Re: The firmament -- a solid barrier to concordism

From: Jim Eisele (jeisele@starpower.net)
Date: Fri May 24 2002 - 10:43:20 EDT

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    Loren writes

    >Indeed, it was Jesus who
    >taught that divinely inspired Scripture can and does include
    >concessions to hardened hearts,

    Loren, I think you have summed up Paul Seely's position nicely.
    And, I thank you for contributing to the discussion. I liked
    the "flavor" of your post. I read it as "Let's not forget these
    guys were writing thousands of years ago." Certainly. Absolutely.
    Positively. And, without a question.

    Sadly, your post was simply too long for me to respond to more than
    a fraction of it. For my part at "peace" I will "give you" that the
    Bible was written in the language of the times. It seems that your
    biggest concern is with the firmament.

    Not a bad place to start, Loren. The two areas that I feel least
    strong about are the "firmament" and the days themselves. But,
    everything else fits in so very well that I continue to wait on
    God for further understanding of these areas. I suspect part of the
    reason these areas aren't clearer yet is because of our resistance.

    The NASB and NIV use expanse, not firmament. So, you are already
    treading on thin ice.

    I'll dare to go a step further. Anti-concordists play the "scholarship
    blitz" game. "If I throw out enough cultural info, surely that will
    show the Bible is historically inaccurate." Which is why I always
    take their best argument(s) one at a time.

    Heck, YECs have dozens and dozens of scholastic sounding arguments
    for their position. When you see "begin to see the trees, so to speak,
    guess what happens?" Retreating in shame.

    So, Loren, perhaps you would like to throw out your second strongest
    criticism. There is a real historical event which corresponds with
    separating the waters above from the waters below.

    I suppose that it eventually will come down to faith. Did our Father
    intend for Gen 1 to be historically accurate?

    You seem to be big on ANE, Loren. I challenge you to show me another
    creation account that gets the sequence of events correct.

    Jim Eisele
    Genesis in Question
    http://www.genesisinquestion.org



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