Continued from Part 1
The Malleable Jesus of Modern Liberalism
Liberal theology begins with skepticism and an a
priori commitment against the possibility of miracles. They, therefore,
deny the inspiration of Scripture, the deity of Jesus, His miracles, and His
resurrection. In their attempts to explain away the miraculous character of
Jesus and the Gospel record, they have created a false dichotomy between what
they call “the Jesus of history” and “the Christ of Faith.”
Liberal theologians insist that the Gospels were written,
not by the traditional authors, but by later
writers who embellished the original historical account of Jesus with mythical
stories of miracles and His claims to being
the Messiah and Son of God. This they claim is the “Christ of faith” of
a later generation. This
is the position of the Jesus Seminar, a group of liberal scholars, some of whom
are atheists, who have decided that only 20% of the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels
are really from Him.
This,
of course, is a modern and novel theory rooted in skepticism and a pronounced
anti-supernatural bias. Because they have never seen a miracle, they insist
that miracles do not happen. This is neither
science nor good scholarship. The well-known New Testament scholar, Dr.
Gregory Boyd, who is known for debating atheists and liberal theologians, has been
devastating in his critique of the Jesus Seminar, saying,
The Jesus Seminar represents an extremely small number of radical-fringe scholars who are on the far, far
left wing of New Testament scholarship. It does not represent mainstream
scholarship.[1]
Sadly, this distorted, liberal
thinking about Jesus has filtered down into the culture and even the Church.
Bill O’Reilly wrote a book entitled Killing Jesus. I heard him emphasize
that in the book they do not talk about the miracles of Jesus because, he said,
“the book is about history, not about faith.” I immediately realized that he
had naively accepted this false dichotomy between the “Jesus of history” and
the “Christ of faith,” created by modern liberal theologians.
With no moorings of faith in Scripture, the Jesus of post-modern, liberal
theology is like a malleable piece of material that can be twisted and shaped
into an endless variety of shapes and forms. Lee Strobel was right when he
said that the liberal Jesus is a “symbolic Jesus who is impotent to offer the
world anything except the illusion of hope.”[2]
The “Nice” Jesus of Popular Culture
Thousands of pastors and directors of Christian education
were trained in liberal colleges and seminaries during the 20th
century. Liberal professors and theologians taught an entire generation of
Christian leaders that the Bible is unreliable and that they must “demythologize”
the New Testament in order to discover what may remain of the Jesus of history.
As this malleable Jesus of liberal professors and theologians
was adopted by pastors and communicated to their congregations, what has emerged
is a milquetoast Jesus who is “nice” and accepting of everyone and neither challenges
or judges anyone. This is the “nice” Jesus of popular culture that we encounter
in daily conversations on the internet and on radio and TV.
For example, I recall listening to a discussion
concerning same-sex marriage on Fox News. The
person being interviewed brought Jesus into the conversation and it was
soon obvious that she had embraced the “nice” Jesus of popular culture. She
insisted that Jesus would never judge or confront anyone. Her mantra that she repeated
over and over, was, “He was all about love.”
This, of course, reflects a misunderstanding of both Biblical
love and the person of Jesus Himself. If you asked the temple money changers and
merchants about their perception of Jesus, they would not describe him as
“nice.” He walked into their midst with a whip in his hand, a somber and fierce
look on His face, and began turning over their tables. He shouted that they had
turned His Father’s house into a “den of thieves” as He drove them from the
temple area (Matthew 21:12-13).
Neither would the religious leaders in Israel describe
Jesus as “nice,” for He was continually rebuking them for their pride and
misuse of Scripture and people. His language sounded particularly harsh when he
called them “hypocrites” and compared them to whitewashed tombs that appear
beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead people’s bones. He rebuked
them, calling them snakes, and saying, Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the
damnation of hell (Matthew 23:33)?
On the other hand, Jesus
was very tender and compassionate toward the desperate who came to Him in
faith. The compassion of Jesus toward the distressed is illustrated in the
story of the woman brought to Him by the Pharisees whom they said had been
caught in the very act of adultery (John 8:3-11). They set her in front of
Jesus, reminded Him that the Old Testament law said that such should be stoned,
and then asked, “But what do you say?”
This was, of course, an
attempt by the Pharisees to entrap Jesus. They knew that He was very compassionate
toward women and the oppressed. Would He defend her from being stoned according
to the Old Testament law? If so, they
could then accuse him of being a lawbreaker. They thought they had Him in a
corner.
Jesus did not immediately answer but stooped
down and wrote in the sand. He then stood and said, Let he who is without
sin among you cast the first stone (John 8:7). Now, they were the ones
entrapped by their own words. They too were sinners; only their sins were hidden
from the public but would be known by their closest friends. There must have
been an uncomfortable silence as no one moved forward to pick up a stone. Then
they began to quietly leave the scene until every accuser was gone.
Jesus, left alone with woman,
then said to her, Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one
condemned you? She replied, No
one Lord. Jesus then spoke words that must have been music to her ears. He
said, Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.
Jesus did not condone
her sin, for His final words were, Go, and sin no more. (John 8:11). What
He did was give her a new beginning, free from the guilt and pain of her past. Only
Jesus can do this, for as is demonstrated in the book, Discovering the Real
Jesus, forgiving sins was a sign of His Deity, for only God can forgive sin
and give a new beginning.
