JonF said:
If that is what you were responding too I think you are weakening his position unfairly.
Allow me to explicate his argument:
1) Biblical scripture is always true.
2) Moses equated six days of creation to six days of work in scripture.
3) Six days of work are a reference to 24 hour periods.
Thus: Six days of creation were 24 hour periods.
What exactly in this argument do you challange?
Biblical scripture is always true..
anyone's interpretation of Scripture is not the same thing as Scripture itself.
which of all the interpretations of Gen 1 is the true Biblical Scripture? how do you know that?
what does "always" true mean?
if God is accommodating Himself to human thought patterns and is using ANE cosmology to form and construct the OT, then is He teaching this cosmology as culturally transcendent? that is must we conform to the ANE cosmology and abandon our current scientific understanding in order to be faithful to the Scriptures and to God? Does He require this in order to assent to the authority of Scripture? Because Gen 1 uses a flat earth, solid firmament, lights as holes in the crystal, hell underneath your feet, heaven just outside the firmament, do i have to deny the value and truthfulness of modern astronomy?
Moses equated six days of creation to six days of work in scripture.
it works both ways equally well.
Moses justified the Sabbath requirement by making the preamble for the Treaty of the Great King major motif the Creation Week capped by the Sabbath. The Sabbath in the Law was read back into Gen 1 as a justification, as a great literary motif, as the pattern for Creation, it says nothing about the modern scientific and historical knowledge of cosmology which was not even thought of 500 years ago, let alone 3000+ years.
Did God really rest on the 7th Day?
no souls created? was providence operative?
what does it mean for God to rest? isn't it an anthropomorphism, with a purpose?
Six days of work are a reference to 24 hour periods.
so, framework interpretation says as much.
btw.
these are the kind questions.
any good atheist worth his time will ask you:
Biblical scripture is always true
how about which Bible? which canon? which OT version?
do you even know how many of each exist?
could you recognize the truth if you saw it?
which truth, with 3K+ Christian denominations there is little agreement on anything.
always? does this means all cultures, all people, all times? how can you make such a blanket statement. even the prohibition against murder is not universal.