A book arrived from Amazon.com today sent by a friend who thought I needed to read it. He'd heard through mutual acquaintances (our wives) that I was skeptical about the chain of evidence for today's modern Bible and the impact it had on fundamentalist beliefs.In particular, I thought there are a lot of folks who argue endlessly about the literal meaning of words in the Bible as the word of God but never ever talk about God's divine hand in choosing which books should be included or not included in the document. Did God almighty inspire the Easter letter of Athanasius or the Council of Carthage? Was it direct divine intervention that caused Martin Luther to reject the Apocrypha 1200 years later? It's hard to reconcile a singular focus on the meaning of each individual phrase and word with various historical decisions to strike or add entire books ... unless you assume God's hand in it.
The book is "Scripture Alone" by James White, and my friend's thought was to help me work through these doubts. So far, although it's very interesting, it seems aimed at slightly different issues: specifically stripping away Catholic and Mormon claims to divine messaging beyond the four corners of the King James.
I'll keep reading through. Overall, it's a thoughtful gesture to send the book unbidden, whether it hits the mark or not. So I appreciate it!
2 comments:
Thanks for the music advice, but Weezer makes me think about high school *shudder*
thx Alex. I'm old enough that it doesn't ... which says something right there.
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