Liberal Theology In The Churches – Address Number 5 Series

This talk continues from the 4th Part. This is the last one for this group.

LIBERAL THEOLOGY IN THE CHURCHES – ADDRESS NUMBER 5

This is the last talk in this small series. Thank you all for your interest but we live in troubled times when the very foundations of our faith are being shaken.

This is the last post I will do in this series on Liberal Theology. So many qualified people have written and spoken on the subject that sometimes it feels like one is climbing on the backs of those who were previously in the fight. Where possible I am giving references and acknowledgement to the quotes I use and if I have missed any, pardon me. I have gathered material over the years and don’t know the origin of some sources and/or my own notes on those. That won’t detract from what I have tried to do. I do not speak at, or write for an intellectual audience on this subject – I want to pitch my writing at the ordinary Christian. There is a time and a place.

(1). INTRODUCTION:

The following quote is taken from the back cover of a book called, “CAN WE STILL READ THE BIBLE AND BE A CHRISTIAN?” by John Dominic Crossan, almost the leading liberal scholar at one stage in the world, and a former Roman Catholic priest -

[[“The Bible introduces us to a loving Jesus who turns the other cheek, loves his enemies, and shows grace to all, but we also meet a warrior Jesus who leads an army of angels bent on earthly destruction. Which is the true Messiah? Should we all follow the nonviolent Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, or the vengeful, sword-wielding Christ of Revelation?

As one of the foremost biblical scholars of our day, John Dominic Crossan reveals that running throughout the entire Bible - from Genesis to Revelation - are two conflicting revelations of God: one offering a radical, holy vision where every need is provided for and love and grace are extended widely; the other working to domesticate this radical vision by emphasising judgment and punishment and by propping up the status quo.”]]

(Taken from an Internet post by Glenn Peoples – PhD New Zealand who opposes liberalism). [[“John Dominic Crossan, the late Robert Funk, John Shelby Spong, or New Zealand’s own Lloyd Geering - all call themselves Christians. None of them believes that God exists (except in some emotional or mythological manner), and all are adamant that Christianity should change. It should give up belief in a personal creator, in myths about miracles, in nonsense about bodily resurrections from the dead, and so on. Christianity must get with the times and become relevant, and in our day and age people just can’t believe in such silliness.

One of the goals of liberal theology is to give Christianity a modern acceptability. They want to tell us that people can’t believe in ancient superstitions these days, but they can believe in “God”, if by God, we mean the goodness in the world. People can believe in the resurrection of Jesus, if by “resurrection”, we mean the survival of (some of) His moral teachings in the lives of his followers, and so on.

These folks don’t want to abandon Christianity, according to them. Not at all. They want to see Christianity get real, they tell us. They are making the Christian faith credible. Or are they?”]]

(2). THE BIBLE AND CHRISTIANS UNDER ATTACK BY MEDIA AND SCHOLARS

Re-imagining the Bible - In 2010, MSNBC anchor Melissa Harris-Perry called for “RE-IMAGINING THE BIBLE AS A TOOL OF PROGRESSIVE SOCIAL CHANGE.” Harris-Perry’s “re-imagining” of the Bible has become a favourite liberal tactic, as journalists and politicians have cited it to promote socialism, gay marriage, abortion and a host of other progressive policies - “all kinds” of “liberal, lefty, progressive values.” [[That information comes from Paul Wilson, as does some of the material below. Paul has written very intelligently against liberalism.]]

Washington Post “On Faith” contributor, Anthony Stevens-Arroyo, argued that the Bible was the inspiration for Karl Marx’s motto “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Huffington Post contributor, Kittredge Cherry, claimed Jesus Christ was a homosexual: “Christ lives in every individual of every different shade of sexual orientation and gender identity.” Writer Nynia Chance, proclaimed that the Bible supported abortion on the program, RH Reality Check: “there are times where the Bible states God commands that one [abortion] takes place.”

THE QUEEN JAMES BIBLE - Ideological leftists are attracted to the idea of a mutable Bible, and some even go ahead and rewrite it according to their desires and politics. A group of anonymous editors created the “Queen James Bible” to challenge traditional Scripture’s teaching on homosexuality. [[Their stated purpose was quite clear: “The Queen James Bible resolves any homophobic interpretations of the Bible.” The authors boasted in their editor’s note: “We wanted to make a book filled with the word of God that nobody could use incorrectly to condemn God’s LGBT children, and we succeeded.”]] The quality of their scholarship leaves something to be desired. The editors of the “Queen James Bible” made only eight edits to the Bible (predictably, eight verses dealing with homosexuality) and expressly stated that they “didn’t change anything else to create this edition of the Queen James Bible.” The editors also asserted in their editor’s note: [[“Yes, things like Leviticus are horribly outdated,” and claimed that “the Bible is still filled with inequality and even contradiction that we have not addressed.”]] This leaves the question of why they bothered “editing” a work which they have little respect for in the first place; after all, they claim that “No Bible is perfect, including this one.”