An Example of Why I Struggle With Answers In Genesis

I listen to and read a lot of apologetic material. When it comes to issues in which Christians come down on different sides of the fence, I try to listen to multiple points of view. So in studying creation issues, I listen to and read books from what are commonly known as young-earth creationists and old-earth creationists.

That being the case, I subscribe to several podcasts that are delivered by the ministry run by Ken Ham known as Answers In Genesis to listen to a young-earth perspective. He has a daily podcast that is a short, 90 second podcast with an obviously short answer to an issue. One that I listened to today is title A Colorful Rainbow, But What's the Message?

Obviously he was talking about Noah's flood. Now respectable Christians are divided over the extent of the flood. Some believe it was global, some believe it was local. Generally speaking (not always), old-earth creationists lean towards a local flood while young-earth creationists lean towards a global flood.

Where I really had a problem with Ken Ham's commentary was at the point where he posed a question . . . Why is it that so many Christians want to insist that it was a local event? His answer . . . They want to accomodate the evolutionary belief in millions of years for the fossil record.

This is a horrible strawman fallacy by Ham. I don't listen to a single old-earth creationist that teaches macro-evolution and buys into the supposed fossil record for macro-evolution. Why does Ham make a statement like that? I don't know. However, this is one example of many from him that cause me to have a difficult time listening to him. I can listen to him as he asserts his reasons for holding to a young-earth position, but as a Christian, I think it's a shame that he didn't accurately represent those Christians who have an opposing view to his.

The Gospel According to Snoopy

This past weekend my wife, a teenage friend and I participated in a two day seminar presented by Dr. Daniel B. Wallace entitled The Gospel According to Snoopy. It was a great event and I would encourage you to put together the funds to bring Dr. Wallace to your church to do this event if you are a person that has the influence in your church to do so. One important point though is that it is an interactive event in which you will need at least 50 people for this event to work. If you cannot get that many together, then it would be best to find out where Dr. Wallace will be presenting this and traveling to participate.

So what is this event about? Dr. Wallace is a scholar whose expertise is in textual criticism. Dan is/was the New Testament senior editor for the NET Bible. He was also a consultant for the TNIV, ESV and NKJV. A book of his that I owned prior to this event is Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics.

There are two types of textual criticism: higher and lower. Higher textual criticism deals with the questions of who wrote a book of the Bible, where they wrote, and why they wrote. Lower textual criticism deals with the question of what they wrote.

We often only hear negative comments about textual criticism and it is usually, if not always, about liberal higher critics. You might recognize this as JPED theory of the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible). However, higher and lower criticism are required fields of work and as Evangelicals we must engage these fields.

Dan's seminar is about lower textual criticism, i.e. how scholars determine what the text originally said. For example, in John 5 of the KJV and NKJV there is a verse 4 which talks about an angel that came and stirred up the waters and people would jump in to be healed. Most modern versions have this as a footnote or don't have it at all. Why? The answer is that some Greek manuscripts (a manuscript is a copy that is written by hand) include this verse while others do not. Dan's Snoopy seminar teaches you how scholars conclude what to include and what not to include and he does it by having it be an interactive seminar in which you get to be a lower textual critic. He starts by getting 22 volunteer scribes. Dan has an original verse from an ancient text. He has three of the scribes make a copy from the original. Then he tosses the original because just as we don't have John's original gospel or Paul's original letters, et al, so the group much re-construct the original verse without having the original.

Dan utilizes the 22 scribes to have copies as far as 5 "generations" away from his original verse. When we in our seminar finished we were within one word of the original which Dan showed us at the end. In the end, we added one word to his verse and that word didn't change the meaning of the verse.

Here's another good piece of info: the manuscript differences we had to filter out were much more substantive than what scholars have to deal with in regard to the Bible. According to Dan 90% or so of the manuscript differences are spelling differences. He informed us that back in the days scribes were copying, they didn't have Webster's dictionary to go to in order to make sure they spelled each word correctly. People spelled phonetically in those days and so not everything got spelled the same way. After spelling, the next major difference were synonyms. Again, no impact on the text.

I would encourage you to try to get this seminar at your church. This seminar greatly impacted my wife. This has been a hobby-horse of mine. Most of my posts about King James Version Onlyism have to due with lower criticism. I've been studying this subject for about 15 years. But I read books and enjoy reading books on it. Not everyone does. The interactive seminar impacted my wife in a way similar to how I was impacted 15 years ago when I first heard a scholar discuss this issue in detail. And it can impact many in your church and increase their confidence in the text that we have. The Bible that you and I carry is extremely reliable. Is it perfect? No. Scholars don't know every single word that the apostles wrote. There are some points at which they aren't 100% sure of what was written. But we have no verses that there's any doubt about in which there is substantive change. The only doctrine that might be affected would matter to snake handling churches. Not too many of us are into that.

