Common Sense Christian Wisdom
from my friend Rance
February 2024
Let's Talk about the New Testament Gospels
by Rance Darity
I’m inclined to believe that the four Gospels are not written by writers who actually knew Jesus or were first hand witnesses to the resurrection.
I am inclined to believe that the names that were attached to the various Gospels were not the actual authors of these texts but were those assigned to them by later tradition. Why? The Gospel writers were sophisticated writers not fisherman or tax collectors.
I’m [also] quite certain that the four Gospels were preceded by oral traditions carried forward by those who were the earliest Christians.
It’s nearly certain that Mark was the earliest Gospel and that Matthew and Mark depended upon Mark as their primarily written source for their own compositions. (The Gospel of John also seems to be familiar with the Synoptic tradition.)
The many scholarly books and articles over the past hundred years or more trying to sort out the so-called ‘Synoptic Problem’ have gone over this issue with a fine tooth comb. Not all issues are resolved until this day, but most adhere to ‘Markan Priority.’
John’s Gospel is notoriously difficult to assess historically. It’s quite obvious that John is using language that did not actually come from the mouth of Jesus. This Gospel is very highly theological.
I believe that some of the material in the Gospels is manufactured and not historical. The accounts of the birth of Jesus are a prime example. This is not to say they are worthless, for the purpose of these accounts was to say something important about Jesus as the Son of God sent from the Father.
All that being said, can we really trust the Gospels and the gospel [of Jesus]?
My position is this:
As our canonical spiritual and theological reliable guides to faith in Christ, I believe that the church must be continually led by the Gospels and the New Testament. They are what nurtures and guards our faith. They all witness to something extraordinary, at the center of which is the story that God raised Jesus from the dead and made him king of the Jews and Lord of the world.
Rance Darity
February 8, 2024
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Your Gospel is too small if…
by Rance Darity
Your Gospel is too small if…
- You dwell more on trying to convert people than on seeking to live out the things Jesus taught.
- You summarize salvation as only what happens in a personal conversion.
- You have a formula for ‘getting people saved.’
- You believe it’s primarily about people’s ‘souls’ that need saving.
- You don’t think church is important.
- You think believing in Jesus and obeying Jesus are two vastly different things.
- You think only Christians are going to be saved.
- You think it’s all about ‘going to heaven when you die’ and not about doing God's will on earth as it is in heaven.
- You barely think about the resurrection of the body.
- You barely think about the incarnation.
- You barely care about the created world and caring for the environment.
- You think that caring for the poor is optional.
- You think the kingdom of God depends on the success of American capitalism.
- You identify Christianity with a particular view of politics, particularly conservative politics.
- You are more worked up about illegals entering your country than you are about hungry [or caged] children
- You think more guns are your salvation.
Rance Darity
February 8, 2024
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Inerrancy: The Red
Herring of Evangelicalism
by Rance Darity
Do you still have any of your sweetheart's old love letters from when you dated? If so, do you judge them to be inauthentic or untrustworthy if they contain an inadvertent scientific or historical mistake?
Of course not. That is not the proper criteria by which to judge such revelations of the heart. Everyone of us is prone to make a casual error in mundane correspondence. What is essential in such human communications is that the most important matters be true, not that every detail conform to pedantic perfection that lie at the periphery. We value those letters for more than scientific reasons. The main thing is the main thing.
How silly, then, to argue that the literature of the Bible must be above all such common human traits. Demanding such unusual perfection and inerrancy seems to suggest that we know better than God just how he should have communicated to us. But are we in the place of God to decide what kinds of books should or should not pass for divine communication? After all, God has always chosen fallible human vessels, words, and actions to communicate his will. According to a good source, his communication to us does not reach human perfection until his own Son makes his grand entrance (see Hebrews 1:1-2).
How much does it really matter whether Judas committed suicide by hanging himself (Matthew 27) or by a violent fall (Acts 1)? Or how essential is it to the primary message of the Bible whether it was Judas or the priests who bought a field with the thirty pieces of silver? These and many other marginal contradictions do not betray the faithful purpose of the Bible as much as we might think. They merely underscore the point that God spoke through people, the same kind of people who write less than perfect love letters to their sweethearts. What matters most is that they actually do carry the essential freight of the gospel. It is to that end that they claim our attention and loyalty. They speak. We listen. They guide. We follow. And the main thing is the main thing.
You reply that 'all scripture is inspired by God.' And it is. Scripture is inspired by God's Holy Spirit of love to lead us into the knowledge of Christ and his salvation, as well as how to live in light of this story. But this is all the more reason for us not to try and re-direct the Bible's real authority into matters it did not intend to claim. To attempt to do so will only lead us astray, placing our minds and attention on issues that are not worth defending. How much better to follow Scripture where it intends to lead us, and not into questions and disputes of doubtful spiritual value.
So no, the Bible is not an inerrant letter but a love letter from God to us.. 😎
Rance Darity
February 8, 2024
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