Caller: I just got off the phone debating with a girlfriend of mine who's taking a Bible study class. It's a non-denominational nationwide Bible study class for women. I'm really enjoying it except we're studying Genesis right now and I'm struggling with literal interpretation as opposed to um....
Pastor Doug: Spiritual.
Caller: Yeah spiritual. She and I got into a heated debate today and she reminded me that I really needed to pray about uh....
Pastor Doug: What stories in particular? Noah and the Ark? Adam and Eve?
Caller: Well you know, pretty much all of them you know we've got Adam and Eve, then we went to Noah's ark then she and I started talking about Jonah today.
Pastor Doug: Now Susan, are you having -you're the one having the trouble believing?
Caller: I'm the one having trouble.
Pastor Doug: Well let me - first of all, you probably know I'm biased, or you may suspect I am but let me give you a little history here. I was raised an atheist. And I used to mock and laugh anybody who, even though I was Jewish, we never took those Old Testament stories literal. I used to mock and laugh at anybody who took Adam and Eve and Noah and the Ark and Jonah and the Tower of Babel literally.
The more I studied it Susan - and I'm a very analytical, skeptic - I like lots of evidence the more I studied it, the more convinced I am that the staggering weight of evidence is on the side of those stories. Now we're trained by society to think these things just can't be possible, but the older I get the more I find out that strange things do happen. And I believe these stories. I believe they're literal. For instance, I wanted to be a paleontologist and I was first taught back 20 years ago, well it has been more than that I'm getting old, 25 years ago, that the dinosaurs died out slowly because of slow environmental changes. The fossil record indicated that the dinosaurs died of some catastrophe because these bones are all piled up and buried instantly by mud.
The only way you get a fossil is instantaneous burial and it needs to be isolated from the open air. Well all of the dinosaur bones are buried that way all of these fish have been preserved and buried that way. Then the paleontologists changed their theory and they said the earth must have been hit by an asteroid that caused massive flooding because the fossil record is very clear - these fossils were preserved through a massive, instant flood. They didn't happen slowly. Well hey that's in the Bible! But it wasn't an asteroid you see what I'm saying?
Caller: Yes.
Pastor Doug: So the more I studied it the more convinced I am. Newsweek printed an article a few years ago - by tracing the DNA they say all humans have descended from one person. Well - that's in the Bible.
Caller: Well then what do you do with the um, you know Noah's ark, okay all the animals come into the ark and you know, um, I can get to the point where I could, um, accept, you know, everyone came from creation except for one man. It's tough for me to get there but I can see where, you know, human beings, being as simple as they are, um, you know that, ultimately got to one man who was um, able to, you know, be redeemed. Um - but then when they talk about all the - okay then they took two animals of each species into this ark, well....
Pastor Doug: Hey Susan? I want to finish this call and we're getting ready to take a break. Are you somewhere you can pull over? We'll pay for the call.
Caller: Okay, sure.
Pastor Doug: Pull over and so we don't loose your good reception. You were breaking up a little bit. You've asked a good question a lot of people want to know and if you can stand by for about 2 minutes we'll come back and take your call as soon as we come back from the break.