“Well metmom, if you can find the link, let me know, because that’s the first instance I’ve seen on FR of someone who believes in evolution saying those intrepret the bible literally are “not Christian”.”
I thought you’d never ask.....
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2335541/posts?page=285#285
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2335541/posts?page=291#291
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2335541/posts?page=292#292
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2298227/posts?page=32#32
For the record as well, I don’t know anybody who insists or demands that the entire Bible be read in a literal, word for word fashion, without recognizing poetry, song, parable, metaphor, etc.
There’s an unfortunate tendency amongst many evolutionists to portray one who reads Genesis as being a narrative and fact, and in some cases literal, as demanding that the whole Bible be read in a literal word for word fashion. That is not the case.
I believe that every word is inspired and true, but not that everything be read as literal. If that were the case, then one would be in a position of making some absolutely absurd readings of songs and poetry. And then there’s the problem that when Jesus taught in parables and said they were parables, if one read them literally, one would be reading them contrary to the express intent that Jesus Himself said He was giving them in.
You just can’t read as literal what Jesus said wasn’t.
That whole issue of believing in evolution is so complex. Salvation is not based on one’s view of creation and the *correct* interpretation of Genesis, it’s based on Christ’s work on the cross and our faith in it.
No one has any business telling someone who believes in evolution that they aren’t a Christian or that they are going to hell for that reason.
Personally, I think that God did the best, most concise job telling us what He did in the fewest words possible. And that is that He created different classifications of animals with potential for great variation, but that life did not evolve from single celled creatures over billions of years. The Bible clearly indicates separate creation events for the different categories and twice it says that God used the dust of the earth for the raw materials.
IMO, that precludes the kind of macroevolution that most of the evolutionists adhere to.
There are many Bible scholars who have different views about the age of the earth and the number of days of creation and what they mean. And most sides have some strong arguments to support their positions, and some weak areas which work against it.
Nobody that I’ve seen has a completely satisfactory explanation that totally meshes Scripture with what is observed in the fossil record.
I know that’s heresy to some adamant YECers, but that’s the way I see it.
As opposed to that one trouble maker, I could probably find about a dozen different freepers on crevo threads, beating up anyone who believes in evolution as "non Christians"
So then who's being more of a bully and coming on those threads to tear down other Christians?