Monday with Mounce

One of the things you will likely hear on the university campus is that the Bible’s depiction of Jesus is historically inaccurate. For example, did Jesus say he was God, or did the church make it up? Skeptics use the phrase “Jesus of history” to refer to who they think Jesus “really” was. They use “Christ of faith” to refer to who the church, especially Paul, supposedly changed Jesus into. But did Paul change the essential nature of the gospel.

As an example of persistence in prayer, Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow pestering the unjust judge until he vindicates her. His ultimate motivation is that he feared she would wear him out, or was it that he feared she would physically attack him as the NIV suggests?

What would you do if your child came over to your house, said he no longer believed the Bible, and renounced his faith? On top of that, he sent you a spreadsheet with hundreds of places in the Bible that he claims are factually erroneous or theologically absurd.

One common challenge made by skeptics of the Bible is that memory is faulty. It “leaks” and cannot be trusted over a long period of time. This means the Bible likely has errors and embellishments that were introduced during the time gap between Jesus' life and the writing of the Gospels.

Paul often gets a bad rap for seeming to be too caustic and judgmental. It’s too bad that this opinion is not more often balanced by Paul’s other statements of love and concern for his churches. But I think a proper translation of Romans 9:3 might help a little.