----- Original Message ----- From: "Edmund Storms" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 11:34 PM Subject: Re: Evangelical environmentalists
> > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Edmund Storms" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com> > > Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 5:57 PM > > Subject: Re: Evangelical environmentalists > If the Bible is literal truth of the physical reality, then the writers > at that time would have had to be given knowledge about how the world > was created and what would happen in the future that no normal man could > have at that time. Instead, the Bible contains conflicting statements, > allegorical descriptions of creation, and predictions of the future that > can be related to events only after the fact. Two hundred years before king Cyrus of Persia was born, the prophet Isaiah foretold by name (44:28 - 45:7) that Cyrus would be the one to release the Jews from Babylonian captivity in 522 BC. The prophet Micah, writing around 700 BC wrote in (5:3) about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. When the wise men arrived at Herod's palace the scribes looked it up and told them where to find Him! King David in Psalm 22 wrote a description of Christ's crucifiction over 1000 years before it happened. Jesus, when asked to comment on the splendor of the Jewish temple, said "not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down." This was said on Tuesday, three days before His crucifiction, and is recorded in three of the four gospels. Thirty some years later Titus of Rome made it happen. Jerusalem was leveled, The Jewish inhabitants were relocated, and the nation of Israel was no more. For the next twenty centuries, scholars, studying the Hebrew texts and the writings of the apostles, both of which would form the canon of scriptures known today as the Bible, would be perplexed at all the prophetic statements regarding the restored nation of Israel. It was perfectly clear that the nation of Israel was destroyed beyond any hope of restoration. That "certainty" was "proof" for centuries, to many people, that the Bible was erroneous and unreliable. But, the unimaginable happened on May 18, 1948 and Israel was once again established as a nation. The nearly extinct Hebrew language is once again spoken in the land. Ironically, the language of the empire that tried to destroy the Jews is spoken nowhere! I was born on the same day Israel was reborn. There is surely nothing prophetic in that, but it is a curious thing. Jeff >Consequently, no evidence > exists within the text that the knowledge base of the writers was beyond > what was known or imagined at the time. As a result, the Bible as the > literal word of God has to be taken on faith. The conflict with science > occurs because science attempts to take nothing on faith. This is why > science and religion can never agree. > > Regards, > Ed > > > > > >>What are scientists to make of statements given by religion > >>based on such evidence? This is rather like assuming the works of > >>Aristotle are literally true and should be the basis for science. How > >>do Christian scientists deal with this problem? > > > > > > > > > > > >
