Discuss Theology

For many years, archaeologists questioned the existence of a real city named Nineveh. Later, scholars found it and confirmed that there really was a place called Nineveh. Of course, if someone [like me] makes a presuppositional decision to believe what is in the Scriptures, it all puts us ahead of the game, because God is smarter than the archaeologists. There are some smart archaeologists out there, some of them are my friends, but God is smarter still.

Different OT scholar say different things about the prophesying nakedness of both Micah and Isaiah. The accepted evangelical approach is that they actually ran around in their under tunics. There are problems with that interpretation though because the prophecy in Isaiah 20 is so specific. It relates to the humiliation of Egypt by the Assyrians. The Assyrians were known for this kind of behavior when they took alien peoples captive. It lightens the impact for us and makes it more palpable but is it correct? -I have taught through the past that they actually were running around naked but the more I think about it, the more I question my past teaching.

I believe he really did get swallowed by a big fish.

Of course I was taught in college/university that this was a mythological fairy tale designed to teach Israel’s unfaithfulness to take the true name of Yahweh to the whole world. It also was a fable to teach about the evils of Jewish anti-Assyrian racism.

Did he actually marry a harlot? I don’t know whether she was actually a practicing harlot or a former harlot. It seems to me at first thought that the force of the idea is taken away if she is a former harlot. On the other hand, if she is a practicing harlot what do we do with all of the ethical injunctions in the OT about these kinds of behaviors.

I believe Daniel really did write chapter 11 of his book beforehand and that it is not a product of the Macabbean era. that is to say he wrote it sometime in the 500’s B.C.

I had a Princeton educated professor in under grad school who told us about Ezekiel in our OT class. Ezekiel suffered under mental duress and delusions and needed professional help. We had to read him though because he was in the canon. With Christian professors like this, who really needs our non-Christian detractors? I think Ezekiel was quite normal. God asked him to do some unusual things.

Some people interpret Psalm 51 as stating that David was somehow born illegitimate. This may be a subtle way to negate the historic doctrine of original sin. I never even heard this until I started hanging around boat loads of semi-Pelagian believers. Of course, historic, orthodox theology has never held to this non-sense.

Some evangelical scholars tally the numbers in Numbers as detailing captains or heads of families. I think that the numbers are accurate.

We are made like God. We are a finite picture of infinity. Our thinking, our conscience, our emotions–everything is like God except that we are limited in all of it, where God is unlimited. This is why people are so valuable. This is the basis for being pro-life, this is the basis for law, for social interaction, for politeness et.al.

Genesis 1 and Psalm 33 both tell us that God created. In response to the evolutionist, these passages really don’t tell us how long it took unless one takes the word ‘day” literally. All evangelicals don’t do that. We know how God did it, He spoke and things happened.