Jesus has always been under attack, of course. From the day Herod the Great of Judea sought to destroy the infant Christ to the day of his judicial murder at the hands of the Roman Pontius Pilate, and on numerous occasions in between when the ruling Jewish authorities or the synagogue worshippers in his home town of Nazareth sought to kill him, he was under attack. Even before that, if our traditional understanding is correct, before the foundation of the earth in aeons past he had been the object of Satanic jealousy and malice.
"So", we might ask, "What's new?" "Why the fuss?" Jesus has always had his enemies. There have always been those who have attempted to explain him away, undermine his credentials, weaken his influence, counter his teachings, dispense with his redemptive significance, in fact, to destroy him.
The answer to this question, and the motivation for this sequence of essays, is that today Jesus is the object of a renewed offensive, more radical and intense and in some respects different from the attacks of previous generations. People are now talking openly for the first time, at least in the modern era, of the possibility that the Christian faith might be on its way out A distinguished scholar expressed the conviction in a recent television documentary that Christianity would be finished by the first quarter of the twenty-first century. That could happen if the attack on Jesus were to prove successful.
The current offensive against Jesus began in earnest, or at least came into the open, in 1977 with the publication of the now well-known collection of essays, The Myth of God Incarnate. The Bultmannian overtones of this title clearly indicate the intention of the editor, John Hick, and his fellow liberal theologians - the complete dismantling of the historical, biblical doctrine of the incarnation and the de-bunking of the biblical Christ. The ripples from this bold assault on the very foundations of the faith are still being felt around the world. The ensuing attack on Jesus continued apace during the last two decades of the twentieth century, and as yet shows no sign of abating. Dr. Paul Barnett, one of the most able contemporary defenders of the historical Jesus, warns "Christianity is currently facing one of its most profound challenges".
Speaking of the current interest in the person of Christ, Barnett states that the redefinition of Jesus in the final quarter of the twentieth century was based on the "presumption that he cannot have been a supernatural figure", and that "he must be capable of other explanations". Barnett notes that in the 1980s and early 1990s no fewer than 260 books and articles were published relating to the life and teachings of Jesus, the greater part of which presented "a Jesus who is unrecognizable to the Christian faith as expressed in the historic creeds and confessions of the church". That number now would almost certainly be well in excess of 300, most with the same intention of "redefining" the historical Jesus.
In another defence of the biblical Christ, Jesus Under Fire, the authors, Dr. Michael J. Wilkins and Dr. J. P. Moreland, point out that to many people of our time "the Jesus of Nazareth we find in the pages of the Bible is a fictitious creation of the early church" and not the real Jesus at all. The message today is that intelligent people must not "simplistically accept" the biblical record of Jesus at face value. According to the re-inventors, "Jesus must be stripped of ancient myths that surrounded him . . . so that the modern person can hear his true message". He "must be brought down to earth . . . so that we can understand who he was as he walked under Palestinian skies and comprehend what, if any, religious relevance he has for us today". The clear implication is that the biblical Jesus has little, if any, relevance for our contemporary world.
One outcome of this quite remarkable new interest in Jesus is a particular cause for concern. As Barnett puts it, there are today "as many Jesuses as there are people who write about him". Having felt free to jettison the Christ of Scripture, those who seek to re-invent him must at least be credited with imagination. He is variously portrayed as a Jewish sage, a religious genius, a misguided visionary, a social revolutionary, an itinerant philosopher, a Mediterranean peasant, a spiritual charismatic, an eschatological enthusiast, a healer, an exorcist, a magician, a story-teller, a rabbi, to mention only some. But not the traditional Son of God, the divine-human Saviour of sinful humanity. Anything but that.
Two of the most prominent contemporary assailants of the biblical Jesus are the Australian Dr. Barbara Thiering and the American Bishop John Spong. Thiering, whose work has been described by one eminent Jewish scholar as "fiction" and "sand-castles", proposes that Jesus was drugged at the time of his crucifixion (which took place by the Dead Sea and not at Jerusalem), and that he did not actually die on the cross but subsequently revived. He later married Mary Magdalene, fathered three children and then divorced her in favour of another woman and eventually died in old age. Barnett observes that Thiering has "done nothing more than create a historical fantasy" which appeals to many people "just because it is so fantastic". The Oxford New Testament scholar, N. T. Wright, says that Thiering's book, Jesus the Man, is one of "the strangest" he has ever read and that the only scholar who takes Thiering seriously is Thiering herself.
Bishop Spong wants to free Christians from "2000 years of misunderstanding". Believing that the gospels and the Pauline writings should not be taken literally, Spong denies the virgin birth of Christ, his miracles, and the recorded details of the crucifixion and the resurrection. In another flight into fancy Spong says that the marriage in Cana in Galilee was actually the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Dismissing orthodox Christians and scholars who believe in the affirmations of Scripture and the definitions of the historic creeds as "uninformed, unquestioning and ignorant", Spong declares that the biblical teachings of human sin and divine redemption through Christ are "no longer believable".
