For the next three (3) Sunday nights I will be teaching a series at our church entitled The Feasts of the Lord: Jesus Fulfills the Feasts. It’s a topic that is absolutely fascinating, and I hope I am able to do it a little justice.

I believe the series will be recorded, and, if so, I will try to post the audio here. At the very least, I will try to post summaries each week.

I hope it goes well. Pray for me.

And if any of you happen to be in the Sweetwater, TX area any of the next three (3) Sundays, feel free to drop in.

I, obviously, don’t own a facebook, twitter, or one of their competitors, just a few humble blogs. But, he’s still hard at it, and I just wanted to throw him a little free advertising. So, if you need flowers in the Big Country area or some other product or service, give his sites a look.

• http://www.bigcountryflowers.com
• http://www.wrappedflowers.com
• http://lonestarshopper.com
• http://www.howtobusinessvideos.com
• And, coming soon: http://www.productmonster.com

I have a fascination with pens and inks, and I like most everything about pencils except the feel. Problem solved.

Apparently the liquid graphite ink is erasable but becomes more permanent over time. It looks and sounds pretty cool.

For more info, see the Sharpie Blog post referenced above, or the Crave blog post, and a CNET review. And another post on Wired.

Book Details:

The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate

John H. Walton

Intervarsity Press, July 2009

ISBN 978-0-8308-3704-5

Buy The Lost World of Genesis One @ Amazon

I’ve been making my way through my stack of books for review on Genesis in, essentially, reverse order of receipt. I’m glad I started on the top of the stack and not the bottom because I would have read The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton a year ago, and my reading of the other books would have been colored by my reading of this one.

As with many theological questions, I think we tend to develop a theological framework and then read scripture within that framework. It would be very easy to do that with The Lost World of Genesis One because Walton’s  propositions are extremely persuasive and his conclusions compelling.

And I in no way intend for this to be a slight, quite the opposite.

Walton organizes The Lost World of Genesis One into a series of eighteen propositions. Admittedly, as a former high school debater, I initially found Walton’s proposition approach somewhat irritating because the organization allows for little reader interaction. What I mean is that Walton breaks his thesis down into so many of its tiny component parts that there is little to no mystery. Again, this is not a slight on the book, it is a confession of my own predisposition to be intrigued by ideas more than details, and Walton constructs the larger idea one detail at a time. By the end of the book, my mind was changed about the effectiveness of the approach because Walton leaves little room for disagreement.

Walton’s initial assertions (and I’m paraphrasing his propositions), our reading of Genesis 1 in terms of material creation is wrong because Genesis 1 was never intended to describe material creation. Instead, Genesis 1 is meant to describe the function of God’s creation rather than the manner and means of creation.

Walton asserts the ancients would have thought and perceived Genesis 1 in terms of function rather than elemental material creation. Walton begins his function analysis using the example of the creation of a computer. When is a computer a computer? Each hardware component is manufactured, but until each component is brought together there is no computer. Software programs are written and installed, but without a power source the computer is not functional. Even with a power source, unless a person uses the computer it remains non-functional. Walton’s question is one of ontology. When does the computer exist? At what stage is the computer created?

Walton maintains that if we think of Genesis 1 in terms of assignment of function, not creation of the component parts, the questions relating to Genesis 1 and scientific accuracy become irrelevant.

We should not worry about the questions of ‘truth’ with regard to the Bible’s use of Old World Science. … Adoption of the framework of the target audience is most logical.

Using other ancient creation accounts as comparisons, Walton concludes that in the ancient world, to create something meant to assign it a function, not create its material properties.

Again I’m paraphrasing, Walton next determines that the creation account in Genesis 1 is a cosmic enshrinement. It is the creation of a cosmic temple suitable for God to take up residence. He terms this view the cosmic temple inauguration view.

Walton also views this reading of Genesis 1 as a literal reading, as it would have been understood in the ancient environment as opposed to a reading that requires reconciliation with modern science.

But most people who seek to defend a young-earth view do so because they believe that the Bible obligates them to such a defense. I admire the fact that believers are willing to take unpopular positions and investigate all sorts of alternatives in an attempt to defend the reputation of the Biblical text. But if the Biblical text does not demand a young earth there would be little impetus or evidence to offer such a suggestion.

Walton also spends a fair amount of time discussing competing creation theories, as does virtually everyone else, so I won’t here, but the excerpt above should fairly well sum up the author’s take on competing creation accounts.

I give Walton a lot of credit for bringing something new to the table (see also my review of The Genesis Enigma). As I’ve written before, the old methods of resolving the Genesis debate don’t work because the debate itself is pointless. And viewing Genesis 1 in terms other than purely scientific terms is certainly a more appropriate approach.

