From: Debbie Mann (deborahjmann@insightbb.com)
Date: Sat Apr 26 2003 - 10:50:41 EDT
-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
Behalf Of Don Winterstein
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2003 12:31 AM
To: igevolution@earthlink.net; asa
Subject: Re: God's time
Jason wrote:
"The cannon of scripture is the foundation, not personal experience. If
theology were derived only from personal experience, then true theology for
me would be different from true theology for you, as you and I have had
different experiences. Obviously, the truth of who God is and how He
relates to and saves us is absolutely true, apart from either of our
opinions. Consequently, there must be an absolutely true theology. The
only foundation for a common, shared theology is scripture. Not personal
experience."
You're getting exercised over the wrong thing here. What is Scripture but
a witness to personal experiences of one sort or another? The personal
experience doesn't have to be mine or yours, although it can include that as
well. To be valuable for the Christian community the experience must only
be one that the community accepts as valid and useful.
From Debbie: The issue is that God is infinite and we are finite - at least
for the time being. I love the proverb of the blind men and the elephant. I
believe it illustrates our position of relative ignorance perfectly.
Several blind men were put in a room with an elephant. The first man said,
"Oh, an elephant is very like a snake," as he felt the trunk.
"More like a rope." One of his companions said as he felt the tail.
"No, no, no!" another man said as he felt the massive side, "It is clearly
like a wall."
"I beg to differ," A third said politely as he ran his hands along the tusk,
"But an elephant resembles a spear most closely."
"How can you all say what you are saying?" The next one replied in clear
distress as he wrapped his arms firmly around a leg, "I have never seen
anything more like a tree."
Questioningly, the remaining one said with his hands on the ear, "But it is
like a sail, so like a sail."
Thank God, Jesus came to simplify the matter. But once we get beyond the
basic facts of the risen savior, we are bound to have issues between what we
have come to KNOW, not just believe, but KNOW, and the experiences of our
companions in Christ. Many of you are aware that 3 + 4 can be = 5. (abs(3) +
abs(4i) = 5.)
What is not personal experience is all the philosophical deductions you were
referring to before, including those of the form, "If God is this, then he
must also be that." Example from your previous post: "If God is the
greatest entity in existence…, then He must… be fully knowledgeable about
the future and fully aware of all time simultaneously. Otherwise, there
could be something greater." All such deductions are based on assumptions
that may not be valid.
In this case, what if no entity is able to be "fully aware of all time
simultaneously," as is perhaps the case? Then God with a lesser degree of
awareness could still be "the greatest entity in existence." To be
greatest, God doesn't have to be greater than anything our wild minds can
imagine.
As for your remark that "true theology for me would be different from true
theology for you," I side with Jim: "True theology" really is different for
everyone who thinks about it. The only people who don't have their own
theology are presumably those who give it no thought and just accept what
someone else tells them. A Bible class I attend is interesting partly
because most attendees are very conservative Christians (YECs all), but
there's wide-open discussion with no pastor present, and from the
discussions we learn that no two attendees have the same views on many
theological topics, despite the fact that they all hold to biblical
inerrancy, and the denomination they belong to has been trying forever to
tell them what to think.
Don
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