Your View of the Author's Interpretation

Use this forum to discuss the August 2019 Book of the month, "I Will Make of Thee a Great Nation: Old Testament Stories" by Val D. Greenwood.
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ReyvrexQuestor Reyes
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Re: Your View of the Author's Interpretation

Post by ReyvrexQuestor Reyes »

About the word "creation" as used in the Scriptures, it denotes making something from nothing. And this is all that everything would boil down into at the end. Even the "Big Bang" has this tricky part on the aspect of the so-called "Singularity" that exploded and set everything into motion. The big question is where the "Singularity" came from? Is it already there? Then " who" or "what" placed it there to start with? The Oriental thought is almost similar to the Creation aspect of having everything originate from nothing. They say it this way: "In Nothing is Everything." This is easily proven. For instance, you start with asking, "Where are you now?" You might answer, "In Earth." Then the next question is: "Where is Earth?" You will answer: "In the Milky Way Galaxy." Where is this galaxy? You answer: "In empty space." And Empty Space is "Nothingness." All the universes are contained in Empty Space, in Nothing. Ergo: "Everything is contained in Nothing."
"In the beginning was the word.........John 1:1"
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Akpome1
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Post by Akpome1 »

The only place where I feel the author is downright wrong is his interpretation of the days of creation. Still, this is based on his understanding of the passage. You don't expect him to give out what he does not have.
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FrankieKelley
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Post by FrankieKelley »

I wasn’t much a fan of Val D. Greenwood’s opening statement about how the universe was created out of available materials. Growing up a Christian in the south, I was taught that God formed the universe with his own two hands out of nothingness. For the most part, his interpretation of the Old Testament provided a great perspective, but not with the opening notes.
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Post by nchoate12 »

I agree that I believe God does move to put great opportunities in our path, but it is ultimately up to us whether or not we take those opportunities. We can be presented with many different decisions everyday, but it's on us to accept or reject those.
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Post by Clemens Nickleby »

The serpent's question is always "Yea, hath God said?" Rhetorically speaking, for God to be God he must be able to preserve his Word. The King James Bible stands alone in its scholarship in translation from the Received Texts. It is a vast and interesting subject and the story of the translation of the King James Bible is fascinating. Chris Pinto has a documentary called "A Lamp in the Dark" for those interested. If anyone wants to really go in-depth, The Dean Burgon Society and the King James Bible Research Council have articles, research and lectures available. You can know God's Word, and why organized could never be substituted for created.
Truth is stranger than Fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain
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Post by vermontelf »

This was always the problem that I had with the bible. Although they may be "the words of God" it has always been someone's interpretation of the words, or someone's interpretation of the stories, that comprise almost any holy book. Across cultures this is true. Ergo, I don't find fault in this case as it is exactly the same.
I found the book a little repetitive, as I said in my review, but in reality, so are the stories upon which it is based, and it would be inaccurate to base the book solely upon the "fun" or "high adventure" tales.
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Post by Ogbara »

B Creech wrote: 13 Aug 2019, 08:16 I am so glad you asked this question! I fervently disagree with the author's statement on the first page in regards to creation, and I quote: " it Is certainly more correct to say that the earth was organized than to say it was created, for it was not created out of nothing." The author goes on to state "it was created from materials that were available in the universe..." It is my belief, based on Scripture I have read all my life that God "created" everything. And I believe that includes the universe as well! So my opinion of creation is very different than the authors. The rest of the book is excellent and I enjoyed reading it, however, I just disagree with his thoughts on creation.
Thank you for sharing, I agree with you, in Psalm 24:1 it says "The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein.", the earth can't be the LORD's if all He did, was to rearrange. It actually could not have been rearranged without it being created first, so God had to have created first.
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Post by Echezonachukwu »

Well, I don't think I agreed with the authors version of creation
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Post by Ify-babe »

I think the adding of extra facts by the author is where I have problem with.
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Post by Bennaji »

One thing with interpretation is that one may be clouded by his own bias and may present it to the readers as the position of the bible, which is quite tricky. The author should have stuck with the Bible interpretation.
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