Jesus loves everyone in the sense that His intentions
toward everyone is for their good. He does not, however, fawn over everyone
with sugary sweet accolades and affirmations. Because He desires the best for
us, He is willing to point out the attitudes and sins that are destroying us.
To the members of the lukewarm church in Laodicea, He said, As many as I
love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be zealous and repent (Revelation
3:19).
The
Distorted Jesus of Religious Cults
In her excellent book, Another Gospel, Ruth A. Tucker,
defines a “cult” as a religious group that has a “prophet”-founder who claims
to have a special message from God, not found in the Bible. The leadership
style of the leader is authoritarian, and they tend to see themselves as the
only ones possessing the truth. They also inevitably distort the person of
Jesus.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Jehovah’s Witnesses was founded in 1884 by Charles T. Russel
under the name, Zion’s Watch Tower and Tract Society. The movement arose
in a milieu of great emphasis on the second advent of Jesus and speculation as
to when it would occur. Russel accepted a widespread teaching that Jesus would
return in 1874. He and others were very disappointed when the year came and
went, and nothing happened. However, in 1875, Russel claimed that it had been
revealed to him that Jesus did return in 1874, but “invisibly.”
Russel later predicted that Jesus would return in 1914, based on
his study and interpretation of the Old
Testament Book of Daniel. When Jesus did not return in 1914, another
explanation was necessary. It was decided that this was the time when Christ’s
kingdom began on earth and the Jehovah’s Witnesses were chosen as His official
organization. According to one writer,
What expressly distinguishes their teachings from any
other denomination is the keystone doctrine centered on 1914. This is the date
when Christ’s rulership began, his commencing judgment then and, above all, his
selecting the Watchtower organization as his official channel (Hyatt, Discovering
the Real Jesus,
Jehovah’s Witnesses deny both the deity of Jesus and salvation through faith in Him. I once confronted two
Jehovah’s Witnesses on these two issues. It happened while Sue and I
were visiting family in Ontario, Canada. It occurred one Saturday when we
visited a massive outdoor market attended by thousands of people.
As we entered, we noticed that two Jehovah's Witness women had
stationed themselves near the entrance with a small tent and racks of books and
pamphlets. When we passed them for the second time on the way out, I sensed a
compassionate drawing toward them and so retraced my steps and politely opened
a conversation with them.
I began by asking them how, according to their beliefs, a person
can know they are saved and will go to heaven. The one who was obviously the
leader answered that we cannot know if we are saved until we die. She then
quoted Jesus’ words, He who endures to the end shall be saved (Matthew
24:13).
I responded with the question, "Does that mean that at the
end of our life, if our good works outweigh our bad works, we will be OK?"
She replied, "Yes." I then asked, "So what was the need for
Jesus to come and die for our sins?" They did not have an answer.
The conversation then turned to who Jesus is when they mentioned
the name "Jehovah." I asked, "Do you believe Jesus is
Jehovah?" She answered with an emphatic "No!" When I pointed out
Scripture that clearly point to the deity of Jesus, the leader politely brought
the conversation to a close. Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus was Michael
the Archangel before His birth in Bethlehem. Their doctrine is very similar to
the Arian doctrine of the 4th century that was condemned by the
Council of Nicaea.
Realizing the leader did not want to hear anymore from me, I kindly
exhorted them to follow Jesus and went on my way with a sense of knowing I had
obeyed the Lord and borne witness to His name.
Mormons
Mormons are another group founded by a self-proclaimed prophet
by the name of Joseph Smith. I have a chapter on the origins of Mormonism in my book, Prophets and Prophecy, which
shows how the early Mormons naively accepted everything Joseph Smith said,
including his claim to finding the golden plates on which were written The
Book of Moroni in an ancient hieroglyphic text. Smith also claimed that John
the Baptist, as well as Peter, James, and John, appeared to him and a colleague
and ordained them to the Priesthood of Melchizedek (Hyatt, Prophets and
Prophecy, 92).
Mormons teach that God was once a man and that men can become
gods through adhering to Mormon doctrine and ritual, particularly “celestial
marriage.” With their wives they will populate the various planets in the
universe. This teaching is summed up in the Mormon eternal law of progression:
“As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.”
Although Mormons claim to be orthodox
Christians and use Christian terminology, the words obviously have a different meaning
for them. They also balk at the exaltation and preeminence of Jesus that is so
clear in Scripture. For example, in the 1980s, there was a movement on the
campus of Brigham Young University encouraging students to develop a “personal relationship” with Jesus. Mormon leadership, however,
opposed this movement.
Bruce McConkie, one of their Twelve
Apostles at the time, spoke against the movement and condemned the creeds of Christendom, particularly
the Apostles and Nicene creeds, which clarify the deity and preeminence of
Jesus. He went so far as the say that these creeds are what Lucifer wants
so-called Christians to believe so they will be damned. As far as Jesus is
concerned, McConkie insisted, “We worship the Father and him only and no one
else.”[3]
Where to Find the
Real Jesus
It is obvious that we will never discover the real Jesus in New Age
seminars, fictional novels, liberal theology, popular culture, or religious
cults. Neither will the real Jesus be found in many Christian churches and
seminaries that have been affected by these teachings. If we want to know the real Jesus, there is
only one reliable source, and that is in God’s word, approached with a
prayerful heart and teachable spirit.
This article was derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt’s new book, Discovering the Real Jesus, available from Amazon and his website at http://eddiehyatt.com.
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