Jesus, Interrupted

A couple of summers ago, I read a book by the much-revered Dr. Bart Ehrman entitled, Jesus, Interrupted.  If his name sounds familiar, that's because he is the author of Misquoting Jesus, a book that attempts to prove that the Gospels are fabricated.  Well, the basic premise of Jesus, Interrupted is no different.  Indeed, a quick look through his list of published works makes it clear that Ehrman has made a career out of attempting to prove that the Bible, rather than being the inerrant Word of God, is a very human book filled with contradictions and mistakes.  On page after page of Jesus, Interrupted, Dr. Ehrman hits his readers with one (supposed) contradiction after another.  This makes it a difficult book to review for two reasons.

First, Dr. Ehrman has a Ph.D. in theology, and is a leading expert on Biblical studies and the New Testament, and yet he makes so many errors in his analysis that he almost seems like an idiot.  He is obviously not, as he has multiple degrees and has immersed himself in this subject for several decades.  In spite of these credentials, however, many of his ideas and theories are simply untrue.  I don't mean that I disagree with him theologically (although of course, I do), but I mean to say that many of his statements are, historically, culturally and linguistically untrue - he misquotes and misrepresents both what the Bible says, as well as known history.

If I had to estimate, I would guess that about half of his claims are simply false.  He says, for example, that John and Mark give different days for the crucifixion.  This is blatantly inaccurate, as we'll see in a moment.  The Gospels of John and Mark do not differ when it comes to the timing of the crucifixion:  Jesus was arrested on Thursday night and then tried and executed on Friday; all four Gospels attest to this.

The rest of his "issues" fall into the category of apparent contradictions, but with varying levels of explainability.  To be fair, three-quarters of those do seem to be discrepancies within the Bible, but upon a little bit of digging, turn out not to be discrepancies at all.  The remaining issues, however, can be explained, but the explanations require a bit more interpretation than the text actually grants.  I freely admit that the handful of these incidents may be contradictions, but they are not, by any means, the all-out inconsistencies that Dr. Ehrman makes them out to be.  In other words, while they may be contradictions, there is no reason to definitively claim that they are contradictions.  Indeed, while explaining them does require a certain amount of interpretation, the fact that they can be explained nullifies his brazen statement that they are irreconcilable.
 
The second difficulty in analyzing this manuscript is the sheer scope of his book.  Since almost every page of his 300-page book features a "contradiction," I cannot hope to address every issue one at a time.  What I'm going to do, then, is speak on several examples from this wide range of explainability, and then take a look at his overall strategy and way of thinking and see where, on a fundamental level, his thinking is deeply, deeply flawed.


When Did Jesus Die?

This is a section to which he devotes several pages, but it is an excellent example of why all of us (Christians, atheists, agnostics, or anyone who reads his book) must be skeptical of the "facts" that Dr. Ehrman presents.  I'm going to sum up (with appropriate quotations) Dr. Ehrman's argument, and then present what the Bible actually says (also with appropriate quotations). 

There is a certain amount of background information needed to understand this issue.  Way back in Exodus, the Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptians, and God - after some 400 years - announced that He was going to free His people.  In order to display His glory, God sent a series of plagues on the Egyptians, the last of which led to the death of every firstborn son in the nation.  God, however, enacted a system of mercy for the Hebrews in which they were to paint their doorposts with lamb's blood so that the Angel of Death could then pass over the houses of the Hebrews, sparing the children.  The next day, Pharaoh - whose own son was killed - sent the Hebrews away, granting their freedom.  God then required the Hebrews to commemorate that evening every year with a holiday known - appropriately - as "Passover."  When we get to the last night Jesus spent with His disciples before His crucifixion, we find the thirteen of them sharing the Passover meal.  In that year, the Passover took place on Thursday evening at sundown.

Now, there is another piece of information you need to know, and this regards the Jewish system of measuring time.  The Jews back then - and today, to some degree - measured the start of their day at sundown the day before, rather than midnight as we do.  So for us, today, Thursday begins in the middle of the night at midnight, and runs through sunup, noon, the afternoon, sundown, and on until midnight, where Friday begins.  For the Hebrews, Thursday would have started at sundown on Wednesday night, run through sunup, noon, the afternoon, and then ended when the sun went down Thursday night, at which point Friday would begin.  So for us, Jesus and His disciples had their Passover meal on Thursday night, but for them, it would have taken place at the beginning of Friday, since Friday started at sundown on Thursday evening.

Now, one last piece of information.  Every Jewish Friday (sundown on Thursday to sundown on Friday) was known as the Day of Preparation for the Sabbath; the Jewish Sabbath took place on Saturday (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday).  There were other Days of Preparation, however, which preceded every major holy day, including Passover.  So the year that Jesus died, the "Day of Preparation for the Passover" would have taken place from Wednesday night to Thursday afternoon, with Passover beginning Thursday night.  The Gospels, then, tell us that Jesus and His disciples ate the Passover meal on Thursday night, Jesus was arrested in the garden a few hours later, stood trial before the Sanhedrin, Pilate, and Herod, and was sentenced and executed during the day on Friday.

According to Dr. Ehrman, however, John does not say this.  Here's what Dr. Ehrman writes:

In Mark's Gospel, Jesus lived through [the Day of Preparation], had his disciples prepare the Passover meal, and ate it with them before being arrested, taken to jail for the night, tried the next morning, and executed at nine o'clock A.M. on the Passover day.  But not in John.  In John, Jesus dies a day earlier, on the Day of Preparation for the Passover, sometime after noon (26).

According to Dr. Ehrman, John tells us that Jesus died, not on Friday, but on Thursday, before the Passover Meal.  This is completely untrue, as John emphatically declares that Jesus died on Friday.  In John 19:31, John tells us, immediately following the death of Jesus in verse 30, that "it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath."  In other words, Jesus died the day before the Sabbath.  Since the Sabbath is on Saturday, Jesus must have died on Friday.  This is abundantly clear.  In fact, the rest of the verse clarifies the timing, and reads:  "Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down" (emphasis mine).  John is clear:  Jesus died on Friday.

So why, then, does Dr. Ehrman insist that John's version has Jesus dying on Thursday?  As proof, he quotes John 19:14, in which Jesus is sentenced to death:  "It was the Day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon."  Hmm.  Jesus is sentenced on the Day of Preparation?  That would mean He died Thursday, during the day, right?  That does seem tricky, doesn't it?  But not if you understand how Passover worked.

In Exodus 12:1-20, God gives very specific instructions on how the Israelites are to commemorate the Passover.  It is to start with the Passover meal:  a slaughtered lamb whose blood is brushed around the door frame of the house, and whose roasted flesh is to be eaten "in haste [for] it is the LORD's Passover" (12:11).  Then what follows the next day is called The Feast of Unleavened Bread, a special holiday lasting for a week, in which no yeast is eaten at all, commemorating the speed with which they had to depart.  In Leviticus 23:4-8, we are told that The Passover takes place at sundown on the fourteenth of the month, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread takes place on the fifteenth of the month.  However, while these two feasts were separate feasts, they were also considered one and the same celebration because they both commemorated the night that God broke Pharaoh's resolve, and the Israelites were able to leave.  In Exodus 12, where God institutes the feast, they are both simply referred to, collectively, as the Passover.  In Luke 22:1, Luke even writes, "Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching."   

What does this mean for the context of the crucifixion?  In Jesus' day, the meal took place on Thursday night (the start of the Day of Preparation for the Sabbath), and the Feast of Unleavened Bread would have started the next day, or Friday night - the beginning of the Sabbath.  John even mentions in 19:31 that the Sabbath was to be a "special Sabbath."  Why?  Because it was the continuation of the Passover holiday, the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  So when we read that Jesus was sentenced on "the Day of Preparation for the Passover" in John 19:14, it's referring to the Feast of Unleavened Bread "called the Passover" (Luke 22:1).  When it says that Jesus was sentenced on the Day of Preparation for the Passover in John, it's referring to the Friday Passover, not the Thursday Passover.


Despite Dr. Ehrman's claim that "the contradiction stands" and that "this is a difference that can[not] be reconciled," there is, in fact, no contradiction.  John (as well as Luke, Matthew and Mark) claims that Jesus died on the Friday after the Passover meal.  So the first question we need to ask is whether or not Dr. Ehrman knows what he's talking about.  Is he, as it appears, unaware of the Passover regulations and the fact that it was, for practical purposes, divided into two different parts?  Does he not know that the Day of Preparation for the Passover can refer to both the Passover meal (the slaughtered lamb) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread?  Is he completely unaware of John 19:31, which clearly states that Jesus died on Friday, the day before the "special Sabbath"?  Possibly, but I hesitate to call him ignorant and stupid.  After all, he received his doctorate from Princeton University.  One does not simply walk in off the street and receive a doctorate from Princeton; you must both be accepted, and you must work hard to be awarded that degree.  He has also been a foremost Biblical scholar and educator for the last thirty years.  One does not simply study a topic for thirty years and know nothing about it.  So Dr. Ehrman may be ignorant, but I doubt it. 

