Biblical Literacy for Atheists

thnuhthnuh said:

When I read how bad theology plays out in the bible (long periods of apostasy punctuated by miracles) I have to agree that the likeliest explanation is that the "miracles" are priestcraft and scare stories. It just doesn't make sense to depend on something as inefficient as a text (or a magesterium for that matter) to spread "orthodoxy".

6/07/2008 4:39 PM

http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-protestants-catholics-can-learn.html#comments

In biblical times it wasn’t simply “the text” that was “depended upon” for “orthodoxy.” The prophet’s speech functioned as Divine special revelation. So “orthodoxy” wasn’t a settled issue in the sense it is now. The canon was not complete. Revelation progressed. The cloudy became clear. Now we have all that God wanted to reveal. And so this claim is simply unfamiliar with basic theology. We depend on "special revelation" to “spread orthodoxy.” This is the same today as it was in OT Israel. This objection focuses on accidental features of special revelation as the basis for orthodoxy rather than on essential features, viz., God’s say-so.

The objection also minimizes the biblical claims to gain its intended force. The text is God’s word to man. How could that be inefficient? If God says X, can you think of a better reason which to ground your rational belief in X? It’s only inefficient to the degree that you don’t take it as Divine revelation. But then this spurious objection reveals itself not so much as a reason to disbelieve the biblical data as it is, rather, the very expression of that disbelieving attitude toward the text.”

One should also make the point that apostasy didn’t have as much to do with bad theology as it did with bad living. The theological climate wasn’t nearly like it was beginning in New Testament times. Apostasy in OT times was seen mostly in terms of violations of the stipulations of the covenant. Worshiping other gods. Failing to submit to Jehovah as the Great King.

The prophets, then, weren’t arguing for orthodox Judaism over against heretical strains of Judaism so much as they were filling the role, following Douglas Stuart, of “covenant enforcement mediators.” That is, they called Israel back to obedience to the terms of the covenant that they bound themselves to with Jehovah. This isn’t to say all that could be said of the office of ‘prophet.’ But surely one of the keys to understanding the prophetic message is to view them as protesting the disloyalty shown to the overlord by the subjects. They were delegates of Jehovah, serving as prosecuting attorneys by bringing indictments against the rebellious and disobedient Israelites.

It is a shame that many atheologians interaction with Scripture can’t at least manage to get our basic story correct. Now, to be sure, we are partly to blame. On the other hand, the answers are out there and there is no excuse for not being able to at least properly represent our story. It is rather unfair to pretend that you are really looking at all the Bible has to say on these matters when you leave out the Bible’s explanation for all the OT apostasy we see. Atheologians will continue to fail to get a hearing when they show an unfamiliarity with the Bible and the Christian message.

All too frequently they read the Bible, and history, as presenting a holy people trying to do holy things in order to placate a holy God. It is no wonder that through these assumptions many an atheist has critiqued Christianity on the basis of how its adherents have behaved. When you view us as saying that history is made up of God’s people as being holy, and doing holy things to placate a holy God, then of course all that needs to be done is to point to our character - whether it is the OT apostates (that we see time and time again) or things like the crusades (and I grant this latter argument simply for arguments sake). This isn’t the Christian story. The Christian story is a holy God doing holy things to rescue and save a sinful, weak, faithless, God-hating people. Thus to point out the errors and sins of God’s people in history is not to offer empirical discomfirmation of our thesis, it is to offer empirical confirmation of our thesis.

Here’s the point with the apostates. They continually violated the terms of the covenant, and the prophets called them back to the demands of the covenant. This happens over and over again throughout redemptive history. Was the point that they just couldn’t hold orthodox beliefs about God and various other theological minutia? No, it was that they broke the covenant. They could not live up to the demands of the covenant. Thus they couldn’t stay in the land, which was a type and shadow of the heavenly land ultimately promised to Abraham. In other words, they could not do anything to save themselves.

So what does God do? He sends Jesus and Jesus keeps the covenant terms for his people. God also promises to write his law on their hearts and mind. He forgives their sins through a one-time atonement and remembers them no more. The frequent acts of apostasy simply hammer home the point that man can never merit God’s saving grace. But here’s the rub: He has to. He’s in a predicament. So the Son of God takes on a human nature, becomes fully human, and he lives in our place. Merits eternal life for us.

So, apostasy wasn’t about keeping your theological ducks in a row. It was about not living up to the demands of the covenant . . . again and again and again. The image is impressed upon our minds. Man cannot do anything by himself. “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” We see that God meets the demands of the covenant for us. We see this in Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8 and 10, and many other places.

Where the atheist sees an interesting factoid to naturalize, the Christian sees the truth of what happens when sinful man must meet the conditions of the covenant, and thanks God for graciously keeping them for us. Instead of “Do this and live” we now have “This is done, now live.”