Dan sold autographed copies of his book Reinventing Jesus which he co-authored with two other men. Go to that link and buy a copy. As I pasted that link, it was being offered at 60% off retail price. I also stopped at home between sessions and grabbed my Greek Grammar and asked Dan to sign that too. Not only did he sign it, he personalized it, which was nice considering I didn't request that.

If you don't have the opportunity to see this seminar, I can recommend a DVD which covers a lot of the detail. Dr. Wallace was a guest on the John Ankerberg show. It's called The Battle to Discredit the Bible. I own this DVD and much that Dan said is in that DVD. I've shown this DVD to my group of teens on Tuesdays. The main difference is the DVD isn't interactive the way the Snoopy Seminar was. Great stuff. Talk to your pastor, contact Dan and have him come out to your church. And remember to make sure you have at least 50 people coming.

What I'm Up To & Quesitons For Blaugmenting

This weekend I spent time participating in a two-day seminar with Dr. Daniel B. Wallace. The seminar is called The Gospel According to Snoopy. I am writing a post about that which should be available in a couple days. Other than that, I'm trying to get some reading done, particularly finish off volume 1 of Dr. Norman Geisler's Systematic Theology. I'm getting close. The only problem I see is that Geisler's theology book is so rich and has so much good information, once I finish volume four, I think I'm going to need to start all over again with volume one and re-read it all over again.

Also, although the readership for Blaugmenting is small, I'd like to state clearly that I'm always open to answering questions of apologetic or expositional nature here. Feel free to send questions you'd like answered on Blaugmenting to trustgzus@sbcglobal.net.

Additions to my Widget

If you've browsed my blog, you may have noticed a "widget" on the right side that lists what I'm reading. I modified it today. Removed one book, added several.

I'm almost done with Dr. Norman Geisler's Systematic Theology volume 1.

New book I added include:

• Christian Apologetics by Norman Geisler
• The Fingerprint of God by Hugh Ross
• Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 1 (I thought after being a Christian for 23+ years that I was due to read the Church Fathers)
• Reckless Faith by John MacArthur

Wrapping up with Eugene Peterson's The Message

2009 is coming quickly to a close. That being the case, it is about time I provide some comments on the Bible version/translation/paraphrase or whatever it is I've read for this year. This year I chose to read The Message by Eugene Peterson. I'm currently reading a second time through the New Testament. The only parts I haven't read yet are Psalms 119 & 117.

Interaction I've had with others and commentary I've listened to or read from others is mixed. I've heard a lot of negative criticism of The Message in the circles I'm from. Amazon has quite a spread, largely positive. However, I don't find Amazon counts helpful. Many reviews don't give enough detail. That being said, here is the spread from Amazon as I type this post of mine:

• seventy-four 5 star reviews
  
• fifteen 4 star
• five 3 star
• three 2 star
• twenty-one 1 star

Along with the fact that some reviewers at Amazon don't give enough detail, another problem with Amazon reviews and counts is that they can be misleading due to the fact that some people just don't understand the system. Any book that has many reviews, such as this, inevitably have people that think 1-star is awesome.

A common criticism that I read is that The Message isn't a translation. People who make this criticism are making one of two mistakes: either they don't understand translation or they fail to understand what Peterson was trying to do. Many who give this criticism think that translating is taking one word from Greek and/or Hebrew and putting one equivalent word in English. They take the phrase word-for-word in a wooden literal sense and that's their view. Because of this misunderstanding, I don't even use the phrase word-for-word anymore. I used to understand translation this way.

The fact is that if that is how one understands translation, and if that is their requirement, then English has no true translation of the Bible. Even versions such as the New American Standard and King James aren't word-for-word throughout the whole thing cover to cover. The closest thing to that is an interlinear. Try an interlinear cover to cover using the word order of the Greek and Hebrew.

I've learned from people who are bi-lingual or multi-lingual that translation doesn't work that way. I know only English really. I'm lightly equipped with Koine Greek - not in any way that would impress a student who has completed one semester.

Let me paste a paragraph from my blog post How to Choose a Translation . . . to illustrate the point.

For example, in Spanish people evidently say ¿Cómo se les llama? If we "translate" that word-for-word it would be how yourself call? But we don't say that in English. A proper translation in English would be what is your name? Yet, so many don't treat the Bible that way. In Matthew 1:18 we read ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα. If this were translated literally it would be having in belly. The King James says with child. The NASB reads to be with child. Guess what, gang? That is dynamic or functional equivalence in the KJV and NASB. None of those words in the KJV or the NASB are in the Greek. True translating asks how do people say that in this language?