This leaves us with one unsettling alternative:  he's being intentionally deceptive.  He knows what John says, he knows about the customs, but he chooses to ignore the evidence in favor of pushing his opinion that the Bible is no more divinely inspired than the Yellow Pages.  In other words, he's lying.  I am not a fan of calling someone I've never met, and whose motivations I do not honestly know, a liar, but these are the only alternatives.  This is the difficulty I mentioned early on in the post, because I do not know his heart.  Nonetheless, the choice stands:  he either does not know what he's talking about, or he's lying.

What I do know, however, is that he has made several claims that are simply false, and this is only the first.  The second claim I want to address, also tied to this issue, is the time at which Jesus was executed.  Dr. Ehrman tells us that Mark's Gospel reports that Jesus was crucified at nine o'clock in the morning.  He then attempts to prove that the Bible is contradictory by telling us that John claims that Jesus was crucified "about noon."  What Dr. Ehrman is doing here is twofold:  first, he's taking some liberty at translating the time of day (the New Testament translations are his own).  Mark does not actually say that Jesus was crucified at 9 A.M., and John does not tell us that Jesus was crucified at noon.  Mark uses the phrase "the third hour" (Mark 15:25), and John uses the phrase "the sixth hour" (John 19:14).

Now, aren't those still different times?  Yes, they are, but there are two pieces of information that Dr. Ehrman is leaving out, whether consciously or not.  The first is that Mark and John are not both referring to the crucifixion.  Mark states that "It was the third hour when they crucified him"; crystal clear, no issues.  John is equally as clear, though, in that "the sixth hour" is not when Jesus is crucified, but when Jesus is sentenced:  ""Pilate . . . brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement . . . It was about the sixth hour" (John 19:13;14).  In other words, Mark and John give two different times because they're describing two different events.  Dr. Ehrman, through very selective language, would have us believe that they are describing the same event, which is untrue.

But wait:  isn't the sixth hour later than the third hour?  So how could Jesus be sentenced three hours after He was nailed to the cross?  This is the other piece of information that Dr. Ehrman does not share with his readers.  Both the Roman and Jewish cultures had their own method for reckoning daylight.  The Romans - like us - began measuring the day at midnight.  So for them, the third hour was 3 A.M., the sixth hour was 6 A.M., and so forth.  The Hebrews measured their daylight separately from their day, so while their day began at sundown the night before, they measured daylight beginning at 6 A.M.  So in the Jewish reckoning, the third hour would have been 9 A.M., the sixth hour would have been Noon, and so forth.

To be fair, neither Mark nor John tell us which system they were using.  If they were both using the same system, then I agree it's a problem, because Jesus would have been crucified three hours before He was sentenced.  If, on the other hand, Mark is using the Hebrew reckoning, while John uses the Roman reckoning, then the conflict disappears.  In fact, the entire sequence of events makes perfect sense:

Pilate sentenced Jesus at 6 A.M. (sixth hour, Roman time, as John states), and Jesus is nailed to the cross at 9 A.M. (third hour, Jewish time, as Mark states).  Then what happened during the intervening hours?  Matthew and Mark both tell us that Jesus was flogged, beaten, and mocked by the Romans before being forced to take up His own cross and carry it outside of the city.  If Roman execution was anything like Death Row today, it is, frankly, astonishing that it only took three hours between His sentencing and execution.  While Dr. Ehrman would lead us to believe that there is no way whatsoever to reconcile when Jesus died in the two Gospel accounts, as we have seen, there is no contradiction.  Jesus was sentenced at 6 A.M. on Friday morning, nailed to the cross at 9 A.M. the same day, and was dead by 3 P.M. (see Luke 23:44-46).  Dr. Ehrman neglects to mention the two systems of reckoning time, but, more deceptively than that, neglects to mention that the Gospels give two different times because they are describing two different events.  While I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on some things, this one is hard to chalk up to ignorance:  the verses are clearly describing two different events, and Dr. Ehrman clearly glosses over that fact.  He would like us to believe that the Bible is untrustworthy on this point, but it simply isn't and, rather, he reveals himself to be the untrustworthy one.

The Historical-Critical Approach
Now, at this point, what I don't want to happen is for you all to think that I'm simply here to offer a rebuttal of his claims.  What I want, rather, is for us to look, critically, at his overall arguments, most of which revolve around what he calls the Historical-Critical Approach to Biblical Scholarship (4-5; 176-179).  I submit that we must apply the same method to his own claims.  When we do that - that is, when we approach his book with an eye to find the truth, not just blind belief in everything he writes - we see massive inconsistencies and inaccuracies.  So I want to spend a few moments examining some of his overall approaches to studying the Scriptures, and how that impacts his interpretation.  

So what is the Historical-Critical Method?  What it involves, at least according to him, is reading the Scriptures side-by-side so as to compare what they have to say on certain subjects.  What most of us tend to do, he asserts, is start, say, in Matthew, read it through to the end, and then go on to Mark.  We read Mark, then we read Luke, and so on.  While this is an acceptable method, Dr. Ehrman feels that his approach is far more scholarly, because it allows us to find discrepancies much more easily (6, 16).  What I'm going to do here is examine some of his claims about aspects of the Bible, and compare them to other claims he makes in regards to the same topic.  In other words, I'm using his approach to his own book. 



Who Wrote the New Testament?
This is a sticky subject, even for believers, because many of the books are anonymous; they have been attributed to certain authors, but they were not actually signed by those authors.  This does not, however, exempt Dr. Ehrman from historical accuracy, as he seems to feel that it does. Not surprisingly, he claims that most of the New Testament - particularly the Gospels - was written "many centuries later" by "authors who probably did not write them" [that is, Matthew didn't write The Gospel of Matthew, Mark didn't write Mark, etc.] (48; 102; see also pages 111, 135-136, 143-144).  Here's where it gets interesting:  first, he only gives one real reason as to how he knows they were written centuries later (and, as we'll see in a minute, that reason is unfounded).  Though he repeatedly claims, however, that there is "good reason" for believing this, he only expounds on one very shaky line of reasoning.  This is okay by me, however, since he then tells us that . . .

. . . there are reasons for thinking Mark was written first, so maybe he wrote around the time of the war with Rome, 70 CE . . . Matthew and Luke . . . say, ten or fifteen years later, in 80 to 85 CE.  John seems to be the most theologically developed Gospel, and so it was probably written later still, nearer the end of the first century, around 90 to 95 CE.  These are rough guesses, but most scholars agree on them (145). 

So which is it?  "Centuries later," or within the first century (and therefore within the lifetime of the apostles whom we believe actually did write them)?  Using his own critical method, we can see a massive contradiction in Dr. Ehrman's own philosophy, one which he makes no attempt to reconcile.  They were written, according to "most scholars," within the first century.  But we also know, according to most scholars, that they were written "many centuries later."   Once more, he is either ignorant of his own subject, and does not know what he wrote in his own book, or he is being intentionally deceptive.

So why doesn't he believe that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote the Gospels?  He creates a compelling argument, until one gets past the misdirection and conveniently-ignored historical facts.  I'll let him explain in his own words:

From the Gospels we learn that the disciples of Jesus, like him, were lower-class peasants from rural Galilee.  Most of them - certainly Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John - were day laborers (fishermen and the like); Matthew is said to be a tax collector, but it is not clear how high up he was in the tax collecting organization, whether he was a kind of general contractor who worked directly with the ruling authorities to secure tax revenues, or possibly more likely, the kind of person who came banging on your door to make you pay up.  If the latter, there is nothing to suggest that he would have required much of an education.

The same can certainly be said of the others.  We have some information about what it meant to be a lower-class peasant in rural areas of Palestine in the first century.  One thing it meant is that you were almost certainly illiterate.  Jesus himself was highly exceptional, in that he could evidently read (Luke 4:16-20), but there is nothing to indicate that he could write [this is not true, as John 8:6 tells us that Jesus wrote in the sand] . . . As Galilean Jews, Jesus' followers, like Jesus himself, would have been speakers of Aramaic.  As rural folk they probably would not have any knowledge of Greek; if they did, it would have been extremely rough (105-106).

He then goes on to tell us that the authors of the Gospels were clearly fluent in Greek, but since Jesus' followers could not have been fluent in Greek, his followers could not have written the Gospels.  Therefore, he argues, the "authors were . . . unusually gifted Christians of a later generation" (106), who most likely came, as I noted "many centuries later."

Once more, Dr. Ehrman's seemingly-deceptive language would mislead, as he claims that none of Jesus' disciples spoke Greek, therefore none of the Gospels could have been written by His disciples.  Here's the problem:  two of the Gospels - Mark and Luke - weren't written by Jesus' twelve disciples, and the Church has never claimed them to have been.  He appears to be intentionally leaving this fact out when he claims that none of the Gospels could have been written by Jesus' disciples.  But this begs a bigger question:  were Mark and Luke able to write Greek?  Let's begin with Mark.

We know very little about Mark.  Most of what we know comes from the Book of Acts:  he was also called John (Acts 12:12,25 and 15:37), his mother's house became a secret church (Acts 12:12); he was the cousin of Barnabas (Col. 4:10); Mark accompanied Paul and Barnabas (13:5), and he and Paul had a major disagreement that strained their relationship (Acts 13:13; 15:36-39); Paul eventually forgave Mark (2 Timothy 4:11).  The only other piece of information we have on Mark comes from the church tradition (not the Bible, mind you) that he was a companion of Peter, and that his Gospel was actually a shaping and compilation of Peter's teachings on Jesus.

