A Personal Reflection
by Lee Edward Enochs
Part 1 of 4.
Part 1 of 4.
Trigger Warning: This blog post deals with the historical Jesus Christ.
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father, except by Me."
~ John 14:6
"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father, except by Me."
~ John 14:6
This is a topic I most definitely do not want to discuss or write about. I would rather divert our attention from this issue and focus on other issues. I would rather deal with Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before Congress the other day or complain about how the beautiful Dakota Johnson has no business being in that troubling movie "Fifty Shades of Grey." If I am up to it, those topics will be the focus of other blog posts here on Theologian X. I believe I need to discuss something of the utmost importance and is the ultimate outcome of my discussion about the inspiration, reliability and inerrancy of the Bible.
The subject I will now discuss is very controversial. It is divisive. Many people will disagree with me. I am o.k. with that because I am a big boy and can handle my biz. I am also mindful that Jesus Christ of Nazareth came to bring a sword (Matthew 10:34). Sometimes there are issues in life that are worth fighting for. This is one of them. In fact my entire life stands or falls on this issue alone. The Christian faith is very, very precious to me and it is completely predicated upon Jesus Christ and the truthfulness of the Bible. Everything I have ever did and ever stood for is tied to this singular issue. Without further prolonging the suspense, the issue of utmost importance I am referring to concerns Jesus Christ of Nazareth and if the Bible accurately records the life, ministry and teaching of Jesus Christ.
I believe this is of the utmost importance since it concerns whether or not I have an authentic conception of who Jesus Christ is. I believe Christianity is meaningless if we cannot trust the New Testament's description of Jesus Christ. I believe that the entirety of the Christian faith stands or falls on the central issue of the reliability of the New Testament documents. For if the New Testament does not accurately record who Jesus Christ is and what He did in actual time space history, then we are left to complete arbitrary subjectivity concerning Jesus.
This is personal to me because I spent many, many hours studying this issue and have come to believe the Bible accurately depicts the authentic Jesus of History. I was in search of the "Historical Jesus" until I found Him in the pages of the inspired and infallible New Testament.
I am beginning to encounter professing Christians here in the Northeast who are perfectly fine with the idea that the New Testament is riddled with factual errors, discrepancies and contradictions. I am even running into people who say that they do not believe the Bible at all, yet claim to believe in Jesus Christ.
This is personal to me because I spent many, many hours studying this issue and have come to believe the Bible accurately depicts the authentic Jesus of History. I was in search of the "Historical Jesus" until I found Him in the pages of the inspired and infallible New Testament.
I am beginning to encounter professing Christians here in the Northeast who are perfectly fine with the idea that the New Testament is riddled with factual errors, discrepancies and contradictions. I am even running into people who say that they do not believe the Bible at all, yet claim to believe in Jesus Christ.
I believe the veracity of the entire Christian faith is bound of up with the reliability of the Bible and in particular the New Testament. For if the New Testament does not accurately record the life of Jesus, then we are left to our own devices as to whether or not Jesus lived and did certain things that are often attributed to Him.
I believe the Bible is a historically reliable document and it accurately records the authentic life, ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ. I reject much of contemporary higher criticism of the New Testament and believe it is an invalid approach to understanding who Christ is.
I believe in the historic Christian Church's conception of Jesus Christ; that He is the Son of God who died and rose again from the dead in actual time-space history. I believe if we cannot trust the New Testament authors' depiction of Jesus Christ, then, we have no idea who Christ really was and is.
I cannot accept an errant view of Biblical inspiration. Either we can trust all of it as God's infallible and inerrant Word, or we cannot trust any of it. I believe those who believe there were factual errors, discrepancies and contradictions within the original autographs of the New Testament, yet cling to the Bible as their guide to faith, are in a tenuous situation at best, since the "errant Bible view" leaves room for a New Testament scholar and skeptic like Rudolf Bultmann or Bart Ehrman to come along and say we cannot trust any part of the New Testament as an accurate guide of who Jesus was and is today. There seems to be a faulty criterion in the minds of those Christians who maintain faith in Christ from the testimony of an errant testimony of Jesus. If we cannot trust the New Testament in many places, why should we trust it in any place?
My "search for the Historical Jesus" ended when I encountered Him as the living and risen Son of God in the pages of God's majestic and perfect Word.
To those who disagree with me on this; I love you. Let's agree to disagree agreeably and appreciate each other's view with Christian charity. If you disagree and want to state your disagreement, that is fine, place your comments below. I believe in free speech and I am not afraid of divergent views from my own.
I believe the Bible is a historically reliable document and it accurately records the authentic life, ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ. I reject much of contemporary higher criticism of the New Testament and believe it is an invalid approach to understanding who Christ is.
I believe in the historic Christian Church's conception of Jesus Christ; that He is the Son of God who died and rose again from the dead in actual time-space history. I believe if we cannot trust the New Testament authors' depiction of Jesus Christ, then, we have no idea who Christ really was and is.
I cannot accept an errant view of Biblical inspiration. Either we can trust all of it as God's infallible and inerrant Word, or we cannot trust any of it. I believe those who believe there were factual errors, discrepancies and contradictions within the original autographs of the New Testament, yet cling to the Bible as their guide to faith, are in a tenuous situation at best, since the "errant Bible view" leaves room for a New Testament scholar and skeptic like Rudolf Bultmann or Bart Ehrman to come along and say we cannot trust any part of the New Testament as an accurate guide of who Jesus was and is today. There seems to be a faulty criterion in the minds of those Christians who maintain faith in Christ from the testimony of an errant testimony of Jesus. If we cannot trust the New Testament in many places, why should we trust it in any place?
My "search for the Historical Jesus" ended when I encountered Him as the living and risen Son of God in the pages of God's majestic and perfect Word.
To those who disagree with me on this; I love you. Let's agree to disagree agreeably and appreciate each other's view with Christian charity. If you disagree and want to state your disagreement, that is fine, place your comments below. I believe in free speech and I am not afraid of divergent views from my own.
Next time: What is Biblical Inspiration?
No comments:
Post a Comment