Rush Limbaugh vs. Lawrence O’Donnell – What Would Jesus Cut?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 4 May 2011 2 Comments
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Question

I in no way intend to belittle you or cause you to become angry over this e-mail. I am a born-again Christian putting my complete faith in Jesus Christ as my savior because I am a sinner and have no way to heaven except through the Son. I thank God every day for opening my eyes and showing me the path to salvation. I just want to take a second of your time after reading your thoughts on Judas and ask why you haven’t investigated in Acts 1:12-21 when Luke tells of how “The Eleven” became “The Twelve” again after adding Matthias to the disciples and how the disciples quote the Old Testament telling of the one that will betray the Messiah, and by you saying this never happened, then you are bringing into question not only the authenticity of the gospels, but of the whole Old Testament and New Testament. I ask that you sincerely delve into the issue and ask yourself why you are really making these claims. You talked about when Paul wrote about Jesus returning and showing himself to Cephas (Peter) and the twelve. Isn’t this the newly-formed twelve (with Matthias as the twelfth)? And couldn’t Jesus have appeared to the eleven (in Matthew) because they had not yet added Matthias? I know it is okay to ask questions, but you aren’t doing a good job answering your questions thoroughly. I am afraid you are trying to destroy the gospel piece by piece instead of truly seeking the truth. I pray the Lord will change your mind and that he will be able to open your eyes so that you might believe in him. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Answer

Dear Travis,

Thank you for your letter. I am pleased to know that an Evangelical is reading my column. I have no desire to belittle your stated commitment to Jesus. I accept that for what it is and urge you to continue walking into this commitment.

Being committed to Jesus is, however, not an excuse for failure to study the scriptures and your comments on Acts 1:12-26 reveal that you have done little of that. For the benefit of my readers, Acts 1:12-26 is the story of how the early Christian Church replaced Judas with the election of one named Matthias.

The book of Acts is Part Two of the Luke–Acts corpus of which the gospel of Luke is Part One. Most scholars today date this gospel in the late 80’s or early 90’s and they date the book of Acts in the early to mid-nineties. This means that the book of Acts was written some 30 years after the death of Paul.

Paul wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians, from which I took my reference to “the Twelve” (I Cor. 15: 5) as witnesses to the resurrection, in the years between 54 and 56 or some 40 years before the book of Acts.

If you wish to read these passages literally as most Evangelicals do, you still have a serious problem. Paul says that the appearance of the raised Jesus to “the Twelve” took place on the third day after the Crucifixion. Luke, in both the gospel and the book of Acts, says that the Raised Christ appeared to the disciples over a period of 40 days before he ascended into heaven. Luke was the first to introduce the Ascension in the Christian story. Only after the Ascension (or after some forty days) does Luke suggest that, under Peter’s direction, lots were drawn to replace Judas and being a “witness” to the resurrection was the necessary qualification for the two nominees.

So when Paul relates the story of the appearance to “the Twelve,” Matthias is not part of the Twelve and therefore Judas must have still been included. Paul reveals no knowledge of the fact that one of “the Twelve” was the traitor.

Matthew, the second gospel to be written (it is generally dated in the early to mid 80’s), clearly did not know about the addition of Matthias, but he does know about the defection of Judas so that defection seems to enter the Christian tradition after Paul, but before Matthew. Matthew states that Jesus appeared only to “the Eleven.”

The primary mistake that biblical fundamentalists make is that they assume the Bible is an inerrant book that somehow dropped from heaven fully written. It isn’t and it didn’t.

Paul wrote from 51-64, Mark 70-72, Matthew 82-85, Luke 88-95, and John 95-100. The books that completed the New Testament were not finished until II Peter was written around the year 135 (and obviously not written by Peter). The Christian story grew over the years. Miracles were added in the 8th decade by Mark, who was also the first to suggest that Judas was the traitor. The Virgin Birth story was introduced by Matthew in the 9th decade, the Ascension story by Luke in the early 10th decade and the “I am” sayings by John in the late 10th decade.

This knowledge is elementary in the academies of Christian learning, but it is so often resisted by fundamentalists and thus seldom trickles down to the person sitting in the pew, usually unable to get through the bottleneck of the poorly trained pastor.

Devotion to Jesus does not mean that believers have to remain biblically ignorant, but so often that is the case. I hope you will come to see the difference. Jesus exhorted us to worship God “with our minds.” We need not be afraid to do so!

Thanks for writing,

~John Shelby Spong

 

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