Jesus Under Fire

This book is a response to the now infamous Jesus Seminar. It sets forth the reasonableness of believing in the biblical record of Jesus Christ. There are ten contributors to the book, so each chapter could be considered by itself. What follows is a review of some of my favorite chapters.

Where Do We Start Studying Jesus by Craig L. Blomberg

Craig Blomberg answers the critic at the fundamental level as he responds to the challenge of the trustworthiness of the Biblical record of the Gospels. The dating of the Gospels is consistently a line of attack for modern skeptical criticism, so Blomberg counters with a reasonable and compelling defense of the traditional, conservative authorship of each of the Gospels. Mention is made of the Gospel of Thomas, for that Apocryphal work is a foundation (false) for the skeptical crowd. Blomberg shows that the canonical Gospels all predate the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.

There were two aspects of this chapter that I particularly found helpful. First, Blomberg's critique of the credentials of the Jesus Seminar participants show that they in fact do not represent a cross-section of contemporary New Testament scholarship. Now, I knew that they did not represent evangelical scholarship, but I was unaware of how the credentials of the Jesus Seminar fall way outside the critical consensus of even the "3rd Questers". "The Jesus Seminar does not reflect either responsible scholarship or critical consensus. Given the amount of press coverage the Jesus Seminar has received, their lack of credentials and their lack of credible scholarship is amazing. Second, Blomberg gives six arguments that confirm the hypothesis that the first Christians were able to preserve reliable history. I have argued this position before, and in doing so I haphazardly hit on a few of these supporting arguments. To have them all laid out in one place was very helpful, and I will be sure to use them in my own apologetics.

Who Is Jesus? An Introduction to Jesus Studies by Scot McKnight

Who is Jesus? Depending on the background of the person being questioned, that question is sure to elicit a tidal wave of emotions and a flood of words. Scot McKnight seeks to answer the question through a defense of the traditional Jesus, and also surveys three recent approaches - Jesus the Sage, Jesus the Religious Genius, and Jesus the Social Revolutionary- to the question. In contrast to these three approaches to Jesus, McKnight answers the "Who is Jesus?" question by pointing to his actions and his words. First, in his words he called apostles to follow him, he performed miracles indicative of the Messiah, he demonstrated pardoning identification with the outcasts, and he sought cleansing for the old system as exemplified in the temple. Each of these actions are recognized by scholars as authentic, and each of them demonstrate Jesus' consciousness that he himself was the Messiah, God's Son. Second, in his words Jesus commanded others to follow him, even sacrificially, he taught that others must confess him before others, and he taught that he was uniquely the Son of God. All this adds up to the conclusion that C.S. Lewis stated (and McKnight quotes to close the chapter) that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic, or he is the Lord.

The Words of Jesus in the Gospels: Live, Jive, or Memorex? by Darrel L. Bock

This chapter contains a large amount of teaching on the nature of inspiration, focusing on "how Jesus' words and teaching came to us from this first-century oral world." Bock uses the three words - "Memorex", "Jive", and "Live" to describe three positions taken regarding the method of transmission of Jesus' words. "Memorex" means that Jesus' words that we have in the Bible are the exact words Jesus spoke. While this theory corresponds with a high view of inspiration, Bock argues that it is not faithful to what the Bible actually says about itself. "Jive" means that the disciples took the opportunity to create sayings of Jesus. "Live" means the recorded words of Jesus contain quotation, summarization, and explanation of what Jesus actually spoke. This is the position Bock holds, and I believe he does so without violating a high view of Scriptural inspiration.

Bock's argument against the Jesus Seminar is that they assign most of Jesus' words to the category of "Jive". Bock argues that their misuse and overestimation of The Gospel of Thomas flaws their understanding of the Gospel narratives. Bock wonders why the Jesus presented in The Five Gospels ever was crucified? He instead argues that the voice of the Gospel narratives is "neither muffled nor created; it is loud and clear". And so it is.

Did Jesus Rise From The Dead? by William Lane Craig

During my college days I remember sitting in front of an Oxford scholar at a coffee shop in Jackson, Tennessee. The man had come to our university to hold special individual conferences with senior-level honors students (how I got into this group I don't know). He was so knowledgeable in so many areas that the following week he was scheduled to give lectures to the faculty of Vanderbilt University. So, as I sat there listening, and he probed my religious beliefs in a Socratic dialogue that hinted of skepticism, I kept thinking to myself, "How can I best respond, to bring the differences between us to a point of clarity?" I had just finished reading several chapters by William Lane Craig in a book from our library. The book was an apologetic for the historicity of miracles, and if memory serves me correct, Craig's contribution was on the historicity of the resurrection. After searching out my "religious bigotries" for awhile, the Oxford scholar asked me if I had any questions. Taking a cue from Craig, I politely asked him, "Do you believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ?" I was sure he would give me a politician's answer and evade the real question. Instead he said, "Well, of course!" I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking maybe I had misunderstood his previous statements regarding religion. Then he continued, adding, "The New Testament clearly teaches that the church is metaphorically called the 'body of Christ', and we both know that the Christian church is alive and well today - so the body of Jesus Christ is certainly resurrected within the hearts and lives of the church today!" Well, I disappointed him by being unconvinced, and he gave me a "B", which I think stood for "bigotry" - his term for "fundamentalist". That day was pivotal in my comprehension of just how important it is to truly believe in the historical bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

With great joy I read through this chapter by Craig. In many ways it was like coming back to an old friend, as the now-familiar arguments "Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus" were told. I was left thinking that many people within the church probably are not aware of such reasonable and historically verifiable arguments for the resurrection of our Lord. It is acceptable to sing, "You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart" as a song of devotion to Christ. But how much fuller could the affections of our people be developed if they realized that it is not a "blind" faith that convinces us of Christ's resurrection. Multiple attestation, dissimilarity, embarassment, context and expectation, effect, principles of embellishment, and coherence --these are all criteria that the secular historian would use in examining the historical evidence of any event from antiquity that is recorded in literature. More than any other, this chapter filled my head and heart with reason and doxology. In contrast to the souless faith and groundless "scholarship" of the Jesus Seminar, our faith is rooted and grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ - an event that God has preserved for us in texts that even secular historians cannot scholastically ignore. The refusal to believe in light of such evidence is truly a moral dilemma, not an intellectual conundrum.

Conclusion

Jesus Under Fire is an incredibly helpful book for understanding the historicity of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a book written by believers for the edification of believers - that we would know that our faith in Christ is not without historical validity. The authors vary in style and persuasion, yet each of them make for good reading on their subject. I heartily recommend this book.