You might think that it would be tough to sell turkey legs the weekend after Thanksgiving but not so for at least one food vendor at the Garrison, ND Dickens Festival. For a few weekends every winter, starting with the one after Thanksgiving, the small town of Garrison, ND (20 miles north of us) turns into a Victorian English town circa the Charles Dickens era. The store owners on main street dress in period garb, Christmas gifts and decorations abound, a vintage double-decker bus takes visitors on a tour of the area, a horse-drawn carriage whisks families around town, Christmas carols ringout all around, the local theatre turns into a playhouse for that year's rendition of "A Christmas Carol," and food vendors line the streets (including the aforementioned one selling turkey legs which sold out on the Saturday after Thanksgiving!). My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our brief visit this past Saturday (although we both chose soups over turkey legs which we'd had our fill of already!)
On Monday I attend a theological symposium in Bismarck hosted by the Northern Plains District of the EFCA. Dr. Darrell Bock of Dallas Theological Seminary gave talks on "Inerrancy," "The New World of the Under 30s," and "The Extra-Biblical Gospels." I appreciated his distinction between percision and accuracy when it comes to understanding the inerrancy of Scripture (that the bible is without error in the original manuscripts). Inerrancy has to do with the accuracy of information presented and the author's intent, not precision. The statements "it is cold today" and "the temprature reached a high of 18 degrees" are both accurate statements about the weather but not equally precise. However, no one would accuse the former of being in error. This distinction helps when it comes to understanding how difficult passages in Scripture can be said to be inerrant.
My wife and I had a very nice Thanksgiving with just the two of us at home. We continued our family tradition of having cinnamon roles for breakfast while watching the Macy's Day Parade. I was able to get most of our Christmas lights up over the weekend, although the ground was too hard for the candy cane path lights that we wanted to put along the walkway to our door. I've learned from my mistake last year that in ND you have to get the lights up early!
By God's Grace, Jeff
2 comments:
Jeff, I'm not quite sure what you mean about Scriptures being accurate but not precise. Could you site an example? That's a sharp precipice that gone one way produces life, but gone the other produces false doctrine.
Ultimately, I tend to avoid the precipice altogether since I believe the Word of God to be wholly inerrant which means that if there is a disagreement, then either the original was mis-translated (ok, that's easy to find out) or the disagreement is a misunderstanding due to cultures (i.e. different ways of tracking King's reigns between Judah and Israel).
I'm curious, what the difference is as indicated by Dr. Block.
Please don't misunderstand me. I wholeheartedly hold to inerrancy of Scripture. But we need to define what is meant by the bible being without error in the orginal writings. Take a look at the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy for more details but essentially biblical inerrancy has to do with intended accuracy and not exact precision; what the author meant to say, not what could have been said.
For example, at Jesus' baptism Mark and Luke have "You are my Son..." while Matthew has "This is my Son..." The best way to understand this "apparent" discrepancy is to realize the theological nature of the Gospels. Probably "You are my Son" is what was said but Matthew was more intersted in communicating how this declaration was to be taken by those who heard God speak. He was accurate with regard to his inetentions but not necessarily precise.
I hope that helps. - Jeff
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