From: Hassell, Ian C. (hasselli@eucom.mil)
Date: Fri Oct 11 2002 - 04:22:00 EDT
Wow. In my few short months on this list I've learned that much of the
supernatural record of the OT couldn't have happened (nor does it matter),
Jesus didn't distinguish between truth and fantasy in His teachings, Jesus
lied when describing the after-life, some (but certainly not all) of the
gospels may be true, Paul supported and taught positions that we have now
determined to be lies (homosexuality is a sin, etc.), the writers of the
gospels lied about Jesus' miracles (Peter walking on water), etc., etc. I
know that may sound like strong language, but either these passages in the
scripture were true or they were lies. Whether they were written out of
altruistic motives or not, truth is either truth or it is not. Ask any 3
year old.
I can't disagree that it would be infinitely convenient to my "faith" if I
were able to dismiss any parts of scripture that I think didn't agree with
our current culture (homosexuality, sanctity of life) or our current
interpretation of scientific evidence. But then is my faith really in an
all-powerful, all-knowing God or is my faith in my ability to rationalize
what I know about him with the current tides of popular culture and science?
Isn't this really Deistic Humanism? Or Humanistic Deism?
My first-ever post to this group asked the question - "if the Bible isn't
true, then what is your faith based upon?" I never received an answer,
rather I got a lot of long-winded explanations about the changing nature of
language, the difficulty of translation, the inability of us to know
author's intent, etc. If God intended us to have His word (as He references
several times within the Bible), if Christ re-affirmed the inspiration of
the OT (and taught from it) then wouldn't He have taken care to maintain it
throughout a couple thousand years so that our understanding of Him in 2002
could be as real as it was in 0002?
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