Living On The Edge

586 Pages·2014·4.45 MB·English

Living On The Edge
Challenges to Faith
Jonathan Burke (2013)
Contents
Introduction for a non-Christadelphian reader ............................1
What this book is for & how to read it ..............................................................................3
Is all this academic work really necessary? .....................................................................4
Referencing ....................................................................................................................................6
Transliteration ..............................................................................................................................7
Living on the edge of certainty ............................................................9
Errors of argument to look out for ......................................................................................9
The Dunning-Kruger effect ............................................................................................ 10
Why Christians should value skepticism .......................................................................14
Hermeneutics: ‘Isn’t that just your interpretation?’ ..................................................18
Living on the edge of credibility ......................................................29
Richard Dawkins: outspoken ‘New Atheist’ ..................................................................32
Jacques Berlinerblau: atheist critic of New Atheism ................................................36
Atheism is not a guarantee of rational thinking ..........................................................38
Bill Maher .............................................................................................................................. 38
Ian Plimer .............................................................................................................................. 43
Is religious belief rational? ...................................................................................................45
Is faith irrational? .............................................................................................................. 46
Are there any benefits to religion? ....................................................................................49
Why would atheists want to copy religion? ..................................................................53
Questions about Christian history ....................................................................................59
Did Jesus exist? ..........................................................................................................................59
Is Jesus just a copy of pagan saviours? ..................................................................... 68
Was Christmas a Christian hijack of a pagan festival? ....................................... 74
Were the Gnostics the ‘original’ Christians? .................................................................85
Christianity & science .............................................................................................................86
The ‘Two Books’ tradition in historic Christian commentary ........................ 90
God is not the author of confusion ............................................................................. 95
Isn’t the Bible is a higher authority than science? ............................................... 98
Examining the claims of Draper & White ..............................................................100
Words without knowledge ..........................................................................................105
Stealing fire from the gods ...........................................................................................109
Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture .............................110
Was Christianity responsible for the death of Greek science? .....................115
Supposed ‘martyr for science’: Hypatia of Alexandria ....................................119
Supposed ‘martyr for science’: Andreas Vesalius ..............................................125
Supposed ‘martyr for science’: Giordano Bruno ...............................................132
Supposed ‘martyr for science’: Nicholas Copernicus .......................................135
Supposed ‘martyr for science’: Galileo Galilei .....................................................137
Have atrocities been committed in the name of science? ..............................139
Living on the edge of doubt ............................................................ 144
Questions about the Biblical text .................................................................................... 144
How accurately has it been transmitted? ..............................................................144
How can we be sure what the original text was? ...............................................152
How accurate are Bart Ehrman’s claims? ..............................................................155
Who corrupted the text? ...............................................................................................159
Early Christadelphian views .......................................................................................160
Questions about the canon of Scripture ...................................................................... 166
Is the ‘Secret gospel of Mark’ genuine? ..................................................................166
Is the ‘Gospel of Judas’ genuine? ...............................................................................171
Questions about translations ........................................................................................... 172
The translation history of the “King James” Bible .............................................172
Claims and facts about the “King James” Bible ...................................................178
Questions about archaeology ........................................................................................... 184
Leading writers in archaeology relating to the Bible .......................................185
What is Biblical ‘minimalism’? ...................................................................................189
What is the ‘Low Chronology’? ..................................................................................194
Were camels domesticated in Abraham’s time? .................................................198
What is the ‘Merneptah Stele’? ..................................................................................203
When was the Exodus? ..................................................................................................207
What is the ‘Tel Dan Stele’? ..........................................................................................218
What is the ‘Siloam Inscription’?...............................................................................222
Is Solomon’s wealth a literary fiction? ....................................................................227
Is the Bible’s chronology of the kings of Israel reliable? ................................231
How tall was Goliath? .....................................................................................................235
Questions about Genesis .................................................................................................... 240
How should Genesis 1 be interpreted? ...................................................................240
Strong literalism with scientific didactism ...........................................................240
Weak literalism with scientific didactism .............................................................241
Concordism ........................................................................................................................241
Weak concordism wih scientific didactism ..........................................................241
Strong concordism with scientific didactism ......................................................241
Concordism without scientific didactism ..............................................................242
Weak concordism without scientific didactism ..................................................244
Theological didactism ....................................................................................................244
Theological polemic ........................................................................................................244
The early Christadelphian approach .......................................................................244
Is Genesis 1-11 a copy of ancient Mesopotamian myths? ..............................245
Was the Genesis flood local or global? ....................................................................248
Is there any evidence for the flood? .........................................................................255
Was the Ark a practical size? ......................................................................................260
Questions about the New Testament ............................................................................ 265
How accurate is the book of Acts? ............................................................................265
