A Letter to Frank Schaeffer about Jesus and the Bible

Your father, Francis Schaeffer, was a defender of the Christian faith, and I am therefore so glad to see that you also are a defender of Jesus!

• If Jesus is God as evangelicals and Roman Catholics claim he is, then the choice is clear. We have to read the book–including the New Testament–as he did, and Jesus didn’t like the “Bible” of his day.

Wow, you really threw me a curve ball there. I never dreamed that “Jesus didn’t like the ‘Bible’ of his day. I guess He must have had a different one. Didn’t he say:

• “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-19)

I guess Jesus must have been referring to a different “Law” and the “Prophets.” Whatever, these might have been, it seems that he must have really venerated them. Are you suggesting then that the Pharisees had a different Bible?

I am also puzzled by this statement:

• “Worship in the Spirit and in truth,” is not about a book, let alone “salvation” through correct ideas or tradition.

I started to wonder what Jesus meant by His teaching that we must “Worship in the Spirit and in truth?” So I went back to John 4 and found that Jesus had contrasted this requirement with the Samaritan worship:

• You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. (John 4:22-23) 

I was surprised to find Jesus telling the Samaritan woman that she had to receive the revelation that had come to the Jews if she wanted to be saved – not very inclusive to me! I had thought that there were multiple ways to be saved, but Jesus keeps coming back to the Bible:

• “It is written [in Deuteronomy 8, right?]: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Mat. 4:4)

It certainly doesn’t seem that Jesus hated the Bible. How am I misunderstanding him?

Your next statement really confuses me. Are you saying that the Torah is on the same plain as “church tradition?”

• Every time Jesus mentioned the equivalent of a church tradition, the Torah, he qualified it with something like this: “The scriptures say thus and so, but I say…” Jesus undermined the scriptures and religious tradition in favor of empathy.

You inspired me to go back and to read the Sermon on the Mount, but I couldn’t find where Jesus corrected Scripture with these words: ““The scriptures say thus and so, but I say…” Instead, I found Jesus saying:

• “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder.” (Mat. 5:21)

Hmm? Perhaps I read that wrong? Or perhaps I have a sub-standard translation. Please, be assured that I am convinced that you would never try to mislead anyone! You have always demonstrated such exemplary love and inclusiveness, that no one could ever accuse you of wrongly battering Evangelicals and Catholics. But I was surprised by your statement:

• In evangelical and Roman Catholic fundamentalist terms, Jesus was a rule-breaking humanist who wasn’t “saved.”

I thought that they did believe that Jesus was saved. I guess I just haven’t been around long enough. You, of all people, certainly understand the Evangelical mind. I’m so grateful that I have been able to learn from you. My own reason seems to serve me so poorly. (BTW, I really do enjoy your painting!)

Evangelicals: Givers or Hate-Mongers

A giver tends to be other-centered. We call that “love.” Love puts the needs of others first. It is the antithesis of hate.

Are evangelicals are hate-mongers and extremists? According to a letter from Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, even the US military is now associating Evangelicals and Catholics with the Klu Klux Klan and other terroristic organizations. He makes to following observations:

• A Fort Leavenworth War Games scenario identified Christian and Evangelical groups as potential threats

• A 2009 Dept. of Homeland Security memo identified Evangelicals and pro-life groups as potential threats to national security

• The U.S. Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center released a study linking pro-lifers to terrorism

• Evangelical leader Franklin Graham was uninvited from the Pentagon's National Day of Prayer service

• At the National Cemetery in Houston, Christian prayers were prohibited at the funeral services for military veterans

• Distribution of Bibles was banned for a time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center

• Christian crosses and a steeple were removed from a chapel in Afghanistan because the military said the icons disrespected other religions

However, hate groups do not fit the profile of giving, other-centered groups. KKKers don’t feed the poor and volunteer their services to carry meals to the home-bound. Just today, the most recent Barna survey on giving was posted:

• A person’s religious identification has a lot to do with whether or not they donate to causes they believe in. Evangelicals were far and away the group most likely to donate money, items or time as a volunteer. More than three-quarters of evangelicals (79%) have donated money in the last year, and 65% and 60% of them have donated items or volunteer time, respectively. Additionally, only 1% of evangelicals say they made no charitable donation in the last 12 months. Comparatively, 27% of those with a faith other than Christianity say they made no charitable donation in the last year—a number more than double the national rate (13%). One-fifth of people who claimed no faith said they made no donation over the last year, still noticeably higher than the number for all Americans.

• Interestingly, the difference between evangelical Christians and non-evangelical born again Christians was marked. While 79% of evangelicals made a financial donation over the last year, 53% of non-evangelical born agains [these are respondents who claim a personal relationship with Jesus but don’t ascribe to the basics of the biblical faith] said the same. The number of non-evangelical born again Christians who didn’t make a donation matches the national average exactly (13%), compared to the only 1% of evangelicals.

Ironically, Evangelicals are called the worst of names – “hypocrites,” “bigots,” and “hate-mongers.” However, the stats don’t ever seem to back up these hateful invectives. Perhaps something more is at issue. Even 2000 years ago, Jesus warned:

• "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” (John 15:18-20)

Of course, we are miles away from where we need to be, but should this make us objects of persecution? No! How then do we explain it? Oddly, it is this 2000 year old warning that best captures our post-Christian society.