From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Sun Oct 05 2003 - 22:08:47 EDT
Darryl -
I'm not suggesting what I'll say here briefly gives a neat &/or complete answer
to the kinds of questions you pose below. But I think 2 points are essential components
of an adequate biblical intepretation which can address them.
1) Christ is the focus of scripture & provides its interpretative principle.
The central theme of the Bible is not moral rules, information about the history or
composition of the world, providing a schedule for the end times &c. It is about Jesus
Christ as the revelation of God and God's intention for the world.
2) There are other kinds of texts which are true besides accurate historical
narratives. Aas Glenn just noted, he & I have gone around on this a number of times. I
don't want to just rehash old debates with him, but I think that until this point is
realized, attempts to understand scripture _and_ to take our scientific knowledge of the
developmental history of the universe are futile.
Shalom,
George
Darryl Maddox wrote:
> Glenn you know I agree with you most of the time and I don't disagree
> with you here, but I do have a question and an opinion.
>
> Q: If we through out a 6 day creation and a universal flood, by what
> criteria do we stop throwing out stuff?
>
> I've been trying to answer this one objectively for most of my life
> and have yet to even get close to an answer but that doesn't mean it
> hasn't been done or won't be done. But if it has I am not aware of it
> and that leads to my opinion -
>
> Opinion: My opinion is that it is the fear that the lack of such a
> hard-and-fast, publishable, debated and agreed upon by all, criteria
> for separating analogy from fact that causes most YECs to stay that
> way inspite of everything. Once they start throwing out stuff they
> are afraid they won't know how or where to stop and that could leave
> them with consequences they would rather not face. The fact that they
> compromise, select for acceptance, and ignore as irrelevant passages
> on other issues is a small and seldom thought of contradiction to
> their stance on the age of the earth and the nature of the flood so
> they try to stand pat on the big ones and hope the small ones will
> take care of themselves eventually.
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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