Glenn Morton wrote :
> If our God is truly the Creator of the universe, (meaning he is that
> powerful) why on earth couldn't He give a simplified statement of the truth
> to the people? He didn't need a lot of detail, just enough so that we would
> know it is true. If he felt satisfied to give an untrue account of the
> creation via a "non-literal device" can I really be sure that He isn't also
> giving me an untrue account of the resurrection via a "non-literal device"?
> Afterall, everyone knows that dead people don't get up.
Yikes! We are quickly getting off into the deep waters of inerrancy debate.
I guess that God could have given us a lot of things which he didn't.
One thing which would be nice to have is a systematic theology text, with
chapters like "theology proper" and "soteriology" and even "eschatology",
which would tidy up a lot of disagreements. Instead, what we do have is a
set of texts which arose as God encounted indviduals and communities of
people, at given times and within given cultural settings. If some of
those texts are basically historical narrative (like Samuel/Kings, the
gospel accounts of the resurrection, and Acts), well then treat them
as historical narrative. Much of Romans is filled with propositional,
theological statements. Likewise, deal with poetry as poetry, wisdom
literature as wisdom literature, epistle as epistle. Take Scripture like it
comes, and don't make God fit into a preconceived idea of what revelation
should be.
If you feel that Genesis 1-11 is best interpreted as a historical narrative,
fine. However, a text is not "untrue" simply because it is not literal,
historical narrative. Genesis 1 does not read to me like a historical
narrative, yet I still believe that it conveys a significant theological
message which was appropriate for the culture in which it first appeared.
I am certainly not going to call God a liar just because the account that
I have is in a form different from what I would want.
John.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dr. John C. Eidson
MIT Lincoln Laboratory phone : (617) 981-3520
244 Wood Street, B-370 fax : (617) 981-0695
Lexington, MA 02173-9108 e-mail : eidson@ll.mit.edu
"Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those
of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the United States
Air Force or MIT Lincoln Laboratory."
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