Re: Defining GOG & EOG

Jan de Koning (dekoning@idirect.com)
Fri, 19 Dec 1997 19:03:58 -0500

Thank you, George, I agree with you. I was intending to say something
similar: All our actions and thinking are religious directed, either
towards God, or away from God. That means that our (Christians) seeking
for the "facts" of nature is coloured by our faith, that God created, and
is still guiding all of creation. If you are not a Christian, your "facts"
are just facts, your hypotheses are not taking into account a God, who is
with His creation every step of the way (not only in gaps.) My formulation
of the solution may be slightly different than George Andrews' since I
studied philosophy under Vollenhoven, who disagreed with Dooyeweerd about
"time." That may result in some differences when studying science (I don't
know off hand of any,) but by and large Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven agreed.

Again, since God is always busy in His creation, a God of the gaps is an
impossibility. If there are gaps, then God is busy there as well.

What bothers me mos though in this whole discussion, is the way we read the
Bible. It appears that some do read it as a book of science. It is not.
Besides, we, or at least most of us read it in translation. The original
language is a dead language, meaning that the we have a hard time to listen
to it as the first hearers did. It is even impossible in many cases.
Furthermore, a word in the Bible may be translated in different ways,
sometimes in the same verse: John 3:8 "pneuma" is translated as spirit and
as wind. Also, see Gesenius dictionary on "ruach" : breath, wind, spirit.
Or, as Glen allready pointed out the word "eretz" does not always mean the
whole world, but could mean just "land." It is clear that the translator
used discretion to make the Word readable for us. But this translator is
human, and consequently is influenced by his own (sinful) thinking when
translating. We, too, are sinners, and due to our sinful nature are not
understanding properly. We, myself included, need a lot of humility when
discussing.

Jan de Koning
Willowdale, Ont.