A Short Rebuttal against Divine Accommodation

by

Gary T. Mayer
(Edited December 9, 2014)

The reason for this paper is to question the accommodation view of divine inspiration. According to this view, the Scriptural passages that teach us about early cosmology accommodate the errors of that day. First, I shall show that although many of the verses which are presented to defend this view admittedly employ the old worldview terms, those who hold the view of accommodation rely too heavily on these words in supporting their case. The reader may visualize a reality behind a word based upon his own cosmology or he may not. God would hardly be wise if He were to use terms that were confusing or unintelligible to the worshippers whose hearts were on fire for God. Second, Genesis 1 tells us that God created something in the sky that the text calls in Hebrew a raqia‘. I shall show that it is not better to interpret the word raqia‘ as it is used here to mean a firmament, denoting a pounded-out solid metal plate supported above the earth by the mountains than to interpret it to mean an expanse, a sheet-like three dimensional volume with reference to a thin open space, such as the atmosphere. The practicality of this discussion is appreciated when we realize that, if we interpret the rest of the Bible using the accommodation approach, we may be led to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul accommodated themselves to the culture of their day, thus robbing the Word of God of its authority.