Tag Archive

History and Myth in the Old Testament Creation Texts

Published on July 7, 2024 By sirrahc

This is the third entry in my series citing Rescuing Inerrancy: A Scientific Defense (2023) by Dr. Hugh Ross, which I began this past May. In this week’s excerpt, Ross addresses the ideas of “history” and “myth” in interpreting the Old Testament creation passages. How similar are these texts to those of other Ancient Near […]

Does the Old Testament Teach a Three-Tiered Cosmology?

Published on February 20, 2022 By sirrahc

“Job 37:18, which describes skies without rain as a ‘bronze’ expanse (cf. Deut 28:23), is figurative and does not support the common contention that the ‘expanse’ was considered a bronze dome by the Hebrews.” — Kenneth Mathews, Genesis 1–11:26 (New American Commentary, vol. 1a) For roughly the past couple hundred years, certain scholars (mostly higher […]

Is Genesis 1-11 Poetry or Prose?

Published on January 30, 2022 By sirrahc

When it comes to the first few chapters of Genesis, some people like to claim that it is merely poetry (and thus at least partly fictional), as opposed to narrative prose about actual things that happened in real time. (Of course, even poetry can point to reality despite flowery or phenomenological language.) This affords them […]

Three Questions on Creation, Angels, and Satan’s Fall

Published on August 13, 2017 By sirrahc

The other day, someone shared an interesting post in a Facebook group that I belong to. It posed some questions from someone named “Dr. Sherlin”, who I am unfamiliar with, but no one in our group commented on it. Sort of surprising, since the subject matter was pretty much on topic for the group. Well, […]

Newsweek Tells Christians They Are Wrong

Published on January 3, 2016 By sirrahc

“Newsweek‘s cover story is exactly what happens when a writer fueled by open antipathy to evangelical Christianity tries to throw every argument he can think of against the Bible and its authority. To put the matter plainly, no honest historian would recognize the portrait of Christian history presented in this essay as accurate and no […]

A Biblical Argument for Animal Death Before the Fall

Published on December 20, 2015 By sirrahc

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned — for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, […]

Must We Interpret the Bible in a Vacuum?

Published on September 27, 2015 By sirrahc

I just started a new book, A Biblical Case for an Old Earth (2006) by Dr. David Snoke, a respected physicist and professor at the University of Pittsburgh. I’ve been aware of Snoke and a few of his papers/essays for awhile, but I didn’t pick up his book until a few months ago, and I […]

The Women on the Ark (Part 2 of 2): How Old Were They, Anyway?

Published on July 31, 2012 By sirrahc

In my last post (Part 1), I mentioned the genetic evidence pointing to a “mitochondrial Eve” and “Y-chromosomal Adam” in humanity’s origin. I then discussed the idea that the RTB Creation Model may be a little too restrictive in its dependence on three distinct maternal lineages via Noah’s daughters-in-law. Today, though, I’d like to make […]

Young-Earth / Old-Earth Creationist Exchange, Part 3 of 3: A Literal Adam and Death Before the Fall

Published on January 21, 2012 By sirrahc

In this final installment, ‘Jeff’ and I returned to Eden and the subject of Adam (along with Eve, this time). As I recall, he expressed his appreciation that I didn’t give any credence to the ability of purely naturalistic processes to “create” the first life or the diversity of life we see now and in […]

Young-Earth / Old-Earth Creationist Exchange, Part 2 of 3: The Days of Creation and Evolution

Published on January 19, 2012 By sirrahc

A couple days ago, I started this series about my Facebook discussion with ‘Jeff’, a Young-Earth Creationist. The Young-Earth vs. Old-Earth dialog in general involves important worldview & spiritual issues, so it can be quite frustrating when the “other guy” doesn’t seem to understand or accede a point or perhaps mischaracterizes your view. Many such […]