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NASB | Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth. [Heb 11:3] |
Subject: Bible and evolution both? |
Bible Note: Hi, Joe! (sorry); Addressing three notes in one: 1. I visited the CRSC web site. Can I just change my label from "theistic eveolutionist" to "intelligent design-ist"? 2. The leprosy comment was a throw-away, not worthy of our discussion. I apologize. 3. "why not take the next step and deny the historicity of the resurrection?" Or the next - why believe anything in the Bible? I can only give a highly personal answer to this. [Note to everyone who is tired of hearing about me: I'm perfectly willing to stop talking about myself; get Joe to stop asking questions that call for a personal answer. ;-)] You and others seem to describe a slow (dare I say evolutionary?) erosion of faith starting with doubts about a literal reading of Genesis 1. It seems to me that this is a danger only if one's faith is based on the Bible. For example, someone might believe the Bible is truthful because it says it is or because there is external evidence that parts of it are historically accurate. Based on that belief, faith in Jesus might be a logical next step. And a crack in the biblical foundation might bring the whole house down. But I think this puts the cart before the horse. The foundation rock in Matthew 7:24-27 is Jesus himself, not the Bible. As my spiritual jouney unfolded, I came to believe that the Bible is truthful because I believe in Jesus Christ - not the other way around. I think it is a proper paraphrase of Romans 10:17 to say that "faith comes from hearing the gospel of Christ". With respect to faith, the Bible is a resource, not THE source (catchy, eh?). I realize that those who were able to convince me of the believability of Jesus' claims about himself based their knowledge on the Bible. But the Bible did not directly influence me. I wrote earlier that my faith is a gift of God and cited a couple of scripture references. But I didn't need the Bible to tell me that. After a few faithful witnesses had opened my mind, I asked a God whose very existence I still questioned to tell me if Jesus really was his son. He did. Only then did I begin to pay any attention to the Bible. I suppose that's the reason I've written before that we should never allow the Bible to be a stumbling block to acceptance of the gospel. The proof of the gospel should be in ourselves, not just the Bible. But within the body, we can duke it out over this stuff. ;-) When I study the Bible, I'm mostly interested in learning about Jesus and his ministry and discovering the mind of God. Science has nothing to say about such things. Science can't prove a negative and so has nothing to say about Jesus' bodily resurrection either. Science cannot threaten the spiritual truths of the Bible. I am just unable to see the mechanical details of creation as a significant spiritual issue. [Note to the scripture-reference-counters: I know I'm an upstart newcomer here, but it seems to me that part of studying the Bible is thinking about why it's worth studying in first place. ;-)] Peace and grace, Steve |