So, let's make no mistake about it, no English version is a translation the way folks using this argument would have us think. The last sentence in that paragraph sums up what Peterson really did to the nth degree . . . how do people say that in this language?

Peterson was not trying to make a formal translation. So let's not judge it for what he isn't trying to do. I don't complain that my microwave oven doesn't do a good job cutting wood because I didn't buy my microwave oven to cut wood. My microwave oven wasn't designed to cut wood.

I've pasted this paragraph from Peterson before, but let me paste it again so we can understand his goal.

The Message is a reading Bible. It is not intended to replace the excellent study Bibles that are available. My intent here (as it was earlier in my congregation and community) is simply to get people reading it who don’t know that the Bible is read-able at all, at least by them, and to get people who long ago lost interest in the Bible to read it again. But I haven’t tried to make it easy—there is much in the Bible that is hard to understand. So at some point along the way, soon or late, it will be important to get a standard study Bible to facilitate further study. Meanwhile, read in order to live, praying as you read, “God, let it be with me just as you say.”

Peterson, E. H. (2002). The Message : The Bible in contemporary language. Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress.

With that information from Peterson, we need to do two things with that information:

1. evaluate if that is indeed what he accomplished
2. evaluate if that is a valid approach to bringing the writings into English

I am out of time for the moment. I will post more on this. However, let me say that on the one hand I see no need to vilify Peterson's work completely. On the other hand, I see no reason why we must make a broad sweep the other direction and say we like how he handled every verse or passage. Reality is probably in the middle (as it so often is) and I think that's where I stand on The Message. I hope you are blessed as I discuss this in the coming posts.

The Manhattan Declaration?

There is a new website for a document called The Manhattan Declaration. My first awareness of this was when Norman Geisler posted on Facebook that he signed it and that all of his friends on Facebook should read it and sign it too.

That draws my attention. Few have the influence to persuade me to do something as much as Dr. Geisler does.

My friend, Brian Bill (pastor of Pontiac Bible Church) posted a link to an article by a friend that's very influential to him. It's a post entitled Why I signed "The Manhattan Declaration" by Ray Pritchard. In that post, Pritchard provides the following reasoning . . .

I signed it because it represents a united front of Christians from many different backgrounds. I think it’s a positive thing when Catholic, Orthodox, and evangelical Christians can unite around issues of common concern. And I signed it because the declaration is well-written, thoughtful, carefully stated and yet bold in what it says.

Pritchard then posts two paragraphs from it and concludes by writing . . .

That will put some steel into your soul. God bless those who had the courage to write the Manhattan Declaration. May the Lord use it to give us new resolve to do God’s will in these days of growing moral confusion.

I don't find Pritchard's reasoning convincing at all to cause me to sign it. Albert Mohler wrote a piece by the same title. I think his is a little more compelling.

I read the declaration myself. I agree with it. My question is . . . so what? Don't misunderstand me. The issues are important. I'm very opinionated on what the declaration addresses. I have reasoned responses I give for those stances. I agree that we should stand with Catholics and Orthodox Christians on social issues that we share in common. Heck, I'm willing to stand with Mormons, JW's or even atheists on common moral stances in regard to social issues.

But what will signing The Manhattan Declaration do? I already have the attitude that it promotes. Am I just being a party pooper here? I don't think it gives enough "umph" in it to persuade those who disagree with the positions stated in it. Should I sign it because I agree with it and it's there?

I get e-mail chain letters that I agree with except for the ending that threatens me that if I don't send it on then somehow I'm a weak Christian. To me the declaration seems like a more formal e-mail chain letter.

I think we can still overturn Roe v. Wade. I think we can prevent same-sex marriage from being sanctioned in our country. I don't see what this does to accomplish those goals. I'm sticking to these principles whether I sign it or not. The best thing that I know that I can do with the Christian teens in my study and the Christians I work with is teach them how to think. If I know the reasoning behind my stances, that will make my footing and theirs more solid than the fact that they or I sign a document.

Dr. Geisler (or anyone), what am I missing?

How to Study a Book of the Bible

On Tuesday night we started a new study for our teen night at Lincoln Street Fellowship. Our new study is through the epistle of James. The text we are working through for the study is Warren Wiersbe's commentary, Be Mature.

I'd like to share with you what I've encouraged the teens to do. First, I encouraged them to read the entire book every day for a month. I was taught this idea by John MacArthur. John has written this in many of his books. Here is one example . . .

