Shrimp here: I could be laying myself open to a charge of being one-sided, so this week I am going to feature the comments of the opposition and leave the rebuttal up to you all.
The first Revisionist is Vaughn Roste, from ELCIC. He writes, "The Bible, more often than many would like to believe, is often just that: metaphor. This does not make it any less true ... I believe the Bible is absolutely 100% true. Some of it even actually happened."
Read the whole thing: Alberta's Lutheran Church enters homosexual debate.
The good ship ELCA...
Or the Shellfish blog...
1 comment:
That the Scripture contains metaphor is not the point. I believe everyone will agree that metaphor is certainly found there.
The question is: "What is metaphor and what is not?" Clearly the teaching about homosexual sexual relations is not metaphorical. Leviticus is not a metaphor. Nor Paul's words in Romans, I Corinthian; and 1Timothy. Nor Jude, nor 1Peter.
We also find that our Lord's word about sexual conduct is not metaphorical either, or any sexual contact outside of marriage is consider sexual immorality and it make a person unclean. Yes, he uses metaphor to describe the necessity of cutting ourselves off from sexual impurity, like we find in Matthew 5, where he says if your eye causes you to sin, cut if off and throw it away...it is better to enter into the kingdom of heaven maimed, than to have your whole body thrown into hell.
Certainly the metaphor is cutting off the eye. His point is that we must cut off that which causes us to act upon porneia, or sexual immorality. However, hell is not a metaphor...he is quite literal about that.
So it is not a matter of whether or not metaphor is used in the bible, but what is metaphor and what is not.
However, another issue is to what does the metaphor point when used? Clearly the metaphorical image of marriage in the Scriptures is that of God and the people of God. The Bride and the Bride-groom. Notice the metaphor. It speaks to a marriage between two gender different individuals. It means that marriage between man and woman is the best image God uses to describe the reunion between us and the holy other. This metaphor does not accept same-sex partnerships, unions, or whatever.
Just a few off the cuff thoughts.
Peace!
Rob Buechler
Post a Comment