--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 39 Issue: 17 - Friday, December 17, 2004--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preaching the 'Other' Jesus
This year's annual competetion between Newsweek and TIME to see who can do the most effective hit piece on Jesus was close; but one has to award this year's 'Satan's Little Helper' award to Newsweek's Jon Meacham.
Early on in his ponderous column, Meacham identifies his target audience, seemingly a bit incredulous about their numbers;
"A NEWSWEEK Poll found that 84 percent of American adults consider themselves Christians, and 82 percent see Jesus as God or the son of God. Seventy-nine percent say they believe in the virgin birth, and 67 percent think the Christmas story—from the angels' appearance to the Star of Bethlehem—is historically accurate."
Meacham then introduces his Star Chamber of New Thinkers;
"Others, though perhaps fewer in number, are equally passionate about their critical understanding of the faith. The Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars devoted to recovering the Jesus of history, is a battalion in this long-running culture war."
The Jesus Seminar? "PERHAPS fewer in numbers" than the 232 million Americans (79% of the population) who believe in the Virgin Birth? Is he kidding? THIS is worthy of Newsweek?
Even if every single person in America who doubts the historicity of the Christmas story were passionate about this doubt – which is highly unlikely – they would still be outnumbered by over 100 million!
The objectivity of the 'scholarship' of the Jesus Seminar was laid bare by the opening remarks of its founder, Robert Funk, at its first meeting in 1985.
"What we need is a new fiction that takes as its starting point the central event in the Judeo-Christian drama [Jesus] and reconciles that middle with a new story that reaches beyond old beginnings and endings [creation and eschatology]. In sum, we need a new narrative of Jesus, a new gospel, if you will, that places Jesus differently in the grand scheme, the epic story."
Having BEGUN from the 'objective' position that a 'new fiction' is required to replace the 'old fiction' of the Gospels, Funk explains: "Not any fiction will do. . . . The fiction of Revelation keeps many common folk in bondage to ignorance and fear. We require a new, liberating fiction, one that squares with the best knowledge we can now accumulate and one that transcends self-serving ideologies."
Later in his speech, Funk warned that their findings would be unpopular -- and he concluded that before the group had even had its first meeting!
"What we are about takes courage, as I said. We are probing what is most sacred to millions, and hence we will constantly border on blasphemy. We must be prepared to forebear the hostility we shall provoke."
And as I just noted, to that point, the Jesus Seminar hadn't 'found' anything. So how did Funk already know that the “objective” conclusions of the Seminar would be so hostile to traditional faith? Because he stacked the deck from the beginning.
Funk filled the Seminar with hyper-skeptical scholars who shared both his scholarly and his theological biases, before setting out to destroy Christianity from within by attacking its Source code -- the Scriptures themselves.
THAT is the 'Christian scholarship' that Meacham relies on to 'explain' why the Virgin Birth celebrated at Christmas is really just a myth, like Santa Claus.
Under subheadings like, "The Jesus Seminar"; "Little To Work With"; "An Outlandish Message" and "Dubious On Every Score" Meacham systematically denies every single tenet of the Gospel, going so far as to argue that the Virgin Birth was really a cover story for an illegitimate birth, suggesting Jesus was not the son of God, but the bastard son of a Roman soldier.
"In later years Christians had to contend with charges that their Lord was illegitimate, perhaps the illicit offspring of Mary and a Roman soldier. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, some scholars treat the Christmas narratives as first-century inventions designed to strengthen the seemingly tenuous claim that Jesus was the Messiah."
Notice carefully what Meacham is saying here; "some scholars" consider the Christmas narratives to be “first-century inventions.” This is true. Yet from this observation he concludes that the story of Jesus’s birth is “as riven with complexity and controversy as Christianity itself.”
What does Meacham mean by 'riven by controversy'? Let's argue, just for fun, that there are 1,000 scholars who believe as Meacham does. Assuming there are a billion Christians in the world, then there are a million believers for every disbelieving 'scholar'.
Expressed another way, Meacham (and Newsweek) produced the entire piece based on the opinions of .0001% of the Christian population, with the implicit corrollary understanding that other 99.999% of Christians are wrong.
