The Weakest Link

There was once a television quiz program called The Weakest Link. Basically, the contestant who failed to contribute the required level of intelligence was deemed to be The Weakest Link.

One could be excused for thinking that the manager of a blogspot called These Infinite Spaces represents The Weakest Link in the Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney.

You know people are losing the argument on a matter touching on science when they resort to accusing their opponent(s) of being "Flat Earthers". It happened last week at the No Carbon Tax protest rally in Canberra when three Get Up juveniles unfurled a banner in front of a news camera with the words "Flat Earth" imprinted on the banner. This was Get Up's low level accusation against people who are cautious when differing scientific views exist on the subject of Anthropogenic Global Warming and who thus oppose the imposition of a tax on power consumption.

That incident follows a recent blog titled "Young Earth, Bad Theology" by the manager of These Infinite Spaces, a blog which links Biblical Creationists to Flat Earthers simply because we take God at his word in Scriptural passages which traditionally have been deemed historical narrative.

To counter the remnant God has sustained through the ages, the manager of These Infinite Spaces cites a Nineteenth Century work by Samuel Birley Rowbotham who, through extensive reference to extra Canonical sources and citation of certain passages of Scripture, has a pretext (Flat Earth belief) which he takes to figurative language of Scripture to justify his argument. This is a long standing practice of cultists and heretics. The manager of These Infinite Spaces tumbles in and is impressed with the potential for figurative language to be taken as literal, forgetting of course, to discern whether a pretext has first to be dismissed. Additionally, no thought is given to the potential to commit the converse offence of taking literal language as figurative - something the manager of These Infinite Spaces is guilty of because he has previously declared, without equivocation, that his world view (pretext) dictates his interpretation of Scripture.

In addition to the great offence this is to God, this is a violation of the principle of Scriptural interpretation instilled by God into the mind of men in perhaps the greatest collective work of God since the Apostolic period viz., the Reformation. That principle Sola Scriptura or Scripture Alone is the means to interpret Scripture i.e. let Scripture interpret Scripture. Evangelicals today exhort the Reformers and their works but many have a mind similar to the author of These Infinite Spaces and, like the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law who revered the murdered prophets of God, are held accountable for killing off the ones they revered.

Today the united pronouncements of Martin Luther and John Calvin on interpretation of Genesis 1 are dismissed as error. It is not Sola Scriptura dictating this killing of Luther and Calvin but extra-biblical influences and the manager of These Infinite Spaces is a willing aggressor.

In throwing off our Reformation heritage these modern day heretics even ignore the sober testimony of scholars who, because they doubt the Inspiration of Scripture, can be deemed hostile witnesses to the Reformation and Biblical Creationist position. It is an old quote (nearly 30 years old) but it bears repeating here. It is that of James Barr, Professor of Hebrew, Oxford University, who doubted what 'Moses' believed nonetheless said this of 'Moses':

‘… probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11intended to convey to their readers the ideas that

a) creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24hours we now experience

b) the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story

c) Noah’s flood was understood to be world-wide and extinguish all human and animal life except for those in the ark.’

The manager of These Infinite Spaces seems further behind James Barr and other former Hebraists in understanding because, while also influenced by external sources as they were, he cannot see the message that 'Moses' intended to convey in his writings.

Another failing of said manager is his failure to know anything of or grasp something of the use of the word yõm (day). It is definite in Hebrew that when you have an ordinal accompanying the word "day" it means a normal solar day. I think there are about 359 instances of support. If in the Bible anywhere "day" means something else the immediate context makes that perfectly clear. The context clearly shows that "day" is a long period of time. It would be the worst form of eisegesis to read that meaning back into Genesis 1 where "day" has ordinals in a specific series. (extensively a quote from Douglas Kelly, Theologian)

At the risk of criticism for repetition, when yõm is modified by a numeral or ordinal in historical narrative (359 times external to Gen. 1), it means a literal day approximating to 24 hours. When modified by “evening and/or morning”, (38 times external to Gen. 1), it always means a literal day.

Any attempt by me to have said manager justify his erroneous dismissal of the convictive of the direct utterance of God, recorded at Exodus 20:11, was avoided in the first instance and then, when put to further interrogation, he promptly banned me from his blogspot. Since then he appears to have deleted every comment on his posts - strange! He has thus became then The Weakest Link in the Episcopalian Diocese of Sydney.

I caution new and tender Christians to avoid These Infinite Spaces. It is a black hole of infinite space from which escape to intelligence and understanding of truth is not possible.

Sam Drucker