Probably the most influential group of contemporary theologians to attempt a massive shift away from traditional belief in Jesus is the so-called Jesus Seminar founded in 1985. While the views of the Jesus Seminar are examined more fully in chapter 2 of this book, it will be instructive to note here their main objective. The co-founders of the Seminar, Dr. Robert Funk and Dr. John Crossan want "to liberate Jesus", that is to free the "mythic" Jesus from the traditional biblical stories that have "entrapped" him. They maintain that the biblical records of Jesus= death, burial and resurrection were the "wishful thinking of the early church". As one critic rightly notes, "If the view of the Jesus Seminar is correct - that almost nothing definite can be known about the life of Jesus of Nazareth - the basis for all Christian belief is destroyed". Barnett agrees. "To disprove these facts"[concerning the historical Jesus], he says, "would be to destroy the essential character of Christianity".
Another disturbing feature of the renewed assault on Jesus is its entry into the public domain. A wide cross-section of the general public now thinks that traditional beliefs about Jesus have been exposed as untrue. This is largely due to media attention frequently focussed on the current radical views about Jesus. Whereas previously the Jesus debate has been largely confined to scholarly circles, attracting little public attention, the issues have now been turned into national, even international, headlines in newspapers, magazines and on TV. It is undeniable, certainly in the Western world, that a greater proportion of the population today doubts the biblical record and the historic understanding of Jesus than at any previous time in history.
The exposure given in Time magazine is one example of this process. In April 1994 and again in April 1996 Time reported the findings of the Jesus Seminar and in December 1999 the Time lead article featured a controversial re-write of parts of the gospel entitled "Jesus of Nazareth: Then and Now". The April 8, 1996 issue reported that most of the Seminar group concurred that "not much of the New Testament can be trusted" and that "most Christians' picture of Jesus was radically misguided". Thus any statements reputed to have been made by Jesus on the cross, the description of his trial, the resurrection and "any claim by Jesus to be the Messiah or the Son of God" are "inauthentic".
Enough has been said to demonstrate the nature and the extent of the current attack on Jesus. However, it is also important to understand the underlying convictions which are driving the reinterpretation of history's most respected and revered figure. The presuppositions which lead to the radical conclusions proposed today are as significant as the conclusions themselves. There at least four such guiding principles, most of them deriving from what N.T. Wright calls "the cultural imperialism of the Enlightenment". They are:
- Rejection of the supernatural, including miracles
- Rejection of the historicity and authority of the Bible, particularly the gospels
- A belief that it is impossible to know what Jesus said or did, or even who he was
- A conviction that the Jesus of faith is not necessarily based on the Jesus of history
It goes without saying that there can be no Christian faith in the traditional sense if presuppositions such as these drive the search for the Areal Jesus@.
Fortunately, a number of credible dissenting voices have already been raised in defence of the biblical Christ, voices willing and able to point out the flaws and assumptions of the contemporary new gospellers.
In an essay entitled "Who is Jesus?" in Jesus Under Fire, Dr. Scot McNight underlines the fundamental importance of these matters. The Jesus question, now firmly in the spotlight and before the eyes of the reading public, "could be the most critical issue of our day", he says. McNight goes on to point out the real significance of these issues for Christianity and for the world at large. If the revised views of Jesus are correct, he says:
". . .millions of Christians have been deluded into thinking that Jesus was and is
their Saviour. They have bought into a myth that has no more roots in reality
than the Wizard of Oz. They have trusted in a Christ who is not there and
assumed a faith that is an illusion. Millions of Christians, throughout the
world and throughout the history of the church, have begun their day, sustained
their work, and laid their heads down at night in constant prayer to Jesus, the
Lord; if that Jesus did not exist then their faith is a psychological trick and
their prayers are no more than fanciful coping mechanisms."
McNight concludes, and we concur, that if we are going to be honest about Jesus Awe have to choose a Jesus who satisfies all the evidence@and who will also explain why it is that so many people still worship him.
One further factor should perhaps be recognized. The attack on Jesus comes not only from without but also, and with equal cause for concern, from within. The Jesus of our own imagination frequently rises to replace the Jesus of the Bible. How easy it is to create a Jesus to our liking! A Jesus who corresponds to our own presuppositions, fears, prejudices, aversions, wants, likes and dislikes, expectations and priorities, a comfortable Jesus who never challenges us or disturbs us or seeks to change us, a pick-and-mix Jesus with whom we can leave out the things we don't like and try to convince ourselves they don't even exist. This Jesus, too, is a product of our times. He is the Jesus for a materialistic, narcissistic age, a Jesus who is sufficient to sustain our respectability, who just satisfies any qualms of conscience we may have about not going the extra mile or binding up the wounds of the nearest stricken Samaritan. The real Jesus wants us to be honest with ourselves as well as with the evidence. And that is not always as easy as it may sound.
