Thursday night on Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN, the last hour was consumed with a report on "What is a Christian?" It was an interesting report, fairly balanced, and covering several areas such as Christianity and politics, Christianity and environmentalism, end times, the Word Faith movement, and Unitarians. Several times during the show, Mr. Cooper interacted with a panel of three. Richard Land is pastor and president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Jim Wallis is the author of "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It." He's also the president of Sojourners, a progressive Christian ministry. The Reverend Dwight Hopkins is an American Baptist minister and professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Mr. Cooper asked the three what a Christian was. Of course, there were varying answers. Reverend Hopkins suggested that Christians were to be primarily concerned with "what Jesus Christ says in the four gospels of the New Testament." In context, it seemed innocuous, but there was a method to his madness. When the subject of homosexuality came up, Mr. Cooper asked what each thought. Reverend Hopkins fell back on his mantra. "Jesus never spoke on the issue of homosexuality. So we're at a loss as far as what Jesus has to say."
This is a standard "defense" against Christians who argue that homosexual behavior is against the Bible. I would hope that a mere moment's thought would shoot this one down in flames. "Jesus never spoke on the issue" of rape, torture, incest, child molestation ... oh, lots of things which we all agree are against the Bible. This is no form of evidence that homosexual behavior is a biblically sound practice.
The real problem for me, however, is not merely this defense. It is the further ramification. Reverend Hopkins has managed to eliminate nearly 94% of the Bible. If the primary concern of the Christian is 4 books out of 66, we've lost a lot. We've lost the wisdom of Solomon, the worship of the Psalmists, the morality of the Law, and the history of Israel. We've lost the prophets and the apostles, the foundation of the Church (Eph. 2:20). Without Paul, we've lost the entire explanation of redemption, justification, and sanctification. Without James we wouldn't know that faith without works is dead. It is only John who tells us that the one born of God cannot make a practice of sinning. And while we may have a good idea of things like the Deity of Christ from the gospel of John, the concept is filled out in Paul's letters and in Hebrews. Let's face it. If Christianity is only concerned with the four books of the Gospels, Christianity is anemic and baseless (Eph. 2:20).
Homosexual behavior and its sinfulness aside, we dare not limit our Christianity to "what Jesus said". Too many things are at stake. We need the whole counsel of God as contained in the whole Bible. And basing our Christianity on what Jesus did not say will put us in a nightmare realm. Let's not try to push limits by removing truth.
7 comments:
AMEN!
I am surprised that more Christians scholars don't call this grotesquely mendacious position to account. If only the Jesus of the gospel matters why the other 62 books? [This is also the position of Bob Edgar, the head of the National Council Churches, and Brian McLaren the Emergent Church guru and many others] The truth is that the Bible consists of 66 books about Jesus Christ. It is our window into His mind, or it is nothing.
I just learned a new term for these type of Christians. They're called "Red Letter Christians" because they suggest that the only thing we need to worry about is what Jesus said (you know, the red letters in the Bible).
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4.
"From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 4:17
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law , or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, thill all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:17-20
I'm just sayin' ...
10km, I don't actually know what you are saying. I hope you will explain.
A couple of notes (on what you or others might possibly be saying):
1. I'm referencing the argument that "Jesus never said", not speaking of what He did say. Of course we must follow what He did say.
2. I'm referencing the argument that "we need to follow what's in the 4 gospels" while eliminating the rest of the Bible as instruction. Indeed, there is much good stuff in the 4 gospels and we need to follow them ... but eliminating the rest of the Word of God is not acceptable.
But, not actually knowing what you intended to convey, I'm hoping you will explain further so I won't have to guess. (Generally, when I have to guess, I guess wrong.)
Okay, I'm so late responding that you might not ever read this... I did try several times, but being a bit of a techno-idiot, I managed to delete what I had typed several times. This is the last try.
Please forgive my lack of clarity. As a former "Smorgasbord" Bible reader (I would only read the parts that made me feel good about me), I agree with you wholeheartedly that one cannot in any way justify reading/heeding only the red-letter parts of the Bible.
The Scriptures I quoted are all from the Gospels, and were intended to support your argument.
John 1:1. Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate. Therefore, any and every part of God's Word speaks of Jesus Christ, from Genesis to Revelation.
Matthew 4:4. Just as Jesus lived by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, so must we. Every word, not just the ones that suit our own selfish agendas.
Matthew 4:17. In His first public message, Jesus told people to repent of sin, because the Kingdom of God is at hand. I sense that most of the Red-Letter Christians don't feel that repentance should be the primary message of Christianity, but our Lord thought it was pretty important.
Matthew 5:17-20. If Jesus preached that He came not to destroy, but to fulfill the law, shouldn't we know what the law is and what the prophets said about it? How can we understand the Lord as God's Law Fulfilled, if we don't study what the Law is?
So by their own "Red Letters," we see that Jesus Christ never intended us to ignore the rest of the Bible, Old Testament or New (there are some pretty forthright red-letter sections of Revelation).
Again, please forgive me for not getting back to you sooner, and for not making myself clearer.
God bless you, and Merry Christmas!
Ah, I see! Thanks.
Apparently the "Red Letter" folks don't even follow the red letters to the letter, eh?
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