Re: [asa] Question on inerrancy

Gordon -

You're right that we shouldn't immediately assume error & that's what
unbelievers may be doing when they point out "errors and contradictions" in
the Bible. But there are Christians who have studied such passages & -
without abandoning the Christian faith - have come to the conclusion that
they represent either simple slips by the writer or statements that
represent ideas from the surrounding culture that we now see as erroneous.
Then the Christian who has affirmed inerrancy should perhaps consider the
possibility that he/she has been wrong.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

----- Original Message -----
From: "gordon brown" <Gordon.Brown@Colorado.EDU>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 3:03 PM
Subject: Re: [asa] Question on inerrancy

> On Mon, 12 May 2008, j burg wrote:
>
>> On 5/10/08, David Heddle <heddle@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> If you ever want to demonstrate that the bible contains error, you must,
>>> in
>>> my opinion, try much harder than cud chewing rabbits, pi equals three,
>>> bats
>>> are birds, etc. examples. Each of the bible's "scientific errors" are
>>> explained as figures of speech, translation errors, modern chauvinism
>>> (such
>>> as assuming modern classification schemes are as inviolate as the laws
>>> of
>>> physics) etc. These claims tend to be sort of fallacious--in the sense
>>> that
>>> they make the "ancients were ignorant" error.
>>
>> I have recently come to believe that the best example of error is in
>> Matthew's geneology (Chapter 1, 1-17).
>>
>> 42 generations (14+14+14) are claimed in vs 17, but there are only 41
>> there.
>>
>> Burgy
>
> When we come across something which at first glance doesn't seem to make
> sense, should we operate by a priciple that says we should automatically
> assume that the author has made an error? I think it would be better to
> consider the possibility that we didn't understand what the author was
> saying. In the case of the Matthew genealogy one might ask about the
> significance of using the exile as a dividing point rather than a person.
>
> Gordon Brown (ASA member)
>
>
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Received on Mon May 12 15:39:05 2008