A New Discrepancy
Farrell Till jftill@midwest.net
Tue, 4 Nov 1997 23:01:53 -0600 (CST) (00878727713, 199711050501.XAA25124@cdale3.midwest.net)
At 06:11 PM 11/4/97 -0700, Chris Ashton wrote:
>THE BIG FISH
>>The problem occurs in two accounts of the same event, the story of the first
>>Gentile converts to Christianity. Acts 10 states that Peter went to the
>>house of Cornelius and preached a sermon that begins in verse 34 and ends in
>>verse 43, after which it says that "(w)hile Peter yet spoke these words, the
>>Holy Spirit fell on all them that heard the word" (v:44). However, when
>>Peter returned to Jerusalem, he was questioned about what he had done. In
>>recounting the event, Peter told how he had arrived at the house of
>>Cornelius, where he was told about a vision in which an angel had advised
>>Cornelius to send for Peter who would speak to him words by which he could
>>be saved. "And as I BEGAN to speak," Peter said to his accusers, "the Holy
>>Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning" (11:15). Hence, one
>>account states that Peter preached a sermon before the Holy Spirit fell on
>>the household of Cornelius, but at Jerusalem Peter said that the Holy Spirit
>>fell on Cornelius and his household as Peter BEGAN to speak.
>>
>>Maybe some inerrantist on the list can tell us why this is not a
>>chronological discrepancy, which means that there is at least one error in
>>the Bible.
>
>CHRISA (in advocatus deii mode)
> Oh, come off it, you cheeseball! :-) Is the Bible so coherent that
>you have to nitpick at such insignificant and imaginary little grammatical
>squabbles? So one account says the Holy Spirit came while Peter was speaking,
>and the other one as he was beginning to speak. How can you possibly see
>a contradiction here? Both descriptions are completely appropriate and
>point to a descending of the Holy Spirit towards beginning of his sermon.
>
> I'm glad that I don't know you in real life, Till, I am afraid our
>conversations would resemble the following (shamelessly copped from Glenn
>Miller's supersite):
>
>ME: "Till, where was the man when he jumped off the bridge?"
>He: "In the air, of course..."
>Me: "No, that was AFTER he jumped."
>He: "Well then, he was ON the bridge when he jumped."
>Me: "No, that was BEFORE he jumped."
>He: "Hmmm...are you sure he jumped?"
THE BIG FISH
You don't know how much I thank you for that response. Apparently, you
haven't been following the debate between Matt Bell and me on the issue of
Cornelius's conversion, or you would have known why I posted this as a
discrepancy. Obviously, it is not a discrepancy, because if the Holy Spirit
fell on Cornelius as Peter BEGAN to speak, then it fell on him WHILE Peter
was speaking. The one is just more time specific than the other, but Matt
has painted himself into a corner on the purpose of Holy Spirit baptism in
this case of conversion, and so he can't admit that Acts 11:15 means that
the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius as Peter began his speech or sermon.
Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net