Hath God Said?

Fenn again, reflecting on the serpent’s temptation: “The Word of God is ‘solid,’ whereas all other words are slippery at best and may be downright empty or misleading. But one only knows the word as solid if one is in a solid relationship to the author: a relationship of trust and obedience. That relationship authenticates the promises of God; it is the proof that eludes philosophical syllogisms and a search for empirical results. Only those in the proper relationship of God therefore understand the nature of the proof itself. Outside that relationship there is ample room for speculation concerning the seriousness of God’s promises and whether they are to be taken literally as threats, or as empty words intended to keep the hearer at a safe distance from divine knowledge and power.”

In short, a promise can be a promise only when the context is clearly established; and a promise can be taken as a promise only when there is a community of speech with rules for actors and actions that are widely understood and obeyed.”