To introduce myself, I am a conservative Christian theologian who actually takes the Christian scriptures seriously. I do believe they are the inspired Word of God and in my writings I reflect that perspective. Theologically, I am orthodox and reformed.

One would think that what I write would be a variety of plain vanilla theology - what we have all heard before. That would be true except that when you take the Scriptures seriously and are willing to confront the difficult questions without glossing over them, you sometimes arrive at creative and different conclusions. This is very inconvenient for conservatives who seem to think that nothing new can ever be found in theology or in the Scriptures. What I have found is that people wear blinders, no matter what they say they believe. When they run into a problem that is inconsistent with their accepted theological view they either ignore the problem and restate what they have always believed or they resort to a sort of irrationalism that denies that the issue can even be discussed. They also find themselves unable to see things that are plainly in the biblical text because since they already know what the text says, they are unable to see what does not fit their preconceptions.

The result of this self-imposed blindness is that people spout things as fact that at a minimum require some explanation in the face of major difficulties. They also claim that they believe the Bible is the Word of God but they treat it as a museum piece. They will not look too carefully at the text lest it test their faith. They will not ask difficult questions of the text lest that lead them astray. The ultimate result is that many people who are committed to God's Word are also committed to blindness as they read that word. Let me give you an example.

In Matthew 2, a passage that most people have read or heard read at least once a year, wise men or magi visit the Christ child. You should know the answer to this question or at least have some idea of the answer if you have thought about the text at all. So the question is this, How far did the wise men follow the star to Bethlehem? You should be able to provide this answer to within 5 miles. In my next posting I will answer the question but feel free to answer it yourself.

A. D. Bauer

http://www.squarehalobooks.com/bauer.htm