First of all, let me thank everyone who attended and especially those who helped set up and tear down, it is wonderful to have so many eager theologians in our community. Thanks also to John for coming out to kick off our first class of the first course.
I said I would Blog the answers to the questions that were texted in to me during the class. So, here they are.
First some administrative comments: Someone asked that we ask you to turn off your phones in the class. Since we have offered texting as a way to ask questions we really can't ask that you turn them off. One thing we can do is to remind everyone to put the phones on silent, that way they are not a distraction.
Someone also asked that when we introduce new theological terms or the Hebrew/Greek words we put them on the screen. I intend to use the screens in all the upcoming classes. We need to get some software issues managed, and I will get that done this week.
Now some of the non-admin questions.
"Is it possible that Noah's nakedness being covered, resulting in Ham's being cursed, was somehow related to Adam and Eve being ashamed of theirs?" That is a great question, and one I had not thought of. First of all I know there was a physical nakedness of Adam and Eve in the garden, and they were ashamed when they knew their nakedness after the sin. I also think there is a spiritual nakedness present here. I think when they sinned they lost the glory covering of God. You will notice in the story that they tried to cover up their nakedness, but they weren't physically clothed until God provided animal skins for them, thus creating the first sacrifice for sin. It is very important to note that God provided the sacrifice. This points us to Jesus, who was the ultimate and final sacrifice for sin, and again was provided to us by God. Noah and his family, at the time of the arks landing were God's chosen, and at least symbolically they were righteous. Sin crept into the scene very quickly and again, there is a feeble attempt to cover up nakedness. I like how the member in the community who asked this question made the connection to Adam and Eve, because it also demonstrates for us that something more had to happen in order to remove the stain of sin, more than a flood. We were waiting for God to cover us again, and this time with the clothing of Christ.(Romans 13:14)
"The Old Testament seems very symbolic, (the ark, Moses, the garden). Have we manipulated these stories, or are they undeniable evidence of Christ?"
Again, another fantastic question. I believe them to be the undeniable evidence of Christ. As I said in the class, there are textual criticisms in the bible. These are places where the bible doesn't seem to square up. A good book to understand these better is F.F. Bruce's, The Canon of Scripture. The criticisms are minor and do not detract from the meta-story being told in the Bible. A good example is the discovery of the book of Isaiah and other scriptures in the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. This is the oldest known manuscript of biblical books and passages. There are no original writings of any scriptures to date, that would be called an autograph. A manuscript is a copy of the original texts. The fascinating thing about the discovery is the incredible accuracy when this 2000 year old manuscript is held up to the modern day versions of scripture. Every time a person puts pen to paper there is the danger of missing a word of scripture, and yet the story is told over and over in so many ways that, for me it is impossible to miss the message of Jesus in the Old Testament.
Thanks again to everyone who was there at the school. I am looking forward to more conversation. Feel free to leave comments here, we can continue the conversation throughout the week.
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