More About Interpreting Genesis 1 & 2

As a follow-up to an earlier post, I'm linking to another article by William B. Evans on interpreting Genesis 1 & 2 found at Reformation21, the blog of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.  Since he has argued for an interpretation of those chapters that allows other views than 'six literal days' he has been accused of opening the door to all sorts of aberrant theology. 

I won't try to re-post his entire article because it isn't all that long and you can read it for yourself.  However, let me draw your attention to a distinction he draws about interpreting the creation account 'literally.'   He writes: 

As we probe the interpretive significance of this cosmology the key terms here are phenomenological and conventional. This understanding of the world is phenomenological (the way the world appears to those unencumbered by knowledge of modern science) rather than mythical, which explains why similar notions occur in a wide variety of ancient and primitive cultures. It is also conventional in that it was shared by people in that cultural context generally, and in that it was not a rigorously systematized understanding...The fact that the narrative is framed in terms of this ancient phenomenological and conventional understanding of the cosmos places some limits on how literally we can interpret at least some of the details of Genesis 1. But it is quite a leap to maintain that the recognition of this ancient cosmology somehow undermines the Evangelical and Reformed doctrine of Scripture. That the narrative in Genesis 1 is framed in terms that would be understandable to the original audience rather than in a modern scientific idiom hardly means that the text is teaching the truth of that ancient phenomenological and conventional cosmology (more about ths below).  

You can read the entire piece here.  I would encourage you to do so if, for no other reason, then you will see how A.A. Hodge and B.B. Warfield approached this topic. 

If at first you don't succeed...

In the aftermath of Harold Campings failed prediction about Christ's return, Gene Veith, a confessional Lutheran poked a little fun:

So who is left? We need to hear from you. Are the Lutherans all gone? Where are the Calvinists? Did the Baptists get taken? Are the non-denominational Christians gone, or did they need to belong to a denomination after all?

Does anyone know if Mr. Camping is still here? If so, what is he saying? Just because we might not have noticed large groups of people disappearing doesn’t mean the rapture didn’t happen. Maybe the gate is so narrow that only a handful of true Christians exist. Maybe some homeless people, some New Guinea tribesmen, and some persecuted Christian Arabs–individuals no one would notice–got raptured.

Gene Veith: Blog of Cranach

So, after getting it wrong, Mr. Camping went back to his study and recalibrated.  Now the new date is set for October 2011 - specifically he is predicting that the world will be obliterated on October 21st.

Through chatting with a friend over what he acknowledged was a very difficult weekend, it dawned on him that instead of the biblical Rapture in which the faithful would be swept up to the heavens, May 21 had instead been a "spiritual" Judgment Day, which places the entire world under Christ's judgment, he said.

The globe will be completely destroyed in five months, he said, when the apocalypse comes. But because God's judgment and salvation were completed on Saturday, there's no point in continuing to warn people about it, so his network will now just play Christian music and programs until the final end on Oct. 21.

"We've always said May 21 was the day, but we didn't understand altogether the spiritual meaning," he said. "The fact is there is only one kind of people who will ascend into heaven ... if God has saved them they're going to be caught up."
Camping's New Prediction.
I wonder what he will say when October 22, 2011 rolls around? 

Jesus: The True Israel

PCA pastor Nick Batzig has posted a nice article expounding on a much-overlooked theme of Scripture: Jesus: True Israel of the First Gospel.

Here is a sample...

In the genealogy at the beginning of the first, Matthew mentions three major epochs in Israel’s history: fourteen generation from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the Exile. The reference to the period from Abraham to David, and from David to the Exile, marks the totality of Israel’s history as they waited for the promise of the Father. The genealogy of Christ is more than a mere record of lineage. It introduces the idea of Christ being the fulfillment of the entirety of Israel’s promises, and prepares the reader for the idea of Christ as the one who recapitulates Israel’s history in order to fulfill those promises.



After He is born, Jesus goes down into Egypt, out of Egypt, through the waters, into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (where He overcomes by using Scripture that God gave to Israel in the wilderness), up on the mountain, down from the mountain to feed the people with bread like God fed Israel with the manna in the wilderness.

Click on the link to read more. 
 
Lest you think that he is out on a limb please read this post by Kevin DeYoung.  I've heard much the same thing on The White Horse Inn which, by the way, is winding up a great series on interpreting Scripture.  Click on that link and listen to some recent broadcasts.