Post by Guadalupe on Sept 23, 2014 12:16:51 GMT -5
The Bible stands up to skepticism - can Christians?
Russ Jones (OneNewsNow.com) Tuesday, September 23, 2014
A New Testament scholar believes many Christian leaders aren't equipped to deal with the challenges of skepticism over the Bible and Christian faith.
In what has been described as today's culture of doubt, skeptics on the Bible have become bestselling authors and have found a captive audience.
Dr. Darrell Bock, a research professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, says the Bible is no longer a trusted source of truth for many of those Christians may communicate with.
“Our culture has shifted significantly in the last several decades, from a point where the Bible was respected and to be trusted for an answer to, as I like to say, the Bible becoming the question rather than the answer,” he says.
“So appealing to Scripture for a Christian is natural, but that doesn’t mean that the person to whom they’re making the appeal necessarily appreciates the reference. That demands a little more of the Christian when interacting with people coming from a place where the Bible is not necessarily a very special book.”
In Truth in a Culture of Doubt, a book he coauthored, Bock writes that even Christians have serious questions about certain parts of the Bible.
“In some cases these questions are very sincere,” he says. “Oftentimes they’re raising legitimate questions about differences that do exist in the text, and they want to know how it works. On the surface it looks like you have a problem, whereas if you take a step back you can see how that is not necessarily the case."
While there may be differences between stories in the Bible, Bock says they certainly aren't contradictions as skeptics claim.
Russ Jones (OneNewsNow.com) Tuesday, September 23, 2014
A New Testament scholar believes many Christian leaders aren't equipped to deal with the challenges of skepticism over the Bible and Christian faith.
In what has been described as today's culture of doubt, skeptics on the Bible have become bestselling authors and have found a captive audience.
Dr. Darrell Bock, a research professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, says the Bible is no longer a trusted source of truth for many of those Christians may communicate with.
“Our culture has shifted significantly in the last several decades, from a point where the Bible was respected and to be trusted for an answer to, as I like to say, the Bible becoming the question rather than the answer,” he says.
“So appealing to Scripture for a Christian is natural, but that doesn’t mean that the person to whom they’re making the appeal necessarily appreciates the reference. That demands a little more of the Christian when interacting with people coming from a place where the Bible is not necessarily a very special book.”
In Truth in a Culture of Doubt, a book he coauthored, Bock writes that even Christians have serious questions about certain parts of the Bible.
“In some cases these questions are very sincere,” he says. “Oftentimes they’re raising legitimate questions about differences that do exist in the text, and they want to know how it works. On the surface it looks like you have a problem, whereas if you take a step back you can see how that is not necessarily the case."
While there may be differences between stories in the Bible, Bock says they certainly aren't contradictions as skeptics claim.