Tim Keller the post modern CS Lewis

I like Tim Keller author and pastor of Reddemer Prebyterian church. He writes good books, he listens and observes culture around him. He writes respectful apologetics to those who have genuine questions, without blowing them off.

He reminds me a lot of CS Lewis without the fiction novels.

He recently wrote on his blog defending the inconsistencies of the bible. He made a basic premiss

 

So where does this leave us? There are only two possibilities. If Christ is God, then this way of reading the Bible makes sense and is perfectly consistent with its premise. The other possibility is that you reject Christianity’s basic thesis—you don’t believe Jesus was the resurrected Son of God—and then the Bible is no sure guide for you about much of anything. But the one thing you can’t really say in fairness is that Christians are being inconsistent with their beliefs to accept the moral statements in the Old Testament while not practicing other ones.

Its a really loaded statement. Reminiscent of the famous CS Lewis Trilemma. I know that for many Christians a statement like this gives them some security. But not for me; I see that there is a lot of grey out there. For example the above quote starts to crumble when you like at the word 'Believe' what exactly does Keller understand by the word 'Believe"? A belief that means that it is literal or maybe a belief that what what happened contained 'The Truth' but was mythical? There are other words and lines which I also see as grey.

I see this type of apologic as I wrote previously helpful; truthfully mainly for Christians who need a black and white answer. But unfortunately most of the world full of non-christians would see in gray

 

 

Tim Keller on Evolution

Interestingly some big names are starting to speak up on the Genisis/Evolution disscussion. Tim Kellor who makes a lot of sence to me writes that it does not necessarily mean a yes or no answer.
This comes from the white paper written by Tim Keller for the November workshop "In Search of a Theology of Celebration" is posted on the BioLogos web site: Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople.
He gives three question and brief then followed by more detailed examples...

Question #1: If God used evolution to create, then we can’t take Genesis 1 literally, and if we can’t do
that, why take any other part of the Bible literally?

Answer: The way to respect the authority of the Biblical writers is to take them as they want to be
taken. Sometimes they want to be taken literally, sometimes they don’t. We must listen to them, not
impose our thinking and agenda on them.

Question#2: If biological evolution is true—does that mean that we are just animals driven by our
genes, and everything about us can be explained by natural selection?

Answer: No. Belief in evolution as a biological process is not the same as belief in evolution as a world-
view.

Question #3: If biological evolution is true and there was no historical Adam and Eve how can we know
where sin and suffering came from?

Answer: Belief in evolution can be compatible with a belief in an historical fall and a literal Adam and Eve. There are many unanswered questions around this issue and so Christians who believe God used evolution must be open to one another’s views.

I found it fascinating that he used C.S.Lewis as part of his detailed answer.

One of my favorite Christian writers (that’s putting it mildly), C.S.Lewis, did not believe in a literal Adam and Eve, and I do not question the reality or soundness of his personal faith.

(It also interests me that people like John Piper love to quote C.S.Lewis, yet I'd say for Piper a non-belief in a literal Adam and Eve would be heretical!)

I do like Keller's approach. It gives the reader some outs, as well as options. A freedom to think though things and not be boxed in. It does mean that a certain undoing or diminished importance of aspects of Scriptures which certainly if reading from Genesis has implied effects through out Scripture. This for some people will feel like shaky ground.