The Upstate received a visit from two Jesus Seminar scholars over the weekend. The Anderson School of Theology for Laypersons (whatever that is) hosted Marcus Borg and J.D. Crossan. Both scholars touted their version of the historical Jesus and pretty much discounted any kind of 'literal reading of the Bible.' Some quotes from our local newspaper:
"Sometimes the Bible is wrong. Get over it" [Crossan].
"The passages about women remaining silent in church, they're wrong" [Borg]. By the way, he said the same about homosexuality.
"The empty tomb is irrelevant. Jesus is a living reality that can be experienced today" [Borg].
Quoting the paper (Greenville News): "A literalist approach to the Bible often leaves Christians debating the veracity of a given miracle, so that they miss the point of the story, said Crossan." The example Crossan gives is of the feeding of the 5000. To him, the point of the story is not whether it really happened but that "God owns the world and everyone gets a fair share--no one is left behind." Wow! That is a Bultmannian approach to a miracle if I ever heard one. It is Crossan, who has missed the point. Point one--it did happen. All four Gospels say so. There is good reason to believe in the veracity of the event (see Craig Blomberg's Historical Reliability of the Gospels). Point two--the 'point' of the miracle is to call attention to the fact that Jesus is God in the flesh, not that everyone gets his fair share. The miracles are Christological and evangelistic in their nature--not just a call to compassion to ensure that everyone is treated fairly.
But keep in mind the Jesus of Crossan and Borg is little more than a compassionate sage. He is certainly not the God/Man who died for sins and was raised from the dead [one of their major presuppositions is that miracles cannot happen]. Crossan's Jesus is a Jewish peasant and radical advocate of egalitarianism. Borg's is a mystic who showed way too much compassion for others to demand moral purity from them.
The Jesus of these two men certainly is not the Lord to whom one must submit. Really this is the issue. If Jesus is as these two men portray him, why not just live as you please?
It's a shame that alot of folks in the Anderson area gave them the time of day. It's even more shameful that many walked away amazed at their scholarship and embraced their "Jesus."
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
New IMB President
Baptist Press reports today that Tom Eliff is the nominee for IMB President. Eliff is a 'safe' choice for the position in my estimation. The only question I have is that he is already 66 years old. It seems to me in a few short years we'll have to go through all this again. I wonder if we'll be looking at one missions board by then, doing both home and international work? We'll see.
It is just difficult to imagine that it took the search team 16 months to wind up here,but my prayers will be with him.
It is just difficult to imagine that it took the search team 16 months to wind up here,but my prayers will be with him.
Monday, February 07, 2011
The Ideal Preacher
I don't remember if I've ever shared this or not:
After hundreds of fruitless years, a model minister has been found to suit everyone. It is guaranteed that he will please all the people in any church.
• He preaches only 20 minutes, but thoroughly expounds the Word.
• He condemns sin, but never hurts anyone's feelings.
• He works from 8am to 10pm doing every type of work from preaching to janitorial
• He makes $100 per week, wears good clothes, buys good books, has a nice family, drives a nice car, and gives $50 per week to the church.
• He stands ready to give to any good cause.
• His family is completely model in deportment, dress, and attitude.
• He is 26 years old and has been preaching for 30 years.
• He is tall, short, thin, handsome, has one brown eye and one blue eye, hair parted just right.
• He has a burning desire to work with teens and spends all his time with old folks.
• He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work.
• He makes 15 calls a day on church members, spends all his time winning the lost, and is never out of the office.
[Darrell Robinson, Total Church Life].
Well there you go!
After hundreds of fruitless years, a model minister has been found to suit everyone. It is guaranteed that he will please all the people in any church.
• He preaches only 20 minutes, but thoroughly expounds the Word.
• He condemns sin, but never hurts anyone's feelings.
• He works from 8am to 10pm doing every type of work from preaching to janitorial
• He makes $100 per week, wears good clothes, buys good books, has a nice family, drives a nice car, and gives $50 per week to the church.
• He stands ready to give to any good cause.
• His family is completely model in deportment, dress, and attitude.
• He is 26 years old and has been preaching for 30 years.
• He is tall, short, thin, handsome, has one brown eye and one blue eye, hair parted just right.
• He has a burning desire to work with teens and spends all his time with old folks.
• He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work.
• He makes 15 calls a day on church members, spends all his time winning the lost, and is never out of the office.
[Darrell Robinson, Total Church Life].
Well there you go!
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
The Dangerous 'Church Roll'
Anyone who has heard me preach over the last year plus and have read a few other blog posts in that time know that I am deeply concerned over the fact that we have confused the church membership roll with the Lamb's Book of Life. In other words, most believe that if someone is on the church roll they must be saved--no matter if they live with no regard to God or His will.
I was reading again today an article written by Craig Blomberg several years ago, "Degrees of Reward in the Kingdom of Heaven?" (JETS 35 June 1992: 159-172). I'm thinking of writing my own article about what Jesus teaches about rewards, but that notwithstanding, the last paragraph of this article hit me and I think it deserves to hit others:
God assures salvation only to those who presently believe in Jesus as Son of God (1 John 5:13). Claims of commitment, long since abandoned, may not be salvaged by any appeal to a category of 'carnal Christian,' though Paul does use the term . . . The greatest danger of the doctrine of degrees of reward in heaven is that it has misled many people into thinking that the very nominal professions that they or their friends have at one time made will be sufficient to save them, even if they fail to receive as high a status in heaven as they might have (of course Blomberg disagrees with that belief). This is in no way to argue for a works-righteousness. It is merely to remind us of the consistent theme that true, saving faith does over time lead to visible transformations in lifestyle and to growth in holiness . . . Without such evidence that God's Spirit has truly taken up residence and begun to work within a person, Biblical Christianity is absent.
Well said. To depend on some kind of 'profession' of faith without perseverance in the faith is to depend upon something other than biblical faith. Depending on the church roll is a dangerous thing, and it might be well for churches and individuals to realize that.
I was reading again today an article written by Craig Blomberg several years ago, "Degrees of Reward in the Kingdom of Heaven?" (JETS 35 June 1992: 159-172). I'm thinking of writing my own article about what Jesus teaches about rewards, but that notwithstanding, the last paragraph of this article hit me and I think it deserves to hit others:
God assures salvation only to those who presently believe in Jesus as Son of God (1 John 5:13). Claims of commitment, long since abandoned, may not be salvaged by any appeal to a category of 'carnal Christian,' though Paul does use the term . . . The greatest danger of the doctrine of degrees of reward in heaven is that it has misled many people into thinking that the very nominal professions that they or their friends have at one time made will be sufficient to save them, even if they fail to receive as high a status in heaven as they might have (of course Blomberg disagrees with that belief). This is in no way to argue for a works-righteousness. It is merely to remind us of the consistent theme that true, saving faith does over time lead to visible transformations in lifestyle and to growth in holiness . . . Without such evidence that God's Spirit has truly taken up residence and begun to work within a person, Biblical Christianity is absent.
Well said. To depend on some kind of 'profession' of faith without perseverance in the faith is to depend upon something other than biblical faith. Depending on the church roll is a dangerous thing, and it might be well for churches and individuals to realize that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)