The following is an exercise I’m doing in a class I’m teaching at the moment. These are common questions, asked by theologians and laypeople. Marcus Borg, for example, would, I think, answer ‘no’ to all of them (see his book ‘The Heart of Christianity’). Fundamentalists/ Conservative Evangelicals would answer ‘yes’ to most/all – illustrating Borg’s distinction between the hermeneutics of the ‘Earlier Paradigm’ and the ‘Emerging Paradigm’… Brian McLaren’s in between (see ‘A Generous Orthodoxy’): his answers would be mixed, I think. Try it with a mature group: it will make for some interesting discussion!

THE BIBLE: WHAT’S ‘NECESSARILY SO’?

‘The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible ain’t necessarily so’.

The following are questions which have come up in pastoral conversations:

Is God a ‘giant male’ with male organs, beard etc.? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Was everything created in six 24-hour days? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Were Adam and Eve, Noah and Abraham real people? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Did the flood-waters in Noah’s time cover Mount Everest? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Did everyone speak the same language before Babel? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Did God order the slaughter of the Amalekites – men, women, children, infants (1 Samuel 15:3)? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Did God regulate/legitimate slavery (in both OT and NT)? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Does God care whether we wear garments made from two kinds of cloth (Leviticus 19:19)? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Did everything in the Book of Jonah actually happen? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Did all/some/none of Jesus’ parables Jesus actually happen? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Did Jesus actually walk on water? Yes [ ] No [ ]

If Jesus was ‘truly God’ did he, as a baby, ‘hold the whole universe in his grasp’? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Did Jesus rise physically from the dead? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Did Jesus defy gravity at the Ascension? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Will Jesus at the second coming descend from the sky and take the church to heaven, leaving most of humanity to suffer on earth? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Is a sick person more likely to be healed if they’re prayed for? Yes [ ]

No [ ]

Is there a real literal hell where the majority of humans will be tormented forever ? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Does God love Christians more than he loves Muslims? Yes [ ] No [ ]

–

Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/

Justice for Dawn Rowan – http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/

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