George,
I have a number of origin-related concerns which you - as prominent forum spokesman - may care to address.
(1) Why should any Christian believer take the claims of evolution seriously? For if this really were the basis of God's method of creating, shouldn't we expect it to _confirm_ rather than _contradict_ the Scriptures? To draw a simple parallel with our Lord's rejoinder to the accusation that he was empowered to cast out devils by Satan (Mt.12:22-26), if ELOHIM [i.e. Jesus, the Creator (Jn.1:1-3)] be the God of evolution, then how shall his kingdom stand?
(2) Phil recently wrote to you as follows, "...I think you are very comfortable taking some parts of the Bible account as true and other parts as literary myth. My only question was how do you determine which parts are which?...what is your guiding hermeneutic in biblical theology?...how do you decide that one particular part of Genesis can be ignored and yet another part evidences amazing correspondence to reality, if it is not merely ad hoc selection after-the-fact?"
Your response: "As to determining which parts of the Bible are historical narrative & which aren't, it's really not the task of a general hermeneutic principle to do that. One has to look at evidence - internal and external - for particular items."
How, indeed, can the Lord's kingdom stand when Christians follow this approach? David O puts his finger on a related matter when he writes (in response to Rich), "Have we not reached here a place where the scientific method, which properly cannot admit miracles, is incompetent to deliver to us the Truth?"
Why, then, should you believe science to be sufficiently powerful to overturn the Apostle Paul's view of Scripture (2Tm.3:16)?
(3) But anyway, George, your record of looking at _all_ the evidence - both internal and external - concerning the proper understanding of a particular matter affecting origins is hardly impressive! I have for some time endeavoured to interest you in the sort of thing an exceedingly able author might do to secure the integrity of his message, long term, in a society of rational beings. I refer, of course, to the numero-geometrical phenomena which inhabit the Hebrew of very first of the 32102 verses of the AV. Just recently I wrote to Iain (who, like myself, has studied these manifestations intensively) reminding him that, on this list, he had once referred to the matter - mildly in my view - as "not everyone's cup of tea". Are unexplained events in this key biblical verse to languish in a forum of scientists - either from lack of interest, or from a fear of the consequences if this particular cat is let out of the bag?
For your interest, I suggest the manifest presence of these phenomena informs us, as follows:
(a) our universe is open to supernatural influence - both benign and malignant; clearly, this should come as no surprise to those who have studied the course of our Lord's ministry - but people tend to forget
(b) the observed manifestations represent the work of the Creator (witness the link with his name, Jesus Christ); clearly, nothing is too hard for him
(c) we infer that these are not capricious adhesions to the text, but rather speak of serious intent and of a desire to accomplish some vital work in our day
(d) they confirm the Judeo-Christian Scriptures as the Word of God; in other words, the Apostle Paul was neither misguided nor a liar when he wrote 2Tm:3:16
(4) Finally, allow me remind you that Darwin's 'goad' - Alfred Russell Wallace - was an accomplished _naturalist_ who, later, devoted his considerable gifts of observation to psychical research - eventually becoming a _supernaturalist_. It would surely be ironic if it were found that ARW had a part to play in Darwin's demise.
Shalom,
Vernon
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Sun May 11 16:01:14 2008
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Sun May 11 2008 - 16:01:14 EDT