Words that struck a cord - 9/12/2010

I have been processing and digesting over the last couple of days some things I have been reading a book called The Controversy by Donald E. Chittick. A part of my pondering became very clear to me this morning during the worship at Living Waters Special United by One Service at St. Martin's Pavilion. We sang a few worship songs and I am not sure if it was one worship song or two that spoke about joining in worship with all of creation. Now it may seem weird that I can't tell you if it was two different songs or one song but I was so deep in worship and thought I just can't dig that information from my head. And as some of you may know music and memory are not strong points for me. Another layer that added to my thoughts, about what I am going to share, was a portion of Pastor Burt's message this morning also.

Let me start by presenting a question. How do you view the Bible? Is it a history book? A collection of myths, legends and stories? Or how about a guide, a rule book, a self help book or just simply a religious manuscript? Do you see it as fact or fiction? Maybe like many you find some parts easy to hold as true and factual and other parts as story and fiction. For me today it became clear that this question is an important one. If you are a Christ Follower, a Jew, a Muslim, a Pagan, an evolutionist, an atheist or whatever other category you can find out their your view of the Bible effects how what is contained in that book can effect or interact with your life.

Pastor Burt brought it to a point by saying there are two positions we can take with the Bible. Either it is true or it is false. Lets narrow this down just a bit and focus on a specific portion of the bible which is what Doctor Chittick was focused on that started my pondering. Lets look at the book of Genesis and to narrow it further let us go back and ask ourselves the question about our view of the first 11 chapters. If you attend Sunday school as a child you may remember some of the events and people talked about in these chapters. Does the creation, the fall, the flood or the tower of Babel ring a bell? Or how about Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel or maybe Noah. Where these just stories to teach children or are they historical events in the history of man kind? Let me share with you some of Doctor Chittick's words in regards to a theological/scientific stance which many have taken over the year called Theistic Evolution which simplified means God used evolution to create the world.

The Controversy: Roots of the Creation-Evolution Conflict
Chapter 6: Truth and Consequences

If theistic evolution is adopted, there are consequences. A straightforward natural reading of the Bible cannot be used. One must manipulate historical statements into myth. Hence one must always be on guard against the normal, natural meanings of words in the biblical text on creation because they indicate real historical statements rather than myth. Such an approach tends to kill enthusiasm for Scripture. The creation account in Genesis, if studied in detail, is extremely exciting and fascinating. However, if one is told that it has no basis in historical fact and is just a myth or poetic writing, the excitement vanishes. If one must superimpose myth on what seem like natural historical statements, why stop at the first few chapters of Genesis? What is to prevent later statements which seem like historical events from being translated as myth? One could do this throughout the Old Testament and on through the gospels and epistles as well. This not only greatly diminishes one's enthusiasm for reading the Bible, but it also leads to serious doctrinal consequences.
Another effect of theistic evolution is to diminish enthusiasm for evangelism. The burden of explaining to a non-christian how to account for statements that seem historical but must be interpreted as myth is a massive burden. The first eleven chapters of Genesis are the ones that talk about the creation and the fall. If these are mythical, how then can we say that the fall is an actual event? If the fall is not an actual event, then why do we need a savior?

Doctor Donald E Chittick

Here is my final thought. We must decide what we believe about the Bible. What good does it do to worship God and call Him the Creator or talk about joining all of creation to worship God if our view of creation is based on what we have deemed a myth, just simply a story. It is like saying I worship you oh God the story maker and I will join with the story to worship you. That to me almost doesn't sound worth saying or believing.

If you need more to help you with your pondering and digesting try reading 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Here is just a small taste of Paul's words.

1 Corinthians 15:1-5 (New Living Translation)

1 Now let me remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and still do now, for your faith is built on this wonderful message. 2 And it is this Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it -- unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. 3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me -- that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the twelve apostles.