In parts I and II of this series we demonstrated how quotations from Telling God’s Story have been used to misrepresent the curriculum. We’ll cover one more today, and then we’ll return to more interesting topics.
One recent “review” (really, more a collection of scare-quotes) posted on Facebook uses the following quote to condemn our curriculum.
“The Flood was an attempt by God to set it right, but it didn’t work.” (Page 70)
This quote, from Page 70 of Telling God’s Story: A Parents’ Guide to Teaching the Bible, has not only been taken out of context, but a footnote following the sentence has been eliminated. The footnote explains that this is not a mature theological understanding of the Flood. It is the understanding that one might have, if one only had read the Genesis Flood story, and not the rest of Scripture. But the goal of the curriculum is to bring students into a full knowledge of the whole of Scripture.
Here is the text of the footnote to that sentence, found on the same page (70):
One important side note. I know that referring to God as “attempting” something that “doesn’t work” doesn’t sound all that good, but that is how God is presented in this stage of the biblical story. Not every bit of mature theology is downloaded onto the opening chapters of Genesis, and it is very important that we allow the biblical story to be told the way God wants to tell it. There is a purpose to all this. The Bible is heading in a certain direction, and we need to allow the story to unfold as it does.
As always, if you have questions about the book, we encourage you to read it for yourself. Free samples of all the books in the curriculum can be read at the Olive Branch Books site.
Olive Branch Books 