Page 400 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

MODERNISM

The Story of the Old Testament, Chicago: University of passages are red!
Chicago Press, 1934, pp. 107-110). The Seminar concluded that Christ spoke only 18
Learoy Sperry: “Plainly no divine fiat compounded percent of the sayings attributed to Him in the Bible.
man out of the dust of the earth and the universal spirit According to this group of modernistic scholars, Christ
on a Friday in the year 4004 B.C. It is harder than once did not speak most of the beatitudes in the Sermon on
it was to see God walking in that garden in the cool of the Mount; He did not say anything about turning the
the evening” (Sperry, Signs of These Times, New York: other cheek; He did not speak the parable of the sower,
Doubleday, 1929, p. 110). the parable of the ten virgins, the parable of the ten
A more recent illustration of theological modernism pieces of money, or the parable of the talents; He did
comes from the pen of John Shelby Spong, a bishop in not say, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell
the Episcopal Church in America. Consider an excerpt shall not prevail against it”; He did not pray in the
from this man’s writings: garden of Gethsemane; He did not say, “Take eat, this is
“Am I suggesting that these stories of the virgin birth my body,” and the other sayings associated with the
are not literally true? The answer is a simple and direct Lord’s Supper; He did not say, “Father, forgive them; for
'Yes.' Of course these narratives are not literally true. they know not what they do,” or, “My God, my God,
Stars do not wander, angels do not sing, virgins do not why hast thou forsaken me,” when He was on the cross.
give birth, magi do not travel to a distant land to The Jesus Seminar determined that Christ did not walk
present gifts to a baby, and shepherds do not go in on the water, did not feed the thousands with only a few
search of a newborn savior. ... loaves and fishes, did not prophesy of His death or
“To talk of a Father God who has a divine-human son resurrection or second coming, did not conduct the Last
by a virgin woman is a mythology that our generation Supper as it is recorded in Scripture, did not appear
would never have created, and obviously, could not before the Jewish high priest or before Pilate, did not
use. To speak of a Father God so enraged by human rise again bodily on the third day, and did not ascend to
evil that he requires propitiation for our sins that we heaven.
cannot pay and thus demands the death of the divine-
human son as a guilt offering is a ludicrous idea to our According to the Jesus Seminar, “THE STORY OF
century. The sacrificial concept that focuses on the THE HISTORICAL JESUS ENDED WITH HIS DEATH ON
saving blood of Jesus that somehow washes me clean, THE CROSS AND THE DECAY OF HIS BODY” (Religious
so popular in Evangelical and Fundamentalist circles, is News Service, March 6, 1995).
by and large repugnant to us today” (John Spong, According to these modernistic scholars, Jesus Christ
Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop was a mere man who was filled with delusions and was
Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture, Harper & Row, 1991,
pp. 215, 234). caught up in some sort of political intrigue. At the
Another recent example of theological modernism is Redlands, California, meeting in 1986, Jesus Seminar
The Jesus Seminar. This misnamed organization, scholar Ron Cameron stated:
composed of some 75 “experts in religion and New “THE DEATH OF JESUS WAS LIKE A CAR WRECK; IT’S
Testament studies,” began meeting in March 1985 (it AN ACCIDENT OF HISTORY. ... I’m not sure why the
was first announced in 1978) with the misguided Romans killed Jesus, but the gospel stories are not
historical in the modern sense of the word. I don’t
objective of discovering which words of the Gospels are think Jesus had the notoriety that the gospels say he
authentic. had. His sayings don’t anywhere give evidence that he
The Jesus Seminar met from time to time to analyze was trying to found a church or a reform
the New Testament. After a passage was discussed by movement” (Christian News, April 7, 1986).
the participating “scholars,” they voted by means of Jesus Seminar leader Marcus Borg made the following
colored pegs to indicate the degree of authenticity they statement to the religious press in 1992:
felt should be ascribed to it. Red signified a strong “I would argue that the truth of Easter does not
degree of certainty in favor of authenticity; pink depend on whether there was an empty tomb, or
signified probably; gray signified maybe; black signified whether anything happened to the body of Jesus. ... I
not authentic. The colors therefore indicate degrees of DO NOT SEE THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION AS
doubt in God’s Word. EXCLUSIVELY TRUE, OR THE BIBLE AS THE UNIQUE
AND INFALLIBLE REVELATION OF GOD. ... It makes
In 1993 the Jesus Seminar published The Five no historical sense to say, ‘Jesus was killed for the sins
Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. This of the world.’ ... I am one of those Christians who does
included a new translation called “The Scholar’s not believe in the virgin birth, nor in the star of
Translation.” The color coding was incorporated into the Bethlehem, nor in the journeys of the wisemen, nor in
text to describe the degree to which the various portions
of the Gospels are considered authentic. Very few of the

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