Can we not live incarnationally too? Do you and I not hope that God works through us, too? Do we not hope that God speaks through our words sometimes, too?

I’m not suggesting my words equate to those in the Bible - they don’t. The Bible is canonical, it’s been accepted for generation upon generation upon generation as something particularly special, and that’s enough for me to accept it as something extraordinarily special. But that doesn’t mean you can read just one layer of those stories and understand completely how God is revealed to us through them - each of the books in the Hebrew Bible has been retold so many times, and then there’s been editing, and you see inconsistencies that arise from the different storytellers sharing their perspective. These ‘inconsistencies’ aren’t ‘wrong’, they’re just different perspectives, driven by different agendas (ie Chronicles and Kings).

We can read Genesis as Christians who know about Christ, but we can *also* attempt to read it as it was heard by its original audience, that didn’t know that Christ was to come later. That was the point I was trying to make. If we *only* read it from the perspective of those that know about Christ, then we are denying the fact that those stories spoke truth even before Christ.

Incarnation means God becoming man

1) God can only be ‘found’ EXCLUSIVELy through Jesus so it must be Christianity. it is true that people do not do it for the right motives ( i think that is in Philippians)

2) If Jesus is a priest in the order of melchizedek which is greater than Aaron’s then it surely follows neither Abram nor Melchizidech are representing different cults. Abram after-all gives the BigM a tithe!

Melchizedek was a priest of El Elyon. The ‘witness’ to the covenant between Abram and Melchizedek is El Elyon (God Most High), the god worshipped by Melchizedek, and accepted by Abram who sees El Elyon in terms of Yahweh the Creator. There is external evidence of the cult of El Elyon and also some support for connecting the worship of El Elyon with Canaanite Jerusalem. In presenting the tithe, Abram recognised Melchizedek as a fellow-worshipper of the one true God…BUT my understanding was that Abram and Melchizedek were of different people groups and different cults. I’m happy to be corrected on this.

The Old Testament is ancient, it’s a set of customary stories and we see different customary laws and stories told by different people groups (though dominated by some) represented. We shouldn’t be surprised to find things that don’t “match up” - there are plenty of inconsistencies in the Old Testament, but to me this says nothing about whether or not it’s “inspired by God”, since I believe God can work through people in a huge array of ways. So, as I said above, for me this doesn’t mean that there is more than one God, it means that God may be called by many names and found in different ways. Since I believe that Jesus offers the Way, I think it’s easiest to do this via Christianity. But I’m not sure that the Old Testament suggests God is found EXCLUSIVELY via Christianity.

Now Homer, I said I wasn’t going to engage any more with this, but I am happy to continue this conversation for as long as I feel like it’s a conversation. If you say anything that I believe is intended to shut down conversation, or make me or anyone feel crap, then I won’t be further drawn on this issue. Real community requires the creation of space for people to explore their ideas, to share their excitement, and sometimes yes, to realise that they’re wrong. Your method of writing does not do this - it simply dimisses people and stilfes debate and creative exploration. If you do this to me here, I will leave.

Please don’t disappoint me.

the rev

sounds like you are agreeing with me.