aharvey said:
Gee, then why is it so hard for Christians to agree amongst themselves on how it should be interpreted? Indeed, I’m inclined to agree that it is straightforward, and am baffled that folks interpret text that is clearly symbolic/poetic/allegorical in tone as a literal history....See above. Very few people read the Bible and interpret it the same way, unless of course they choose to take someone else’s word for it.
Anyone who gives a private interpretation is clearly defiant of the Word, itself, which says that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any private interpretation. The Word, itself, interprets the Word. Isolation of a text from the whole leads to distortions and confusions. The Scriptures are one Book, with one story, from Genesis to Revelation. The creation; the fall of angels and man; the redemption of man; the judgment of angels and man; and the regeneration of the heavens and the earth: and who, what, when where and why is the theme running throughout the Book.
aharvey said:
I’m glad you think so, but that's not really my point. Why do you think it’s a bad thing for learning more to change the way you think about something?
I know only instinct (the wisdom put in my heart by the Creator) and nothing about how to think about anything other than the natural instincts, if I have not read -and FYI, I'm a compulsive reader, so reading boring things was a compulsion from my earliest days (which I have tried to break myself of by being more discerning in my reading and accountable with my time), and have found no wisdom in man's writings that can disprove what the Word of God has told me.
The point on science being nothing but a body of changing beliefs by fallible men and not an entity, a being..., is that if you put your trust in 'science' then you have put your trust in something that really does not exist as a thing that can defend itself or be truth in and of itself. There is not one body of writing -that is written by man- in any science that is not disputed by another man in that science; all boils down to opinions that keep on changing. God's Word does not change and has never and can never be disproven. And God has not hidden in His Word, deceitfully or craftily, things that refute the open plain statements about His creation. He did it the way He said He did it and He did it in six ordinary (almost) twenty four hour days as we know them; and the evidences of the global one time flood are worldwide for anyone to see; but scoffers are willfully ignorant of the evidences and the truth of His Word.
aharvey said:
Um, so the passenger pigeon is not really extinct, or it never existed?
pigeons exist and did exist. Pigeons are not extinct; therefore, passenger pigeons can also branch off the mainline at any time -again. Variety in the kinds is a flowing thing. it happens, and can happen again and probably happened in the past. Genetic information is not lost after all, apparently; according to the discovery of a -flax plant, I think it was- that had reverted back to the parent stock after many generations though it was genetically modified. the discovery totally astounded the 'scientific' community -that was aware of it, last year. Passenger is a modern name. The same could have existed before as a branch and can exist again -if it is important to the Creator, He'll regenerate 'passenger' in the regeneration of the earth.
aharvey said:
And let's be honest: you wouldn't cotton to an "insider" who disagreed with your views on why it's okay to plunder God's creation either, would you?
Define plunder. Do you mean using the earth, as God gave it to us to use? Man is the king and the caretaker of the earth; but the earth is created for man's benefit, not for the benefit of the earth, itself. And there is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before. plants grow all by themselves according to the command given in the beginning, and animals reproduce according to the command given them in the beginning and all for the 'king'; 'Adam and ben Adam'.
aharvey said:
Well that does make things easy for you: why worry about protecting what we’ve got now, given that God is going to burn it all to a crisp one day anyways!
God will burn, melt, regenerate the planet -and the heavens- in His time. He is LORD and not I. and He gave us this planet to have dominion over (but Jesus came and bought it back, cause our first father sold it), and we are to occupy till He comes.
aharvey said:
I've heard a lot of descriptions of critters from non-biologists that have the same tone as yours, and they quite often turn out to be something very different from what the person thought they had, so you'll pardon me if I don't just take your word for it.
You don't have to take my word for anything, for then I would be greater than God, in your eyes, as the non-existing entity called 'science', is to you, now.
aharvey said:
Ya gonna lynch all them thar varmints?
Actually, I put a bounty on them; grandkids get a penny a slug. I consider them very much a part of the curse -or out of their place because of the curse.
aharvey said:
How do you figure? Just because you haven’t found its name? You’ve made it pretty clear that learning out about this stuff is not your thing. I’ll bet there are tons of plants and animals in your area that you know nothing about, but that hardly means they are unknown to science!
My point was exactly that no one knows it all -if you go back and re-read what I wrote, you'll see that was the conclusion that I've come to; there are few 'masters'.
aharvey said:
And I’m telling you that you are misunderstanding the book’s intent. No book exists that covers every single species of plant and animal found in the Pacific Northwest. I don’t suppose you care to provide the title of this book?
The actual title of the -falling apart- book on my shelf is, 'Plants and Animals of the Pacific Northwest' -it is funny, though; I only think of it as 'Flora and Fauna...' and it was printed by the U of W Press. I've had it so long that I related it to the U of W, only. I used to live near the U of W Arboreatum and loved to visit daily -and hubby and I came to the Pacific Northwest because he planned to attend their School of Forestry, originally, but he got sidetracked by a new program offered at a local college in undersea technology, and went there instead -I digress..
aharvey said:
Does the first sentence have anything to do with the second? You have given me a sense about your interests and attitudes, but I’d hardly claim to be an expert! And yes, I’ve read the Bible cover to cover many times over my life. That’s why I find Biblical wooden literalists to be a strange and kinda sorry bunch. Y’all seemed to have drawn some pretty extreme conclusions before reading the Book.
Obviously, I am completely fundamentalist in my approach to the Word of God and to the constitution. God will defend His Word; but he put in the power of the 'people' of this nation the authority to defend the constitution -and if we do not, we have no one to blame but ourselves: unfortunately, as long as the wicked are in this world there is war against God and man.
I didn't read the book before I met the Author in such a conversion experience (I was a rebel before) that I would never have dared to believe that He could deceive or lie: I met Him as the Holy Creator of me, and the one most life changing experience of that meeting was the absolute knowing that He is Holy. I was taught evolution in school and thought that somehow (mysteriously, as it was never explained) it blended with the Creation; but after taking up the Word of my New LORD, and reading it, I was confronted with the absolute straightforwardness of His declarations and was asked, personally, what I would believe, 'now'; by that still small voice spoken in a sentence to me that only I heard. It was a moment of truth and I thought about it and said to Him that I would believe His Word, no matter what I did not understand, just as He said it. Amaxingly, He then began to bring into my path all manner of proofs of the creation, evidences that it was just as as He said it, that had been repressed in the government schools that I was brainwashed in.
My own children's brains were then washed with the pure water of the Word and given the abundant evidences of Creation to show them that God is not a man and does not lie.
On reading the Bible; how is it that you approach it, then? -as the Word of God or the words of man?
aharvey said:
No need to tut tut me. I guess you missed the irony. Ah well.
I guess I did, for I had not claimed to know everything about anything, and had said that I know little; but one thing I do know is that there is not any man who knows everything about anything, either.
I don't know what a wooden literalist is. I am fundamentalist in believing God said it and meant it. He gives us His plan in the oracles given to the Jews and explains them in those oracles; but many miss the message, as there is a dual meaning in all that He gave in the oracles; but they are there to learn for anyone who is interested.
I hope you have enjoyed my own opinions in replying to yours. Now; shall we get back to the theme of the thread?
