One of the things that continues to strike me about your arguments is definitely not a lack of intelligence as you are very well versed, but is the failure to see the use of foreshadowings contained throughout the Bible. Each foreshadowing is comprised of an actual event to give light to a later more profound event. This too plagued the Israelites all throughout history, they looked for David to come back to be their king, they had no idea that David was a mere glimpse of the Heavenly King who would rule all of Earth.
God does not use metaphors to describe the spiritual, He uses nature and history as clear indicators to be clearly understood so as no one would have an excuse. The Old Testament is God using actual events to foreshadow the redemption to come.
In Romans, we get a picture of humanity as a whole, yet in 1 Corinthians we get a more in depth explanation of how God used Adam in history. The word man and Adam are used independent of each other, they are not being used interchangeably, so there is a great deal of significance placed on how they would be read. The significance becomes profound if one understands that the passage is saying that because sin had a beginning by a specific act, and even that single act of disobedience was planned for by God.
The passage in Genesis (3:15) clearly shows that while Adam had sinned, we learn in Romans that we are all Adam, it is not the other way around and that Adam is all of us. Since the first Adam sinned and the last Adam died, so it is with all Christians, we have all sinned, and like Christ we must pick up our own cross and die on it so Christ may live.
There are so many events in the Old Testament which are parts of the ultimate reality unveiled in Revelation, that is the final revealing of Christ in all his glory. One that I find very intriguing is the book of Ruth and the Kinsman Redeemer, but again this is another example of God using a foreshadowing so that we will have clear understanding as to what Jesus was doing on that cross.
The ultimate purpose of the Bible is salvation, God meeting every requirement to reconcile us to Him in a vassal sezarian treaty with us.
I think you have misunderstood me. I almost entirely agree with you here. The overwhelming majority of the Old Testament is grounded in actual history. There is great parallels and themes through each era and despite the hundreds of years between the writings of these texts, and the various authors used for them - this is a testament to God's workmanship through the authors!
But these are all narratives that demand historical value to be of value. Where we differ in opinion is that you believe this to be true of the opening chapters of Genesis, and I believe it not to be true. A big part of this is the ancient near eastern histories and religions. I believe in this thread, I showed how the creation account of Genesis 1 works well under the view that it uses ancient near eastern cosmogynies to speak a powerful truth of Yahweh over the ANE pantheon (may have been another thread, too many pages to scroll through and look
The opening chapters of Genesis serve the function of establishing a theological framework for the historical narratives to take place.
Perhaps I can give you an example with something from outside Genesis.
In the majority of ancient near eastern religions, the ruler of the gods (the king, the high god, etc..) was a storm god, similar to zeus. He fought with lightning, and appeared in theophanies as fire, whirlwind, storms, even earth quakes. The storm god (for references to two major ones, see Marduk or Baal-hadad), is challenged by the sea god for rulership over the pantheon and creation. So the storm god fights it off. In about half the accounts he defeats the sea god with an arrow, and the rest are mixed, such as Baal who used dual weilding maces (must have been tier 13 to defeat Yamm).
Now come to Psalm 77. The author is expressing how great Yahweh is. He exclaims his powers and refers to historical events, but watch what happens come verse 15.
Psalm 77:15-20 said:15 With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
Selah
16 The waters saw you, O God,
the waters saw you and writhed;
the very depths were convulsed.
17 The clouds poured down water,
the skies resounded with thunder;
your arrows flashed back and forth.
18 Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
your lightning lit up the world;
the earth trembled and quaked.
19 Your path led through the sea,
your way through the mighty waters,
though your footprints were not seen.
20 You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
to express the exodus in as powerful a way as he can think of, he uses the storm god story to convey Yahweh's power. It would be easy to assume this is simply a reference to the parting of the red sea, but the arrows, the whirlwind, the whole thing screams Marduk! The epic storm, all of it points to Marduk's battle with Tiamat. Yet here the author is attributing these actions to Yahweh, and using them as metaphor, sandwiched between the begininning and the end of the exodus.
Myth not only can be used to express truth, but on occasion it actually is used to express truth in the Bible.
Since we seem to be coming at an impass, for the sake of the thread we should step back and talk again when we encounter each other in another thread in the future. I hope you reply with your thoughts on this post, but unless you have a specific question for me, I probably won't post anymore, and let you have the last word.
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