Biblical Library---Filled with Fairy Tales and Forgeries?
If you are a student who seeks objective truth claims, Christian scholarship provides reasonable and convincing responses to the wave of radical anti-Christian rhetoric that sounds so compelling until it is tested.
Critics of the Christian worldview pontificate that the biblical narrative is filled with myth, legends, fairy tales and forgeries.
"For we have not been making up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his return. We have seen his majestic splendor with our own eyes. . . we have heard his voice when we were there with him . . . so we have seen and proved that what the prophets said came true. You will do well to pay attention to everything they have written . . . their words help us to understand many things that otherwise would be dark and difficult." (Simon bar Jonas, AD 67)
"Contrary to the exclusivity of Biblical Christianity's historical and theological matrix of Jewish monotheism and devoid of any specific, tangible evidence of connecting the myths and the Biblical documents, critics make their wish the father of their speculations. It is their naturalistic presupposition that fills in the enormous gaps between pagan legends and the Biblical documents."
(Dr. Mark M. Hanna, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy and World Religions)
"Whatever these men may be as Biblical critics, I don't trust them as critics. They seem to me to lack literary judgement, to be imperceptive about the very quality of the texts they are reading. If he tells me that something in the Gospel is legend or romance, I want to know how many legends and romances he has read, how well his palate is trained in detecting them by flavor; not how many years he has spent in that Gospel . . . I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this (Biblical narrative)." (C.S. Lewis, Oxford/Cambridge Literary Scholar)
When a scholar or layman examines the Biblical text which claims divine inspiration, you would expect to read about divine encounters, interventions, fulfilled prophecies and miraculous events. The supernaturalist expects this, while the naturalist only response is a fairy tale.
Critics of the Christian worldview pontificate that the biblical narrative is filled with myth, legends, fairy tales and forgeries.
"For we have not been making up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his return. We have seen his majestic splendor with our own eyes. . . we have heard his voice when we were there with him . . . so we have seen and proved that what the prophets said came true. You will do well to pay attention to everything they have written . . . their words help us to understand many things that otherwise would be dark and difficult." (Simon bar Jonas, AD 67)
"Contrary to the exclusivity of Biblical Christianity's historical and theological matrix of Jewish monotheism and devoid of any specific, tangible evidence of connecting the myths and the Biblical documents, critics make their wish the father of their speculations. It is their naturalistic presupposition that fills in the enormous gaps between pagan legends and the Biblical documents."
(Dr. Mark M. Hanna, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy and World Religions)
"Whatever these men may be as Biblical critics, I don't trust them as critics. They seem to me to lack literary judgement, to be imperceptive about the very quality of the texts they are reading. If he tells me that something in the Gospel is legend or romance, I want to know how many legends and romances he has read, how well his palate is trained in detecting them by flavor; not how many years he has spent in that Gospel . . . I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this (Biblical narrative)." (C.S. Lewis, Oxford/Cambridge Literary Scholar)
When a scholar or layman examines the Biblical text which claims divine inspiration, you would expect to read about divine encounters, interventions, fulfilled prophecies and miraculous events. The supernaturalist expects this, while the naturalist only response is a fairy tale.
Comments
Post a Comment