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For creationists: How would you know?

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theFijian

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Except Jesus called us to have a child-like faith, not a child-like mentality.
 
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shernren

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Actually, there are at least two different endings of the Gospel of Mark. These days, most scholars reject the longer version as authentic; though you'll still find it, usually with a note explaining this attached.
Fair enough, but IIRC one ending is just a truncated version of the other, instead of offering any new and divergent information. Doesn't this still fall within the scope of my argument?
 
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cerafim

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No problem, you argue about apples, I'll argue about oranges. The Torah, old testament or however you want to refer to it is as accurate as any document can be. And you're comparing your argument against your own evidence, which shows you the victor. Run your arguement down with my evidence in my previous post. You'll find that your reference to homer has no validity.


The Bible is a collection of documents. One could say in a sense that they are records of events, thus making them historical in nature. The pieces of the bible that don't include specific events aren't historical...that doesn't negate the ability for the Bible as a whole to be representative of history. An analogy would be like a movie that was based on a true story, some of which is admitted that there was poetic license used. That doesn't make the movie any less based on a true story. The trial becomes how much is true, but that is not what this debate is about.

The Gospels, of course, were intended to be historica. But certainly not in the modern sense; they were not written in order to satisfy modern academic standards of historiography.

Nope, quite right. It wasn't written to satisfy our modern sense of history any more than early languages were created to conform to our sense of grammer and punctuation. They met and specifically exceeded the needs and the practices of the day.

With all respect to Lee Strobel, he's not a theologian, and from what I've seen of his writing, he's not much of a writer either.

I didn't think you'd read it. That's not a shot, just and assessment.
 
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Deamiter

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See, this is where you provide something, ANYTHING to support your argument. You say that the Torah is "as accurate as any document can be." I submit that you are STARTING with this assumption, not coming to this conclusion. If I am wrong, show me some (ANY) support for this blanket statement about a particular document.
The Bible is a collection of documents. One could say in a sense that they are records of events, thus making them historical in nature.
... Like the Egyptian Book of the Dead or the Koran? They too are a collection of documents, and one could very well say that since they are records of events, they are historical in nature.

When we look at a movie that was based on a true story, we don't automatically assume that it is all historically accurate. In fact, we assume that parts of it are NOT. DO you have ANY reason for your assumption that the Bible is "as accurate as any document can be" or does your entire point revolve on this assumption?
Nope, quite right. It wasn't written to satisfy our modern sense of history any more than early languages were created to conform to our sense of grammer and punctuation. They met and specifically exceeded the needs and the practices of the day.
Again, you are throwing out unsupported assertions. What, specifically, were the needs and practices of the day that you claim the Bible "specifically exceeded?" In a culture where it was common to inflate the ages of one's ancestors to make them appear better than other cultures, and where it was common to link one's geneology to one god or another, how, specifically do the Biblical geneologies exceed this standard?

I didn't think you'd read it. That's not a shot, just and assessment.
Just so you don't dismiss everything I said and fail to give any support for your many claims, I'll point out that I HAVE read the book, more than once. I too have found it lacking in logical conclusions and up-to-date information (though the latter might just be because it was written quite a while ago). C.S. Lewis makes many of the same arguments, but he doesn't descend into the God of the Gaps to support his position.
 
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FijianBeliever

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Hi All,

I would like to ask, what evidence do you have that contradicts the Bible?

God Bless You All,
Isaia
 
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rmwilliamsll

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Usually when one contradicts something it is dismissed.

This kind of all or nothing reasoning about the Scriptures confuses me.

Why should i dismiss the whole Bible if Mark misquotes Isaiah? What effect should a error in one verse have even on the meaning of the next verse, let alone the truthfulness of another book or of the whole thing?

It is Dabney's reasoning about slavery. If the Bible is not correct on the rightfulness of keeping slaves then the Bible is not to be trusted at all. There is nothing in the Scriptures condemning slavery, so what? it is a complex issue that even today is not clearly solved, the evidence is that the YECists are exactly the same problem. Hermeneutics, POV, context, whole meaning and big picture vs literal, proof texting, detailed exegesis.

But that still doesn't explain this great slippery slope that fundamentalist see, why if there is an error in the Bible is it unreliable? why throw out the whole thing if you see a factual detail that is not absolutely truthful? it is this attitude that literally permeates the discussion. And i don't understand where it comes from nor why it seems so binding and obvious to people.


i understand that a substantial amount of things i think are true are actually not. it is the idea that 70% of what i think is wrong, but i don't know which 30% to work on. So what? just because i have errors in my thinking doesn't mean that i can't think. just because i reason badly at times doesn't mean that reason itself is faulty. why must the authority and inspiration of Scripture rest on it's errancy rather than it's infallibility resting on it's doctrine of authority and inspiration?

i guess i really don't understand this issue of a single issue is wrong then dismiss it. appears to be that this is the same thing that atheists do, either the Bible is truthful in everything it says or it is irrelevant. this either-or thinking is at fault, not the Scriptures.
 
