RE: Can a xtian god be free?
April 21, 2011 at 4:02 pm
(This post was last modified: April 21, 2011 at 4:03 pm by fr0d0.)
Hi everythingafter
The evidence of the exact meaning of the text is derived from the text itself, taken with the best understanding of the people saying it and what they would have meant by it (by studying them from other ancient text). Studying it in depth I would challenge you to find much validity in interpreting it more than one way.
You say it says "God made the heavens, Earth and stars, etc." ...yet it does not. It actually uses the word "bara" for creation, which is never used to denote material creation from nothing, as we would force our own materialist/ scientific interpretation upon, but actually means "to organise". So God organised what was already there. <--- this is a literal and exact interpretation of the text as written... and not re-interpreted to try to shoe horn it in to our present thinking on the cosmos and it's beginnings. The bible doesn't actually ever address material creation. What Genesis is about, if you're interested, is setting out the stage with God at the centre (day 7). Every things function is described and how that fits in this theology.
I get that from good & thorough investigation of the text and a desire to interpret it as correctly as humanly possible. I believe all of the bible is equally as transparent.
I would also refer back to innocent understanding. A young child can get the whole thing without knowing the detail. Something that feels so right is what I believe an innocent understanding entails. That is as profound a belief, if not a stronger belief than one that is educated in the finer points.
The evidence of the exact meaning of the text is derived from the text itself, taken with the best understanding of the people saying it and what they would have meant by it (by studying them from other ancient text). Studying it in depth I would challenge you to find much validity in interpreting it more than one way.
You say it says "God made the heavens, Earth and stars, etc." ...yet it does not. It actually uses the word "bara" for creation, which is never used to denote material creation from nothing, as we would force our own materialist/ scientific interpretation upon, but actually means "to organise". So God organised what was already there. <--- this is a literal and exact interpretation of the text as written... and not re-interpreted to try to shoe horn it in to our present thinking on the cosmos and it's beginnings. The bible doesn't actually ever address material creation. What Genesis is about, if you're interested, is setting out the stage with God at the centre (day 7). Every things function is described and how that fits in this theology.
I get that from good & thorough investigation of the text and a desire to interpret it as correctly as humanly possible. I believe all of the bible is equally as transparent.
I would also refer back to innocent understanding. A young child can get the whole thing without knowing the detail. Something that feels so right is what I believe an innocent understanding entails. That is as profound a belief, if not a stronger belief than one that is educated in the finer points.
