Re: Assurance of faith

"Graham E. Morbey" wrote:
>
> I wonder why eschatology is off - limits for scientists but not
> creation? Doesn't science try to discover things to make the world
> better and is there not a strong future inclination in the doing of
> science? An example of a scientist talking about the future is John
> Polkinghorne's little volume on "The God of Hope and the End of the
> World." Or have I completely missed your intention, Peter?
>
> Respectfully,
> Graham

Graham,

I am sorry if I didn't make quite clear what I meant. Of course,
eschatology is _not_ off-limits for scientists, but it _is_ for science,
in the sense that it cannot deal with biblical prophecy pertaining to
what is still future for us, like Christ's coming again, our bodily
resurrection, the judgement at the great white throne, the creation of a
new heaven and a new earth, etc. Creation, the origin of our physical
universe and environment, seen as divine creation, is off limits to
science (not to scientists), but seen as physical reality and its
history, it is the object of science. On the other hand, the objects of
biblical revelation for the future don't have any physical/historicall
correlate which science would be able to investigate. What science can
say about the future is, e.g., extrapolated cosmology, like further
expansion and cooling of the universe, evaporation of black holes, etc.
But this is not what biblical eschatology is about.

See also my response to Jack Syme.

Peter

> Peter Ruest wrote:
>
> >Samantha, you wrote: "...I'm afraid I still feel that the materials here
> >focus on the creation end of the story and not the eschatological end..."
> >
> >>From what you wrote before, I got the impression that assurance of faith was
> >your problem, not (theoretical) eschatology. Eschatology has two aspects, a
> >practical and a theoretical one. The practical one revolves around the
> >assurance of faith and the joy of our "blessed hope" for our future after
> >Christ's return, based on the few clear promises Scripture gives us for our
> >practical life of faith today.
> >
> >Theoretical eschatology, on the other hand, deals with the question of what
> >we can know about what will happen, in what sequence, etc. As biblical
> >evidence for these topics is notoriously difficult to interpret, theologians
> >have come up with various different, often incompatible views about this.
> >And various sects or groups have settled on particular speculations, which
> >we better ignore. Jesus said (Matthew 25:13) "Therefore keep watch, because
> >you do not know the day or the hour."
> >
> >As far as science is concerned, we can know and learn lots of things about
> >the past, but only tentative extrapolations about the future. And
> >eschatology, (teaching about the last things) is completely off-limits.
> >Therefore it's quite natural that the ASA list focuses, among other topics,
> >on creation, but hardly, if at all, on eschatology.
> >
> >Peter

-- 
Dr. Peter Ruest, CH-3148 Lanzenhaeusern, Switzerland
<pruest@dplanet.ch> - Biochemistry - Creation and evolution
"..the work which God created to evolve it" (Genesis 2:3)