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From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Does God mean what he says?
Message-ID: <741@psivax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Sep-85 22:45:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: psivax.741
Posted: Wed Sep 18 22:45:49 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Sep-85 00:41:20 EDT
References: <2224CJC@psuvm>
Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 32
Xref: watmath net.religion:7737 net.religion.christian:1350
Summary: 

In article <2224CJC@psuvm> CJC@psuvm.BITNET writes:
>     
> If I understand you correctly, you are saying that God said he did
>something which he in fact did not do, that he only said it to encourage
>his listener (Moses) but didn't really mean it. Is that really what
>meant to say?  God spent all of chapters 3 & 4 of Exodus persuading
>and encouraging Moses  (remember the burning bush?). At that time he
>also said:
>     
>   I'm not discussing theology or generalizing about free will - leave
>that to net.philosophy.  The Bible states repeatedly that in one specific
>place at one specific time God said that he, God, caused one man,
>Pharaoh of Egypt, to act as he, God, wanted. Do you believe that God
>means what He says in the Bible or don't you?
>     
	To me it is a matter of reading the Bible the way it was
written, as a theological, not a historical, book. Really, I have
never known God to actually *speak* to me in words, and I know of no
one who I consider reliable who says so either. I see no reason to
believe that in ancient times God spoke any differently than he does
now, in subtle inner promptings. What I see happening here is the
writer recasting the story in a good narrative form with clear,
unequivical dialog, so the reader can understand it. Thus all that
stuff is the author's *interpretation* of what was going on, not a
literal account of something God said. Try thinking of it as sort of a
play based on historical event rather than a modern history text.
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

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