Title: The Bible:Myth or History?
1The BibleMyth or History?
- God did not design the Bible
- to be a dark puzzle
- for bright scholars
- but to be a bright lamp for travelers through a
dark world
2- The link between
- Bible, Miracles Resurrection
- Nonbelievers say
- Miracles like that dont really happen
- The Bible is myth not history
- These three
- typically stand or fall together
3The Senses of Myth
- 1.) The sacred story sense (literal)
- from the Greek mythos a sacred story
- this says nothing about its truth or falsity,
historicity or non-historicity
4The Senses of Myth
- 2.) The unreal sense (popular)
- something that didnt really happen or is not
real a merely fictional human invention - contrast the story against truth or fact
5The Senses of Myth
- 3.) The parable sense
- a way of explaining natural facts by supernatural
or natural fictions - a literary genre of stories that are not
literally true these can include fantasy, animals
that talk, and stories of gods
6The Senses of Myth
- 4.) The projection sense
- Projection of human consciousness out onto
reality - Kants theory of knowledge all human knowledge
is myth - dreams are myth if while we are dreaming we take
them objectively
7The Senses of Myth
- 5.) The worldview sense
- Any story to articulate a worldview
- Both literally true and fictional stories
8The Senses of Myth
- 6.) The archetype sense
- A Platonic archetype in story form
- A universal truth about human life expressed in a
story - Christs resurrection is a story in this sense as
the pattern for our resurrection
9Biblical Studies The Major Controversy
- Demythologizers
- All or most of the miracle stories in the Bible
are myths in all six of these senses - Orthodox Christians
- Agree that the bible contains sacred story,
parables, worldview and archetype - never unreal or projection
- The bottom line is miracles
10The Proper Logic
- If the resurrection really did happen
- The assumption
- that miracles dont happen is refuted
- Then
- the miracle stories of scripture can be history,
- not myth
11The Importance of the IssueEffect of
Demythologizing Teachers
- Approximately 50 of students who enter Catholic
Colleges as believers - exit as non-believers.
- (Biblical Interpretation in Crises Richard
Neihaus) - They enter with a thoughtless belief in the Bible
and its miracles, notably the resurrection - They take theology courses that debunk these
miracle stories via the historical-critical
method - They graduate as unbelievers, or believers in a
religion without miracles, a real resurrection or
scriptural authority - A Religion of mere sharing and caring
12The Importance of the IssuePsychological Motives
for Unbelief
- Addiction to power in this world
- Addiction to lust, our societys favorite pastime
- Addiction to greed, the sin Christs spoke
against most frequently - Addiction to worldly acceptance and popularity
- Addiction to freedom defined as doing your own
thing, looking out for number one - Sin Selfishness
13The Role of Scripture in ApologeticsAvoid two
extremes
- Fundamentalist
- Believers in the five fundamentals Christs
divinity, resurrection, virgin birth, real second
coming, and the infallibility of Scripture - The Popular Sense
- Not just biblical infallibility but also biblical
literalism - a generally close-minded, narrow minded,
ant-intellectual, even bigoted attitude - Theological Modernism
- Believers in a religion without miracles,
- a real resurrection or scriptural authority
14The Fundamentalist Extreme
- Beginning apologetics from the starting point of
the authority of scripture - Necessitates convincing others of scriptures
authority before even beginning. - Places doubt on natural human reasons ability to
direct unbelievers to belief. - Wields scripture as a weapon even before
establishing its authority - Demands special standards for interpreting
scripture because of Gods involvement
15Fundamental Problem
- You must first prove Scripture deserves Special
Treatment - Early Christian apologists and church fathers
argued quite effectively for Christianity without
having the New Testament Scriptures as
authoritatively defined. - Through centuries many people have been led to
belief in God and the possibility of salvation
through rational arguments - It is very difficult to first prove the authority
of Scripture to the unbeliever - The unbeliever will not accept the use of any
special standards or assumptions or attitudes
towards Scripture at the outset.
16The Modernist Extreme
- Interpret everything miraculous
- or supernatural
- or morally unpopular
- non-literally,
- and insist right from the start on an
unbelieving, skeptical attitude toward the Bible.
