Bob Thune 2004-03-20
From Summa Bergania
From : David Bergan
Sent : Saturday, March 20, 2004 12:52 AM
To : Bob Thune, Jr
Subject : Objective or Subjective
Pastor Bob,
You are certainly right about David Kranz and the Argus Leader. I'm surprised his infamy spreads all the way to Omaha.
I want to tell you the core reason why I can't accept your position. When I read your words that I should stop trying to use logic and just accept inerrancy for the sake of Christianity (and my own soul), I feel like we are buying into an idea simply because we like the conclusion it gets us. It's intellectual prostitution, if you will... not caring if the idea really is objectively true or not, but believing simply because we get more pleasure out of it, or in this case, it makes our salvation theology easier.
What I want to know is if the Bible is objectively inspired, infallible, and inerrant. I want a reason that exists outside of you and me that will not fade away when we die. I want the deductive argument that leads to the sure conclusion so that I may store this piece of information away and never doubt it. So that whenever anyone asks me why the Bible is a priori inerrant, I can share this with them in the same way that I can share with them the process of how to do an algebra problem to get the right answer, or recall the evidence of a criminal's trial to prove his guilt (or innocence) beyond reasonable doubt. I raise my objections to you because those are the ones the Devil raises to me. I must chase him away with truth or else admit that he's right and there is no truth here. I cannot hide from him behind a belief that I accept merely because it is useful - that is only greater torment.
So, if you are serious that inerrancy has no objective solution - that we can't know beyond a reasonable doubt that the Bible is really inerrant - then there isn't anything left for us to discuss on this topic. It doesn't do me any good to want the Bible to be inerrant. It doesn't do me any good to believe it's inerrant without proof, either. I can trick myself into believing that my car is a shiny new Lamboughini, and even try to convince my friends, but that doesn't change the fact (which stands outside of me and my friends) that my car is a Bonneville. My reasoning or your reasoning will not change the facts, but hopefully it will help us to discover the facts. The fact in question is the Bible's inerrancy, and I guess you have so much as told me that there isn't any way to know the answer for sure - but that we should individually believe it nonetheless. Is that your final answer?
Your disappointed, but admiring friend,
David
PS Another friend I saw today had a very good explanation for the verses about God hardening Pharoah's heart. He said that the verb used in those verses in the Hebrew has a connotation of light being shined on something. When you shine a bright light on clay, it hardens - but when you shine a bright light on butter, it melts. So what God really did, then, was shine on Pharoah and that made his heart hard since it was like clay... but the other Egyptians who begged Pharoah to listen to Moses had their hearts softened by the same 'light' from God, since their hearts were like butter.
I haven't checked the verb/context myself, but assuming he's right, that piece of knowledge makes it a very believable story.
--David Bergan
"I wish I had never been born," she said. "What are we born for?"
"For infinite happiness," said the Spirit. "You can step out into it at any moment..."
-CS Lewis (The Great Divorce)