The Bible has a flow and a context, especially the letters from Paul, James, and others. When somebody writes you a letter, you don’t stop to read a nice line, then jump two pages to find another good thought. You read it through, to understand the flow of thought.

So, sit down and read 1 John through. Are you through? Hardly. The next day read 1 John through in one sitting again. On the third day, do it again and so on for thirty days. Do you know what happens at the end of thirty days? You know what is in 1 John. Nobody can trip you up. Where does it talk about forgiveness of sins? 1 John 1:7–9. Where does John talk about how and why God is love? 1 John 4:7–21. For warnings about loving the world too much, see 1 John 2:15–17. For the promise of eternal life, see 1 John 5:11, 12.

Those are just a few obvious samples. You’ll be able to see 1 John in your mind’s eye—the location of every verse, where every line fits. Best of all, you will have the flow of the book and understand its basic message. Then go on to another short book and do the same thing for thirty days. Always read the book through in one sitting, every day, for thirty days. At the end of thirty days, you’ll have another New Testament book in your heart and mind as never before.

MacArthur, J. (2003). Unleashing god's word in your life (98). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

That book was released in 2003, but I've been doing this since I was a teen, so obviously MacArthur has said this in many places as I've been doing this for over twenty years. I picked this up from his book How to Study the Bible.

As I've stated in my Bible reading tips, I encourage using a pointer as one reads, such as a simple #2 pencil. Also play an audio Bible as you read along, then either speak it out loud or at least mouth the words. This gets many senses in: your eyes, ears, hands and mouth. This really gets me engaged, avoid distractions and absorb the material.

I also gave each student a disc with lots of material, i.e. sermons and teachings by multiple pastors. Most of it is downloadable for free off the internet, so I'm not concerned about giving away material illegally. Most of this the students could have retrieved for themselves.

Each disc included:

• a single message from Ray Stedman (message 0260 if you want to listen to it)
  
• a single message from Sandy Adams (this is available for free through iTunes -- just go to the iTunes store and type in "bible scan" into the search box and you'll get this podcast -- I paid $20 several years ago to own what is now free -- it was still money well spent)
• a two-part teaching by Chuck Smith (scroll down to James for the two messages)
  
• 8 messages by Jon Courson (you can listen for free, but it costs to own -- sorry Jon, I'll buy these for the students if that's what you require)
  
• J. Vernon McGee's teaching through the book

Now while I gave these things for free to the students, I purchased all of these from the various pastors (except for Stedman . . . I'm not aware of where I can purchase his messages so his are all downloaded). Most of this stuff isn't that expensive. So if you want download some samples but if you like their teachings, please support them by purchasing a set.

J. Vernon McGee's entire audio commentary is only $35. That covers the entire Bible. Chuck Smith's is only $33.99. Jon Courson's entire teaching through the Bible is the most expensive at $100, however, that's 15 years of teaching from him. That's hundreds of messages for dirt cheap when you divide the total number of messages by $100.

I'm not requiring the students listen to any of these. Nor am I requiring them to read James every day for thirty days, although I'm highly encouraging that. The sermons are there for them (or their parents) to dig into James to the degree they feel inclined. Obviously, the more they dig-in to it, the greater benefit they will receive.

I also included two audio Bible versions of the epistle of James for the students to listen to. One is in the primary translation we use for our study and the other is in an easier to understand translation. I included these to encourage and assist them in reading through James for thirty days.

Lastly, I included two Bible reading plans. One is the plan used by Shoal Creek Community Church. The other is the Discipleship Journal reading plan. I encouraged the students, if they can, to use the Shoal Creek plan. That's what I've used for 24 years. However, it is unforgiving. You get one day off every four years (February 29th). So if you fall behind, you get backed up quickly. I talk about how to deal with that in my post on Bible reading tips. That being said, it's the most rewarding. It gets you through the Old Testament once and the New twice each year. So if a student in my group is 15 and starts doing this in January, at 20 years of age he/she will have read the OT five times and the NT ten times. That will do more for their walk than any Bible study they can do with me (or with anyone else) during that time.

The Discipleship Journal (DJ) plan I gave them because ultimately my goal for the teens (and adults involved with Lincoln Street) is to read their Bible every day. The DJ plan can be modified. You can get through the Bible in a year (and that includes missing 65 days in the year). You can cut it in half and read the Bible in two years (even while missing 130 days). Least of all, since it has boxes to check off next to each reading, I encouraged the students to read at least a box a day. Often this is just two paragraphs that takes 5 minutes if you read slowly. Reading a box a day would take 1200 days to read the Bible which is three years and 105 days (or just under 3-1/3 years). Still pretty good because in ten years a person will read the Bible three-plus times.

