Is the Bible True?

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Comment by Carl Isaacson on May 3, 2009 at 8:49pm

The problem, it seems to me, with the kind of subjectivity Professor Lose seems to advocate - we know it is true as it changes lives - is that many of the worlds scriptures are life changers. As a young Pastor I "lost" a young woman in my congregation to Mormonism. She had a pretty rough stretch in her life, and missionaries called just as she was going through personal trauma. She found their commentary and the Book of Mormon compelling and converted to Mormonism. Her life was changed - whether for the better or not I cannot say - but it was definitely changed.
As a collegian I found my life changed by reading Lao Tzu.
As a seminarian I was deeply moved by the Augsburg Confession and by Gerhard Forde's commentary on it.
Each of these verbal works changed me. Shall I argue that they are "true" in the same way that I want to argue that the canonical scriptures are "true" and "Word of God?"

Comment by John Stendahl on April 27, 2009 at 8:59am

A fine personal, and deeply Lutheran, testimony. The question of truth is of course more than the determination of fact over fiction. It may be true for you to speak of having seen the sun rising this morning, and it may even be true that you saw the sun rise when you first gazed on the face of your beloved, but neither assertion is scientifically, astronomically factual. Sometimes fiction tells truth and sometimes facts obscure it. When we recognize and affirm a truth, or when we seek to embrace it, we need wisdom about how or when it is true. What is at stake and for whom is this truth spoken? The timing, the audience, the passion, the relationship all matter. Out of context, addressed to the wrong situation or used in the wrong way, a truth can become a damning lie, like that misapplication of law and gospel that comforts the comfortable and afflicts the afflicted.

Comment by Dan Eisch on January 9, 2009 at 11:44am

An interesting concept, but for those who may be questioning the reverse may seem to be more true.

Comment by Greg Kaufmann on January 6, 2009 at 10:08pm

David, thanks for taking time to share this video. For those of us who have enjoyed this short clip, I recommend the book by Padgett and Keifert titled "But Is It All True?" published by Eerdmans.
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