So what does this mean for our understanding of whether or not Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark?  It means he could have, since we have no idea whether or not he was educated - we don't even know what his occupation was.  While I agree that the ability to write in Greek was not a typical skill for blue-collar workers in that time period, Dr. Ehrman's implication is that, since Peter, Andrew, James and John were low-class fisherman, Mark didn't know Greek.  This conclusion is intellectually irresponsible.  That would be like saying that since my neighbor doesn't speak German, I don't either.  I do (sort of), and even if I didn't, it would be completely disconnected from his inability to speak that language.  So while Mark certainly might have been "unlettered," the fact is that we simply don't know, and can't conclude one way or the other.  To dismiss Mark as an author is unfounded.  At best, he did write the Gospel attributed to him, at worst, we simply can't be certain.

What about Luke?  Was he, too, an unlettered member of the Jewish lower-class? Not at all.  In fact, based on the content of his Gospel (and second volume, Acts), Luke appears to have been a Gentile . . . a Greek-speaking Gentile.  We know from Colossians 4:14 that Luke was a physician - so he was also an educated, Greek-speaking Gentile.  This means that Luke would have spoken, read, and written Greek, since Greek was the common written language of the Roman Empire.

Remember that the Roman Empire spread across three continents and consisted of hundreds of different territories.  Each territory was allowed to keep its own regional dialect (hence, Jesus and His disciples spoke Aramaic), but the Empire needed a common language to help keep it unified and running smoothly:  that language was Greek.  As a Gentile ("Greek") doctor, Luke would have been fluent in Greek.  Therefore, the claim that Luke's Gospel was written by someone of a "later generation" because Luke wouldn't have been able to write in Greek simply holds no water.  There is no reason, whatsoever, to believe that Luke wasn't written by Luke.

Yes, but doesn't that mean that Mark and Luke were second-hand accounts, and, therefore, unreliable?  Not at all.  While they were second-hand accounts, they weren't disconnected from the events.  Mark (who may have been a follower of Jesus, if the "young man" in Mark 14:51 is actually the author of that Gospel), was, as I mentioned, believed to have been a companion of Peter, as well as a companion of other disciples.  If this is true, then Mark wasn't just repeating hearsay, but he was repeating the accounts he received directly from their sources, sources who spent three years walking and talking with Jesus.  Luke, on the other hand, accompanied Paul and some of the other apostles, and Paul, while himself not an original disciple of Jesus, spent a great deal of time with "the brothers" in Jerusalem after becoming a follower of Jesus.  This is not, then, a word-of-mouth transmission of information subject to what I call "Telephone Mythology" (as Dr. Ehrman implies it would be on pages 146-147), but is transmission of information connected to the sources themselves.

I am not my wife (obviously), but after nine years of marriage, I know my wife well.  I know how she feels about various subjects, I know how she would respond in various situations, and I remember a lot of what we have been through together.  Now let's just suppose you invited me to see the new Star Wars movie.  I agree, and you ask if I want to bring her, too.  I'd tell you that she has no interest in seeing it.

Here's the question:  do you doubt my assessment of her because you're hearing it second-hand?  Of course not, because you would understand that I know my wife;  I know how she would react in this situation.  The gospels of Mark and Luke are no different.  Even though they (probably) weren't present with Jesus, we can trust their accounts because they knew the disciples.  So, once more, Dr. Ehrman's claim that Mark and Luke could not have been written by Mark and Luke - and that, even if they were, they cannot be trusted - has no basis in reality.

Now, what about the other two, Matthew and John?  Matthew, a tax-collector, and John, a fisherman, could not have written Greek, Dr. Ehrman claims, because they were lower-class peasants.  This claim brings us to the second part of the Historical-Critical approach, which is his insistence that we look past the text of the Bible and look to history, instead.  So we will look past the text of Dr. Ehrman's book, and look to history, instead.  In his own words:  Matthew is said to be a tax collector, but it is not clear how high up he was in the tax collecting organization, whether he was a kind of general contractor who worked directly with the ruling authorities to secure tax revenues or, and possibly more likely, the kind of person who came banging on your door to make you pay up.  If the latter, there is nothing to suggest that he would have required much of an education (105). 

This is untrue.  Matthew 9:9, Mark 2:14, and Luke 5:27 all tell us that Matthew (also called Levi) was situated in a "tax collector's booth" outside of Capernaum.  What does that mean?  It means that Matthew was in charge of collecting tariffs on goods coming into and leaving the city, a city that lay on the international trade route running from Damascus to the Mediterranean Sea.  Matthew, therefore, was not only responsible for collecting taxes from Jews, but was also responsible for collecting taxes from anyone who passed that way coming from various parts of the Roman Empire - citizens of Rome who would have spoken Greek as they traveled about internationally.  Mark also would have received orders from Rome (and sent trade receipts back to Rome, as well).  Therefore his job would have required him to be able to communicate in both Aramaic and Greek - including written language.  Matthew wasn't a low-class peasant who knocked on doors and dragged women and children into the street, forcing them to pay up, but a wealthy employee of Rome who dealt with clients both foreign and domestic.  This is not "possibly more likely"; it is a historical reality.

This leaves us with John.  John, as we know from the Scriptures, was a fisherman.  Dr. Ehrman is correct, in that John most likely couldn't read or write Greek (although he could have spoken it, since young children are more than capable of being bilingual, long before they are capable of reading and writing).  It's entirely possible, of course, that in the sixty years between the resurrection and the time he wrote his account, John learned to write fluent Greek, but I agree with Dr. Ehrman that "it hardly seems . . . likely" (107).  What Dr. Ehrman is neglecting to mention, however, is the regular use of scribes and translators.  For example, Romans, which begins with a greeting from Paul (indicating that the letter contains his thoughts), ends with the sentence:  "I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord" (16:22).  Tertius was a scribe to whom Paul was most likely dictating his letter.  There are other examples within the Pauline letters.  In 2 Thessalonians 3:18, Colossians 4:18, Galatians 6:11 and 1 Corinthians 16:21, Paul attests that he wrote the closing of the letters "in [his] own hand."  The implication there is that sometimes Paul didn't write the letters in his own hand, but had them written on his behalf by someone else - especially when viewed in light of the insertion made by Tertius at the end of Romans.

Now if Paul, who was educated and able to write in Greek, still used a scribe, could John not also have used one?  Could that scribe not have translated John's Aramaic into Greek, for the purpose of sending the letters to a wider audience?  I realize that I am speculating, but that is the point:  so is Dr. Ehrman.  His assertion is that, since John couldn't write in Greek, he could not have written the Gospel that bears his name.  This makes two great assumptions:  1) that John couldn't write in Greek, and 2) that for him to write the Gospel, it had to be in his own handwriting.  While I agree in the likelihood of #1 (though that, too, is still an assumption), there is no reason to assume that #2 must be true.  The use of scribes and translators - especially in a multilingual society - was common, and there is no reason to dismiss the Gospel of John (or the rest of John's books) as forgeries. 

The Resurrection
There is one last "scholarly" technique that Dr. Ehrman uses when determining whether or not the miracles attributed to Jesus - particularly the resurrection - actually occurred.  Once more, I'll let him describe his approach in his own words:

Historians more or less rank past events on the basis of the relative probability that they occurred.  All that historians can do is show what probably happened in the past.

That is the problem inherent in miracles.  Miracles, by our very definition of the term, are virtually impossible events.  Some people would say they are literally impossible, as violations of natural law:  a person can't walk on water any more than an iron bar can float on it. . . . We would call a miracle an event that violates the way nature always, or almost always, works so as to make the event virtually, if not actually, impossible.  The chances of a miracle occurring are infinitesimal. . . .

By now I hope you can see the unavoidable problem historians have with miracles.  Historians can establish only what probably happened in the past, but miracles, by their very nature, are always the least probable explanation for what happened.  This is true whether you are a believer or not.  Of the six billion people in the world, not one of them can walk on top of lukewarm water filling a swimming pool.  What would be the chances of any one person being able to do that?  Less than one in six billion.  Much less. . . .

But what about the resurrection?  I'm not saying it didn't happen.  Some people believe it did, some people believe it didn't. . . . There can be no historical evidence for the resurrection because of the nature of historical evidence. . . . The resurrection is not least likely because of any anti-Christian bias.  It is the least likely because people do not come back to life, never to die again, after they are well and truly dead.  But what if Jesus did?  If he did, it's a miracle, and it's beyond historical demonstration (175-176).

At first glance, this sounds reasonable.  After all, six billion people can't resurrect, so the chances of one person resurrecting is . . . less than 1/6,000,000,000.  That's basic math, right?   I freely admit that on my first read through the book, I got what he is saying.  Since something has never happened before - or since - it's unlikely, from a statistical point of view.

But the logic is convoluted, and, once more, ignores some key facts.  Probability of any historical event is never determined by whether or not it has ever happened before, or whether or not it has happened since, but by the circumstances and evidence surrounding that particular event.  Think about his logic for a moment.

