Re: question

On 6/6/06, Janice Matchett <janmatch@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Seely: 'Being a scientifically naive people, it is probable that like other
> scientifically naive tribal peoples the Hebrews thought of the earth as
> being surrounded by a circular sea and floating upon that single surrounding
> sea.'
>
> Holding: Seely appears to be assuming that 'scientific knowledge', i.e. the
> conclusions of modern science, is the only source of true knowledge. And,
> amazingly for an author in a Reformed theological journal, Seely seems to be
> forgetting that Scripture is propositional revelation from God and therefore
> is also a source of true knowledge ­ in fact, it is the ultimate and final
> source of such knowledge!
>

If this is Holding's understanding of Reformed theology then it makes
his other conclusions all that much more suspect This is not
surprising because Holding admits his ignorance of Calvin here
(http://www.tektonics.org/tulip/calvino.html):

Calvino: have you read Calvin, BTW? You certainly don't cite him
Holding: I will say that I have not indeed read Calvin

And what's with the pseudonym for Robert Turkel anyway? If you look at
Holding's bio here, http://www.tektonics.org/jpholding.doc, you will
see the author is named Robert Turkel in the metadata (to see this do
File->Properties in Word). N.B. always be careful when putting
Microsoft Word documents on the Internet. His true name also shows up
in the Florida 501 c3 incorporation papers and whois for the web site.

Another intersting tidbit is that Holding/Terkel "proves" that
Deuteronomy is a suzerain/vassal treaty
(http://www.tektonics.org/jedp/deut.html). Anyone coming from a
Reformed background has one name that immediately comes to mind when
that topic comes up: Meredith Kline. Kline is famous for one other
theological view, the Framework Hypothesis. Funny, Holding/Terkel
doesn't credit Kline anywhere on the web page.

Now for a real Calvin expert, Ford Battles, on Calvin and
accomodation. Here's a summary of Battles' work "Interpreting John
Calvin" (http://www.apuritansmind.com/Reformation/McMahonInterpretingJohnCalvinSummary.htm):

It is impossible to study Calvin as an exegete without understanding
his view of the doctrine of accommodation that permeates the
Institutes. Accommodation for Calvin has to do with both the
interpretation of Scripture and the whole created reality, of which,
"Scripture holds the clue." The entire creation is an accommodation
(i.e. God has accommodated Himself to us, or, adapted through verbal
and created representation the matter of His own being so that
creatures can apprehend something about Him.) For example, Calvin
deals with the manner in which God interacts with man in questioning
whether God repents or not (cf. Institutes, 1:17.12f). God makes Saul
king, Saul rebels, and God repents that He made Saul king. Calvin's
answer is that God "represents himself to us not as he is in himself
[which would be impossible for us to understand being finite
creatures] but as he seems to us to accommodate to our weak capacity."

            Calvin recognized that God used certain "portraits" of
Himself in verbal revelation as accommodation. Such portraits seem
inconsistent, for God does not have feathers (Psalm 91:4) or hands
(Exodus 9:3). But there were certain "ruling metaphors" for Calvin in
this way: God as Father, God as Teacher, and God as Physician. This
is in contrast to man as child, schoolboy and sick with sin.

            For Calvin (and every Christian) the ultimate remedy for
this accommodating gap between God and man is the incarnation of the
God-man Christ Jesus explained to us in the accommodation of the
Scriptures. The ultimate anthropomorphism of Scripture is the bodily
manifestation of Jesus Christ on earth, and his testimony of exegeting
the Fath.
Received on Tue Jun 6 16:57:54 2006