Glenn wrote: "Lets take that approach. If we verify all of the above,
like with the flood,
we haven't ruled out many of the world's religions, including Mormonism
and
Bahai. And even some of the eastern religions are plastic enough to
encompass the events of Jesus' life. So, once again, I don't see any
better
way to the verification we want than by the way I am going."
Aha. I THINK I have finally seen where Glenn is going with this. It is
not so
much that he wants more verification of the claims of Christ than he has,
so far, been able to find. It is also that he wishes to discover a way
to falsify the claims of other religious bodies, or, at least, show
thatthey are less reliable.
I know that Jesus once said (or is reported to have said) "I am the
way, the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the father except by
me." And I hold to that claim as truth, myself.
But that claim does NOT say "Nobody comes to me except through
a good Presbyterian church (I'm PCUSA), or even "trough a good
Protestant church," or even "through a good Christian church, even though
it
might be Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox." A lot of what passes for
preaching in some
church bodies makes assertions like the above, but I don't see myself
how the leap from Christ's words to the narrow claims above can be
justified.
Perhaps there is more than a single road to the father -- yes -- I know
the relevant
scripture about "narrow the road." Perhaps the animist in deep Africa,
who has never heard the gospel,
can attain heaven through Christ just as we can -- even though he has
"never heard." I see no
reason to claim Mormons, though their secondary book has been effectively
falsified, are
not welcome into heaven through Christ anyway. Likewise, my YEC friends,
though their
origins claims have been falsified. For that matter, who among us will
claim that his personal knowledge today is,
as far as it goes, 100% accurate? If nobody -- then what % of accuracy is
OK to let us in the kingdom? 90%?
Maybe 50%? 10%? I think the question speaks for itself.
In the end, Glenn, you are correct in that our faith is based upon faith
-- a leap of faith. As Taylor writes in THE MYTH OF CERTAINTY, we may be
wrong, quite wrong. But we must do what we must do -- in my case
following the Christian path that makes the most sense to me -- that
conforts me -- in which I have had, if not often, at least some contact
with the heavenlies.The relative historicity of most of the O.T. just is
not all that relevant to that position. At least not to me.
Peace
Burgy
Burgy
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jan 27 2001 - 14:09:52 EST