Here then is the background and the reason for this book. It proposes that Jesus, the traditional, biblical Jesus, the complete biblical Jesus, is still essential to give meaning to human existence and richness to human experience. It argues in substance that this Jesus is at the same time the historical Jesus and the Jesus of faith. It aims to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the more traditional answers to fundamental questions about Jesus, still being asked by millions around the world. Who was He? Are the gospel accounts of his birth, life, death and teachings reliable? Why did he die? Did he really rise from the dead? What does discipleship mean? Does Jesus have a future? Will he come again? Does he still call men, women and young people to discipleship and, if so, what does he expect of those who respond?
The various chapters that follow address these and related issues, hopefully showing that there are still persuasive arguments to believe as Christians have always believed, even though the media prefer to parade the radical and the sensational as if equally arguable and intellectually respectable alternatives no longer exist. The Essential Jesus is for those who do not want to have the foundations washed completely away and who would prefer to believe, as millions through the centuries have believed, that the biblical Jesus is also the only real object of true faith. It is for those who are persuaded, or who are open to be persuaded, that this Jesus brings relevance, meaning and purpose to life and a reasonably based hope of life to come.
While The Essential Jesus has been written by trained scholars it is not principally for academics. It is for people in all walks of life and in all cultures who think about life and death, faith and the future, and about this unique person, Jesus of Nazareth, who has so dramatically changed the course of history. And it is for those who, perhaps wistfully and tentatively, still look to him and wonder if he is, indeed, the answer to the human predicament.
And finally, a word about timing. This book was still being written on Sept. 11, 2001. The calculated and monstrous events of that horrific day have darkened the horizon for ever. We have stood together on the rim of the crater and seen with our own eyes the abysmal depths of evil. We have witnessed the terrifying human propensity for aberration and wilful annihilation and heard the threats of worse to come. We have been compelled to contemplate the future - if any - and what meaning the past and present may have. Against this dark and foreboding background we, with millions of others, remain convinced that Jesus is still the light of the world, the way, the truth, and the life. We send out this volume in the hope that it will cause the Light to shine more brightly and the Way to be seen more clearly.
Note: The New International Version of the Bible is the one used most frequently throughout. Where other versions have been used they are so indicated in the references.
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1. Paul W. Barnett, Jesus and the Logic of History (London: Apollos, 1997), 15.
2. Ibid., 11,15.
3. Michael J.Wilkins and J. P. Moreland, Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 1.
4. Barnett, 11.
5. A. D. Crown, Annals, 1992, 14-15, cited in Paul Barnett, The Truth About Jesus (Sydney: Aquila, 1994), 3, of Barbara Thiering, Jesus the Man: A New Interpretation from the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Doubleday, 1992).
6. N. T. Wright, Who Was Jesus? (London: SPCK, 1992), 19.
7. Barnett, The Truth About Jesus, 3.
8. Wright, 19, 23.
9. Grant R. Jeffrey, Jesus: The Great Debate (Toronto: Frontier, 1999), 23. See also Wright, 65 ff.
10. Wilkins and Moreland, 2.
11. Jeffrey, 21.
12. Barnett, The Truth About Jesus, 7.
13. Time Magazine, April 8, 1996; December 6, 1999.
14. N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (Minneapolis, MI: Fortress, 1992), 84.
15. Scot McNight, "Who Is Jesus? An Introduction to Jesus Studies" in Wilkins and Moreland, Jesus Under Fire, 52.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid., 68.
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William G. Johnsson is the editor of the Adventist Review. Bryan W. Ball is a retired scholar and administrator. He last served as
president of the South Pacific Division.
esus is under attack. This sombre fact has profound and far-reaching implications for believers and unbelievers alike. It is one of the major reasons for the existence of this book.
In more recent times, notably since the so-called Enlightenment of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the attack on Jesus has been more idealogically oriented. Particularly since the mid-nineteenth century, when historical-critical scholarship began to be applied to the life and work of Jesus, the attack has been focussed on the nature and reliability of the biblical record. If we could take only one example of post-Enlightenment theology to illustrate the point it would be that of Rudolph Bultmann, perhaps the most influential theologian of the twentieth century. Bultmann's radical thinking dispensed with much of the New Testament and called for the historical understanding of Jesus to be "demythologized", leaving a Christ barely recognisable from the Jesus of preceding centuries, to say nothing of the Jesus revealed in the Bible. Bultmann's legacy is almost incalculable. His followers and fellow-travellers are today numerous, widespread, educated, vocal and influential.
