Some distilled thoughts from my interaction with Eric, with whom I am studying a deep dive of Luke’s gospel.
There is a level of reality that G-d gives to us not so that we can merely engage in higher criticism, but just so that we might have life.
One of the most important things I learned is the difference between historic fact and scientific fact.We understand that 2+2=4, and we understand that water is two atoms of hydrogen combined with one atom of oxygen. That is testable.Scripture is not science. It is not testable the way science is. It is history.The reality is that the Bible is a form of propaganda. It is trying to propagate a message, and that message is really good news: namely that news is, Jesus came to give life and redeem.There are things that are verifiable in the Gospel, but those things are not merely science. There is a deep difference.History, if it actually happened, you can see that it happened, but you cannot repeat it.We don’t create clones of FDR to prove FDR existed.The purpose of the gospel is not to be able to repeat or prove it scientifically, but to rather RECEIVE it, and, by it, RECEIVE LIFE and TRANSFORMATION.
Bottom line: the purpose of the Gospel is to transform and give life, not to repeat or prove what happened.