I have felt uneasy about some of these exchanges. We need to think who is
the person sending the e-mail, which may or may not be rubbish. It may be a
weak or struggling Christian who is asking desperate questions as they have
problems with their faith. Thus we need to be gentle in our response.
But if it is a regular e.g. Glenn, Jon. George, Howard etc we can be more
agressive and shoot from the hip. I dont think I could unsettle them in
their faith, but I still need to be reasonably polite. I can be robust.
There must be many who are on thsi listserve who are struggling in their
faith. They need our help and at times we need to avoid going for them too
robustly. We can reserve our pungent replies to the above mentioned and
myself.
There is no point winning an argument if we lose a soul and probably ours as
well.
To Jim a motto from Herbert Butterfield a Christian historian of the last
generation,
"Hold on to Christ, and for the rest be uncommitted"
Remember it is the first sunday of lent tomorrow.
Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Eisele" <jeisele@starpower.net>
To: "Walter Hicks" <wallyshoes@mindspring.com>; <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 3:00 PM
Subject: FW: Genesis One and Concordism (was a lot of other things
previously)
> BTW, Walter, feel free to jump in on any e-mail addressed to me. I don't
> have anywhere near close to enough time to respond. Thanks to everyone
for
> their great participation (and forgiveness!!!!) -Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Eisele [mailto:jeisele@starpower.net]
> Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 2:41 PM
> To: Walter Hicks; asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: RE: Genesis One and Concordism (was a lot of other things
> previously)
>
>
> I am not trying to "form an alliance" to vote everyone else off the
island.
> But Walter has done it again!!! I read up to "astronauts" and got very
> convicted.
> Did this happen to anyone else?? -Jim (thank you, thank you, thank you
> Walter)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
> Behalf Of Walter Hicks
> Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 6:13 PM
> To: Jim Eisele
> Cc: asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: Re: Genesis One and Concordism (was a lot of other things
> previously)
>
>
> Before anyone gets too excited, someone corrected me on the usage of the
> phrase "jump my bones". That part is retracted.
>
> Back in the late 60's, Eric Von Daniken wrote a book called "Chariots of
> the Gods?". I DO NOT ENDORSE THIS BOOK!. However, the author voices the
> opinion that humans were visited by astronauts and they were told by
> them how the earth and humanity came about. As best they could, they
> remembered this story and repeated it from generation to generation.
> They wrote it down when they had learned how to write. (A recent
> Discovery Channel presentation attributed the first books of the Bible
> to Moses since he learned to write in Egypt.)
>
> Replace the astronauts with God or the HS and is this not a credible
> story?
>
> Walt
>
>
> Jim Eisele wrote:
> >
> > Hi Walter. I've only read the the first few words of your post. But
> you're
> > now my best e-mail friend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -Jim
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Walter Hicks [mailto:wallyshoes@mindspring.com]
> > Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2002 4:55 PM
> > To: Jim Eisele
> > Cc: phseely@aol.com; asa@calvin.edu
> > Subject: Re: Genesis One and Concordism (was a lot of other things
> > previously)
> >
> > Hi Jim,
> >
> > So that you will not feel 100% alone, I have always thought of Genesis
> > One as amazingly close to what current science has to say. I don't
> > consider it to be a science textbook, but the general structure is
> > something that strikes me as something quite unexpected from a culture
> > thousands of years old. I may be wrong but I think that other cultures
> > were far removed from anything like this and had rather bizarre outlooks
> > by modern standards. In fact, as recently as the fifties (when I was in
> > college), The big bang was ridiculed as something that was adopted only
> > by non atheists who believed in "a beginning" to the universe. When the
> > background radiation was discovered, Jastro(?) noted that when
> > astronomers climbed to the top of mountain of discovery, they found it
> > inhabited by philosophers who had been there for thousands of years. (or
> > something like that).
> >
> > I have always taken Genesis One to indicate some degree of "insider
> > knowledge". They often jump my bones for that attitude.
> >
> > I may not be correct, but at least I am company.
> >
> > Walt
> >
> > Jim Eisele wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Paul. In Gen 1:1 and concordism (was Apology) you wrote
> > >
> > > >Preach God as a Father caring enough to speak to his little children
in
> > > terms of their pre-understanding.
> > >
> > > Thanks for that remark. It fits beautifully.
> > >
> > > I wanted to at least respond to that much. We may disagree about
> Genesis
> > > One, but I have no argument with that.
> > >
> > > As far as your comments about Genesis One, I haven't had time to fully
> > > review them yet.
> > > One quick thought, though.
> > >
> > > You wrote
> > >
> > > >Gen 1:1 "God created the heavens and the earth." is taken by most
> > scholars
> > > >today as either an introductory title or summary covering the entire
> > > creation
> > > >story down to 2:4
> > >
> > > Most, perhaps, but not all. And have scholars ever been wrong before?
> I
> > > haven't studied all the work of all the scholars. But could "God
> created
> > > the heavens and the earth" simply mean that God created the heavens
and
> > the
> > > earth? I don't want to disrespect scholarship, I just want to debate
> that
> > > notion.
> > >
> > > Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'm starting to realize that
we
> > have
> > > more in common than I thought. -Jim
> >
> > --
> > ===================================
> > Walt Hicks <wallyshoes@mindspring.com>
> >
> > In any consistent theory, there must
> > exist true but not provable statements.
> > (Godel's Theorem)
> >
> > You can only find the truth with logic
> > If you have already found the truth
> > without it. (G.K. Chesterton)
> > ===================================
>
> --
> ===================================
> Walt Hicks <wallyshoes@mindspring.com>
>
> In any consistent theory, there must
> exist true but not provable statements.
> (Godel's Theorem)
>
> You can only find the truth with logic
> If you have already found the truth
> without it. (G.K. Chesterton)
> ===================================
>
>
>
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