Hermeneutical Fun with the Bible, Salvation and Christology
Christian salvation is an
eclectic mix of cutting and pasting New Testament verses together to make an
ancient dogma sound logical.
Accordingly, without human ingenuity, even Jesus himself cannot explain how
one is to obtain salvation. Ironically,
the ramblings of Jesus about the Kingdom in the Coptic
Gospel of Thomas are on par with those of the Synoptic Gospels or John.
Even the early letters of
Paul offer only meditations of mediation as to how Israel’s God could have
changed His mind. For Protestants
evangelicals, the only hope is to distill some theory of soteriology (the doctrine
of salvation) as primary gleamed from his final letter to the Church at Rome, but only
then such can be done by cutting and pasting verses of the text as assembled into a cherry picked Roman’s
Road of Salvation. (Here at least, the Catholics and Orthodox seem
somewhat more credible by having members place their faith for salvation in the
traditions of their church . . . hey, trust us; we’ll get you to Heaven!).
If faith in Jesus
Christ alone granted salvation, then all Christian
sects would be “saved” (be they Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses or whatever) since
the term heresy could (would) not exist. Then too, ironically both Satan and the demons
would be saved in that they too believe in Jesus just as
much as Jesus believes in them (Let’s face it, Origen was on
to something here)! Maybe, this is why
both the saved and the damned will be given glorified bodies since all resurrected bodies living forever will have to be Glorified for this
theology to work.
In the following example, I have redefined the limit of Jesus' authority by simply considering a single short verse from the Gospel of Luke.
A Question of Christology
During the Crucifixion, why
does Jesus ask God the Father to forgive the sins of people crucifying him
(Text A), when earlier facts clearly showed that during Jesus’ ministry, he forgave sins himself (Text B)?
Text A: “And Jesus
said, 'Father, forgive them (ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἔλεγεν
Πάτερ, ἄφες αὐτοῖς), for they
know not what they do.'” (Luke 23: 34)
Text B: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has
authority on earth (ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀφιέναι ἁμαρτίας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς) to forgive sins - he said to the paralytic- 'I say to you, rise, pick up
your bed, and go home.'” (Synoptic: Mark 2: 10 - 11 = Matt. 9:
6 – 7 & Luke 5: 24 - 25)
Commentary: The
reason Jesus had to ask God the Father to forgive the people crucifying him was that, by being raise up on the
cross, his feet were no longer touching or "upon the earth" (“ἐπὶ
τῆς γῆς”), thus Jesus was forced to ask God to forgive them since he could no longer physically do it himself.
(If any apologist considers this theological
position to be superficial or skewed, then consider the comment of Bruce
Metzger over the early textual impact as to whether or not to include this theological problematic verse:
B.M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart, 1994) p. 154)
Conclusion:
Salvation theology (Soteriology) is simply a
human created system in an attempt to make sense out of the often aimless and incoherent
ramblings of the New Testament.
The fact that I too (as an atheist) can create
a new point of Christology out of the same often aimless and incoherent ramblings
of the Gospels carries as much weight as any theologian (usually from the time
of the Reformation) formulating a system of salvation from something Jesus
never said, nor St. Paul ever coherently stated.
Indeed, within this context, credibility comes up short.
If the Doctrine of Original Sin
is thrown in, then the entire Plan of Salvation is nothing more than fallen and
sinful humanity (St. Paul included here too) simply inventing a hermeneutical system to save itself
while crediting some Biblical divinity with its own false sense of reality.
Thus, the complete system of Christian salvation is nothing more than cognitive dissonance.
0 comments:
Post a Comment