Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of Christ. Why?
What is the point if he was just a wandering semi-educated Jewish preacher?
Why if the VB is a myth, and the resurrection is the reflections of the
early church and as Dominic Crossan argues stray dogs ate the body of Jesus?
Is Jesus the redeemer and saviour or just a very good godly teacher who
inspires us to love?
How do we answer those questions and it is clear that we can in a way which
denies all effective Christian content. If we deny his divinity we also deny
him as redeemer which is what Unitarians do. Erasmus Darwin described
Unitarianism as a feather bed to catch a falling Christian. That is an apt
remark as it often happens as Christians drift away (or are repelled by
evangelical excesses) into either some kind of liberal Christianity which is
weak on Redemption -e.g.. Peacocke, Spong etc or a general theism.
The problem is that some evangelicals try to prove too much and regard the
gospels as a photograph and not 4 portraits, which are at times
Impressionistic. An ultra-inerrant bible with a genetically perfect Jesus
creates unbelief.
That will be enough handgrenades for Christmas eve.
Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "William Hamilton" <whamilton51@comcast.net>
To: "Don Winterstein" <dfwinterstein@msn.com>
Cc: "asa" <asa@calvin.edu>; "Dr. Blake Nelson" <bnelson301@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 3:55 PM
Subject: Orthodoxy (was Re: Biblical Interpretation Reconsidered)
On Tuesday, December 23, 2003, at 04:53 AM, Don Winterstein wrote:
> Are those Jesus Seminar scholars Christian? Some are certain to have
> unorthodox views of Jesus. I don't believe that all such unorthodox
> scholars are going to hell any more than I believe all Arians are
> going to hell. In other words, I think it's possible to have saving
> faith outside of orthodoxy. Orthodoxy affects only the mind; the
> heart is more important.
>
So why is orthodoxy so important (if it is important)?
I would answer that it's a means of guarding against drift. If a
deviating belief is permitted, no matter how innocuous, another
deviation can in principle be built on it, and after a few
"generations" you have genuine heresy. But are we trusting in Jesus
Christ when we ruthlessly suppress all suspect beliefs? I suspect that
the church -- the evangelical branch anyway -- has sacrificed
intellectual progress in the pursuit of orthodoxy.
Bill Hamilton Rochester, MI 248 652 4148
Received on Tue Dec 23 15:16:13 2003
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