ELTB Teacher's guide
I am thinking about doing a companion book for the parents and seminarians. What do you think? It would look like this:
Paragraph 1:
π π¨π« ππ‘π π¬ππ¦π’π§ππ«π’ππ§: Through general revelation we may discern that God is the creator. Without propositional revelation, free-for-all allegory imposed on nature cannot produce verifiable doctrine. We learn doctrine by what God has said about the things he made. The words define their own allegorical meanings, and metaphor, in a verifiable way.
π π¨π« ππ‘π π©ππ«ππ§π: Look at some stars and stones. See what your child can discern from them, You might need to coach them: The stars look like lights. They seems to hang in the sky. They move east to west. Ask what we learn about God. Pretend to see marks in the sand. They look like a trail with one left foot and a round hole where the right foot should be. Say "Pirate". Ask if the footprints are a pirate or a sign that a pirate walked that way.
When we look at stars we may think, "God". But the stars are not God. They are a sign that God walked by.
Paragraph 2:
π π¨π« ππ‘π π¬ππ¦π’π§ππ«π’ππ§: What is the genre of the Bible? If you say it is literal history, haven't you imposed the scope of meaning? What if it is a literal history that Gods used as an allegory of Christ? Haven't you defined the real meaning out of it?
God said he would make Israel a parable. Theologians reluctantly admit that they cannot read the Bible the way Jesus and the New Testament authors do. (See the sensus plenior debates) Do you think they may have the genre wrong?
π π¨π« ππ‘π π©ππ«ππ§π:
Ask your child about their favorite movie, "Do you have to do what they did?". What did they teach you when they did it? Suggest that the Hebrews were actors that God used to teach us. We don't have to cross the Red Sea. He taught us something about himself by having the Hebrews do it.
