Driscoll on creation
11 September 2007
This actually will cause some controversy I'm sure...
Mark Driscoll has written a very clear and concise account about creation and the fall. I think he articulates a position that gives fair hearing to all views.
You can read it here. I'd especially recommend people who haven't thought about the issue of creation should check it out.
Driscoll has a wonderful gift of communicating clearly and using plain language here's a snippet...
The great theologians of the Protestant Reformation coined the Latin phrase Sola Scriptura, which means that Scripture is the sole locus of our final authority. Simply put, there is nothing we are to believe above the Bible.
This, however, does not mean that as Christians we should practice "solo Scriptura," which means that we only read the Bible and reject any information that is not directly from the Bible. If we held to "solo Scriptura" then we could not study anything but the Bible and I would have to, for example, put down my Chilton's manual when tuning up my old truck and try and take my auto repair cues from Deuteronomy.
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The movie that got me thinking about creation the most was the 2005 King Kong movie, with Jack Black. It's an epic movie with more than enough dinosaurs eating each other.
But we would like to stress that our Christian brothers and sisters who hold the other views listed below are welcome at our church. Our only request is that the Christians in our church would not become divisive over this matter and seek to make their view the litmus test for Christian orthodoxy.
I like what he says here. I haven't read the whole thing carefully, but he seems to say things like "Genesis clearly states" or "it is clear" a bit too often. If it was really that clear, surely there wouldn't be so much disagreement over the issue?
It reminds me of The Princess Bride.
Vizzini: "Inconceivable!"
Inigo: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Thanks for linking to this, though - very interesting, and definitely worthy of further consideration.
Great article by Mark Driscoll - he presents things in a very fair, sensible and wise way. A good read.
At the moment, of the five Solas, Sola Scriptura is being recognised as being rather important for obvious reasons. Many Christians look at the state of the modern church and ask themselves why it is that so much cruddy stuff is happening. Sola Scriptura, as a basis for finding out what is right and wrong, and what to believe, and what things are permissible, is affecting the way a lot of Christians think. They are applying the principles not only to other churches but their own church and denomination.
A good example of this are the tremors in the Southern Baptists in the US. Many people in the SBC see drinking alcohol as being sinful. Yet the Bible clearly doesn't agree with that notion, and some Bible-believing Southern Baptists are taking this issue to the very top (and are getting criticised for it).