Using Dr. Ehrman's assertion, the probability of an emperor named Augustus reigning over the Roman Empire is virtually zero.  Why?  Because, prior to Augustus, there was never an emperor named Augustus, and there hasn't been one since.  Since that simply doesn't happen on an everyday basis, it can't have happened then, either. 

On the other hand, we know that Queen Elizabeth sits on the throne of England because, prior to her, there have been six different English monarchs bearing the name of Elizabeth, ruling either as Queen or as the spouse of a king.  So we believe that Elizabeth II is Queen of England, not because of her televised coronation, the speeches she has given, the countries she has visited, the films and photographs that have been published and released, the interviews given, or even the fact that her image is engraved on the currency, but, rather, because history has demonstrated that sometimes queens are named "Elizabeth."  Using Dr. Ehrman's own argument, Queen Elizabeth exists because there is a historical precedence for Queens named Elizabeth.

Sounds silly when it's put like that, doesn't it?

We know, in fact, that Elizabeth is Queen of England, not because of any historical precedence, but because the evidence surrounding her rule is overwhelming.  We know that Augustus reigned as Roman Emperor because of similar evidence (coins engraved with his image, his own writings, writings referring to him, decrees, statues, and the like), in spite of any lack of historical precedence.  I want to be clear:  Dr. Ehrman does discuss the role of historical evidence:  "Historians work with all kinds of evidence in order to show what probably happened in the past" (174), but very quickly (and subtly) redefines "evidence" as "historical precedence."

So what, then, is the probability of the resurrection?  The first evidence, of course, is the empty tomb.  And yet, while the tomb is empty, there are several possible explanations.  The first is that Jesus never actually died on the cross, that He survived the crucifixion and, once buried, managed to break free from the tomb.  The chances of this are slim to none, as the crucifixion process was designed to make death slow, but inevitable.

The position of the body on the cross would allow the prisoner to inhale, but not exhale.  In order to accomplish exhalation, he would have to lift up his body, pressing against the nails that were driven through his flesh, causing excruciating pain and muscle cramping.  However, the process was also aimed at maximizing blood loss, making the prisoner weaker as time progressed, until eventually the prisoner would become too weak to lift himself up, and would die of either cardiac arrest or asphyxiation. This process often took an entire day - sometimes even several days.  To speed things along, the Roman guards who oversaw the entire process would break the legs of the prisoners, preventing them from pushing up to breathe.

When it came time to break Jesus' legs, the guards realized he was already dead.  Now, these were Roman soldiers whose daily jobs involved confirming the deaths of their prisoners.  They felt Jesus was sufficiently dead, dead enough that it was unnecessary to break his legs.  Instead, just to be safe, they drove a spear up into his side, piercing his heart and the sac of water around the heart known as the pericardium.  So after three hours of blood loss and carbon dioxide build-up in the body, after being confirmed dead by the Roman soldiers whose jobs were to confirm death, and after having his heart run through with a spear (John 19:31-35), the argument that He never really died holds no water.

Let's suppose, though, that Jesus did survive the crucifixion.  Would He have been able to stand up, unwrap the burial clothes that had been - in effect - shellaced onto His body, roll away the massive stone that sealed the grave (Matthew 27:60, Mark 15:46, Luke 24:2, John 20:1), overpowered the Roman contingent guarding the tomb (we'll return to them in a moment), and convince His followers that He had risen from the dead, healthy and alive?

Like I said,  the argument that He never really died holds no water, so the probability of the resurrection has just increased slightly.

But this does leave us with the possibility that His disciples stole His body, which brings us back to the Roman guard that Pilate assigned to the tomb (Matthew 27:62-66).  The typical Roman guard was made up of sixteen men (though in some cases, only four), each of them highly trained and heavily armed.  Their job was to keep watch, in shifts, for twenty-four hours, making it virtually impossible for anyone to approach the tomb, roll away the stone, and steal the body.  Once more, then, the evidence in support of the resurrection mounts.

The last reasonable explanation for the empty tomb is that Jesus' body was never placed there to begin with.  Had that been the case, then the Emperor would have sealed and placed a guard in front of an empty tomb, which is highly unlikely.  Someone along the chain of command would have made a massive mistake, costing one (or many people along that chain) their lives.  The Romans weren't in the habit of screwing up a military command.  Plus, once news of the resurrection began to spread, the Romans would have done everything in their power to save face after such a colossal blunder; the easiest solution would have been to produce the body.

They didn't.

Add to this the fact that the ruling Jewish Council - who viewed Jesus' claim to be the Messiah as a massive heresy - would have done anything to squelch these rumors.  They also didn't produce the body.  Why not?  Because there appears to have been no body to produce.  The "natural" explanations for the empty tomb hold little to no water.  Therefore, for the time being, the most likely scenario is a resurrection.

But what if the empty tomb were made up?  What if it were a story written into the Bible "many centuries later," and there was never even an incident in Jerusalem?  The first argument, of course, is that, had there never been an incident, there would never have been Christianity.  What changed the lives of the disciples - so much so that they were all executed for their belief - was the resurrection.  If there had been no resurrection, and if the disciples had never believed there was a resurrection, their lives would not have been changed.  After all, Jesus taught a revolutionary message,  but He was not the first to spark a revolution.  Jesus performed miracles, but so did Elijah.  Yet when Elijah - and his successor, Elisha - left this earth, no one worshiped them.  Jesus' miracles were astonishing, but they were more astonishing because they were capped by Jesus' astonishing power to raise Himself from the dead.  If that had not occurred, Jesus would have unanimously been relegated to the list of "Amazing Prophets of God," not declared to be God Himself.  Without the resurrection, there would have been no Christianity.

The second argument is actually a piece of extra-Biblical evidence.  In 1878, a marble slab was shipped "from Nazareth" - no one is sure precisely where it was acquired - which reads, in part:  "By the decree of Caesar:  It is my will that graves and tombs remain undisturbed . . . however, if it is charged that another has . . . extracted the buried . . . or has displaced the sealing or other stones . . . it is my pleasure that the violator be sentenced to death."  The chiseling techniques and language indicate that the decree was carved sometime in the first century A.D.

This begs the question:  why would the emperor of Rome issue a decree prohibiting, on pain of death, the removal of a body from a tomb?  What kind of event in Israel during the first century could have caught the attention of Caesar?  Obviously the spread of the Christian faith.  While the decree of Caesar doesn't prove the resurrection itself, it does prove that the resurrection story wasn't written into the Bible several centuries later.

So let's take a moment and re-cap:  The probability that Jesus survived the crucifixion is virtually zero.  The probability that His disciples stole the body is virtually zero.  The probability that the resurrection was completely fabricated (either during that time or centuries later) is virtually zero.  If the arguments against the resurrection are virtually zero, then the probability of the resurrection has just increased dramatically.  This is how probability is determined in historical events; historic precedence has nothing to do with it.

I know I sound a bit like a broken-record here, but there are two possibilities as to why Dr. Ehrman makes the arguments that he does.  The first is that he truly does not know how historical analysis works.  In other words, he truly believes that historians determine the probability of an event by determining historical precedence, an argument that, I hope, I demonstrated is foolish.  The second, of course, is that he is being deceptive.

Swimming with the Current
Dr. Bart Ehrman is not alone.  For centuries, people have questioned supposed contradictions in the Bible.  Some of them are naturally curious and willing to learn.  Some are angry at God, and simply seeking to prove to themselves that He doesn't exist.  Some truly believe the contradictions cannot be reconciled, some truly believe they can.  Some don't care.

I say this because I want us to understand that Dr. Ehrman is not the dissenting voice.  Many of these arguments have been regurgitated over and over, and, truthfully, this isn't what bothers me.  What bothers me is his apparent unwillingness to reconcile the differences.  We've already looked at a few of them and seen that, with minimal reading, the "problems" simply disappear.  Yet rather than actually solve the problem, he simply parrots back what he was taught in seminary (sadly, this is a technique that I'm afraid, most of us as Christians do, too, but that's a different topic).

So this last part will deal with some of the other "problems" and contradictions that Dr. Ehrman brings to light.  Rather than simply regurgitate platitudes - or shrug my shoulders and say, "who cares?" - I am going to use the Bible, science, history, and logic to help us out.


The Genealogy of Jesus
Dr. Ehrman is right on this one:  Jesus' genealogy in Matthew is different from the genealogy found in Luke (35-39).  It just is.

Now, Luke works backwards, moving from Joseph all the way back through King David, through Abraham, to God.  Matthew works forward, starting with Abraham, down through David, to Joseph.  Once you manage to get one of them worked around in the same direction as the other, you'll notice something very peculiar.  From Abraham down to David, everything is perfectly fine and in-sync; no issues.  But after David, things get weird.  Matthew lists Solomon next, while Luke lists Nathan next.  From that point on, they are out of sync (for the most part) until they get to Joseph, at which point both of them remind us that he was not actually Jesus' father.

So what gives?  Why does Matthew list out David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, and so on, while Luke lists out David, Nathan, Mattatha, Menna, Melea, and so on?  Isn't that, you know, wrong?  Well, familiarity with the Kings of early Israel helps, because Matthew is following the royal lineage.  That is, Solomon was the successor to the throne after David, Rehoboam was Solomon's son and successor, etc.  Luke, on the other hand, appears to be following bloodline, as Nathan was one of David's sons, but he never took the throne.  Mattatha, Nathan's son, also never took the throne.  It appears, then, as if Luke is following the actual ancestors of Jesus, while Matthew is following the Davidic promise that the Messiah would be one of the kings of Israel and a son of David.