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vossler

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This kind of all or nothing reasoning about the Scriptures confuses me.
Maybe it's because I see the Bible as the inspired inerrant Word of God and you don't. That really isn't too confusing. I understand your position, I don't understand why you can't understand mine.
 
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theFijian

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Maybe it's because I see the Bible as the inspired inerrant Word of God and you don't. That really isn't too confusing. I understand your position, I don't understand why you can't understand mine.
Since rmwilliams is a member of the PCA your accusation is most likely a false one.
 
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rmwilliamsll

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Maybe it's because I see the Bible as the inspired inerrant Word of God and you don't. That really isn't too confusing. I understand your position, I don't understand why you can't understand mine.

i wholehearted affirm my church's confession in

i've been through most of BB Warfield's work on the inspiration and authority of Scripture. i understand the meaning of the words our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof,. What i do not understand is the all or nothing idea. That if there is any scientific or historical error in the Bible that it is not inspired. It is not apparent in either Machen or Warfield or even Calvin. All said that there was difficult to understand parts, that there were problems that they did not have an immediate answer to, but none have a hint of this: either it is true to the smallest detail or it is entirely false idea.
 
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vossler

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Let me ask you something. Is God perfect? I think you'd answer yes. That means He's without error. If He is without error then if He were to provide us a book to live our lives from, that book would be without error also. If the book were found to be in error, even in a small part, then that calls into question the entire book. It would allow man, as he is today, to determine what parts of the book are correct and what parts are not. This really isn't that complicated and I don't know why you and others have such difficulty with that concept.
 
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Deamiter

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If He is without error then if He were to provide us a book to live our lives from, that book would be without error also.
What? Why? That makes about as much sense as saying, "if God is perfect and without sin, then if he were to create a universe, that universe would also be perfect and without sin."

And anyway, he DIDN'T provide us a book to live our lives from. He individually inspired many followers over many centuries and they wrote about their spiritual understanding. Some of his other followers collected many of these writings into a single collection. To say that the Bible was given straight from God to man is a VERY unbiblical concept.
 
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rmwilliamsll

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This argument has the signs of the tail wagging the dog.
First is the problem of the attributes of God being used to argue for the perfection of Scripture. Perfection is a uncommunicable attribute, not a communicable one. The next problem is that it assumes from the start that the Bible claims for itself either perfection or that it shares in the attributes of God in some way. This appears to make the Scriptures the fourth member of the Trinity, rather than something spoken out by God.

The argument bases the authority and inspiration on the perfection of Scripture specifically on the issue of errancy rather than the infallibility on the authority and inspiration. That is what i mean but the tail wagging the dog. Nowhere does the Scripture claim for itself perfection, but rather it makes the claim of goodness and usefulness and trustworthiness based on these communicable attributes of God. We can understand good, and suitable, and trustworthy without claiming perfection.

Look at:
http://homepage.mac.com/shanerosenthal/reformationink/bbwauthority.htm
and how Warfield makes the case for the authority and inspiration of Scripture.
he is arguing from the Apostolic ministry to the authority of the NT. Not that the apostles wrote perfectly so that perfection requires obedience.

The inspiration is foundational to the authority, not that the apostles shared in the perfection of God but that God superintended their writing so that it was what God desired. Analogous to irresistible grace, the apostles wrote human words, using their human instrumentality yet these are words suitable to God's purposes, they are what God intended to be enscriptured.

It is a complex issue, the current inerrancy debate turns the traditional arguments for the inspiration and authority of Scripture literally upside down, basing the authority of Scripture on the nature of Scripture as perfection, as if God could share this attribute with anything created. And that we are supposed to consent to the authority because of this perfection. Rather than we echo the inspiration of the apostles by being moved by the same Holy Spirit as preserved their writing.

anyhow, i am still confused. i don't see the claim in Scripture that it shares the perfections of God, nor do i see that the perfections are what makes it authoritative. but i do see the logic that if you base the authority of Scripture on it being perfection itself that any challenge to that attribute would bring the authority down as well as demonstrate that it is not perfect. Which appears to me to make the argument very brittle and unyielding to the problems of sin effecting not just the transmission but the translation and interpretation of Scripture. You are not handling the perfect Scripture when you pick up an English Bible so however can it be perfect and authoritative?

this appears to be more like the Islamic defense of the Quran as a heavenly eternal book in Arabic just brought to earth by Mohammed rather than the traditional doctrine of inspiration.
 
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