One of the most prominent featured in ABC’s PETER
JENNINGS REPORTING: THE SEARCH FOR JESUS was the anti-Christian
crowd at the so-called Jesus Seminar.
Throughout the years we have presented many articles
about the Jesus Seminar, a group funded in part by Norman Lear.
The Jesus Seminar folks have spent their years vehemently
attacking Jesus’ divinity and undermining his credibility. In
the tradition of 19th century
biblical criticism, they have tried to find " a historical
Jesus," but rather than use the sophisticated linguistic
deceits that the German critics used to undermine faith in Jesus
and prepare the way for the Nazi holocaust, the Jesus Seminar
folks simply cast lots to determine whether what is attributed to
Jesus in the Bible are his words or not. By casting lots, they say
they’ve found that only 18 percent of the words attributed to
Jesus in the Bible are his actual words.
Of course, this is ridiculous. The Jesus Seminar process
is academically absurd and their theology is myopic and
solipsistic. Their work has been dismissed by major scholars, both
liberal and conservative. As Dr. Gregory A. Boyd (Cynic Sage or
Son of God? Recovering the Real Jesus in an Age of Revisionist
Replies) says while refuting the arguments of the Jesus
Seminar in journalist Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Christ,
"The Jesus Seminar represents an extremely small number of
radical-fringe scholars who are on the far, far left wing of New
Testament thinking. It does not represent mainstream
scholarship."
What may be of more concern about the ABC program is
that ABC refused to allow the conservative or liberal scholars who
disagreed with the Jesus Seminar, to present a counterpoint.
According to a June 20, 2000 article in the Los Angeles Times,
the program scrupulously avoids Jesus’ divinity, ignores his
resurrection, undermines his miracles, and makes him out to be a
political figure. This is just what the Pharisees wanted to do.
This is a serious attack on Jesus Christ and Christianity, if the Los
Angeles Times article is correct. This same type of attack
destroyed the vibrant church in Germany 100 years ago, and thus
allowed Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism to come to power.
It must be noted that the position of the Jesus Seminar,
in spite of the connections with the entertainment industry, has
been thoroughly refuted theologically. However, the average person
does not know this, and so this program could lead many people
astray.
One Christian critic quoted in the LA Times article has
said that people can find out for themselves. Of course, this
ignores the power of persuasion of the mass media of
entertainment.