Now this is where I admit that it seems odd, because the reconciliation is weird, and, honestly, hard to brush aside.  We must admit, if we're honest, that even though there is an answer, it's not a very strong answer.   However, as I noted earlier, it is still an answer, and that is where Dr. Ehrman is mistaken once again.  His claim is that the difference is completely irreconcilable, but that claim isn't true.  There is an answer to the issue, no matter how much of a stretch it may seem.  So I will concede that this represents a difference in the Scriptures, but it is not, by any means, the trump card that disproves the inerrant nature of the Bible.    


Animals on the Ark
Since I have a vested interest in discussing Noah's Flood, I thought I'd address this.  Dr. Ehrman states on page 10 of his book that Genesis 7:2 contradicts Genesis 7:9-10.  The first verse, he tells us, informs the readers that Noah is to take seven pairs of every "clean" animal on the ark.  Verses 9 and 10, he informs us, indicate that Noah only took two pairs of every clean animal on the ark.

Verses 9-10 state no such thing.  Here's what they read in the New International Version, starting in verse 8:  "Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.  And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth."  Nowhere does this state that only two pairs of clean animals came onto the ark.  The word used is pairs.  As in, plural, or more than one.  While it doesn't say two pairs, the point, of course, is that verses 8-10 are simply telling us that the pairs of clean and unclean animals that were supposed to be on the ark were there.  It doesn't need to state how many pairs of each, since it did that in verse 2.

After all, using Dr. Ehrman's logic, we could just as easily assume that verses 8-10 imply that seven pairs of unclean animals came, instead of just the one pair.  Or maybe it meant one hundred pairs.  Or three thousand.  Why, I wonder, does Dr. Ehrman feel the need for verses 8-10 to give us a number, yet again?  I'm not sure, but I have a guess:  I believe that what he is doing is attempting to create an issue where none exists.  He is deliberately creating a contradiction out of thin air.  Of course, this leads once more to the question:  is it ignorance, or dishonesty?


Thessalonica:  Jews or Gentiles?
This is another example of Dr. Ehrman 1) creating a problem that doesn't exist and 2) ignoring Scripture that contradicts his theory.

His issue derives from the fact that, in Acts, Luke tells us that Paul, according to his custom, went to the synagogue first, converted some of the Jewish patrons there, and then went out into the city and brought the Gospel to the gentiles.  In 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul writes, "They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. . . ."  Dr. Ehrman's issue here is that if the church at Thessalonica used to worship idols, they must have all been gentile pagans, and could not, therefore, have been Jewish converts.  He asserts that the church could not have been comprised of both Jews and Gentiles, and that Acts is, therefore, unreliable.

The answer, of course, lies in the text of Acts itself.  Paul was a missionary to the Gentiles, Paul's primary focus was Gentiles, but he started in the Jewish synagogues first.  How does Luke phrase it in Acts?  "According to his custom."  So even though Paul preached to the gentiles most often, he also preached to Jews.  So why, then, is Paul addressing Thessalonians to Gentiles?

While Paul did go to the synagogues first (Acts 17:2), Paul's first converts were not only Jews, but also "many God-fearing Greeks" (Acts 17:4) - these would have been former pagans who had converted to Judaism, and now recognized Jesus as the Messiah.  Paul's description in Thessalonians, then, still fits the situation:  many of them did turn from idols when they converted to Judaism.  But there is another reason Paul would have singled out former pagans:  some time had passed, and the church was now primarily made up of Gentiles.

How do we know some time had passed?  1 Thessalonians tells us.  Notice how Paul uses the past tense to describe their conversions:  "you welcomed the message," "you became a model," "the Lord's message rang out from you" (1: 6,7,8).  The church, in other words, had time to grow, become an example to neighboring churches, and had begun to spread the Gospel on its own.  Dr. Ehrman leaves those verses out of his analysis, however.

Secondly, we also know that Paul's emissaries, sent to the church, had returned and reported back "what kind of reception you gave us [the emissaries]" (1:9).  Travel in those days wasn't quick, and this group of people had managed to go from Corinth (where Paul was) to Thessalonica, stay with them for an appropriate amount of time, and then return back to Corinth.  Not only had the church been around long enough that Paul was able - felt it appropriate - to send a group of people to check on the health of the church and give them the encouragement needed to keep growing, but there had also been enough time for those men to return in order to give their assessment.  Most scholars put the entire time frame between Paul's visit to Thessalonica and the writing of 1 Thessalonians at about a year, and the Biblical text supports that.

So here, according to the Bible, is a timeline:  Paul arrives in Thessalonica, converts Jews and Jewish converts, takes the Gospel to the gentiles in the city, plants a church, and moves on.  A year later, from Corinth, he sends a group of people to check up on the Thessalonian church, they return to Paul, and he writes a letter in which he commends their rapid growth, their shining example, and their missionary efforts.

Why, then, is it strange that he would address his letter, primarily, to Gentiles?   Once more, by ignoring certain passages and verses in the Bible, Dr. Ehrman is creating a problem that doesn't exist.  And, once more, is it ignorance, or dishonesty?

The "Q" Document
Dr. Ehrman spends a great deal of time discussing what is referred to as the "Q" document.  This document is believed to have been a prototype Gospel, which served as the inspiration for Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  While I could spend a great deal of time discussing the merits (and flaws) of this argument, I really only have time to make one point:  there is no Q.  It is all theory, 100% idea, with nothing substantial to prove it.

So when Dr. Ehrman - and many other scholars - say things like, "Mark and Q are our earliest sources" (153), or "Jesus is associated with John the Baptist at the beginning of Mark, at the beginning of Q . . . and at the beginning of John" (153-154), we must bear in mind that scholars do not have a Q document to which they can refer.  They cannot translate it, they cannot study it, they cannot date it, because no such document has ever been uncovered.  Has it ever existed?  I don't know, but it certainly doesn't now.  Such misleading language would have us believe that Mark, Matthew, and Luke did not originate with the people whom we believe wrote them, and it would have us believe that scholars can prove that the Biblical canon was no more inspired than the complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica.  Yet to claim that "Mark and Q are our earliest sources," but neglect to mention that "Q" doesn't exist . . . it's difficult not to assume dishonesty.   


What's the Point of This?
The issues discussed here are far from exhaustive.  As I stated earlier, Dr. Ehrman brings to light many of the "contradictions" he and other scholars have uncovered over the years, but, as I hope I have demonstrated, most of them rely on a mixture of speculation (rather than fact), arbitrary dismissal of texts, and - at times - deception.  I hope that, in reading this and other expert opinions, you will be able to think critically in regards to their arguments.

This book advertises itself as an "intelligent" attempt to discredit the Bible.  Jesus, Interrupted is nothing short of a relentless attack on the very foundations of Christianity, despite the author's claims to the contrary (59; 63).  But what happens when those who discredit the Bible are themselves discredited?

The prophet Isaiah once wrote, "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever" (Isaiah 40:8).  The foundations of Christianity depend on the accuracy of the Bible, because they depend on four important facts:

1) God is holy
2) We have offended God
3) God loves us anyway
4) He proved it and fixed it through Jesus

The Bible reveals all four of these, and Jesus, Interrupted attacked all of them.  Yet its attacks have remained, for the most part, ludicrous attempts at the impossible.  On the contrary, what is happened is the revelation that these "scholars" are oftentimes simply wrong.  Their assertions are founded on little to no evidence; their claims are, at best, ignorant and at worst, outright lies.  Once more, then the Bible endures.  So the questions for you, reader, are this:  do you believe the Bible, or do you still dismiss it?  Do you believe that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, or do you disbelieve?  And if you disbelieve, why?  It is certainly not from an intellectual standpoint, but, like Dr. Ehrman, must stem from either ignorance or dishonesty: you either don't know what the Bible says, or you tell yourself lies in order to continue to worship something other than the Creator.

Ultimately, what I pray I have done here is provide you, the skeptic, with the tools you need to start thinking critically about your own beliefs.  I also pray that I've given you sufficient reason to explore the Bible - not from a standpoint of derision - but of actual learning.  I pray that I have given you the tools to actually study the Bible for what it is:  the Word of God.  Stop lying to yourself, stop pursuing ignorance, and turn to Jesus.  And Dr. Ehrman, on the incredibly small chance that you read this, I would say the same to you, because as long as you're alive, it's not too late.

You Confounded, No-Good, Cherry-Picking. . . !

Humanity has a pretty big problem. It isn't nuclear war, a food shortage, or global warming. It isn't the economy, government, or even religion. This problem goes much deeper than that, and it invades our lives the way a virus invades our bodies. The problem is sin, and sin is inescapable. It is all around us, even inside of us, but despite its prevalence, it is one of the most often misunderstood words in the English language - both outside and inside the Christian community.

Most of us (somewhat) incorrectly assume that sin is about our actions.  That is, we believe if we break one of the Ten Commandments, then we have sinned.  To some extent, this is true.  But here is the part many Christians overlook:  God's commandments aren't tied to just ten.  The Ten Commandments, given in Exodus 20 and taking up about seventeen verses, are only a mere portion of the entire Law of God.

