Replies

Why do I remind you of Saul?

I have asked for a discussion exclusively on the terrain of the advocates of Creationism. I have agreed to leave out ALL references to EVERY OTHER THING other than Scripture Alone - Sola Scriptura - and I have even agreed, without a fuss, to use the King James Version of the Holy Bible, not some modern tendentious translation, and not the Catholic or Jewish translations (which I personally believe to be more accurate than the KJV).

I know Protestants cherish the KJV above all other Bibles, and I am perfectly willing to stipulate to it, and only it.

So, I've cleared away ALL of the deadwood.
No arguments about SCIENCE.
No extrinsic arguments.
One pure text, using Scripture Alone - the ACTUAL WORDS of Scripture, as inspired by God.

I haven't even promised an argument, just said we will read it for what it literally SAYS.

And you compare me to a man who sent Jews to their deaths.
Nice.
But ON WHAT BASIS do you do so?

I am willing to discuss the subject with you ENTIRELY ON YOUR TERMS, using JUST THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD, in the KING JAMES TRANSLATION.

Instead of rolling up your sleeves and saying "let's go", confident that your inspired text, read directly, will show the right and the light, you compare me to a murderer.

Are you afraid to read your Bible literally with me?
Do you fear that Scripture Alone, Sola Scriptura, doesn't really say what you want it to say?

All I said is "Come, let us READ IT, YOUR FAVORITE VERSION OF IT, and we'll use JUST THAT, JUST THE WORDS."

And inviting you to open the King James Version of the Bible with you reminds you of Saul of Tarsus, tormentor of Christians, killer of Stephen.

Wow.

If I remind you of a Pharisee, before we have read a line of text, it is in your imagination. Saul and the Pharisees sought to crush out any dissenting views. Me? I have offered only to read the Holy Text with you, word for word.

I have taken up the challenge of every evangelist who has ever called to me from radio or television or streetcorner or doorstep. I have opened my KJV and read it, carefully and closely, and what I find there bears on the conversation about evolution.

So, I want to talk about evolution and the creation of the world from a STRICTLY SCRIPTURAL perspective, Sola Scriptura, and you curl up your lip in hatred at me: I remind you of the killer of Christians.

Wow.

Well, you're invited to join the conversation with scottdeus and ThisLittleLightofMine. All we're going to do is read the text, literally, closely, word for word. I didn't write it. I cannot twist what is there. It says what it says, what it says it means, and what it says and means were inspired by God. Do you fear what you might find there?
You should.
Because what you will find there is confusion and contradiction.
And what's more, that confusion and contradiction are not even subtle. They're hanging out there for the world to see. Why would God do that when he inspired the text? Perhaps to hang a great big red flag on it that said: SEE THESE CONTRADICTIONS? Since this is all my word, and it conflicts, obviously you CAN'T discard one part in favor of another. You have to accept both, and they conflict, which means that I am not telling you that story, I am telling you something else. Pay attention to what I am telling you, not the trivial details which I MADE not line up, just so that you COULDN'T obsess about the details.
The errors there are inspired and intentional, specifically to trip up efforts to take the text strictly literally. It CAN'T be taken literally, it contradicts itself. God knew what he was doing when he inspired that text.

And if you take your Sola Scriptura deadly seriously and read what God really inspired there, you will suddenly have it hit you that the muddle and conflict was MEANT to make the story literally unbelievable. God never intended to tell how he created the world with that text. He intended other things by it. So that nobody could make the mistake, someday, that Creationists make, he foresaw the problem of the literalists, and made the text LITERALLY conflict with itself in key ways that aren't subtle. Just so that the text CAN'T support creationism.

THAT is what you will see in the Scripture itself, word-for-word, from the beginning, if you will actually READ it.

In telling you that, I do not sound like Saul.
What I sound like is JESUS.
YOU sound like Saul, twisting on the hook because your TRADITIONS do not stand up to the actual Word of God.

So DO join us in our quest straight to the literal word-for-word text of the King James Version Genesis. It does not support Creationism. It blows it utterly to smithereens.

Start with "the beginning".
Then move to the water.
Then see the naked problem of the birds.
And of the fish and whales and death "entering the world".

And when you stagger out of the ACTUAL TEXT with the stunned realization that God was not telling the story you thought he was, maybe you'll see that God MEANT you to learn many OTHER lessons from it.
Or, more probably, given your Saul comment, you'll pick up a rock to stone the one who brought you the message.

Saul indeed.