The [Anti]-Jesus Seminar

by Scott Collins                                                                                                  Vol. VII, No. 3, April 1994

You may have read about the group of scholars known as the Jesus Seminar which is rewriting the New Testament to correct what they say are centuries-old lies promoted by the church about the words of Jesus. These men believe Jesus never said 82% of what is attributed to Him in the Gospels. They also say Jesus never preached about salvation through His death, never worked any miracles, and never rose from the dead. Furthermore, members of the Jesus Seminar rely on the Gospel of Thomas, a book orthodox scholars say is heretical; for example, it maintains that for a woman to be saved she must become a man!

Bruce Corley, dean of the school of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, and other conservative scholars are mounting an effort to challenge the conclusions of the Jesus Seminar. Alan Brehm, assistant professor of New Testament at Southwestern, said it is important that Bible-believing Baptists hold to the doctrine of the inspiration and scriptural authority. "An understanding of the origin of the Gospels, combined with the belief in their inspiration, helps answer unsettling questions and confirms the confidence we place in the Gospels as authentic accounts of Jesus' ministry and teaching," Brehm said.

Brehm and other conservative scholars question the research methods of the Jesus Seminar. To determine which passages of Scripture should be considered authentic, the 74 scholars of the Jesus Seminar meet twice a year and vote on portions of Jesus' words, casting color coded beads into a box to indicate which words of Christ are authentic. In its new translation of the Gospels, the Jesus Seminar credits Jesus with only the first two words of the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father."!!

E. Earle Ellis, research professor of theology at Southwestern, said the conclusions of the seminar "have little or no historical credibility. It is a simplistic notion to suppose that a collection of nondescript New Testament scholars, who are by no means representative of contemporary scholarship, can determine by majority vote with colored beads the historical probability of a given saying or teaching of Jesus in the Gospels." He said the Jesus Seminar's methods are based upon "flawed 19th century historical models" and outdated assumptions by scholars from the 1920s. Ellis said those scholars assumed that the gospels were transmitted by folk traditions of a preliterate society. But that assumption has been proven to be false by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and by more recent literary studies, Ellis said.

Ellis and other scholars also dismiss the Jesus Seminar's use of the Gospel of Thomas. According to Ellis, the Gospel of Thomas was discovered in Egypt in 1946 and is dated 350 to 400 years after the time of Christ. The book is the product of a cultic form of Christianity known as Gnosticism, which placed a premium on knowledge rather than faith.

"Christians have good reason to rely on the Gospels as authentic accounts of Jesus' ministry and teaching and as true interpretations of His identity and mission," Brehm said.

[Editorial Comment: Let's be completely clear: Efforts such as those of the "scholars" involved in the Anti-Jesus Seminar are heresy, nothing else. Christ's bride has always faced heresies and apparently always will. Christians must not be naive either in accepting without discernment anything with a nice sounding name (the "Jesus Seminar") or in expecting there to be no challenge to Jesus. Men hated the Truth enough to crucify Him. Should we now expect unsaved men to honor Him? Too many Christians assume a posture as innocent as doves but neglect God's command to be also as wise as serpents. To be either alone is to be disobedient to our Lord.

Questioning the validity of Scripture and arriving at such decisions by majority vote may be silly and heretical, but it is also in accord with the spirit of our age which rejects the Creator's design and substitutes accidental evolution; tells man he is simply a complex animal rather than bearing the image of God; maintains that all morals are relative, there is no fixed standard; slaughters babies by the millions; is moving toward killing the elderly and infirm; and believes that man's mind is the ultimate authority. Our culture makes a fetish of: rights, individual freedom taken to ultimate license, the denial of consequences even in the face of facts (AIDS), inclusiveness, diversity, toleration, and rebellion against any authority except the tyranny of the current fad.

Our nation needs to learn that the Lord God does not run for election. TCP]