 Jungle Fever
The entire Law is found in the Book of Leviticus, and it spans 27 chapters of the Bible - that's more than 830 verses.  So while I may keep the Ten Commandments on any given day (but probably won't), from the  perspective of God's Law, I'm still a sinner.  We all are.  And yet somehow we Christians seem to measure our morality only in terms of the Ten Commandments.  We are quick to point out adultery as a sin (which it is, according to Exodus 20:14), but few - if any - of us ever "rise in the presence of the aged," as we are commanded to do in Leviticus 19:32.  We know that stealing is wrong (Exodus 20:15), but we ignore Leviticus 19:27, which says, "[Men,] do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." 

And this is the problem in most of our churches:  we choose some laws, believing that God will punish us if we break them, and then ignore other laws, and yet never receive the punishment that we should expect.  And so we justify our own sins, even as we condemn the sins of others.  We point out homosexuality as a sin (which God does say is true), forming coalitions to fight against it.  But when did we last see a Christian coalition fighting against, say, Hinduism?  We condemn our own personal dislikes, but we justify our own lusts.  We make sin synonymous with our own prejudices, and as a result, we cherry-pick which laws we must obey, and which ones are okay to dismiss.  Sometimes (most of the time) those selections are arbitrary.

Is it any wonder people don't understand sin?


All of this, though, misses the point:  sin is not about actions, but about attitude.  Our actions (what we think of as sin) are merely symptoms of a much deeper problem - a problem that has infected all of us.  Homosexuals don't go to hell because they're gay, they go to hell because they're sinners; the sin merely manifests itself as homosexuality.  If you lie, you're not going to hell because you're a liar, you're going to hell because you're a sinner whose sinful nature manifests itself as dishonesty.  God demands perfect obedience, yes, but we don't deliver because our attitudes are wrong.

Now I myself was raised to believe that sin was merely about action - right/wrong, good/bad - and that sometimes attitudes could be sinful, too.  That's not what Christ had to say about the subject, though.  Check it out:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'  But, I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-28).

Later on, he says, "So when you give to the needy, don't announce it with trumpets . . . to be honored by men . . . and when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues . . . to be seen by men" (Matthew 6:2,5).

Now, outwardly, everything is lawful.  The husband isn't cheating on his wife, people are giving generously to the poor, and prayers are plentiful.  According to Christ, though, none of this is good because the attitudes are still wrong.  Even when our actions are good, our hearts are still self-serving.  "Be careful," Christ says, "not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them" (Matthew 6:1).  In other words, "sinful" actions are merely the outward reflection of a much larger inward problem.  We know this because, even when the outward signs are "good," the inward character is often not.

During Jesus' day, there was a group of people known as the Pharisees.  They were the righteous, holy, Leviticus-abiding religious leaders of the Jewish faith.  They were the absolute picture of righteous obedience, so much so that Jesus actually pays them a compliment in Matthew 5:20:  "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."  In other words, the measurement of our actions starts with the Pharisees. 

In theory, it sounds like we should admire these people.  They should be the subject of our studies, the human models by which we live our lives.  In Luke 11:39, however, Jesus has this scathing remark:  "You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup . . . but inside you are full of greed and wickedness."  The outward actions are righteous, but the inward attitude is wicked. In Luke 16:15, he remarks again:  "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your heart."  What people see as righteousness, God sees as sin. In Matthew 23:27, Jesus calls them "whitewashed tombs." Outside, they are clean and pure, inside, they are dead, rotting, stinking corpses.


So what, then, do we do with the Law?  Do we obey it?  Reject it?  Reject parts of it?  What's the point of it if our attitudes are always wrong, and, more importantly, grace covers everything?


The Days of Wine and Moses
Before we get into this, I have to admit something:  I love wine.  By that I mean I love the entire process of wine and its production (no, I do not mean that I guzzle a bottle every night!).  Here's why:  did you know that the soil in which the grapes are grown can affect the flavor?  The minerals in the soil and surrounding crops can impact and alter the flavor of the grapes.  So can the length of vine time.  Harvesting the grapes early (or late) will change how the wine turns out. And then there's the length of fermentation time.  The longer the fermenting, the more alcohol and the different the flavor.

Don't forget the ingredients, either.  If I have the same grapes harvested at the same time and fermented for the same length of time, but one vat had twice the sugar added to it as the other, the wines are going to come out tasting different.  All of these reasons are why a chardonnay from Virginia can taste drastically different from a chardonnay from Washington state.  It's why two chardonnay's from the same vineyard can sometimes taste subtly different. 

And the food!  What you pair with the wine can alter the flavor of it, too.  I have had several wines over the years that tasted much better with a meal.  Safe to say, from field to food, wine is completely dependent on its surroundings.  The same thing goes for coffee, too (which is part of why I love coffee so much).

All of this is to say, then, that when Christ chooses to make his last sermon about grapes, I tend to sit up and listen.  He could have talked about his return, since they (I) still had questions about that.  He could have reminded them that he wouldn't stay dead, since they still didn't grasp the concept of his impending resurrection.  But, no, he talked about grapes. 

Before we get into that, though, I want to address something.  We've looked at the fact that sin enslaves, but we've also looked at the fact that sin doesn't alter God's view of us once we have become followers of Christ.  We're told, often in the Scriptures, that we're free from obedience to the Law.  But we're also told - in the same Scriptures - that our Christian lives are to be examples of the Law.

First Thessalonians 4:3-8 even says:  It is God's will that you should be sanctified:  that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.  The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before.  For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.  Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.

Did you catch that?  "Live a holy life."  Yet in Hebrews, we read, "By calling this covenant 'new,' he has made the first one obsolete" (Hebrews 8:13).  According to Hebrews, which many believe was written by the same Paul who wrote First Thessalonians, the Law is "obsolete," and yet we're called to live holy lives according to the Law.  What in the world is going on here?  If obedience causes re-enslavement to the Law (which is bad), and disobedience causes re-enslavement to sin (which is also bad), then what are we supposed to do?

This is, I admit, an apparent contradiction in the Bible.  No, really, let's be honest:  it seems to make no sense.  In fact, many people are latching onto this concept and using it as a tool to fight Christianity.  In fact, I just came across this lovely little flow chart designed to completely annihilate the Christian argument against homosexuality.  Makes sense, at least at first glance, right?  Leviticus says, "don't eat bacon," so why do Christians eat bacon?  It says, "don't get a tattoo," but some of us with higher thresholds of pain (i.e., not me) get tattoos.  What's our typical defense when these are pointed out to us?  We're not under the Law, duh!  And, of course, the immediate response is, "Then homosexuality must be okay, right?"

Erp.

Most of us kind of don't know what to say.  I didn't either, for a while.  So let's back up, a bit.  Remember when I accused most of us of picking and choosing the parts of the Law that we should observe?  Well . . . that's sort of what we should do, but - and make sure you get this - it is not in order to satisfy our own desires.  Rather, it is to raise up Christ in our lives; this is where Jesus' sermon about grapes comes in.

In the fifteenth chapter of John, Jesus gives his last sermon before being arrested and crucified.  He and his disciples have just finished their Passover meal (what we commonly call Communion or Eucharist), and they're on their way to the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus knows He will be betrayed and arrested.  Along the way, He gives them his last sermon, probably pausing to point to the vineyards that they were passing.

"I am the true vine," He utters, "and my Father is the gardener."  Maybe the disciples are confused, maybe they're used to not getting the point right away, or maybe they actually get where he's going with this.  Whichever way it is, he continues.  "I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit."  A few moments later he reminds them, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."

I'll be the first to admit that it's a bizarre theology, but since it's the last theology Christ presents before his crucifixion, it bears some examination.  What Jesus does here is set up a series of symbols that seems to go something like this:

Gardener = God
Vine = Jesus
Branches = Followers of Jesus
Grapes = Christian's Purpose in Life

We can understand that we are to remain connected to Jesus - that is, we are part of Him once we decide to trust in and follow Him.  We can understand that God, who oversees everything, tends the "garden," pruning here and cleaning there.  But grapes?  Bearing "much fruit"?  What, does that mean?

I believe, just from my own personal life, that most of us interpret "bearing fruit" to mean pretty much whatever we want it to mean.  Jesus, however, never left much to interpretation.  Guidance by the Holy Spirit, yes, but rarely interpretation, and I don't believe this is an instance where he was vague, either.

Check out the last thing he said to his disciples before his Ascension in Acts:  "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).  The last thing he tells them before his crucifixion is, "bear fruit."  The last thing he tells them before he leaves this earth is "be my witnesses."  I think - and maybe I'm going out on a limb here - but I think these are the same thing.

In the first sixteen verses of John 15, Jesus tells them six times that their purpose is to bear fruit.  In Acts 1, he defines it:  be his witness in the city in which you live, the state and country in which you live, and, ultimately, the whole world.

