Alright. I guess if anything, now we know that you're not William Lane Craig! At the same time, I can't subscribe and sign on the dotted line with your "latest" conclusions. I kind of had a feeling that you were hedging in there somewhere, AvisG. Now I know. So, what are you now, and be honest as best you can in your current PhD-fication? A Unitarian? A Spong Follow-Along? What?
On my part, I'll admit that I'm one brick short of a Langdon Gilkey or a Paul Tillich, but at the same time, I'm not ready to Jettison the overall coherence of a fuller biblical engagement with the bible. And, not to sound narcisstic, I might be able to attempt to give you a run for your money at bat, even if I may have to draw upon the help of a few fellow Christians here to deal with your PhD-ism.
So, just let's just agree to disagree that the Bible, on the whole, is or is not some heinous "THING from Outerspace!" And we'll start from there.
Just keep in mind that I don't mind that other's don't mind that I put philosophy before faith ... because for me, without philosophy, I probably wouldn't have faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and as the Son of God, the second Person of an eternal Trinity!
I think you're perhaps reading too much into my post.
My journey away from bibliolatry began no more than a few months after I'd become a Christian. Because I was kind of a whiz kid, the Campus Crusade staff member assigned to our campus asked Newbie Me to teach a class while he was out of town. A young woman named Sherry asked me "So, do you really think all Buddhists are going to Hell?' I replied "I think God will deal with them in a way that we will see was worthy of the loving and just Creator of the universe" - the same answer I'd give now, almost four decades later, and pretty sophisticated for a complete newbie.
When the staff member came back, he said "Hey, I don't know what you told Sherry, but it really helped her." I told him what I'd told her. With a big smile, he said "
Great answer! Of course, they ARE ALL GOING TO HELL!!!" I knew then I wasn't destined to fit into this brand of Christianity.
Over the decades, I came to see bibliolatry as the single greatest problem in Christianity. Trying to pretend that the Bible is a consistent whole with a single divine Author, all pointing toward Christ from Genesis 3:16 onwards, all portraying facets of a single omnibenevolent, perfectly just Deity, free of errors or inconsistencies, all the pieces fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle if you just understand how to assemble them properly - well, it's the route to what I've come to view as a form of insanity.
It's why you have otherwise sane and intelligent people trying to convince themselves and others that there were dinosaurs on the Ark, the Cambrian Layer is 5,000 years old, and perhaps the speed of light was different at the creation 6,500 years ago (just to cite a few obviously silly examples unworthy of a bright 5-year-old). It's why you have sincere and well-meaning people scrambling their brains with rationalizations such as I set forth in my first post for OT passages that are obviously irreconcilable with an omnibenevolent, perfectly just God. It's why you have kind and decent people telling themselves that they and their neighbors are "depraved" and "unworthy" and their best deeds are like "filthy rags" when they know perfectly well they aren't. It's why you have something like 30,000 ostensibly Christian denominations with massive schisms between many of them, endless strife within churches, within denominations and between denominations. It's why Christendom spends more time fussing and feuding over Bible passages and doctrines than on anything Jesus was actually talking about. It's why you have hordes of non-Christians looking at Christianity in bemused befuddlement and saying things like "The only miracle of Christianity is that anyone believes it."
Bibliolatry obviously looms larger within some segments of Christianity than others, but it's pretty pervasive. Where it isn't pervasive, it's replaced by a demand to substitute the pronouncements of supposed authority figures, none of whom has any more of a pipeline to God than you do, for your own God-given reasoning abilities and discernment. So I go my own way and have for many years. In "going my own way," of course, I consider and incorporate the views of many, many mainstream Christian (and non-Christian) scholars and leaders - I just don't let them do my thinking for me.
I don't think my Christianity is wildly unorthodox. If you're thinking "I'll bet he doesn't believe in Essential Doctrines 1.4, 2.7 and 4.8," odds are you're wrong.
On many doctrines, I basically do what I did with Hell in my discussion with Sherry many years ago. I doubt very seriously that the loving and just Creator of the universe is going to allow billions and billions of His creatures to burn in eternal torment for no good reason (and I
do mean "for no good reason"), but maybe He is. For now I'll just trust in His ultimate goodness. Do I really think God cares exactly how we conceive of Him or Christ? No. The Trinity - what does it even
mean? Most Christians couldn't begin to explain the history or content of the doctrine - they just know "it's something you gotta [pretend to] believe." Are Jehovah's Witnesses doomed because the "merely" believe Jesus is the firstborn of creation? Come on. Can anyone read the Gospels and seriously think Jesus was talking about getting 95% on a 20-question exam for entrance to Heaven? Can anyone read them and seriously think Jesus was talking about anything resembling what Christianity has become? Well, yes, some can - but I can't, and I'm not going to make myself crazy by pretending I can.
I don't jettison the Bible. I read it regularly. A few months ago, I read the entire thing from cover to cover (Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines!). I think it contains much wisdom and spiritual truth (Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines!). I "get" the myths of Genesis, the story of Exodus, etc. I just don't worship it or view it as some divine Ouija board to be consulted as though I couldn't think for myself. I supplement it with a vast array of other materials, including materials from other religions that are equally profound and insightful.
I once said on another forum that my recommendation to a new believer would be to read the Bible 2-3 times from cover to cover over the course of a year and never pick it up again. Just get on with your Christian walk. The essential themes of the Bible could be summarized in two typewritten pages.
I'm not going to get into a discussion of "my" Christianity because then it would appear that I was setting myself up as some sort of authority. I worry about
my salvation,
my relationship with God, not how God is going to deal with you, the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Buddhists, the Southern Baptists or the atheists. I "work out
my salvation with fear and trembling" (well, perhaps not with a whole lot of fear and trembling, but at least with sincerity). I've seen enough actual evidence of God in my life that I'm not too concerned that I'm on the completely wrong path or in the grip of demonic forces ("Yes he is!!!" cries the chorus).
Those who need the security blanket of an infallible, literally true Bible that must be consulted on a daily basis, or of ostensible authority figures to do their thinking for them - go for it! I don't say you are "wrong" or that I'm a better Christian than you. It's just
not me, and I'm not going to pretend it is. That's why I ended my first post with "Take it for what it's worth. Your mileage may vary."
I'm just wondering, so I HAVE to ask.
