Thank you for your response!
I agree completely that the variation would be fraught with theological dangers if anyone were to mistake my intention as a simple identification Word = Creation, but that was not my intent. The Word is both created and Creator, depending on context. Case in point: the Bible is the Word of God, as is the Lord Jesus Christ. The one is created, the other is the Creator. It would indeed be great folly to identify the Bible as God (which, by the way, some ultra-fundamentalistic folks have been known to do.)
My intent was to emphasize the wonderful Christian worldview that understands God's creation as superabundantly filled with "beauty and harmony" as is God Himself. My hope was to spark an interest in the discoveries I am so heavily burdened to share.
I used the square brackets to minimize the variation. If I had anticipated the potential misunderstanding, I would have extended the variation and written something more like this:
As Christians, we ought not be surprised at this. After all, if the Holy Bible was given by the One who is infinitely creative and who is characterized by love of qualities like beauty and harmony, would we not expect the Holy Bible to be a cosmos?
God Bless!
Rejoice forevermore!
Richard
----- Original Message -----
From: george murphy
To: richard@biblewheel.com
Cc: asa@calvin.edu
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 5:56 AM
Subject: Re: A Variation on Van Till
richard@biblewheel.com wrote:
In the August 6, 2001 edition of Christianity Today, Howard J. Van Till wrote an article called "What Good is Stardust?". Given the profound theological relation between God's creative Word and the Cosmos, I believe my variation on a quote from his article his warranted. The quote is verbatim with my slight variations in square brackets: As Christians, we ought not be surprised at this. After all, if the universe is a creation [Word] that was given by the One who is infinitely creative and who is characterized by love of qualities like beauty and harmony, would we not expect the creation [Word] to be a cosmos? In light of this thoroughly Christian point of view, I would suggest that the discovery of profoundly beautiful and theologically significant geometric symmetries of the Holy Bible should elicit the greatest curiosity and interest by all who love God's Word. It is my hope and prayer that my work will be given, at the very least, a fair hearing.
God's Word is not creation but creator (Jn.1:1-3), not "made" but "begotten." Your alteration of Howard's text is fraught with theological dangers.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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