Sleestak Theology
I realize my titles might sound offensive but some of the claims of fundamentalism today sounds as incredible as the titles suggest. Sleestak Theology? The sleestaks are those creatures from the classic Land of the Lost TV show that had humans trapped in a dinosaur world. Some of the claims of fundamentalism today seem to be as unrealistic as lizards, grunting cavepeople, dinosaurs, and humans all hanging out (in the show just mentioned).
Christians who try and make the Bible into a science book have always run into trouble. This doesn’t mean the Bible isn’t sacred or the word of God but the writers of the OT and NT were not writing a science book but a book of theology and a story that tells us how God has connected to humanity. You don’t learn algebra from the Bible nor do you learn how to fix a car and that’s OK. That wasn’t the purpose of Scripture.
However the Creation debate (young earth vs old earth, etc) is not really the issue. The real issue is how do we read the Bible?
The Bible is not one book but sixty six books. Each book is not the same. The Bible contains books that are poetry or rich in visual imagery as well as history and doctrine. You don’t read Revelation and Matthew in the same way. The books in the Bible represent different types of genre. Much work has to be done to study the background, authorship, context, and intent of Scripture. Genesis 12 and following takes up the story of Abraham and lays the ground for a narrative that teaches us about the formation of the Hebrew people from which we as Christians believe God brought Christ in the NT. In fact Genesis didn’t fall out of the sky but rather is a book that gathered oral stories and was edited by many authors much later (as were the other parts of the Torah). And so Genesis itself can not be thought of in the same way you might think of a contemporary book that was written by one author in one setting.
Genesis 1-11 has been read in many ways and still taken seriously. Some see it as straight narrative and others as metaphor. There is not a uniform and ‘one view’ of the way to read Genesis 1-11 and for young earth Creationists to say that their view is Biblical and no other view is would be rather arrogant to say the least. At least the Old-Earth Creationists and ID folks are willing to be open to science and are not so dogamatic.
The main point is to ponder what Genesis 1-11 is teaching us rather than spending millions defending the idea that humans with bow and arrows rode dinosaurs. What does this story teach us about ourselves? God? Sin? Evil? Our purpose today? In a class I once taught a woman said, “I’m not concerned with how God created the world. I wasn’t there. I am concerned about what I’m supposed to do today.” It is interesting that many of the same people who talk about creation and defend a young earth view do not seem concerned about global warming or the environment today. One would think that such folks would be leading the way to protect the earth from the destruction we are doing to it today.
The Bible is God’s Word but it can be misused and abused. Some who no longer believe in God came from literal reading backgrounds and when this approach did not work for them they walked away. That’s the story of popular author and scholar Bart Ehrman. If only they had been shown there were other ways to deal with particular issues than just saying, “The Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it.” Maybe the Bible said it or maybe it didn’t. Or maybe the Bible said it but not in the way we were told it was said!
N.T. Wright’s “The Last Word” tackles what is wrong with a literal and a liberal reading of the Bible and I really like his balanced view of how we as believers can approach Scripture.
I do believe the Bible is inspired by God. I do believe it is holy and God’s word and totally trustworthy for us today. I do believe Scripture shapes, enables, and guides us today. I do believe we need God’s word. I believe there are core truths but that the details sometimes are interpreted differently by different people and that there will always be more questions than answers. The core truth is that God created the world. How God did it is the debatable part. I don’t think science has all the answers or has it all figured out but I do not fear science. I believe science and history affirms God. I believe the Bible is the most amazing book ever and it reveals God’s story to us which is also our story. I simply accept there are issues we will struggle with and that hard work is needed to understand Scripture.
I will write more as I have time!
Derik
** -”Did the serpent really speak aloud to Eve?”
-”Mam, it doesn’t matter if the serpent spoke or not. What
matters is what he said.” *
I found this poll very interesting and quite surprising from Christianity Today:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/features/poll.html
Not to sure how long this link will be active but to summarize approx 60% of its readers believes in some type of literal creationism (old or new earth) and approx 25% believing in a theistic evolution.
Also on that site was a review of a book trying to convince young-earth creationists to abandon their view. The comments that it generated were quite full of vigor and venom from both sides of isle. By reading through those comments one would think that Christians fall into one of two categories: either you don’t believe the word of God (aka unChristian) or your just an idiot blind to science.
A balanced view is real hard to find because the extremist always seem to have the spotlight. I wonder how many are kept away from Christ due to extremist views because that is what is typically seen and heard. A lot of Christians out there are just plain scary! And unfortunately I believe decisions to come to Christ or not, are greatly influenced by the actions of Christians instead of Christ.
Francis Collins had a good line in his book “The Language of God” that went something like this: Blaming Christ for the actions of Christians is like blaming the air for spreading lies.
Blessings back to you!
b