From: Jim Armstrong (jarmstro@qwest.net)
Date: Fri Mar 28 2003 - 15:01:08 EST
Spoofing just does not seem to be to be in the character and modus of
God. He seems to be about revelation and clarification, e.g., Jesus'
example and statement regarding the law. As I suggested earlier, our
investigations of the fundamentals of creation do not disclose greater
complexity and bewilderment, but rather underlying simplicity. Though
greater understanding may come in layers (like peeling an onion), it is
never our experience that we have been misled by the information that
guided our earlier understanding. I believe that as well of the
underlying message of scripture. The only way that we can know anything
about anything is for there to be some implicit trustworthiness in the
subject and methodology. That is our (my) experience and the principal
reason I have difficulty with a notion of divine deception.
I too have a sticking point at the "why". Divine deception would only
weaken the case for trusting him. The distinctive message of Job
remaining faithful in the face of the worst that can happen to living
man would seem to have a message for us only if it plays against a
backdrop of a God who is reliable and not capricious, righteous or not.
Regards - Jim Armstrong
igevolution@earthlink.net wrote:
>Greetings,
>
> My name is Jason Alley, and I am posting again after a long absence. My pastor and I were talking about the appearance of age argument recently, and I was telling him that to believe that God created a young creation that bore the marks of an ancient one would be deceptive, and God does not deceive. I told him that God, on the contrary, invites us to know him and seek him out through the natural world (Job, Romans 1, etc), and that this invitation would not make sense if we would arrive at wrong conclusions by so doing. My pastor then countered with an interesting comment that I had not yet considered. I was wondering if any of you had considered the following:
>
> God is good by nature, and whatever he does, if he does it, is good. God is incapable of evil actions. When God does something in our lives or in the world that we might think of as wrong, evil, or bad, we are in error. God is unable to act in this way. If we think that he has, we must remember that he is the standard of rightness and holiness. We are flawed. Whatever he does, it is, because of his nature, perfect and right. Therefore, if God did create with an appearance of age, that action is not deceptive or wrong, as it is an action of the perfectly righteous God. Even if it is deceptive, that deception is not wrong; it is righteous.
>
> What are your thoughts?
>
>
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Mar 28 2003 - 15:03:14 EST