At 10:47 PM 11/03/02 -0500, Walter Hicks wrote:
>Jan, to me YOUR statements are the generalities and I think that I have
>been as specific as I know how to be. Are you asking me to quote a
>theologian or author? If so, I cannot comply. I can only say what I have
>experienced, what people I know say to me, what I think science relates
>to our experience, what I think is logical and how I sense that others
>feel about our dialogs on this list serve. What more do you request?
>
>Walt
Walt,
Again, I do not think that we get any further until we know a whole list of
facts about each other. Then we may be able to pick at it detail by
detail. My experience in discussing this subject tells me, that the basic
issues behind reading the Bible take years to discuss in lectures and
studies. I said so earlier this week or last week, that involved is: your
(and any time I say your, I mean your and mine) education, which schools
(elementary and secondary) you attended, if they were public or Christian,
what kind of Christian schools if Christian, which college and university
you attended, which courses you took; did you study history, and if so
what kind of history; did you study philosophy, and if so what type; what
church you attend, and how the preaching is in the church, and I may have
left out some points. The reason that I say that is that all these and
other factors effect the way we think, and what is more, the way we read
the Bible.
Translations are involved and philosophies are involved. I am sorry, if
you feel discouraged, but so do I time and again. As a matter of fact, if
I don't get anywhere in discussions like this I give up, when I am
convinced that the person I am talking to believes that Jesus Christ is His
Saviour. Even if that is not so the discussion is continued on a totally
different level.
In order to be consistent: I am born in 1924, baptized in a Dutch Reformed
church in The Netherlands, where my father was a high-school teacher. I
went to Christian elementary and secondary schools in the
Netherlands. Then I went to the (Calvinist) Free University in Amsterdam,
where I took courses in Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy.
Due to the war I did not finish my studies, was in the underground army,
then in the regular army. After that I married, worked in a bank,
emigrated to Canada where I worked in a bank, then taught Bookkeeping at a
College, taught English as a second language, had my own bookkeeping
business, worked for a Chartered accountant. I had gone back to
University, where I mainly took math courses, and after obtaining a B.Sc.
degree, I was appointed to the faculty of the University of Toronto.
I am a member of the Christian Reformed Church, have been an elder, and
delegate to synods. I was part of a three year study committee to study
"Creation and Evolution." For that committee I studied the works of Dutch
theologians of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Again, from experience I know, that it is not easy to discuss these things,
even when you know backgrounds, it becomes almost impossible, if you don't
know the other persons background. Even when that is known, I often give
up talking about it because so many things have to be discussed. So I
usually give up when I know that the person I am talking to wants to serve
His Saviour Jesus Christ everywhere. and I realize that the background for
a fruitful discussion is not there.
Supper is on the table, I quit now.
Jan de K.
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