interesting quote...

on the emergent church that i read this week. i have received two emails of the same thing, but it is essentially a newsletter from jerry falwell. one of the accusations against the emergent church, at least in this newsletter, is that they (we) wish to "reanalyze the bible against the context into which it was written." god forbid.
this is one of the basic tenets of biblical hermeneutics. one of the primary goals is to attempt to find what the original meaning was to the original author, the original audience and only then can we take it and ask what it can mean to us today. it was not written in 2000, for us to understand in our context, the bible is a product of antiquity, and so there are indeed some things that do not make sense out of that context. it is the most phenomenal book ever assembled, it still speaks so much into our context today, but it still has an original meaning, and we would do well to try to find it.

there are many legitimate concerns about the emergent church, many problems and issues that we will face, what church doesnt? but if being accused of trying to find the original context of the bible is one of the worst things leveled against us, i think i can deal with that.