On Mon, 4 Dec 1995, Russ Maatman wrote:
> To Denis Lamoureux, Jim Bell, and the rest:
>
> Re the *creatio ex nihilo* discussion: I have always thought--and thought
> I heard orthodox theologians saying--that God guided the biblical authors
> in many ways, one of which was to keep them from writing down erroneous
> ideas, even though they themselves no doubt had many such wrong ideas
> which did not, however, get into the text.
Russ, do women have seminal emissions? No, this is not a joke (though
when I first heard of the point I hope to make I thought it was).
Of course they don't (mind you, my clinical expertise is at the other
"end" of the "tube" so I might be wrong ;-)). But Russ that is EXACTLY
what the NT states in Hebrews 11:11. Yes, that great Faith chapter
states unequivocally that Sarah K-A-T-A-B-O-L-A-N S-P-E-R-M-A-T-O-S.
Translated it means she "had a seminal emission." For that matter, the
Greek used is the technical term for an ejaculation. And proof of this
is that the NIV has INACCURATELY slipped Abraham into the verse to cover
up the embarrassment of what the Greek NT actually records. But again go
to a Greek NT and you will see there is not ONE manuscript that has
Abraham in it.
So Russ--the Bible has errors of fact in it. The Double Seed Theory of
reproduction was the state of the art science in the first century. It
is erroneous, BUT IT GOT INTO GOD'S WORD. And please, go check it out
for yourself.
This is an example of "a wrong idea" that got into the Text. Face it Russ,
and let the Word of God shape your theology, specifically your theology of how
the Lord through the Holy Spirit inspired His Word. That's the evangelical
way. Exegete, don't eisegete.
The Word of God is utterly sufficient, and the Lord knew exactly what He
was doing when He inspired it. Our task is to let it shape our theology
of how God revealed, it is not for us go to the Text with our notions of
how we expect God revealed and impose them on the Text.
> Back to the biblical authors. I think (I could be wrong!) that the
> Bible de-emphasizes *creatio ex nihilo* because to *us* this could
> imply that first there was "empty" space, and then God created. But
> by this time in the history of the human race we understand that God
> created space as well. And, of course, the same could be said about
> the creation of time.
It is more than that--creatio ex nihilo is not in Gen 1. These were
semitic nomads, not hellenistic intellectuals.
As always Brother, I very much enjoy the exchange.
In Him,
Denis
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Denis O. Lamoureux DDS PhD PhD (cand)
Department of Oral Biology Residence:
Faculty of Dentistry # 1908
University of Alberta 8515-112 Street
Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton, Alberta
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CANADA CANADA
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E-mail: dlamoure@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca
"In all debates, let truth be thy aim, and endeavor to gain
rather than expose thy opponent."
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