17The Modernist Extreme
- If we used the same critical standards on other
ancient literature that modernists use on the
Bible, we would necessarily doubt every single
fact we know today about every single writer and
event before the Middle Ages. - Whereas
- If modernists applied to the bible the same
standards that historians and textual scholars
apply to secular literature of ancient times,
biblical records would be accepted as some of the
most reliable and credible of all ancient
documents.
18Why Modernists Deny the Authority of Scripture!
- Do miracles happen?
- Is the supernatural world real?
- Are there angels and devils?
- Does God ever reach down and interfere?
19Why Modernists Deny the Authority of Scripture!
- Is there a super-naturally given moral law?
- Did God not just Moses invent the ten
commandments? - Are there any moral absolutes
- --objective unyielding moral laws that do not
change - when our feelings or societies change?
20Why Modernists Deny the Authority of Scripture!
- Is Christ divine
- and thus
- infallible and absolutely authoritative
- in everything
- he says?
21- Is human life on earth a spiritual warfare?
- Are the stakes in life infinite?
- Is there a real heaven or hell at the end?
- Do our choices matter very much?
22Why Modernists Deny the Authority of Scripture!
- Is there one objective true way to heaven
- --Jesus Himself--
- as he claims
- (John 146)
- Or are all religions of the world equal
- and thus
- are generic human sincerity and niceness the only
requirements for salvation?
23Why Modernists Deny the Authority of Scripture!
- Scripture unequivocally and repeatedly
- answers
- YES!
- To all these questions.
- The typical modern mind answers
- NO!
24Is the Answer Found in Compromise?
- Unbelievers say that the New Testament and
- Christianity is FALSE
- Christians say the New Testament and
- Christianity is TRUE
- Modernists seek to make peace by picking and
choosing what is acceptable to both - Will Scripture allow compromise?
- Galatians 18
25HermeneuticsThe Science of Interpretation
- Use the same standards, methods and approaches to
the Bible - you would use for any other book.
- Do not patronize anyone
- by fudging your textual data
- to make it more acceptable or palatable
26Read the book in the same spirit or mind as the
author wrote it
Exegesis (reading out of) not Eisegesis
(reading into)
- Surrender to the work as it is
- rather than molding it to where we are
- Grow and learn
- rather than reinforce and flatter
27- Separate Interpretation from Belief
- Interpretation means finding out
- WHAT THE AUTHOR MEANT AND BELIEVED
- in light of his words or thoughts
- NOT WHAT YOU MEAN OR BELIEVE
- After we understand what the person means comes
agreement or disagreement, - belief or disbelief
28- Interpret a Book According to Its Genre
- First find out the form or style of the work
- poetry vs law
- parable vs biography
- science vs religion
- myth vs history
- Then use the principles
- that govern the interpretation of that style
29- Similarities
- Between Biblical Stories and Myth
- Repeated Stock Events
- Many events described in myths, legends and fairy
tales also occur in history - Symbolic Numbers
- Sometimes real things do happen in 3,6,10 and 40
increments - Since God is in charge of history he may very
well arrange for events to conform to symbolic
number schemes - Similar kinds of miracles
- The occurrence of miracles in myth does not
disprove their occurrence in real history
30- Know When to Interpret the Bible
- Literally vs. Symbolically
- When the biblical author claims he saw something
in the external world with his own eyes, or that
someone else did and told him, then we are to
interpret it literally. - (Jesus miracles)
31- Know When to Interpret the Bible
- Literally vs. Symbolically
- When a thing is not visible to the eye we can not
interpret it literally - The object by its nature is invisible
- (Moses sees God)
- The object is a vision or dream
- (Joseph interprets dreams)
- It is made up fiction
- (parable)
32- Know When to Interpret the Bible
- Literally vs. Symbolically
- The line between literal and non-literal is not
simply the line between natural and supernatural,
- or miraculous
- Miracles are visible not invisible
- (effect vs cause)
- natural-or-supernatural criterion
- is
- external taken from philosophy and theology
- not
- internal criterion taken from the form of the text
33- Know When to Interpret the Bible
- Literally vs. Symbolically
- Dont ignore that a given passage could rightly
be interpreted as both literal and symbolic - Exodus, Israel, Moses, Red Sea, Promised land
- Signs must first stand in the real world,
literally, in order for it to take on the second
meaning that points beyond itself - Symbolic-literal is not always an either/or issue
it is rather sometimes a both/and issue - Language that is not literal can still be true,
accurate and extremely important
34- Know which stories are historical
- Literal history
- (Modern history)
- The court history of the Kings of Israel
- Non-literal history
- (Traditional history)
- Garden of Eden, The Fall, Creation
- Fiction
- (Non-historical)
- Job, Jonah(perhaps), Parables
35- The Fall Can Not Be Fiction
- If the fall is not historical at all,
- then its effects
- --suffering and death--
- also are not historical.
