… on Exploring Our Matrix.
Tag: bible
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Glorious Stories
… or “My Wife Reposts Me.”
Every so often I write a devotional for my wife’s devotional list. She’s been faithfully writing a devotion each weekday (with a very few short breaks) for around 10 years now. You can find here at Jody’s Devotionals. She’s a master of the short devotional form, while I’m not, but I try.
On even rare occasions, she reposts an older devotional, and today she reposted one of mine, titled Glorious Stories. I read it and found it interesting again. I rarely find re-reading something I wrote interesting. So I decided to link to it.
Enjoy! Narcissism ‘R Me!
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Would This Be Bibliolatry?
Red Letter Christians has a post titled “Is This Any Way to Treat a Bible?” which tells how a high school teacher, on seeing a student’s heavily marked Bible, held it up to the class and asked that question. The article that follows is excellent.
I would think a more relevant question would be “Is that any way to treat a student?”
But that aside, I would certainly attract the wrath (and sarcasm) of this teacher. My Greek New Testament is heavily marked, and it’s the replacement for one that I used until it fell apart. I collect Bible editions and many of them have such markings, though none so many as the Greek and Hebrew Bibles I carry with me.
More importantly, I think this displays an inappropriate emphasis on the form. The book is holy as an object, not because of its contents. The marking shows a deep interest in the contents, but the teacher misses that point, and sees only the “desecration” of the object.
Idolatry? Probably too strong a word, but it unfortunately points in that direction.
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Peter Enns on Evolution and Evangelicals
Peter Enns has a good post on what we should expect to learn from the Bible, especially Genesis 1 & 2, regarding origins. Good, as far as it goes. The problem that I see is that too few interpreters are going all the way. He has a new book out on the topic, Evolution of Adam, The: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins
which is available for pre-order on Amazon.com.
We need to hear a bit more talking about how one deals with sin and atonement in the context of evolutionary creationism. Perhaps he goes a bit further on that in his book, which I definitely intend to read.
I’m also editing two manuscripts on creation for my company, Energion Publications. Both will be released before summer. The first is on creation in Scripture, while the second deals with creation as a Christian doctrine. I plan to provide some quotes as work progresses.
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NLT Giveaway on Facebook
I just got notice of this giveaway in e-mail. I may get a free gift for telling you, but it happens I already own what they’re giving away. Nonetheless, this looks like something worthwhile to enter, and besides, I like the NLT.
To quote:
Starting on November 29th until December 24th at the New Living Translation Facebook page we’re giving away lots of great prizes and something free for you just for singing up.
By visiting the giveaway entry page (located on the NLT Facebook page, the link is under the profile picture) and entering your name and e-mail address you’ll be entered to win the following prizes:
- One random person each day will win a Life Application Study Bible Family Pack (Guys Life Application Study Bible hc, Girls Life Application Study Bible hc, Student’s Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible Large Print hc).
- One Random person each week will win an Apple iPad 2!
Everyone that signs up gets a free download copy of the Life Application Bible Study – Book of Luke!
So head on over and sign up. It can’t hurt, and it could be great!
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Revelation Requires Interaction
In my book When People Speak for God I used the story of the one-ended telephone cord. Edward Vick makes the same point in much more profound language than I used.
But even should someone intend to make known to me what I would otherwise never come to discover by myself, I shall not in fact know it unless I respond. The intention to reveal oneself, and the intention to know the other are not sufficient in themselves. Revelation takes place when there is giving and responding, an interaction between agents who are both free and purposive. Revelation is communication. Revelation takes place when what is ‘provided’ is grasped, what is ‘offered’ is ‘taken’, what is spoken’ is ‘heard’ (From Inspiration to Understanding, 174 [in advance copy]).
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Revelation and a System of Doctrine
I really enjoy the last few days of work on a pending book release, because I include an opportunity to read the final form of the book at a more reasonable pace and without the constant distraction of working on editorial changes. Well, I should confess that I’m also always going crazy with production issues, but we’ll leave that to one side.
Right now I’m doing my final run through From Inspiration to Understanding: Reading the Bible Seriously and Faithfully by Edward Vick. It’s an enjoyable process. I’m going to comment on it a bit more later. Today I’m just going to use one quote, regarding revelation.
But the meaning of the Bible is not exhausted by being made the basis of a system of doctrine. There is much that escapes when ‘Bible’ and ‘system of doctrine’ are conflated. In fact, while by no means denying the importance of doctrine (why should a theologian do that?), one must say that if the importance of the Bible is made to consist in its being construed as a source of doctrine, it is being severely reduced, misunderstood, and indeed distorted. Revelation is not reducible to the communication of propositions, and faith is not identical with assent to propositions, in this case propositions repeating biblical statements, or being inferred or worked out from them (emphasis mine).
Note that Dr. Vick is not suggesting, as the context makes even more plain, that there are no propositions involved or that propositions have no value. Rather, revelation is much more than and other than that.