Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!purdue!gatech!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!geneva.rutgers.edu!christian From: bnr-fos!bnr-public!hwt@watmath.waterloo.edu (Henry Troup) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Predestination and Judgement Message-ID: Date: 31 Jul 89 02:04:22 GMT Sender: hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada Lines: 43 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu It seems to me that the argument that the Bible is inerrent is a tale- chasing one. I have easy access to three translations - the King James, the Revised Standard, and the New English. The preface to the New English notes that it is based on a new compliation of Greek and Aramaic sources to the New Testament, and contains over two thousand changes (from the Revised Standard) that change the sense of the passage they appear in. So - what is inerrant? The Greek New Testament - it is the 'original' - but which physical document - there are many, and they vary. The King James - but it is contradicted in places by the New English. The New English - but it contradicts the King James. There is no such thing as 'The Bible'. There are books that Roman Catholics take as canonical that the King James treats as apocrypha - meaning that they are venerable and worthy of study but not to be taken as the word of God. Equally, the argument of inspiration is hard for me to swallow. If God has inspired every single translator and copyist, then there should be no conflicting version. Further, I would then have to submit to the authority of the Pope, who claims to be infallible (in certain designated pronouncements) because he is inspired by God - and knows it. As an Anglican, I do not think that God has exerted very much direct intervention since 35 A.D. To believe that God directs everything that happens, day to day, is hard for me, not because God could not, but because there is too much that is random, or evil done by man. To believe that if good comes from evil, then the evil is God's will is foolish. utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!hwt%bnr-public | BNR is not | All that evil requires hwt@bnr (BITNET/NETNORTH) | responsible for | is that good men do (613) 765-2337 (Voice) | my opinions | nothing. [The normal definition is that the Hebrew and Greek originals are inerrant, not any particular edition or translation. This does complicate things slightly, since it means that there is an inerrant Bible, but we don't have it. However I don't know of any serious theological issue whose outcome is materially affected by textual problems. So in practice it probably doesn't make any difference. --clh]