Comments on: Genesis 1 as functional creation, not structural days

By: ElShaddai Edwards

ElShaddai Edwards — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:00:54 +0000

I wish I was fully smart enough to follow all that is being said. Me too. The continuing discussion at Ancient Hebrew Poetry here and here makes me feel very, very ignorant, but it's fascinating to read.

By: Tim Olson

Tim Olson — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:47:57 +0000

I wish I was fully smart enough to follow all that is being said. I’m just a simple youth pastor. I had the privilege of eating breakfast each morning for 2 years with Dr. Walton (at Moody Bible Institute). I should have learned more from him. I knew he was amazing then. I have watched his lecture online about Genesis and creation - and wish I knew more. One thing I really appreciate about him is his intellectual honesty. It’s fascinating to hear you smart people discuss this. I’m enjoying it.

Since I know little, I can only side with Dr. Walton.

Tim

By: ElShaddai Edwards

ElShaddai Edwards — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:58:28 +0000

Ah, thank you, Bryan. I figured it was something like that - I’ve just never had a lot of luck with RealPlayer - something’s always goofy with it… I’ll try to get it installed again.

By: Bryan L

Bryan L — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:54:07 +0000

ElShaddai,
You probably aren’t getting a big file when you try to download it because the .ram file is sort of just a pointer file that links to a larger one. Try entering the url into a program like NetTransfer or Orbit or one of those download manager programs and it will probably download the larger file which will likely have an .rm extension.

That’s my guess anyway.

BTW if I didn’t mention it, the lecture is in video so it will be rather large file.

Bryan

By: TC

TC — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:51:35 +0000

I think we need to reread Genesis, and adopt the Purpose-Driven model.

Btw, that’s a good one.

By: ElShaddai Edwards

ElShaddai Edwards — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:29:19 +0000

Thanks, TC! I suppose Genesis can now be read as an ANE version of Rick Warren, i.e. “The Purpose-Driven Temple”…

By: TC

TC — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:04:22 +0000

Elshaddai, here’s what I got from Dr. Walton:

Because our scientific worldview is keenly interested in material structure and natural causality, we often go to the biblical account looking for information on its physical makeup and laws. In this area, however, the biblical worldview is much more like its ancient Near Eastern counterparts in that it views function as a consequence of the purpose of divine agency.” (”Genesis,” in NIVAC, p.83)

Btw, the good doctor spends 31 pages (78-109) on vv. 3-5. It’s a very rich read.

Here’s something else I found helpful:

“In our worldview, function is a consequence of structure, and a discussion of creation therefore must, of course, direct itself to the making of things. In contrast, when an Israelite asked “How does the cosmos work?” he or she was on a different wavelength, because in the ancient worldview, function is a consequence of purpose.” (Ibid, p. 85)

This is what I gathered from Dr. Walton, if we’re going to really get Genesis 1, we need an approximate the worldview of the ancients.

By: ElShaddai Edwards

ElShaddai Edwards — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:28:04 +0000

Bryan, I’ve been having trouble getting RealPlayer installed so I haven’t been able to test the link - when I try to save the .ram file directly to disk, I get a file that’s only 78 bytes, so I don’t know if that’s the issue.

By: Bryan L

Bryan L — Sun, 04 May 2008 20:48:34 +0000

Mike,
I just tried it again and it worked fine. It opened up in Real Player with no problem at all. Maybe it was just down when you tried it or maybe it’s some weird internet or service provider issue. Anyone else have trouble with it?

Bryan

By: Mike Beidler

Mike Beidler — Sun, 04 May 2008 06:05:22 +0000

Bryan,

The link to Walton’s lecture at Calvin College doesn’t seem to work, and I ran a search on the parent website with no results. Any chance you can locate it again?