Meacham goes on to ask; "Was the story of the virginal conception told to hide Jesus' illegitimacy?" before answering his own 'question' using the Dan Rather method of journalistic patronization:
"As startling as the allegation is for many, it dates from at least the second century, and maybe as early as Jesus' lifetime. "It was Jesus himself who fabricated the story that he had been born of a virgin." Meacham notes that Celsus wrote in A.D. 180;
"In fact, however, his mother was a poor country woman who earned her living by spinning. She had been driven out by her carpenter-husband when she was convicted of adultery with a soldier named Panthera. She then wandered about and secretly gave birth to Jesus. Later, because he was poor, he hired himself out in Egypt where he became adept in magical powers. Puffed up by these, he claimed for himself the title of God."
Meacham, it is to be remembered, is explaining who the REAL Jesus is, as opposed to the Jesus the Bible says He is.
Meacham's hit piece was subtle, but deliberate. Take this line, for example:
"Second- and third-century Christian writers alleged that some Jews also suggested Jesus' birth was illicit."
What the heck does that prove? OF COURSE 'some Jews' suggested Jesus' birth was illicit. 'Some Jews' also say His Body was stolen from the Tomb, too. To say otherwise would be to recognize that when their Messiah came, they put Him to death.
But since Meacham tacks on the part about 2nd and 3rd century Christians stating the obvious, it comes across as an argument favoring the early Church questioning the Virgin Birth doctrine.
It is a clever lie, that Newsweek attempts to make palatable by Meacham's incredible claim that he, too, is a believer!
In a statement from Newsweek's editor published in the December 13 edition--the issue with the Christmas cover story--editor Mark Whitaker identifies Meacham as a graduate of the University of the South at Sewanee, "the only Episcopal university in America."
Whitaker goes on to identify a professor who exercised a particular influence on Meacham, teaching him "that there is no inconsistency between belief in Christ and the willingness to question the worldly roots of Scripture."
If I am understanding this correctly, Meacham allegedly believes in a "Jesus" Who was probably a fraud. As near as I can make out, that constitutes an outright admission that Meacham is a fool who believes in fairy tales -- which to Newsweek, merits special mention as Meacham's most impressive credential.
As Meacham outlines the problem with the Gospel narratives, Matthew and Luke were "confronted with a literary problem that had to be solved." As he frames their challenge: "They wanted to tell the story of Jesus' birth, but apparently had little to work with."
Put simply, Matthew and Luke just made it all up, according to Newsweek!
Assessment:
Even Newsweek's opening statement about Meacham's credentials were deliberately spun. Meacham is neither a theologian or a historian. His 'scholarly credentials' amount to a BA degree from the University of the South. His REAL credentials are more illuminating of his worldview.
Meacham is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a “Global Leader for Tomorrow” of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to the biography put out by his literary agent, Royce Carlton.
That's it! A BA degree from an obscure university, PLUS membership in all the right clubs, makes Jon Meacham an authority on theology worthy of a Newsweek cover story.
While Meacham's piece won't have any effect among true believers (apart from a collective uptick in blood pressure) -- it will have a tremendously soothing effect on those poor lost souls who are seeking some evidence from which they can take comfort in their unbelief.
But it also serves as a perfect illustration of what the Apostle Paul was speaking of in 2nd Thessalonians 2:11-12 where he writes;
"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
That accounts for the popularity of the annual competition between Newsweek and TIME to see who can do the best job each year at Christmas in attacking the foundational truths that it celebrates.
All men are created in God's image and in His Likeness, the Scripture says. That doesn't mean that God looks like me, it means that I was created with the capacity for eternal life. As a consequence, each of us has, at our core, (for want of a better way of putting it,) a God-shaped 'hole' that aches to be filled.
That is why unbelievers are so hungry for information that offers them some comfort in their unbelief, because it IS uncomfortable. There is always that nagging feeling of uncertainty, a fear that they can't quite put away, but dare not face in the open.
All of us who were unbelievers remember that quiet sense of desperation -- it is what eventually brought us to the Cross.
The Jesus the world wants to embrace is a characature of the real Jesus, one that has a 'form of godliness' but without the power to save or condemn.
The Bible does speak to the concept of 'another Jesus'. Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 11:4:
"For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him."
Paul also spoke of him when he warned; "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;"
"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2nd Timothy 3:1-5)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archives of past issues of The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest plus many other Omega Letter member features can be found at: www.omegaletter.com