Dear SC,
Thanks for your comments. I couldn't agree with you more.
As a member in the fundamentalist camp, my faith has grown firmly
for last 25 years because I really expreienced the grace of God.
And I learned I should not blame other Christians for having different
understandings of some issues on Bible. In the long-run, the Bible is not
a well-written systematic theology textbook for "clarifying" every debatable
point. Of course, our God could have written such a book if HE had wanted.
(This does not nullify the fact that the Bible is a canon for crucial truths.)
Especially on such topics as the origin of Satan, Sin, etc., I do not want to
see my fellow Christains debate sometimes in such a way that "only his interpretation is absoultely right." We should admit that we don't have enough clearly supporting verses in the Bible on those topics and most of our conclusions are much based on speculation beyond acceptable reasonings.
Yesterday, when I was waiting for my daughter in a place, an idea occurred to me that I was so adhering to the dichotomy of "physical vs. spiritual".
To more specific, I mean that, for example, the trees could have been physical and spiritual things at once (not physical things with spiritual meanings), which state we cannot even imagine. In other words,
the ontological existence of the Garden is beyond my intelligence. And Adam and Eve's going out of the Garden means he and she entered into the world in which we are living and experiencing.
Yes, this could be another useless or futile speculation, but seems to be worth giving a thought. My jury is still out on this one too, though.
- Gubei