Borg and Crossan's Bible

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."