This morning I had the privilege of doing the children’s talk in St Thomas’s – and it reminded me that I had meant to post this (and the following one) from when I preached in January as part of an ‘apologetic’ series. The two sermons “Who is Jesus?”(I will try and post this later) and this one “Can the Bible be Believed Today?” sum up what we are trying to do and the heart of our message. Both are from Acts 17….
Why Should We Read, Hear and Trust the Scriptures?
Yes
Hi, Matthew
Which parts?
All of it, as long as you rightly divide it (2 Timothy 2 verse 15)
So you consider the tales of Adam and Eve and Noah and the global flood for example to be historically and scientifically reliable and accurate?
And for what it’s worth, isn’t 2 Timothy regarded by critical scholarship to be pseudoepigraphical?
Again a simple answer, yes I do. I assume by your response that you do not. We are unlikely to persuade each other by comments on a blog.
All scripture is inspired by God, so the argument that 2 Timothy may be pseudoepigraphical is a straw man.
Do you believe the first four words of the bible? If so, we can have a constructive discussion. If not, then we will always be oil and water.
Oil and water? If you accept there is historical and scientific veracity to the takes of Adam and Eve and also for Noah and a global flood do I understand by this that you a) deny the scientific evidence that refutes both these tales and b) are a Bible literalist and possibly even a young earth creationist?
You have not answered my question. If your answer is No, then we have no basis for dialogue. In this case your position and attitude would be like with a flat-earther, where no rational discussion is possible,
If your answer is Yes, we could continue, perhaps somewhere other than this comments section?
If you recall , Matthew, you answered your own question in actual fact. Remember?
However …., you also mentioned this.
In the beginning, God …
I’m not exactly sure what you are asserting/asking here asking me about these four words but I’ll take a guess you are asking if I believe in the god, Yahweh?
As you have probably surmised, I am not a Christian, therefore, my current position based on the complete lack of verifiable evidence is no.
But this would likely change if verifiable evidence were to be presented.
Oh, and just a heads up, I do not do well with the question: ”What evidence would convince you of … etc”, ( as I have already stated what evidence) so I’m asking you nicely not to immediately throw this into the mix.
Interesting. How do you know this to be fact?
Again the reply in my previous paragraph holds true here as well.
I agree. I think we have probably exhausted David’s patience/hospitality already.
I do not do email or Facebook communications so if you are amenable, I will put up a post on my own blog and open a thread for you to present your case in the comments.
It might also be helpful if you were to choose the title of the post and we can take it from there.
I do not censor or moderate in any way and you are absolutely free to write whatsoever you wish in the comments.
I believe it could be a very interesting and lively discussion.
Let me know?
Ark.
Thank you for taking the time to reply at length. As stated, we have no basis for dialogue, in my experience this never results in an interesting and lively discussion, but would quickly descend into a mud-slinging argument (often from both sides).
Having said that, I would be most interested to visit and read your blog, please let me know what the name is.
@ Matthew
If you click on the image of my Gravatar I’m pretty sure my blog will come up?
However, just in case,
https://attaleuntold.wordpress.com/
I think G K Chesterton, writing in Orthodoxy, said something about the ‘natural’ being mysterious and supernatural. Maybe the natural-supernatural separation is a product of the enlightenment, and one which has got into the church and the heads of preachers?
Yes – the Bible characteristically talks of the ‘seen’ and ‘unseen’ worlds both of which belong to the Lord. Faith is “seeing him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27)