It seems to me that as Christians the two most
>> important truths we believe in are 1) God's sovereignty and 2) Jesus' death
>> and resurrection as the means whereby our sins are atoned for and the claim
>> of Christ that He has conquered death is validated. When new claims appear
>> to contradict our understanding of Scripture, we ought to be 1) Reminding
>> ourselves that God is sovereign and 2) Investigating the new claims to see
>> how they might be congruent with God's sovereignty. Instead, some of us
>> seem to see threats to God's sovereignty in new knowledge. Or we think we
>> understand Scripture so well that new claims that conflict with our
>> understanding automatically have to be incorrect. The first reaction seems
>> to trust in God too little, while the second seems to trust in man too
>> much.
>
Bill Frix wrote
>There is a BIG difference between the Christian faith in the death
>and resurrection of Jesus and the creation/evolution debate. The
>death and resurrection of Jesus is a verifiable, historical fact
>while the creation/evolution debate is a debate of the
>_interpretation_ of verifiable facts.
>
[remainder -- which I agree with -- snipped]
I knew there was a risk of miscomunication in writing what I wrote, but I
was trying to avoid a risk I consider more serious. The central truth of
Christianity that I actually used in my reasoning was the sovereignty of
God. While I didn't use it, I included the crucifixion and resurrection
because I hate to mention any of the essentials of Christianity without
mentioning that one. As far as I am concerned, the crucifixion and
resurrection are _the_ central truths of Christianity. And I agree that
they are historical facts.
Bill Hamilton
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
William E. Hamilton, Jr, Ph.D. | Staff Research Engineer
Chassis and Vehicle Systems | General Motors R&D Center | Warren, MI
William_E._Hamilton@notes.gmr.com
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX) | whamilto@mich.com (home email)