On 12/04/2006, at 1:31 AM, Dave Land wrote:
One view -- a minority view in Christianity -- is that the Bible
is a human product, not a divine one.
Or that it is a divine one but with the errors inherent in human
transcription, which is a similar but distinct position to the one
that you mention. Another is that the OT is there for the history,
but as Jesus represents a new covenant, only the gospels represent
the part of the bible of direct relevance to Christians.
The Bible records certain people's wrestling with who God might be
and how they might relate to God. The value in such a book (which
is definitely NOT to be worshiped, but can still be taken very
seriously) is that it lets us know what our spiritual forbears
thought and believed, which might inform our understanding of God
and our relationship to God. It also contains some historically-
factual events.
It has been said "The Bible is true, and some of it actually
happened." Problems arise when our (modern, Western) ideas of the
equality of "truth" and "factuality" are layered on top of writings
that didn't originate in the same understanding of truth and
factuality.
Indeed.
Unfortunately, that's all I have time for right now, but I do hold
that there is value in the book, and it is not that it was handed
down from deity.
This I understand, and it is the moderate Christianity that I grew up
with. But the same questions apply - how do you pick and choose?
Charlie
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
