Re: So we're all related!

Gordon Brown wrote "There may be many Christians who will jump to a
conclusion similar to Vernon's. This could lead to the rise of another urban
legend to hurt the credibility of Christians."

Gordon, I'm not in the business of creating 'urban legends', but rather in
revealing scriptural truth. As you know, the traditional understanding of
Genesis 6-9 is that God cleansed planet earth with a global flood that
destroyed '...both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of
the air...' (6:7). Many, of course, for what they would regard as reasons of
scientific necessity no longer accept this. They insist that the purpose of
this gripping narrative is to describe, not a global cataclysm, but merely
an inundation of the land in which Noah and his family lived - this by
translating the Hebrew word 'eretz' as 'land' rather than 'earth'. In so
doing, of course, they ignore the illogicality of God requiring Noah to
build a large ocean-going vessel when a simple trek with family and
menagerie to higher ground would surely have been the kinder option. And
ignoring also God's promise '...neither shall all flesh be cut off any more
by the waters of a flood...' (9:11 - clearly false if a _local_ community
had been intended).

I believe these matters now assume a sharper significance in that the Author
of this event, and its telling, is also the One whose powers and serious
purposes are clearly demonstrated in the miraculous structure of Bible's
opening verse. Can there really be any more doubt that it is Noah who is the
nearest common ancestor of everyone alive today? Dr Olson and his team are,
perhaps, not so far wide of the mark after all.

Vernon
www.otherbiblecode.com
http://homepage.virgin.net/tgvernon.jenkins/Wonders.htm

----- Original Message -----
From: "gordon brown" <gbrown@euclid.colorado.edu>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 1:07 AM
Subject: Re: So we're all related!

> There are a couple of questions that this topic has gotten me thinking
> about.
>
> 1. What are the chances that I am a physical descendant of Abraham? Many
> of Abraham's contemporaries have a number of descendants which might
> satisfy the sand-of-the-sea description (although not literally). The
> figure for Abraham would depend heavily on how much intermarriage there
> has been between his descendants and those not descended from him. This
> intermarriage may have been fairly common, especially when you consider
> the ten lost tribes of Israel and any others who lost their consciousness
> of their relation to Abraham.
>
> 2. There may be many Christians who will jump to a conclusion similar to
> Vernon's. This could lead to the rise of another urban legend to hurt the
> credibility of Christians. Is there any way to nip an urban legend in the
> bud?
>
> Gordon Brown
> Department of Mathematics
> University of Colorado
> Boulder, CO 80309-0395
>
>
Received on Tue Oct 5 19:38:05 2004