- If sin is historical in its effects,
- it must be historical in its cause
36- The Fall Can Not Be Fiction
- If Adams fall didnt really happen,
- then Christs salvation need not really happen
either. - (Paul Romans 6)
- If the first Adam was not historical
- why should the second Adam be?
- If the disease is myth
- then the cure can also be myth.
37- The Fall Can Not Be Fiction
- If the fall did not happen in history
- then God rather than humanity is the blame for
sin - for God must have created us as sinners rather
than innocents. - If there was really never any un-fallen state
- then we were sinners from the first moment of
creation - and God was wrong to declare everything he made
good. - BUT THE STORY NEED NOT BE LITERAL
38You cannot separate religious questions from
historical questions
- Historical question
- Moses led Israel through the Red Sea
- Jesus body was really resurrected
- Religious Question
- Israel saw Gods hand in history
- Easter Faith was resurrected in the hearts of
the apostles
Not Faith in Faith rather Faith in firm
reality No historical Jesus then No
Christianity Christianity is not an -ism
39You cannot separate religious questions from
historical questions
- The only distinctively Christian teachings are
the beliefs about the historical Jesus - Incarnation Resurrection
- Modernists feel these stand in the way of a
single world religion - We can not fudge our data in order to solve their
problem
40Contradictions in the Bible?
- Can we prove any parts of scripture false
- That it contradicts itself
- or
- That it contradicts facts outside itself
41Internal Contradictions
- Old Testament populations of peoples and armies
are estimated differently - Exodus God parted the Red (Reed) Sea or a strong
East wind blew all night - No two Gospel have Jesus life in the same
chronological order - One Easter morning account has one Angel another
has two - Judas hung himself or fell down and his guts
burst asunder
- Ancient histories rarely claimed exact numbers.
Inexact estimates were common and expected - First and second causes do not exclude each
other. - Only Luke claimed anything to be in order.
- Perhaps one woman didnt see the other one.
- Perhaps Judas noose broke
Details are not contradictions in substance and
do not bring into question fallibility of
teachings or message No minor detail has been
discovered which can not also be explained We
must not impose modern concepts of accuracy upon
ancient authors
42Contradictions in God
- God is eternal and changeless
- God is just and punishes the wicked
- God is one
- God is awesome and terrifying
- God acts and effects changes in time and history
- God is merciful and revokes eternal punishment
for the repentant - God is three
- God is compassionate and comforting
- Gods essence is timeless but he effects changes
in time. No creature can change another without
itself being changed, but God can do this because
he is purely active, not passively responding to
the laws of creatures - He does not compromise his justice or his mercy.
The two are reconciled on Calvary. Jesus gets
the justice and we get the mercy. - He is one in being and essence, three in persona
- He is both awesome and loving. What is more
awesome than love? The same God of holy love can
be comforting to a saint and threatening to a
sinner.
43External Contradictions
- Archeology has found nothing to invalidate the
claims of the Bible - All overlaps have been either proved or rendered
probable none have been disproved - Unanswered questions are not disproof
- No prophecy has been disproved
- Yet many have been proved true by history.
- Jesus fulfilled at least 30, perhaps as many as
300, specific and distinct Old Testament
prophecies - BEWARE!!
- Modernist scholars attempt to date prophecies by
their fulfillment
44External Contradictions
- Science Contradicts Religion
- Which science?
- Which idea?
- Is that idea a proven fact?
- What proves it?
- Which statement in the Bible does it contradict?
- Is the statement properly interpreted?
- Answer these questions and
- The general challenge dissipates
- like fog under sunlight