Huntsville had its own cultural warfare recently (June 24-25). It was one of those little noticed confrontations between the reason of secular society and the biblical faith of Christian evangelicals.
Our local skirmish was a debate hosted by the North Huntsville Church of Christ. At issue was the proposition that the fulfillment of biblical prophecy proves the Bible is the inerrant, inspired word of God. Church-of-Christ preacher Tom Thrasher defended Bible inerrancy. Atheist Farrell Till, a former Church-of-Christ preacher, challenged the validity of prophecy.
About 60 mostly older people attended the four-hour debate. The way to tell the true believers from the skeptics was when 20 percent of the audience did not bow their heads in prayer.
Thrasher told of the prophecies Daniel made in Babylonia about 539 B.C. Thrasher interpreted symbolic language about the horns of animals as proof that Daniel predicted the fall of Babylon and the rise of four new kingdoms. His use of computerized displays was well organized.
Till told the audience about historical evidence for the book of Daniel being written after the events allegedly predicted. He pointed out mistakes in Daniel's inerrant words from God. It seems Daniel wrongly identified a king's father four times and thought that Babylon fell to Darius the Mede instead of Cyrus. For good measure, Till threw in Jesus saying that scripture foretold the resurrection on the third day. Thrasher freely admitted that no such scripture appears in the Bible. The audience was left to figure out how Jesus could have erred.
Till utilized reason and evidence to debunk biblical mythology. He challenged the audience to wonder why an all-knowing deity would have his prophets write symbolically when specific predictions were within his power. He challenged the audience to read the Bible for themselves instead of relying on the interpretations of others.
Thrasher insisted that no disproof of his interpretation of Daniel was offered. He cited scripture to show that writers of the time sometimes used words not in a literal sense. He defended the lack of scriptural references on the basis that prophets could have said what was attributed to them with the scriptures having been lost later.
Rare Confrontation: Public confrontations between believers and atheists are fairly rare. More common are confrontations between those that believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God and those who believe God transcends man's attempt to limit him to a single book. Events like a debate on biblical prophecy are part of the cultural war evangelical Christians wage against what they call humanism. It's a reflection of the evangelical campaign to inject God's word into everything.
Biblical inerrancy is important to evangelicals because the Bible is the center of their private and public lives. It is important to others because evangelicals are serious about making biblical law supreme in the land. Evangelical successes in the Republican Party make their dream of establishing evangelical dominion over everyone more than a vain hope.
The handful of attendees at this debate on biblical prophecy at least gives understanding of an opposing view in a way they could later verify. No minds were change. At most, a few people may have walked away with the seeds of change.
Welcomed Change: I must say that the debate was a welcome change from the strident, opponent-bashing intensity of talk radio ax-grinders. How different things appear when two sides speak opposing views calmly. The North Huntsville Church of Christ is to be commended for its courage in providing a forum for the free exchange of ideas.
(Howard Thompson, P. O. Box 1782, Georgetown, TX 28627; e-mail gofreemind@aol.com)
EDITOR'S NOTE: Howard Thompson also attended my debate with Jerry Moffitt in Portland, TX, in May 1994. After the debate, he sent a letter to Moffitt pointing out errors in his probability arguments. Moffitt said that he would send the letter to Marion Fox, Moffitt's moderator and the acknowledged formulator of the arguments, but Mr. Thompson informed me at the debate with Thrasher that he had never received a response to the letter.
Our policy of renting tapes has been discontinued, but a video
tape
of the Thrasher-Till Debate can be purchased for $5 postage
paid.