We have but one purpose as believers:  point back to Christ.  John the Baptist put it this way:  "He must become greater; I must become less" (John 3:30).  Jesus himself said, "And I, when I am lifted up . . . will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32).  We - that is, our sinful desires - should decrease and be replaced with Christ and His compassionate love for everyone.  Our sole purpose on this earth is not to worship, because that is what we will do in heaven.  Our sole purpose on this earth is not to go to church, because Christ is the Church.  Our sole purpose on this earth is not to have better morals than everyone else, because we don't have better morals on our own.  Our purpose in life on this planet, once we have believed in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, is to point back to him in all aspects of what we do.  This is bearing fruit.  Now, worship is part of that, and church attendance is part of that (essential parts, I would add), but they are not, either of them, our purpose.

And so, we live lives that are centered entirely around Jesus.  While, technically, an affair would be covered by God's grace, having an affair would not point to Jesus, but to me.  Therefore, it is a sin.  Here's the deal, though:  if I find out that eating bacon is drawing people away from Jesus, then I need to stop eating bacon, too (see I Corinthians 8:1-9:23), because my chief aim in life is Jesus.  


The Grapes of Wrath
So what happens when we sin?  I mean, we will sin, even as believers.  We will stop bearing fruit at some point.  It's covered, right?  No punishment, right?  What about consequences?  Is there a difference?  Have you ever thought about it?  For many years, I didn't, because I had usually heard the two terms used interchangeably.  But then I realized that, if consequences for sin now are actually God's wrath, then His wrath wasn't fulfilled on the cross.  Now, point that out, and you'll typically hear something like, "Oh, sure, but God allows consequences to happen."  As if somehow "natural consequences" from God are not the same thing as punishment from God.  It's a peculiar predicament, at least on the surface.  If God, through Jesus Christ, sees us as perfect, and if God, through Jesus Christ, has fulfilled His wrath against our sins, and if God, through Jesus Christ, is fully satisfied with us, then where do we get the goofy idea that He won't punish us, but he'll use natural consequences as a form of . . . . what do we even call it?  Non-punishment discipline?

Do you see how utterly contradictory that is?

And yet consequences do happen.  So are natural consequences from God, or does God simply use them the way He uses everything in life to work for the good of those who know him? 

There is a really, really simple way to know that natural consequences are not the same thing as God's discipline:  they often happen, but they don't always happen.  Be honest with yourself for just a moment.  How many times have you sinned in life and gotten away with it?  If we are still held accountable to the Law, then you sin every time you fail to offer a sacrifice, or fail to rise in the presence of your elders, or if you've ever been pierced, worn synthetic blends, or planted two different crops in your garden at home.  You and I, from the standard of God's Law sin constantly.  We try to rationalize around this by claiming that the Ten Commandments are all we really need to follow, but that's not what God says.  We must fulfill the Law - in its entirety - by keeping it.  And.  We.  Don't.

And yet how many of us suffer punishment for it?  And how many of us suffer the consequences when other people sin?  Remember, our sins affect other people, so is God punishing someone else for our sins?  Is He punishing us for another person's sins?  If consequences - and please pay attention to this - if consequences are God's punishment, then God is an inconsistent disciplinarian. 

God is always consistent.

Now, because I have been criticized for believing that Christians can't suffer consequences, I want to be crystal clear:  we can - and often do - suffer consequences.  My point is that consequences are not punishment from God, but the natural results of either our own, or another person's, actions.  When Christ died for your sins, God's wrath against those sins was fulfilled, and fulfilled completely.  Consequences do not "come from" God (that would be punishment), but, rather, they are used by God  for our benefit:  "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).  God takes everything, good, bad, and indifferent, and uses them for His glory and our good.  All things.  Even bad consequences.

None of this should be our chief concern, however.  You see, when we sin, there is a much greater issue in our lives.  When we sin, we stop bearing fruit; our lives lose their purpose.  This is what John 15 is about.

If you've ever seen a vineyard, it's a pretty remarkable sight.  There's something . . . ancient . . . about them.  No matter where you might be in the world, driving past those rows and rows of vines with their full, luscious grapes on them is like being . . . I don't know, on a 14th century Italian farm.  Or in the French countryside, circa 1680.  Or . . . well, someplace old and traditional. 

There's a funny thing about grapes, though.  As long as the branches of the vine are wrapped around the trellis, everything works pretty smoothly.  You see, in order for the branches to produce grapes, they must remain elevated. 

Every once in a while, though - particularly with new vines - a branch will come undone and fall into the dirt.  Now the branch can no longer produce grapes, at least not grapes of any value.  And then the rains come and all that dirt that has coated the branches and leaves turns into mud, and now the branches can't produce grapes even if they want to.  Since the whole purpose of a vineyard is to produce grapes, when a vineyard stops producing them . . . well, there's no real point in being there, is there? 

This is where the gardener comes in.  You see, as he or she walks the rows, checking on grapes and pruning where necessary, he or she will come across that branch that is lying in the mud, not doing anything special.  What to do?  Cut it off?  Not at all; it's still connected to the vine, it's just dirty.  Besides, the branch is too valuable to be cut off.  After all, it's purpose is to produce grapes, which the vinekeeper would use to make jellies, juice, wine, or, simply, just sell.  No, cutting off your source of income would be foolish, so that is not what he would do.  What he would do is lift it up, clean it off, and place it back on the trellis so that it could produce grapes again.

In John 15, we see the exact same picture painted with "dirty" believers.  The second verse is almost always translated as "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit," or "He takes away every branch. . . ."  The word that John uses in this passage is airei.  The word does mean "take away," but in the sense of "lifting up" or "bearing on behalf of someone else."  For example, when Christ is on the road to Calvary and he drops the cross, a man named Simon is forced "to take up" the cross for him.  The word airei is used.  When the disciples watched Jesus feed 5,000 people with a small number of fish and loaves of bread, and then they walk around and "pick up" twelve baskets full of leftovers . . . airei.  What's even more interesting is that in verse 3 of John 15, Jesus even says, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you."  "Clean," in Greek, is kathairei (note the airei at the end!). 

Get the connection?  When we sin, God does not remove us from the vine, but rather lifts us up, cleans us off, and puts us back . . . even when we've sinned so much and gotten so dirty that we can no longer bear fruit, even if we want to.  This is beautifully illustrated in the story of The Prodigal Son (if you're not familiar with it, look it up.  It's in Luke 15:11-32).  We are declared clean by God, and so are no longer obligated to obey any of the Law, and yet, our entire purpose in life is to point to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, growing in discipleship and obedience to him.  Our purpose is to bear fruit, and the fact remains that when we stop following Jesus, we stop bearing fruit.  When we sin, we live beneath our purpose.  One of the great drives for humanity is to find "meaning" in life.  Christ outlines it for us here in John 15 and throughout his entire ministry:  our meaning is him.  When we stop pointing to him, we waste our lives.


So, no, we don't live "holy lives" to impress God, because we can't impress him.  "All our righteous acts are like filthy rags," the prophet Isaiah writes.  The term, "filthy rags," by the way, refers to menstrual cloth.  "Your good works, compared to Me," says God, "are like used maxi-pads."  Humbling, isn't it?

Nor do we live "holy lives" to impress others.  If what we are doing is pointing to ourselves, then we've made ourselves into gods, and we "should have no other gods before" God (Exodus 20:3). 

And we need no longer live "holy lives" to avoid wrath.  "Therefore,"  Paul writes, "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).  "No condemnation" is clear; it's hard to interpret that any differently.

We live lives devoted to Christ so that others may come to him.  Remember, Christianity is not about us, but about God and His love, portrayed in Christ.  This is not to say that we have to listen to Christian music, read only Christian books, and say "Jesus is Lord!" after every sentence.  But the compassion and grace that Christ has given us should ooze out of us and into the small parts of the world that we occupy.  Sometimes, this means pointing out sin to others, yes, because it is sin that drives our need for redemption.

And this is where the flowchart gets it wrong.  It makes sin about actions and performing for God.  When we approach homosexuality in conversation, we must bear two things in mind:  none of us can perform well enough to impress God, but believers don't have to.  We can eat bacon, because God has declared us clean (see Acts 10:9-20).  And yet we must also stop living for the selfish desires of the flesh, desires that claim that what God has declared is not good enough.  That, after all is what sin is:  putting ourselves first.  The chief desire of our lives should be to point to Jesus.  If that's not the case with you, then you probably don't know Jesus.  It's not about performance, but about changed lives that raise Christ up so that he may draw others to himself.      

So this week, I hope you'll ponder fruit-bearing.  As you do, take a minute each day to meditate on Romans 12:1-2:  "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."  As you think about those verses, ask yourself, how do they relate to fruit-bearing?

Amazing Grace

I think one of the most damaging trends in our world today is the inability to separate "love" from "approval."  For a variety of reasons, we've forgotten that love and approval, though often linked, are not the same thing, and when we believe they are, we create a rather hideous monster.  This monster is a set of two extremes, both of which are dangerous. 

The first extreme is to believe that God, because He loves us, approves of all of our actions and attitudes.  This is simply not true.  God is appalled at humanity's sin.  The Apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter 2:12, "They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed and like beasts they too will perish."  To be caught and destroyed by God sounds horrible, to me.  Oh, but if only it stopped there. 


