Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the
Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Here's Donald Bloch,
just so you can see someone
who's a scholar, who actually ispresenting this.
He says they, the scripturewriters, including Jesus, did
not err in what they proclaimed,but this does not mean that
they were faultless in therecording of historical data or
in their worldview, which is nowoutdated.
So this is a scholar.
(00:30):
Okay, just, I'm not making thisup, right, you have to see that
this is actually the thingsthat are being said, and so
that's why I quote a few peoplehere.
Here's another one.
I couldn't find the source, butI did this years ago, so it's
got to be somewhere in my work.
Natural revelation is the basison which written revelation
(00:53):
rests.
We have to think about this one.
Okay, this was written in 1846,so this is over 160, 170 years
ago, right?
Natural revelation, and we knowGod reveals himself in nature,
right?
I mean, the Bible declares thisthe heavens declare the glory
of God.
The earth is handiwork.
Okay, we have no problemrecognizing that nature reveals
(01:15):
who God is, his power, hiswisdom and so forth.
But he says notice what's beingsaid here.
Natural revelation is the basison which written revelation
rests.
So which comes first, naturalor written, according to the
statement?
The natural, in other words,what is this statement really
(01:39):
saying?
What this statement is reallysaying is that what we do is we
go out and we investigate naturethrough scientific efforts and
once we draw our conclusions,then we turn to the written
revelation and we interpret itaccordingly.
Did you see that we go out andwe use the scientific method and
(02:03):
we investigate nature and wecome to certain conclusions?
We come to certain conclusionsabout the age of the earth, the
age of the universe and so forthand so on?
Right, then what do we do?
Then we come to the writtenrevelation and we interpret it
accordingly.
In other words, we make theBible fit fit.
(02:24):
So if the universe is 14.6billion years old, the earth and
sun are 4.6 billion years oldand men have been around 200,000
years or so, then we interpretthe Bible to fit this data, see,
(02:44):
which is what we call anaccommodation strategy.
Now, is this the way it shouldbe done?
Here's Theodosius Dobzhansky.
He's a Russian theologian, sothis isn't just confined to the
West.
He says this is the way he saysit.
God has revealed himself tohumanity in at least two ways
(03:09):
the words of the Bible and therecord of nature.
Our mission is to workrigorously to integrate both of
God's revelations into oneharmonious picture.
Now, most of us would read that, I think, and we'd say, okay,
yeah, that sounds good, thatsounds right.
I mean, it's true, you got thewords of the Bible.
God revealed himself to usthere.
We got the record of nature.
(03:30):
God reveals himself to us therewe know.
And these two integrate.
So what's our mission?
To work rigorously to show howthe two integrate into a harmony
, right, okay?
Well, let's look at the nextquote, because, see, this is the
(03:52):
deception.
You buy into this statement andyou think, oh, this is good
stuff.
And before you know it, you'reat the next statement.
Are you ready?
This is the same guy, russiantheologian, theodosius
Dobchonsky.
I am a creationist and anevolutionist and when I taught
this at the previous church Iwas out years ago one of the
younger guys I think, he wasprobably like 18 or 19 at the
(04:14):
time and we went on this huntingtrip and I remember him saying
you were talking about this guyand he quoted from me.
He said and he said why didn'the just call himself a
crevolutionist?
That's pretty keen, I'll usethat.
Uh, I'm a creationist and anevolutionist.
(04:34):
Evolution is gods or nature'smethod of creation, which that's
kind of interesting, isn't it?
Gods or natures?
Does that mean that god equalsnature, that god is nature,
which is what einstein believed.
He said god doesn't play dicewith the universe.
Well, his whole point was thatthe only God there is is the
universe and everything'sdetermined by the specific rules
(04:56):
of physics and so forth thatare inherent to the universe.
That's what Einstein meant.
He didn't believe.
He believed in an infinitepersonal God by any means.
He was talking about natureitself or the universe, which
sounds like what TheodosiusDabshansky believes.
Evolution is God's or nature's,and which sounds like what
Theodosius Dabshansky believesEvolution is God's or nature's.
Notice the capital N and thecapital God.
(05:16):
They're equally, they'reequated.
This method of creationCreation, he says, is not an
event that happened in 4004 BC.
He's using Bishop Usher'schronology from the Bible.
He says it's a process thatbegan some 10 billion years ago
and is still underway.
(05:37):
He asks the question does theevolutionary doctrine clash with
religious faith?
It does not.
It's a blunder to mistake theholy scriptures for elementary
textbooks of astronomy, geology,biology and anthropology.
Now, there's a lot going on inthese statements.
(06:07):
The last phrase, you know.
We can all look at that and saywell, yeah, we know, the Bible
is not a biology textbook or anastronomy textbook or geology,
whatever, see, but this is whatwe call a straw man, and I don't
think any of us have ever saidit's a biology textbook.
I think what we're saying isthat if it touches on something
that relates to biology, it'strue, if it touches on something
(06:30):
related to astronomy, it's true, and so forth.
Right?
So I guess our question wouldbe should we pay attention to
the bible when it touches onthese areas?
And if it does touch on theseareas, is it true?
Because the new modernevangelicals are saying no,
(06:50):
jesus and the authors of theBible erred when it came to
those types of details and weknow more now and so we know
better.
We know better, ultimately,really, than Jesus is what
they're saying.
So this is where his approachends up, see.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Thank you for joining
us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in
(07:29):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
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next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.