My only real criticism of The Lost World of Genesis One is that the author falls into the same trap as most by (1) entering the public policy debate in proposition 18 which will unnecessarily ostracize young-earth creationists and ID proponents, and to a lesser extent (2) crafting the cosmic temple inauguration view such that is excludes other possibilities. I acknowledge that in the author’s Q&A at the end he acknowledges that Genesis 1 could theoretically be both functional and material, but that we cannot demand such a reading. But Walton doesn’t embrace those possibilities.

Fortunately, my reading of The Lost World of Genesis One has coincided with my intensive study of related material, specifically the feasts of the Lord and the tabernacle (and later temple). And it makes perfect sense to me that the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle would reflect a cosmic temple. So, for that and many other reasons, I would highly recommend The Lost World of Genesis One. I am a slightly less inclined to accept the cosmic temple inauguration view as the theory of everything on Genesis, but it certainly adds another dimension to Genesis 1 that is worthy of study.

Read it and enjoy it!

And I am faced with a dilemma. To ban or not to ban?

Actually, “ban” is a bit harsh. I probably wouldn’t permanently ban anyone, but on my post The Difference Between Men & Women-When Clothes Are Dirty? a commenter referring to him or herself as “Jesus Christ” left the following:

1915: 1.8 Billion people,
2010: 6.8 Billion people,
95 years: 5 Billion people,
2310: 22 Billion people,
Solution to problem: Stop Creating Babies

The comment is (1) anonymous, (2) irrelevant, and (3) somewhat bothersome to me (the father of a 2 year old cutie pie). I realize this blog is not a democracy, and I can do whatever I please ultimately.

But, dear readers, I am asking for your input (and trying out the WP poll feature):

In fact, I am so forgiving with comments that I occasionally allow spam through just because I feel sorry for anyone who feels they have to spam others.

But, if I did have a comment policy, it would be summed up in Nick’s addendum to his.

It’s typically a recap of the previous day’s sermon and the goings on of our church. However, all of you non-member, iPhone/smartphone users might be interested in my short list of free Bible apps (there’s 5 to be exact) about midway through the post.

Enjoy!

The results (which brought a smile to my face):

1. David Foster Wallace-Probably my favorite contemporary fiction author, and one of the most brilliant writers ever.  He died (suicide) in 2008, way too early. If you haven’t read Infinite Jest, you should. It was named among Time’s All Time 100 Novels. Buy Infinite Jest from Amazon.

2. Douglas Adams-Author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Absolute classic, and I haven’t read it (but it’s on my list). Buy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy from Amazon.

Fun stuff!

Said preoccupation, naturally, results in my reading a lot about Genesis. I am forever grateful to the publishers who have provided books for me to review at my request, and I am especially thankful to those who have taken the initiative to ask me to review books related to Genesis.

From much of this recent reading, several thoughts have emerged (most are obvious):

Efforts to reconcile the “creation” account in Genesis with “science” are futile, if fun to read. There is far too big a gap between the ancient Israelite culture and language and present-day Western culture and English to even know all that is meant by Genesis 1 & 2, much less prove what we cannot know. Absent a Mosaic or Pauline revelation from the Lord Himself (which I am still anxiously anticipating, whereafter I will immediately post all the answers), I’m afraid we will always be left wondering.

We shouldn’t stop wondering. The futility in seeking answers to ultimately unanswerable questions is no reason to stop asking. There are plenty of lessons to be learned short of, but probably more important than, the actual who’s, what’s, when’s and where’s (why’s deliberately excluded because we should know the why’s).

Fighting about it is also pointless. And we should stop that. Honestly, has anyone ever been converted by argument. Christian’s bashing anything or anyone acknowledging scientific evidence as such doesn’t help our cause.

No theory is exactly right, but maybe none of them are entirely wrong either. And isn’t that really the beauty of the Bible, generally, and Genesis, particularly. Do these ideas have to be exclusive of the others? Certainly not. The array of plausible ideas is perhaps the best evidence of a God worthy of our praise and His multi-dimensional Word worthy of our study.

I didn’t check Google Reader or my blog stats once all week. It was wonderful! No offense to any of you guys, of course. It was just nice to unplug as much as we were able-I did have to check the weather (given the hurricane and tropical depression that bookended our stay-we missed it all thankfully!), get directions and perform other mundane iPhone functions.

A few highlights:

• The Libster had a blast feeding ducks, dolphin watching, and playing in the “wawa” (she’s still asking if we can go to the beach).
• Finding an isolated, uninhabited area of the beach with the wife and kiddo to hunt seashells and take a few photos.
• I bought my first fishing license ever and caught a (non-keeper) trigger fish (probably the largest fish caught by anyone in our party, but returned whence it came-not even a photo to commemorate the catch   )