Charles,

If this is your "quick and dirty" version, I would hate to see your full-blown version! <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wow1.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/giggle.gif" alt="" />

Now, if I have grasped what you wrote, you are wrestling with a hermeneutical issue, first and foremost.

1) J_Edwards did a nice job of dealing with the "Analogy of Scripture" and "Analogy of Faith" matter. I would agree that the Dispensational hermeneutic of the "plain meaning of the text", aka: "literal" reading of the text is in error. This has been dealt with thoroughly, particularly after the 1860s by myriad authors. Of course, their refutation of it doesn't seem to have made a dent with its promulgation throughout the Evangelical communities. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/rolleyes2.gif" alt="" />

2) The Theonomist/Reconstructionist rendering of Scripture is certainly a newer problem, but that too has been adequately dealt with by many over the past 30 years as well.

3) Fuller's proposed hermeneutic also suffers from inherent errors due to his Liberal presuppositions.

4) I can agree with many of the things you brought up, e.g., the difference between the eternal law of God and those laws which are "time bound" or "culturally bound"; not to be confused with the modern Antinomian use of the term. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> However, like J_Edwards, I would have to disagree on the relevancy of Gen 9:6 which you say is only applicable to post-deluvian societies. I would suggest that it was applicable to all of mankind beginning with Adam. You cited the case of Cain whom God ordered "off limits" in regard to being put to death for the murder of his brother. My answer would be that this was a "special dispensation"; a exception to the rule which God had put in place for a special purpose. In fact, I would like to suggest to you that the entirety of the "Ten Commandments" were in force from creation. For example, the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy was known to Adam and his immediate family. For a indepth study of this truth see here: The Covenantal Sabbath, by Dr. Francis Nigel Lee.

5) Methinks that the real issue lies more with the "application" of scriptural truth more than its "interpretation", although I'm not dismissing the latter as being relevant in some areas. More specifically, I see your wrestling with the "continuity" vs "discontinuity" of God's law(s); the perpetuity or suspension of specific laws which we find established by God. And, in addition, the validity and application of man-made laws which may or may not be based upon the divine law(s).

6) In regard to the latter, it would be a serious error, not that I believe you are doing so or are even tempted to do so, to follow the Pharisees and many of the Jews of Jesus own day, to think that God is going to establish a physical kingdom here on earth before His return or before the final Judgment. There is no possibility of a Theocracy of any kind being established on this earth. Calvin and some of the Puritans unfortunately erred in this area. But of course, John Calvin, as great a man of God as he was is not the standard to which we must conform, is he. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

7) Lastly, I see no reason to attempt to re-invent the wheel in the area of hermeneutics. I do believe that the Scriptures are self-sufficient and thus give us the proper method of interpreting it in order to understand the will of God. Yes, there have been and always will be those who will depart from that method and/or truth. But I cannot believe that the Lord God has left the Church to wander blindly for thousands of years not knowing how to rightly interpret His inspired, inerrant and infallible Word. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/nope.gif" alt="" />

In His grace,

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simul iustus et peccator

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