What I Was Writing Against

I've received a few emails over the last couple of days from people who were asking who or what I was specifically writing against in my post entitled "The Greatest Expert on the Scriptures Who Ever Lived And His View of the Bible".

Here is a YouTube video of Marcus Borg speaking about the Bible. This is who I was answering. Keep in mind that Borg is a hero among old Mainline liberals and Post-Modern Liberals (Emergents).

Comments

[Jim Pierce]

Let me paraphrase the content of the video... The believers of two religious communities (Christians and Jews) wrote down a bunch of inspiring stories they got a warm-fuzzy experience about and said, "Hey folks, these writings represent our feelings about God". As time progressed the two religious communities sifted through the nice tales and proclaimed, "These are the best representations of what we think and feel about God!" and hence comes the Bible as we know it. A bunch of childish religious derelicts (aka "Conservative Christians") began taking these tales, like that of the resurrection of Jesus, literally and have stolen "truth" from those of us who want to take these writings in the historic/mythological context we believe they were originally intended to be taken. Never mind that "truth" is relative to a community and is personal, but these conservatives don't have the truth that the Bible isn't meant to be taken literally and we want the mainstream churches to take back the "authority" of scripture... which is that the community of believers give it is authority and not God. And don't forget that truth is a squishy relativistic mess, but a wonderful mess."

I think that about covers what is being said. :-)

[Dave]

This guy is quite eloquent in his explanation of what I was exposed to in my mainline seminary training, which made me flee the church because of its subjectivism and emphasis on "learned experience" where God speaks from many places. The last line or two of the interview is key to this double-speak of who Jesus is as God's ultimate "manifestation." BUT what about what Jesus says about the trustworthiness of Scripture? Tony Robbins is more inspirational than Jesus is to most people, does that make him more spiritual and relevant? This stuff just supports making the move to agnosticism or worse! :(

[Eric Gruetzmacher]

"Help me Obi-Won Kennobi. You're my only hope."

Am I the only one who sees the amazing resemblance?

[Ron]

Might be of interest to read "The Meaning of Jesus-Two Visions" coauthored by Borg and N.T. Wright. Whatever your spin on NT Wright, he cast a much more cohesive and compelling argument for the faith of the apostles. To undermine the authority of the written Word is to undermine the authority of the Incarnate Word.

[sbrogden]

"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"

Herein lies the enemy's opening tactic. And herein is Borg's approach, questioning what has God said. He tries to confuse people by pretending that we who believe God and His revealed Word do not comprehend the various types of literature and cannot distinguish between narrative and instruction.

But we must take Borg seriously - at least those of us who grew up watching Star Trek - while Borg may look and sound like Obi-Won, he has more in common with his Star Trek name-sake. His refrain ought to be "You will be assimilated, resistance is futile."

And the saints of the living God should be on guard against his vile doctrine and resist in the Lord Jesus. Like the Borg, Marcus Borg is part of a collective, and both collectives serve the enemy and are defeated.

[Chris]

These folks need to be exposed, unapologetically, for what they are... wolves among the sheep.

[Prodigal Knot]

Borg's comparing all scripture to the parables is disingenuous. The parables are oboviously not meant to be taken literally in and of themselves, but point to literal and unmovable truths. Most of the parables were meant to compare Israel to the true Kingdom of God or to point out the wickedness or perversity of Israel at that time.

At the same time they point us towards essential truths that also cross cultural divides.

To lump the entire bible into a metaphorical and parableic sense is just dumb. This gives the Bible the same worth as a novel. It may be inspiring, sentimental, and self illuminating, but everyone has different tastes and interpretations so "it's all good". Borg then tries to say the Bible is very important to us as a way of revealing God. Why should we believe him? It's just a story after all.

What rubbish!

[Proskuno]

Gag. Sigh.

It does not surprise me that someone would hold this low view of scripture. Mainline churches have held this view for years. What surprises me are the inroads that fellows like this are making in the "evangelical" church.

Pray for Marcus Borg and those he touches. God can change even the hardest heart, as He sees fit. That is exactly what He did for me!

[MattB]

I still don't understand these religious atheists when they talk about the Bible not really being true but it's still gives us meaning some how. I've never really heard them explain this one...how you get meaning out of something that is (in their view)nonsense in the end.

[MattB]

I disagree that he sounds like Obi-Wan by the way...he has no English accent. He does look like him though. :)

[Mike Baker]

Am I the only one who also found him monotone and mind-numblingly boring?

...oh and he's a raging, gnostic heretic.

[St. Blogwen]

Oh, dear.

Screwtape, get out the steak sauce.

[James Sarver]

How can anybody take this guy seriously? Literalism and pop psychology the only two options? What kind of scholarship is that? They could have interviewed the average fifth grader and gotten a more nuanced explanation.

[Ryan]

I think this Dude thinks he is really smart and is using his heretical "intellect" to try to make the Bible more mysterious that what is said in black-and-white. Yep, just like the Gnostics who told people they needed "special knowledge".

It's like a broken record almost 2,000 years later.

Unfortunately, my conversations with Christian friends have revealed that they have similar beliefs about the Old Testament as an allegorical fable...but they believe that Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the dead.

[tuber]

Thanks for your continued discerning work! Keep it up, you website among others has been a huge help to me personally!

[steve martin]

I thought my cousin Melvin was.

[Geoff]

So, the ultimate end of the logical conclusion Borg and his ilk will arrive at is that Jesus did not die on the cross for our sin, not really. More He died as an example... or as a martyr knowing that martyrdom breeds followers. And if not for our sin, then when He died as a result of crucifixion, then he never actually rose from the dead. The rising from the dead is a metaphor of spiritual rebirth we all go through when we seek and "find" God... or is that god? By extension, then, if Jesus did not die for our sin, and then did not rise from the dead, he did not then ascend into heaven to literally sit at the right hand of the Father, either.

There's just one problem with this conclusion. The apostles who died horribly in the years that followed, the subsequent followers in the difficult years ahead, died refusing to recant any of the accounts of the miraculous events, the resurrection and ascension of our Lord and Saviour.

Borg suggests that it is childish to adhere to these bible stories because they are fantasies. Really? Then the death of the apostles was a waste as well. In fact, why even bother with Christianity at all? If the really important things, like the 5 fundamentals of the faith, are pretty much not "true"... then anything I believe about God (god?) becomes subjectivist relativism and my god is just as good as any other god.

Oh, right. That's exactly what he's speaking to in the first place. What was it the book of Judges says... "...and they did what was right in their own eyes..." This was not a compliment, it was an indictment.

And it has become such again.