Greg Anderson

Cheryl,

I like the way you pose a series of questions just like a series of hypotheses, and then test them with scripture.

Too much of what has gone on in the past, and has indeed been passed off as sound theology, is nothing more than extrapolation into thin air.

Scripture testing scripture is what you’ve always taught here on your blog, and for that many of us are indebted.  If it ain’t in the text, don’t try to import it in, or build it on-site.

On the other hand, what does one do when observed reality seems to contradict scripture?  For example, Luther once took Copernicus to task over the then heretical concept of heliocentrism (earth revolves around sun), saying:

“So it goes now.  Whoever wants to be clever must agree with nothing that others esteem.  He must do something of his own.  This is what that fellow does who wishes to turn the whole of astronomy upside down.  Even in these things that are thrown into disorder I believe the Holy Scriptures, for Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and not the earth [Jos. 10:12].”

Pinklight #4 ~ I used the illustration above (Luther on Copernicus) to show that there exists a wide gulf between figurative Hebrew poetry used to drive home a deeper truth (God’s sovereign power) vs. a  literal mechanical truth (sun orbiting earth).
In the case of God putting enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, I believe that God allowed the hatred to germinate and become a malignant fungus vs. an actual mechanical decree.  Why? because the very next verse (v16) when understood in context is also descriptive vs. prescriptive.