Forgive me if this bores you, but I thought you might be the one person who would be interested in this. Again, if I'm wrong, forgive me for discussing at length something you are not even interested in. There is a huge connection that is only of interest to Christians regarding the Old Testament. One of the themes emphasized in the Old Testament over and over and over and over - I'm sure you get the idea - again is the concept that the nations will be redeemed after the time of Babel. At Babel (Gen 11 I believe) God split up the earth into differing ethnolinguistic groups. The concept of these nations being restored to God was told to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob...and is followed up repeatedly in the prophets as well. You cannot get very far in the Old Testament w/o running into this theme. Now the curious thing, of course, is that the Jews have never been particularly outwardly-focused. They are an incredibly strong people, but I don't think anyone would argue that they have tended, both before Christ or after, to "stick to themselves". How many great Jewish evangelists can you think of for example? Yet the Old Testament was clear that this was God's ultimate purpose. So why the dichotomy? Of course, the answer came with Jesus' words in Matthew: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come." (Matt 24:14) Jesus had several other references to this same theme including the famous Great Commission verses. And, of course, the rest of the New Testament is all about the gospel spreading to the Gentiles. And it is important to note early Christianity exploded through the Roman Empire. By the time of Constantine, secular scholars estimate that between 1/10th and 1/3rd of the Roman Empire was Christian. Some secular scholars have admitted that this often done through martydom and persecution. And one scholar even admitted that it was often done through the miraculous. What a contrast with the Judaism of the last millenium! Since then martyrs and modern day apostles have paid dearly for taking the gospel to the nations and now the gospel has penetrated a high percentage of these ethnolinguistic groups. This is the reason for the Old Testament. Remember that the Old Testament had a HUGE number of commandments. But Jesus told the Israelites that there was really only one: "Thou shall love the Lord Thy God with all Thy heart, soul, mind and strength." Think how astonishing this is: He distilled all the commands to really just one. And this is a common theme with Jesus, a sort of minimalism or essentialism. Why all the verbiage in the Old Testment? I don't know. Why all the temple ceremonies? I don't know. But Jesus came so that we would have understanding and that is what counts. Remember that the New Testament is EXTREMELY clear: you are not bound nor do you even have to understand all the ceremonial law. Jesus made it clear that these were drastically different times. He said, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way..." (Matt 19:8) Jesus clearly stated that many things were allowed in the Old Testament because the people simply were not ready. Of course, no anti-Christian will believe that as they are always looking for a reason to rip God because that fits into their world view. But Jesus begged to differ with them. Again, He said clearly that things were allowed in the Old Testament that should never have been. And He went on to abolish polygamy and commanded people at the Sermon on the Mount to even get their thought life in control. Of course, He also attacked abuse of the poor at the hands of rich religious hypocrits. And here's where I'm headed: you cannot understand the Old Testament unless you understand that 1) it's purpose was to redeem the nations and 2) many things were allowed by God that were not His ideal.
I could not agree with you more. The entertainment for me comes from the Rcan's of the world (and there's tons of them) who actually attempt to make you believe that "private interpretation" isn't involved in their views. Also agree on your athiest and agnostic comment. JB
DrP >I ain't no Bible scholar nor nothin'.. but does it >actually say anywhere in the Bible that the Bible >is inerrant? Shoe: >No Well, there's one private interpretation. JB
Actually, the answer is 'no' depending on how you interpret the word "interpret" if you know what I mean... :eek:
Can you explain what you mean Shoe? If the Bible iis not the word of God , both inerrancy and interpretations of it would seem to have little bearing or relevance past ones own personnal understanding. . If you do consider it to be the Word of God, how would you "interpret" (spin?) Proverbs away from inerrancy?. 5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. 6 Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
Well, I pretty much agree with you. I don't really understand liberal Christians in that regard. They essentially regard Jesus as a wise teacher, but then I think even a lot of atheists and agnostics believe the same. This is really of interest to only the Christian, but you have two sides to look at if you're a Christian starting with the epistle to Timothy: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness". So the Christian has to decide what is meant by "inspiration": "Was God literally moving the hand of the person writing? Was God simply using that person with their experiences and emotions?" "How much did the humans fallibility play a role in the creation of these texts? How much of a role did historical context play?" Of course, the atheist says this was all an invention of their mind, etc., so this is all entirely boring for them I am sure. But I am talking about from the Christian perspective. Then you must go to the receiving end. No Scripture is supposed to be of a "private interpretation". In other words, I'm not supposed to come up with my own new theory about the Scripture so I can start my own church and become Joe First Apostle and have multiple wives out in the desert before I take everyone to Ghana. Basically, how you handle sender and receiver leaves a lot of fun stuff for us Christians to verbally assault each other over. Centuries of debate lie behind and ahead....