God, using the author of Psalm 50 as His mouthpiece, says:

"You hate my instruction
     and cast my words behind you.
When you see a thief, you join with
     him.
 You throw in you lot with
     adulterers.
You use your mouth for evil
and harness your tongue to
     deceit.
You speak continually against your
     brother
and slander your mother's son.
These things you have done and I kept
     silent;
You thought I was altogether like
     you.
But I will rebuke you
     and accuse you to your face" (17-21).

Maybe the thought of an Almighty God rebuking us is terrifying.  Perhaps the idea of the Judge of Mankind accusing us is too uncomfortable.  Whatever the reason, we try and convince ourselves that, because God is love, He must accept everything about us.  Psalm 5:4 reminds us that "[He] is not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with [Him] the wicked cannot dwell."  Love and approval are vastly different ideas in God's universe, and it's a dangerous trap into which many of us too easily fall.

Of course, the other end of the spectrum is just as dangerous:  because God doesn't approve, He doesn't love.  When so-called Christians bomb abortion clinics, they send a message that says, "God wants sinners to die."  Nothing could be further from the truth, as Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:9:  "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish." 

When "Christians" protest a man's funeral with signs that read, "God hates gays," they are sending a message that God can't love everyone.  But, as with most problems, that idea isn't Biblical, and the Old Testament book of Hosea paints a much different picture. 


The book tells of the life of the prophet Hosea, who was commanded by God to marry an adulterous woman (possibly a prostitute, though it's unclear).  She bears him several children and there are indications that hint the children may not have even been his.  She whores herself out, has a few kids, and Hosea is expected to take them all in.

Not your average fairytale.

Here's the real catch.  Repeatedly throughout the book, God equates Hosea's wayward wife with the nation of Israel.  In the third chapter, after Hosea's wife has left him again, God says to the prophet, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress.  Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods . . . " (3:1). 

Did you catch what God said?  "As the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods."  The Israelites turn their backs on Him, but He loves them anyway.  We turn our backs on Him, but He loves us anyway.

God does not hate you, even though you deserve it.

We forget this in our churches.  We believe we can earn his love, and we believe that he hates those who fail to do so.  His love for us is not based on our paltry attempts to impress, or the lofty ideals and philosophies to which we cling.  Rather, God loves us simply because He chooses to love us.  Though often entwined, love and approval are not the same thing when it comes to God, and to believe otherwise is foolish and sinful. 
So if breaking God's Law, whether by attitude or action, demands payment - hell - then what does that mean for us?  How do we reconcile the idea that God doesn't want us to go to hell, but we end up there, anyway?

These are tough questions, and many Christians try to avoid them, but it's time we stopped being afraid of tough questions.  Either our faith can be defended, or it can't, and frankly, if it can't, we need to find a new faith.

Let's back up to the beginning of things, and I think we'll find the answer to these questions unfold in a surprising manner.  In the third chapter of the Book of Genesis, we find that the first humans were not so unlike ourselves, as they attempted to put their desires before God's command: 

The Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die . . . When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.  She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it (Genesis 2:16-17; 3: 6). 

The result of this?  Physical and spiritual death - the sin eating through all of us - invaded mankind (interestingly, the sin wasn't eating the fruit, but desiring a wisdom apart from God).  Romans 1:18 puts it this way:  "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men." 

The point of all of this is that there are only two ways to fulfill God's law, as found in the Books of Moses.  The first is to keep it completely and fully in both attitude and action.  The second is to face God's wrath.  The Law will be fulfilled, and you and I cannot escape that.  One way or another, for each and every one of us, the requirements of God's Law will be met. 

Here's the bad news:  none of us can keep the Law.  Consider the following verses:

Psalm 14 tells us that there is "no one who does good."

Romans 3:21 says that "all have sinned."

None of us have kept the Law.

Since none of us have kept it, all of us deserve hell.  Atheists, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, even Christians.  All of us.  No one on earth is righteous enough to deserve heaven. 

So let's beat a dead horse for a second.  There are two ways to fulfill, but none of us have managed the first way.  Therefore, there is only one option left:  wrath.  God's wrath is the only way to atone for (pay back) sin,  According to the Bible, you and I are headed for hell.

How's that for nihilistic?

But here's where Grace (what you'll often hear called The Gospel) comes into play.  Now, "Gospel" is Greek for "good news."  Is the fact that we're headed for hell good news?  Not even close.

What Christians usually call "The Good News" has been downplayed as of late.  We tend to think of it as some form of doctrine or belief system, which it (sort of) is, but that dulls the impact of what it actually is.

The Gospel is, in fact, a person.  Jesus Christ - who should be the center of Christianity - claimed to be "good news."  In John 14:6, he said, "I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me" (emphasis mine).  What does that mean?  Somehow this Jesus guy claimed to be able to get us past the hell we deserve, and into a brand new life of truth.

How is that accomplished?  Through Grace.

The very essence of Christianity is not the Ten Commandments or obedience to the Levitical Law, because you and have already broken most of them.  The heartbeat of the Christian faith is grace, which is God viewing man's inability to measure up, and doing it for us.  Christianity is not a religion where we cross every "t" and dot ever "i"; it is a relationship where God does it for us.  Grace, simply put, is God's love.  We deserve hell, but God, in his love, offers a way out.



True Love Isn't Blind
"God is not Mr. Magoo."

The pastor paused and the church chuckled.  As amusing as it was, the comment is an important one:  grace does not cause God to become blind to sin.

Grace does not mean that God simply looks the other way and ignores sin, either.  Remember, our sin must be atoned for by God's wrath.

We must never forget this:  grace is not the forgiveness of sins, but the substitution of sins.  Grace is God, displaying himself through the person of Jesus Christ, fulfilling the Law by keeping it completely and then taking the wrath for it.  Christ took God's wrath in your place.

Consider Colossians 2:13-14:  "When you were dead in your sins and in . . . your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.  He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross."  In Titus 2:14, Paul writes that Jesus "gave himself up for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own."  You didn't keep the Law, but He took the wrath.


The Great Escape
The imposing figure stoops down, inhaling deeply from his pipe, his multi-tentacled face writhing and squirming.  "Do you fear death?"  His question hangs in the air.  "Do you fear that dark abyss?  All your deeds laid bare, all your sins punished?  I can offer you an escape . . . Join my crew and postpone judgment:  one hundred years before the mast!" He stoops to look into the eyes of a dying man.  "Will ye serve?"  The man decidedly says yes (Bill Nighy, Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest). 

Davy Jones may be one of the greatest characters ever created.  He's poetic in his creepiness; every word hangs in the air, giving him a presence not easily captured in an animated character.  Of course, as poetic as his words are, the offer still has a problem:  it only delays the inevitable.  In the end, judgment for sin still takes place, and the guilty verdict still read.

Jesus says something similar to us, but his promise is not a delay.  The judgment is not postponed, but fulfilled; the guilty verdict is read and the sentence served by someone else.  "Follow me," Jesus says, "and your sentence will have been served for eternity."

Sounds good, right?  Perhaps too good.  So much so, that you don't buy it.  That's fine, you don't have to; it's certainly your choice, but the Law will be fulfilled.  You can either let him do it for you, or you can attempt to do it yourself.  If you want to do it yourself, though, remember that you've already lost the opportunity, because sin is just as much a part of you as breathing.  You and I cannot save ourselves.

This is the great claim of Christianity.  For Christ to claim that he is the "living water" (John 4:10), the "light of the world" (John 8:12), and the only means to God (John 14:6) is astonishing by itself, but those are not his only claims.  His greatest claim is that he is God.  His greatest promise is that he will abide in us.  He calls his disciples "children," speaking to them with an intimacy that breaks down any imagined barriers put into place by mankind and its rules.  His claim is the most startling claim to ever be uttered by human lips, and it is - to paraphrase C.S. Lewis - either completely absurd or completely true, but it is not - cannot be - something else.  We cannot reinterpret what he said to make it more tasteful:  either Jesus is God, or he isn't.

Now, if he isn't, then we still have the problem of sin.  If he is, though, then our sins have been atoned for and none of us, no matter what we've done, need to go to hell, and all of us, no matter what we've done, can walk in a relationship with God right now, today.  We still deserve a life apart from God, but the sentence has been served on our behalf.  Let's suppose you murdered someone close to me, and at your trial you received the death penalty.  Now let's suppose I'm in the courtroom at your sentencing, and, though your crime was against me, I volunteered to take your place and receive the lethal injection.  You deserve it, but I serve it.

This is no fairytale with giants climbing beanstalks or mischievous spirits granting wishes.  This isn't even a pie-in-the-sky ideal where the good are rewarded and the bad punished.  Either it is real, or it isn't.  If it isn't, then our world is stuck in a selfishness from which it cannot escape.  If it is true, however, then we find that the God of the universe has done the unthinkable:  loved us, come down here amongst us, and died for us.

We can accept or we can reject, but we cannot dwell in half-hearted, lukewarm ignorance.  Paul writes in his second letter to the church at Corinth: 

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  the old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ's behalf:  be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (5:16-21).


God does not approve of our sin, but because of His enormous love and grace, He reconciles us to Him, doesn't count our sins against us, and declares us righteous.  This should change our lives, altering our thoughts, our actions, and our relationships.  It gives us a purpose and a value not found in the temporary things of this world.


It gives us life.
So the question that will now haunt you until you either answer it or die is this:  what do you believe?