You may also want to read the comments from the last post...
How can we embrace a progressive theology while still remaining true to the infallible Word of God?
This question is addressed in William J. Webb's book, "Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals." In short, Webb's solution is to separate what is cultural from what is "transcultural" in Scripture. His method of doing so is to identify the "redemptive movement" of scripture. He says there is often a progression in scripture; an X-Y-Z kind of a movement. X= the culture of the world; Y= God's pre-Messianic Law; Z= God's post-Messianic rule. By identifying these we can see if there is any redemptive movement.
So with slavery: X= an abusive slavery without any rules; Y= a moderated, limited slavery; Z= "your slave is your brother" mentality were slavery is permitted but not condoned. Seeing this kind of progression in scripture leads us to see (in Webb's opinion) that the eventual abolition of slavery was likely part of God's grand plan.
With Homosexuality: X= complete acceptance; Y= complete rejection; Z= complete rejection. Here we can see that there is no movement. While the world around us accepts homosexuality there is no movement within scripture to allow for "progression" as some would like to call it. The only possible progression is that Y said homosexuality was a capital offense while Z would likely not call for stoning or anything of the like. None-the-less there is no indication within scripture that God's plan is to make any movement on this particular issue. Homosexuality is forbidden.
I like this approach because it allows us to view the overall scope of God's plan in scripture. The book I mentioned I found quite helpful but it does read like the textbook it is. He goes into extreme detail and uses literally dozens of examples: slavery, women's rights, homosexuality, primogeniture, patriarchy, circumcision, etc... almost anything in scripture that could be construed as being cultural (and thus, not trans-culturally authoritative).
So...
Does this idea of "redemptive movement" make any sense to you?
What other contemporary issues might this apply to?
Am I still on crack?
