[CS-FSLUG] OT: Potter, Halloween and Philipians 4:8

[Timothy Butler]

> According to Jesus and Paul and other Bible authors it
> is critical.  The Bible draws a sharp distinction between
> the sacred and profane -- only fallen man sees the world
> as otherwise.

	Actually, I disagree. The sacred/profane dichotomy can be deceptive.  
At least in what I would assert is the proper sense, the sacred is  
the Other (the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, numinous, Ultimate  
Reality, God) and the profane is everything outside of God and that  
related to God. My keyboard is profane, for example, as is Linux (as  
hard as that may seem to believe!). I'm basically drawing off of Otto  
and Eliade here.

	Popular usage distorts the meaning to where the profane is something  
that is necessarily bad. The word simply doesn't imply that, though.  
Are you meaning something else by profane?

> That vague shadows of the Hand of God are still visible
> in the distorted mess that is the remnants of His once
> perfect creation does not make imperfection a reliable
> source of truth.

	Nor did I claim such. The question is whether all of it must simply  
be junked (or at least preserved only for the ivory towers).

>>             Ok, let me explain. Personally, I am of the camp that
>>     believes there is general revelation.
>
> I am not sure why you'd call it a "camp".  General revelation is
> a basic Biblical concept.  One just has to be very careful to
> not read-in too much.

	I'd agree it is very Biblical, but many do not accept it or are  
willing to negate it quite a bit more than I am. Hence I advocate  
that I am. Traditionally, there seems to be a lot more interest in  
Natural Law in Catholic circles than Protestant ones.

> J. Vernon McGee once said that "Seminary is a terrible
> thing to do to a Christian".  To the extent that obsessions
> with "Biblical criticism" from confused Christians and
> non-Christians undermine one's faith, or consuming studies
> of other religions or philosophies muddle one's faith, McGee
> is correct.

	I think certainly Biblical Criticism (especially, I suspect you are  
referring to Higher Criticism) is something that is best saved for  
mature Christians. Comparative Religious studies as well. (Though I  
would advocate that both are essential to the academic needs of the  
theologian.)

> As an overall context I want to repeat that we must always
> separate what we read/view as informed and spiritually mature
> Christian adults from what a child (age/maturity) should
> absorb.

	Sure. We've ventured far away from that, though. I don't think many  
children would care much trying to comprehend the Wellhausen  
Hypothesis or the Qu'ran, for example.

	-Tim

---
Timothy R. Butler | "Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.
Editor, OfB.biz   |  Aim at earth and you get neither."
tbutler at ofb.biz   |                                   -- C.S. Lewis
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