A problem is something which I meet, which I find completely before me, but which I can therefore lay siege to and reduce. But a mystery is something in which I am myself involved, and it can therefore only be thought of as a sphere where the distinction between what is in me and what is before me loses its meaning and initial validity. -- Gabriel Marcel
The majority of mankind is lazy-minded, incurious, absorbed in vanities, and tepid in emotion, and is therefore incapable of either much doubt or much faith. -- T.S. Eliot, Introduction (1931), Pascal's "Pensees"
If you really enquire about God, not with mere curiosity, not, as it were, like a spiritual stamp collector, but as an anxious seeker, distressed in heart, anguished by the possibility that God might not exist and hence all life be vanity and one great madness -- if you ask in such a mood as the man who asks the doctor, "Tell me, will my wife live or will she die?"-- if you ask thus about God, then you know already that God exists; the anguished question bears witness that you know.
-- Emil Brunner, "Our Faith"
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LiturgicalCredo, "contemporary stories of faith and doubt." Member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.
The liturgy is essentially not the religion of the cultured, but the religion of the people. If the people are rightly instructed, and the liturgy is properly carried out, they display a simple and profound understanding of it. For the people do not analyze concepts, but contemplate. The people possess that inner integrity of being which corresponds perfectly with the symbolism of the liturgical language, imagery, action and ornaments. The cultured man has first of all to accustom himself to this attitude; but to the people it has always been inconceivable that religion should express itself by abstract ideas and logical developments, and not by being and action, by imagery and ritual. --Romano Guardini, "The Awakening of the Church in the Soul"
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LiturgicalCredo, an online literary journal devoted to "contemporary stories of faith and doubt." LiturgicalCredo is a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. Click
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43-year-old husband & dad of three daughters; former newspaper editor; former owner of a coffeehouse-used book store-music-art venue. Currently a lecturer in English at Coastal Carolina U. in Conway, SC; Beerman columnist for
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Art is the signature of man.
-G.K. Chesterton
Please, I adjure you, how does Beal “demolish” any argument? I saw little to no support for his primary argument. How is the Biblical witness contradictory?
I’ll answer your second question first.
Genesis 1:1-2:3 conflicts with Genesis 2:4-2:25 — two different accounts of creation with different chronologies of what was created first, second, third, etc.
Did Jesus tell the disciples to take staffs with them or not to take staffs with them? Luke 9:3 and Mark 6:8 disagree.
And the following come from Michael J. Christensen’s book, “C.S. Lewis on Scripture,” which you can verify with your own Bible.
“According to Matthew there was one angel at Jesus’ empty tomb. Mark says it was a young man sitting down. Luke says two men stood by the women and proclaimed the resurrection. And John says two angels sat where the body of Jesus had lain, and appeared only to Mary Magdalene. …
“Who commanded King David to take a census of Israel — the Lord or Satan? 2 Samuel 24:1 claims ‘the Lord.’ 1 Chronicles 21:1 claims ‘Satan.’ Whom did the voice from heaven address at the baptism of Jesus? Matthew 3:16 reads, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’ Luke 3:22 reads, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased’.”
These are just some of the contradictions in the Biblical record.
To answer your first question, I think you have a good point: I did not state what argument he is demolishing. I think what Beal was demolishing was an attitude, or a persuasion, or an approach to Scripture that I gained by aggregate over the years of going to schools operated by Independent Missionary Baptist Churches, and going to churches in the neo-Pentecostal/charismatic vein. These two groups actually disliked each other, for a variety of reasons, but actually handled the Bible in remarkably similar ways — mostly as proof texts for their agendas, with little analysis of the conflicting information in the texts.
Best,
Colin
Of course, all four Gospels testify that the tomb was unexpectedly empty.