HE’S STILL CHEATING!
Pretty much. While sacrificing an amazing opportunity to make positive use of something that frightened him as a child, reducing it instead to being only a puerile illustration of points he could have used much better artistic examples for.