Christ making statements about Creation

'Then it seems an incredibly poor choice to use a fictional story as an analogy to one that you want to present as being true.'Like telling a parable, you mean?

'Parables are more of a problem' They sure are! They are a terminal problem to those who reckon that it's 'an incredibly poor choice to use a fictional story as an analogy to one that you want to present as being true.'However hard they try to get round it.Edited by ochaye, : No reason given.

'It is unlikely that Christ would hold them responsible for the blood shed of a fictional person by another fictional person. The crimes of persecution from Abel's murder to Zachariah's murder, must be counted by Jesus as history.'This is to fail entirely to get the point. The point is that the opposition of the Pharisees to righteous people in one age will earn them condemnation and punishment for opposition to them in any age, in every age. Jesus mentioned the names of Abel, Zechariah and all the opposed prophets of Israel, to emphasise that the Pharisees were in diametric opposition to their own claimed culture and faith. That's an uncomfortable if unremarked lesson for many today, of course. Seeing a literal interpretation of Abel in this passage is quite beside that point.

'I think we can conclude that He believed in the flood'Past, or future flood?Even if Jesus believed in a literal, historic flood, it does not mean that it happened.

The thought that Jesus was not a literalist, or was a literalist, but it doesn't matter if he was, is too much to contemplate.If social scientists wish to investigate this remarkable phenomenon, I can give them a few ideas.

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As to the question of can a person be Christian who is an evolutionist or theistic evolutionist ? Of course they can. The only requirement to receive eternal redemption is to believe into Christ.

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There were Pharisees in Jerusalem who tried to persuade Christians that they needed to be circumcised if they were to be justified before God. Paul wrote of 'foolish Galatians' who believed that idea. There are likewise people today who try to persuade Christians that they need to take a particular view of early Genesis. The danger lies not in what one believes about early Genesis, but just in thinking that anything beyond faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross is needed, because it diminishes that work of Christ, and in effect says that he is not divine, that his righteousness is inadequate.

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Maybe your experience is different.

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It is.

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That would include an adaquate and living understanding of Genesis that constitutes healthy teaching.

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And what is healthy? A literal view of early Genesis?