Striving to be ... Consistent ... Conservative ... Orthodox ... Evangelical ... Protestant ... Christocentric
Ben Witherington has an on-going review of George Barna and Frank Viola's book Pagan
Christianity that is of great interest. It is wonderful to see a noted Christian scholar tackle this misleading and ill-informed publication. This is another example of sound and orthodox Christianity refuting a neo-theological perspective that should have undergone a more thorough academic review before hitting the presses.
2. We believe in one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who possesses perfect and exhaustive knowledge of the past, present, and future, and who preserves, regulates, governs and directs all things so that nothing in the world happens without either his causation or permission. God is the author of good but not of evil. Yet even evil is governed by God in that God limits it and directs it to an end fitting with his overall plan and purpose.
3. We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, dying on the cross as a substitute and sacrifice for sinners. He arose bodily on the third day and ascended to the right hand of the Father. He will return personally and visibly at the end of the age to fully establish God's Kingdom.
4. We believe that part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and, during this age, to convict sinners, enable them to believe, regenerate the believing sinner, and indwell, guide, instruct, and empower the believer for godly living and service.
5. We believe that humanity was created in the image of God but fell from its original sinless state through willful disobedience and Satan's deception, resulting in eternal condemnation and separation from God. In and of themselves and apart from the grace of God human beings can neither think, will, nor do anything good, including believe. But the prevenient grace of God prepares and enables sinners to receive the free gift of salvation offered in Christ and his gospel. Only through the grace of God can sinners believe and so be regenerated by the Holy Spirit unto salvation and spiritual life. It is also the grace of God that enables believers to continue in faith as well as good in thought, will, and deed, so that all good deeds or movements that can be conceived must be ascribed to the grace of God.
6. We believe that the shed blood of Jesus Christ and his resurrection were provided for the salvation of all people, but are effective only for those who believe. Christ's death and resurrection provide the only ground for justification and salvation, and only those who believe in Jesus Christ become born of the Holy Spirit and thus become children of God.
7. We believe that God’s saving grace is resistible, that election unto salvation is conditional on faith in Christ, and that persevering in faith is necessary for final salvation.
8. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead; of believers to everlasting blessedness and joy with the Lord; and of unbelievers to judgment and eternal punishment.
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4 comments:
There's another biblical scholar who is taking Witherington's review apart piece by piece and showing the holes in it. You can read it at http://www.paganchristianity.org/zensresponds1.htm
He wrote part 1 yesterday and says he's doing part 2 today.
Whether Dr. Witherington's analysis stands scrutiny to the vested interest of Dr. Zens or not remains to be seen however those who take the time to read Witherington's analysis will notice that he is beng fair and reasonable in his critique. Dr. Zens has a horse in the race so to speak and Dr. Witherington is examining the horse so it is also wise to keep in mind that Zens has an inherent bias in this matter. Lastly, the mentioned link is to a sponsored site of the book being reviewed. This is not inappropriate but the various biases of certain reviewers should at least be understood.
I think Witherington has far more to lose if the book is right. He's a conventional pastor. If Barna and Viola are correct, that would put him in a very difficult situation, so he really has to try to disprove the book. I don't think Zens has a real dog as he didn't write the book and he has nothing to lose if he didn't write a review. This can't be said about Witherington and other pastors.
bradley, such a claim as you are making here pits Christianity itself as a potential loser if a critic can disprove it. I am not at all clear what you think any pastor has to lose if the authors of the book in question can convince others to agree. Dr. Witherington has critiqued a book well within his academic field and done so with grace and good measure. As Christians whose measure of truth is found within scripture and it's orthodoxy, the hypothetical suggestion you are making really is of no consequence.
As for Dr. Zens, the "dog in this hunt" is his particular zeal for the topic of the book.
In any event, thank you for your comments.
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