Does the book of Acts copy from Josephus? .........................................................270
Is the book of Acts an eyewitness account? .........................................................274
Living on the edge of society .......................................................... 280
Getting to know the Christadelphian community ................................................... 280
What we should know about the Christadelphian ‘pioneers’ ......................280
How can the Christadelphians be right & everyone else wrong? ..................... 284
Did the earliest Christians believe Jesus is God? ................................................285
How did the earliest Christians baptize? ...............................................................290
What does the Bible say about what happens when we die? .......................295
What is the correct understanding of the atonement? ....................................325
What about satan and demons? ................................................................................337
Christadelphians & science ............................................................................................... 355
The original Christadelphian approach to science ............................................355
Is the earth a sphere? .....................................................................................................361
Misrepresenting science and dishonoring Christ ..............................................365
Questions about the problems of evil & suffering ................................................... 370
What is the ‘Epicurean Paradox’? .............................................................................370
What is the ‘free will’ defense against the existence of evil? ........................373
Why does God allow environmental disasters? ..................................................374
Christianity & the European witch hunts ................................................................... 383
Did any Christians protest against the witch hunts? ........................................388
Were the witch hunts the product of Christian misogyny? ...........................394
The Bible & slavery ............................................................................................................... 398
The environment ................................................................................................................... 403
Does the Bible encourage care for the environment? ......................................403
Does Christianity discourage care for the environment? ...............................408
Women & the congregation .............................................................................................. 413
What can lexical-syntactical analysis tell us? ......................................................419
Was Jesus more egalitarian than his contemporaries? ...................................421
Does ‘kephalē’ mean ‘source’? ...................................................................................425
What is ‘the law’ in 1 Corinthians 14:34?..............................................................429
What do secular commentators say? ......................................................................432
Does 1 Corinthians 14:34 contain a quotation from Paul’s opponents? .436
Is 1 Timothy 2:11-12 a time limited text? .............................................................440
How did Paul’s words sound to his audience? ....................................................442
Who is leaving the church, men or women? ........................................................446
Do complementarianism views encourage domestic abuse? .......................451
Does complementarianism have any benefits? ..................................................455
The current state of the issue .....................................................................................459
Questions about Scripture’s moral teachings ........................................................... 462
What are the effects of modern media? .................................................................462
What are the effects of divorce and single parenting? .....................................466
What are the effects of sexualized media? ............................................................470
Does the Bible condemn homosexuality? .............................................................475
Does the Greek word malakos refer to homosexual acts? ............................477
Does the Greek word arsenokoitēs refer to homosexual acts? ...................481
Translation Acknowledgment ....................................................... 486
Bibliography ........................................................................................ 487
1
Introduction for a non-Christadelphian reader
Although this book was written for members of my own
religious community, I am writing this introduction in case it is given
to other people. I have written this work as a member of a Christian
1
sect named ‘The Christadelphians’, and from within the theological
viewpoint of this community.
Founded in the 19th century by English doctor John Thomas,
the Christadelphian community makes no claim to new revelation
or direct divine authority, nor does it claim an unbroken historical
continuity (such as ‘apostolic succession’), with any previous
Christian groups.
Whilst claiming to hold the same understanding of the gospel
as the 1st century Christian believers, Christadelphians believe that
other Christian groups throughout history have held the same beliefs
2 3 4
(if imperfectly), and that other Christian groups today also hold
1 htp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christadelphians
2 ‘Though the apostles died, their work continued, and the generation of believers
that went to the grave with them were succeeded by other believers who maintained
the integral structure of the temple of God, founded in Europe. True, the work was
marred and corrupted by the apostasy of the mass: stll, a real work—a real temple,
existed, consistng of the remnant of true believers preserved by God as His witnesses
th
in the midst of the prevailing corruption.', Roberts (one of the earliest 19 century
Christadelphian leaders), ‘Thirteen Lectures On the Things Revealed in the Last Book
of the New Testament, commonly known as “Revelation,” but more appropriately
distinguished as the Apocalypse; shewing their bearing on the events of history, and on
th
those mightier events of the near future to which they have all been leading.’ p. 98 (4
ed., 1921).
3 Documented by Christadelphian writer Alan Eyre, ‘The Protesters’ (1975), and
‘Brethren in Christ’ (1982; although both works were criticized by fellow Christadelphian
Ruth McHaffie’s exhaustively researched work ‘Finding Founders and Facing Facts’
(2001), demonstrating misreading or misrepresentation of a number of his sources,
McHaffie still agreed with Eyre that certain Christadelphian beliefs were represented in
various historical Christian groups.
4 ‘Thus it seems very likely that although the Truth as we believe it was only embryonic
in Waldo himself and the 12th century Vaudois, by the 16th century (and perhaps even
earlier) some groups of the later had, through their love of the Scripture, brought
much of its teaching, beauty and truth to light and, moreover, committed these to
2
5
the true understanding of the gospel.
Fellowship is shared with any other Christians holding
the same understanding, regardless of the group to which they
6
belong, or by whom they were baptized. Throughout this work
some reference will be made to the main journal of my community,
7
The Christadelphian, as a source of our comments on various
subjects. Information on our community may be found on various
Christadelphian websites addressing the following subjects: beliefs,
8
websites, events, and meeting places; sites in languages other than
9 10 ;11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
English; support networks charities; music; public
faithful people in Italy, Switzerland, Poland and elsewhere.’, Eyre, ‘Peter Waldo’, The
Christadelphian (1392.117.206), 1980.
5 See in particular the Church of the Blessed Hope (http://cotbh.org), and Living Hope
International Ministries (http://lhim.org).
6 This principle was written into the constitution of the Birmingham Christadelphian
congregation in England (one of the earliest Christadelphian congregations), and has
been a standard feature of Christadelphian congregational constitutions since; the
wording in the Birmingham constitution is ‘3. - That we recognise as brethren, and
welcome to our fellowship, all who have been immersed (by whomsoever) afer their
acceptance of the same doctrines and precepts.’, Roberts, ‘Our New Constitution At
Birmingham’, The Christadelphian (23.266.365), 1886.
7 See htp://www.thechristadelphian.com for the magazine’s website.
8 htp://www.christadelphia.org
9 htp://www.cbm-tz.org/swahili
10 htp://www.shengjing.org
11 htp://www.caringnetwork.ca
12 htp://www.chsn.org.uk
13 htp://www.caregroup.org.au
14 htp://www.meal-a-day.org
15 htp://www.cmadfa.com
16 htp://www.chomes.com.au
17 htp://www.theshunemhome.com
18 htp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal-a-Day_Fund
19 htp://www.christadelphianmusic.org