[ Contents | About | Opening by Rankin | Opening by Hansen | Rebuttal by Rankin | Rebuttal by Hansen | Dialogue | Questions from Audience | Closing by Rankin | Closing by Hansen ]

Rebuttal by Father Hansen

CARL HANSEN: Bill, I'm not wearing a watch. I'd appreciate it if you would stop me at five minutes. It's hard for me to see the clock in the back. I'm wearing contacts for about three days now and I'm not sure I'm going to survive it. I do accept the Bible on its own terms. But its own terms means that it is the product of history. It means that it is the product of a very sincere faith struggle with human beings like you and me who are telling their stories, who are sharing their experiences, who are writing stories that describe their understanding of God as they have experienced God in their history and in their life. And it is a wonderful and unique story of transformation, where God reaches to us as human beings, and touches our lives and makes us fully alive, what we call the gift of eternal life. That story comes to its fullness in the Incarnation in the person of Jesus. And it does not matter one whit to your faith whether that Bible is absolutely historically true in every detail. The whole suggestion that if one historical detail, like a house of cards, slips out then the whole house falls, is a completely bogus argument. Because the Christian faith is not based upon the historical accuracy of every detail. It's based upon a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It's based upon your knowing that the Lord is risen and has changed your life and empowers you through his very Spirit within you to love others. What is truth? Truth is not accuracy. Truth is not even right and wrong. Truth is loving one another. That's the standard upon which we base our lives and upon which we judge anything. And that's the story that comes through loud and clear and is the essence of the truth that is revealed in the Bible. A lot of it is true historically; a lot of it isn't. But if it's not all true in every detail, and we cannot expect it to be, that does not mean that none of it is true. John uses mythology when it reinforces his argument. And then he uses it to demonstrate the uniqueness of Genesis as not being based upon mythology when it suits him to do that. The Hebrew Scriptures are full of sort of the weaving of ancient truths, some of which come from other cultures and were adopted by Hebrew scholars and theologians in order to tell their own story of their experience of God. If I were to get into an argument in each passage, I just pointed out a couple of places where there could be historical inaccuracies or moral discrepancies, and so forth, we'd be like two dogs chasing our tails. I know for everything I could raise, John would have some kind of gymnastic answer that would prove, well, it's because of the anthropological perspective, or it's because of Luke's theology or it's because of this or it's because of that. And that's my very point. See, the point is that our experience of God is not omniscient. We are not all knowing. We do the best we can to explain and to express and to put it down on paper. And of course this is refined over time. And it's given the test of time by developing within a whole people, so that it's not just your story or my story, but we find the stories that are our common stories. And that's what we have in the Bible. So at some point in your life, whether you're there now or not, you might begin to ask some of those questions yourself. And when you do, I pray that it will not shake your faith. Because your faith does not depend upon the historical accuracy of Scripture in every detail. It depends upon the living presence of Christ within you. I think Christ, I think God wants us to ask questions. God wants us to use our mind. That's not arrogance. I'm not claiming to be right by asking questions. I'm just claiming that no one else is necessarily exactly right in every detail either. It's my responsibility as a follower of Jesus to ask questions. That's not arrogance. That's simply using the brain that God has given me, but to use it humbly in relationship with others and to challenge one another. You know, the rabbis loved to argue with each other over the minutia of the Law. And that's how God worked. That's how revelation happens as we try to apply it to our lives. That was the context in which Jesus taught, constantly being confronted and then answering and getting into arguments. He had a wonderful gift of answering a question with a question or telling a story. Those are the ways we grow in our faith. By what criteria do we judge? John, all I can say, we judge by the love of Christ in everything. And when we see something in the Bible that conflicts with the love of Christ, you if you want to can figure out some way that God says it's OK to kill babies, or it's OK for people to burn in hell forever. That's not the God I know. That's not Jesus. Thank you. [applause] Next