If the Bible isn’t “bad”
(last week’s Truth in Two)
then, is it “good”?
This week’s Truth in Two has an answer (2 min vid + text + Afterword).
Dr. Mark Eckel is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration at Liberty University. Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website) and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video).
Pictures: Josh Collingwood, Snappy Goat
FULL TEXT
In last week’s Truth in Two I responded to the claim that The Bible is ‘bad.’ In this Truth in Two I would like to suggest why I think the Bible is ‘good.’ I begin in Genesis which I would argue was a halogen headlight in the darkness of that ancient near eastern world. In no other text is there a Personal, Eternal Creator. Transcendence and immanence both poured from the Hebrew’s God. He was at once separate and other-than while at the same time demonstrating caring compassion. Only from One whose authority was autonomous and absolute could spring the framework of a well ordered world. Creation worked. Stability made life livable. Harmony flowed throughout every established system. Yahweh’s beneficence cascaded from His personal nurture. *Common grace was goodness shown through all creation.
The Hebrews had a sensible and sensitive outlook on life in contrast to other ancient attitudes. Neighbor cultures believed fickle, temperamental gods practiced heinous crimes against each other. Creation was the result of severed body parts. Humans were created out of blood spilt because of godlike territorial warfare. Indeed, tired of work, the gods’ sole purpose for human creation was slave labor. The awful results of pagan cultures is no match for the goodness brought by the Bible’s wisdom.
Many scholars have written books explaining why the great freedoms and benefits of Western culture come from the Bible. Historian Tom Holland wrote Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World. Vishal Mangalwadi wrote The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization. Links to these and other books appear at the end of this Truth in Two. The Bible is not only a ‘good Book’ it is a Book that has brought good to humanity. For the Comenius Institute, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration at Liberty University, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.
* Gen 39:5; Ps 107; 145:9, 15-16; Matt 5:44-45; Luke 6:35-36; John 1:9; Acts 14:16-17; 1 Cor 7:12-14.
AFTERWORD This Truth in Two is based on an article first published at my website in 2009 “Genesis, A Halogen Headlight” and can be found at www.warpandwoof.org Another version can be found in my book I Just Need Time to Think. Books mentioned here can be further examined in the hyperlinks.