Bruce Szwast June 26th, 2011

How are my blogging skills? If I hold back and say little or just say amen, I feel like a wuss. If I say too much, I am being critical (I may be spammed). Then I say to myself, I must find that place where I am developing some 'critical thinking' skills while stating my point.

Recently I heard a preacher lament that we are not teaching our young people 'critical thinking'. This goes for not only the church but also the world's education system. We seem to be at a point where we are so easily pushed in one direction or another by people who want to manipulate us.

I grew up in the days where TV was a little circle with wavy lines and mostly snow. The sound was kind of bad and it was only on a few hours a day. Wow, Kukla, Fran and Ollie. A crocodile puppet, a human type puppet, and a nice lady as a straight person. Have we progressed a lot since then?

As years went by things got better technology wise and the material became more sophisticated, and in those early days good values were demanded of. And today of course, almost anything goes. But I do love the travel programs. Places and peoples I will never see, for free – I still use an antenna.

Now about science programs and their evolutionary propaganda, we do need a super filter. Even Jeopardy questions sometimes are slanted. Oops.

I remember back in 62, I had to put my first transistor radio (AM only and $15) on lay-away so I could pay for it. Same thing with my first car: I was told when I could afford the payments and insurance.

When I first heard of credit cards, my premil friends said this is a sign of the Antichrist. I kind of laughed, but looking at the economic chaos since them, maybe they were right. Inflation, bankruptcy, bad loans and chaos are just a swipe away.

Technology can be good or bad. It is how we use it and how we filter it. And what better way to filter than to use God's Word, especially the Old Testament, or what I call the 'Book of Our Mistakes' to understand the New Testament or 'God's Remedy'. My first exposure to the Bible was reading it from the Beginning.

Later on I had the privilege of sitting under two old'er seminary professors named Dillard (OT) and Gaffin (NT) as pulpit supply. I don't remember details as much as I was impressed by their passion for teaching it. They were history professors and from what I remember not theology teachers. Maybe they saw something? Oops.

Theology to me means 'maintaining some control'; that is a good thing. But if theology stifles creative or critical thinking skills, that is a bad thing. Maybe we must temper our theology with relevant and truthful history in order to see the Bible in context instead of bickering over the out of context differences.

This begins with Genesis 1 and limiting it to what God says to be 6000 years – much more manageable I would propose. Who needs reasons to believe when we are justified by faith and reason?

Good old Sam Morse's first telegraph message was "what hath God wrought". And Guttenberg's printing press, and the first printing being the Bible, gave us all something truly wonderful. Of course it also opened up a 'can of bookworms' and gave us a myriad of theologies. What hath man wrought?

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Ps On the creation evangelism home front, Sat AM at Julies, Ryan a new server came to our table. Nancy and I were discussing some Genesis stuff and as a continuation I asked Ryan what he thought of Genesis 1. My jaw nearly broke the table when he responded with "I found my grandfather's old and notated Bible and I started reading Genesis yesterday".

After my recovery I said "you are puzzled by 969 years and wickedness and a big deadly flood and maybe all those genealogies that represent a family tree. He said "of course". I then said "think of perfection, and then think about us".

And then Nancy chimed in "maybe the Book of Matthew should be next and you can find out more about that family tree and about Jesus and God's mercy". Please pray for our breakfasts with Ryan.