I'm looking forward to seeing Jesus impact the lives of the students and adults (including myself) as we study the epistle of James together.

Pastor Removal From Television!

Have you ever gotten an email like this . . .

SUBJECT: No more Joel Osteen, TD Jakes, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, or Charles Stanley ???
PASTOR REMOVAL FROM TELEVISION

Please, if you don't wish to participate, return this email to whoever sent it to you so they can at least keep this email going, or forward it to some one you know who will wish to participate.

Dr. Dobson is going on CNBC to urge every Christian to get involved. I hope you will sign and forward to all your family and friends.

An organization has been granted a Federal Hearing on the same subject by the Federal Communications Commission ( FCC) in Washington , D.C.

Their petition, Number 2493, would ultimately pave the way to stop the reading of the gospel of our Lord and Savior on the airwaves of America . They have 287,000 signatures to back their stand! If this attempt is successful, all Sunday worship services being broadcast on the radio or by television will be stopped. This group is also campa igning to remove all Christmas programs and Christmas carols from public schools!

You as a Christian can help! We are praying for at least 1 million signatures. This would defeat their effort and show that there are many Christians alive, well and concerned about our country. As Ch ristians, we must unite on this. Please don't take this lightly. We ignored one lady once and lost prayer in our schools and in offices across the nation. Please stand up for your religious freedom and let your voice be heard.

Together we can make a difference in our country while creating an opportunity for the lost to know the Lord.

CLEAN UP THE MESSAGE, and forward this to everyone you think should read this.

Now, please sign your name at the bottom (you can only add your name after you have pressed 'Forward'). If hitting the Forward button does not work for you, then cut and paste this message into a new email letter.

Don't delete any other names, just go to the next number and type your name. Please do not sign jointly, such as Mr. & Mrs., each person should sign his/her own name.

Please defeat this organization and keep the right of our freedom of religion. When you get to 1000 please e-mail back to:

XXXX XXXXXX

I've gotten many over the years. If you clicked on the link in the first line of this post, then you saw that I copied this from urbanlegends.com. I copied it from there simply because I don't keep these emails that attempt to drive Christians into baseless fear.

If you go to that link, you can scroll down and see another very popular email from years past which announced the attempt to cancel the television show Touched by an Angel. I assume we don't get this email anymore for the obvious reason that Touched by an Angel is no longer a current running show.

So why do these internet chain letters continue? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Why You Need to Live for Jesus in Your Current Situation

I love Jon Courson. I could not teach everything he teaches from the Bible. Sometimes he does some play-on-words to teach things from a text which the text doesn't teach (of course, what he teaches, I agree with -- I just couldn't justify using some texts the way he does).

Check out this commentary he made while going through the book of Numbers. This is why it's important for people like me to work for the electric company and why it's important for other to work for fast-food chains, et al.

Numbers 35:1 (b)–5

… saying, Command the children of Israel, that they give unto the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and ye shall give also unto the Levites suburbs for the cities round about them. And the cities shall they have to dwell in; and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts. And the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about. And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits and the city shall be in the midst: this shall be to them the suburbs of the cities.

Serving as ministers in the tabernacle, the tribe of Levi was not given any portion of the Promised Land. Instead, the Levites were to be scattered throughout the entire country. The rest of the tribes were told to give certain cities to the Levites as places in which they could dwell. As we shall see, these cities would number forty-eight.

If the Levites were only in one tribal region, people who weren’t close to them wouldn’t get the proper ministry. So they were scattered throughout the entire country. And that’s what the Lord does with us. The Lord has snuck His servants into the most amazing places. He sneaks Christian teachers into high schools to be subversive, secret agents, Levites, reflections of Jesus Christ. He sneaks Christian salesmen, secretaries, and accountants into the workplace to be examples of what it means to be a believer. He sneaks Christian doctors into hospital rooms as ministers of the gospel.

This is such a key. Each of us who is serious about Jesus is in ministry. We are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). And He’s stationed you in that work place, that neighborhood, that family to be a servant of His. It’s a great day indeed when a believer looks at his work as his ministry and says, “I’m surrounded by people professional pastors would never have an opportunity to reach. I’m here on campus, at the store, in the neighborhood not just to work for a paycheck or to raise my family, but to be a minister. So I’m going to keep my eyes open and my antennae up in order to determine the part I am to play in this place for God’s glory.”

Courson, J. (2005). Jon Courson's application commentary : Volume one : Genesis-Job (532). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.