*Alward: Quality of CCBE Posts (to Chief @ Bill)
JAlw@aol.com JAlw@aol.com
Tue, 10 Nov 1998 16:25:32 EST (00910754732, 8f45bfd4.3648af4c@aol.com)
In a message dated 98-11-10 16:08:57 EST, you write:
<< Subj: Re: The Quality of CCBE Posts
Date: 98-11-10 16:08:57 EST
From: blackfoot@mail.utexas.edu (chief blackfoot)
Sender: owner-errancy@infidels.org
To: errancy@infidels.org
>BERNE
>
>Language is to communicate, and if you are not clear
>you will be misunderstood. Perphaps hebrew and greek
>are not clear languages, they are dead languages now,
>only studied by bible scholars for the most part. If
>YHWH was so perfect, and according to him, he gave man
>language, and he wanted his word to be known and
>understood, then he could have given us a langauge that
>was clear and not ambiguous, then there wouldn't be all
>this debate about what particular words mean. So much
>for YHWH being perfect, he did not deliver a language
>that did that. And if he knew the future as he claims,
>he would have known that debates about what the bible
>means, because of ambiguous languages would develop in
>time, and did not take steps to prevent that. Maybe he
>simply wants as many people damned as possible, and he
>does not need Satans' help.
=====================
Joe Alward:
It seems that some fundamentalists believe the Lord deliberately caused his
inspired writers to write some verses in a manner which would confuse its
readers. The Lord did this for two reasons, the believers say:
1. Separate the Wheat from the Chaff
The Lord wished his Bible to be confusing to all but the most faithful.
The key justification for this belief is represented by passages in
Luke, Mark, and Matthew which deal with the reason Jesus speaks to his
disciples in parables. We show here the passage in Luke.
"And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and
hearing they might not understand." (Luke 8:10)
Thus, those who will be welcomed into the kingdom of God will have no
trouble understanding Jesus' parables, but the unbelievers will remain
in the dark. In the mind of the believer, the psychology seems to be:
The more difficult the harmonization of certain verses, the more
tortured the logic, and farfetched the interpretation, then the more
certain is the sign that the Lord put those verses in his Bible as a
test--a means of separating the wheat from the chaff, to determine who
will gain the favored seats in heaven, and who--perhaps--will be cast
into hell. Thus, the believers feel that the greater the effort they
expend in attempting to harmonize the Bible, the greater will be their
display of faith, and, therefore, the more certain and secure will be
their seat in the heavenly kingdom of God.
2. Force His Flock to Study Harder
Roger Hutchingson (an inerrantist from Maryland) with whom I once corresponded
told me the Lord made the Bible difficult to understand in places in order to
make
people study the Scriptures. If there were no unclear verses, he claims,
then he would not be pondering the meaning of those Scriptures. He
believes he would become lazy and probably ignore even the clear
Scriptures. But because unbelievers bring up the issues, he is forced to
study and understand the Scriptures better, and to pass the wisdom to
other believers. This is what God wants.
One has to wonder, however, why an ominipotent, omniscient god could not
have figured out that the easiest way to make his word known to man is
to hard-wire it into the DNA of everyone of us when we are conceived.
Also, Roger seems unwilling to understand that his god should not
have to make the Bible difficult to understand in order to "make people
study" it; the only thing the all-powerful god should have to do is
"make people want to study" it, period. His god has the power to do that
without tricking his flock into studying. God can have whatever he
wants, when he wants it, so why should he play games; his only opponent
is himself.