From: dubin@cs.arizona.edu (Michael David Dubin)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: A.N. Wilson's New Book.
Date: 1 Oct 92 03:42:09 GMT
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson

In article <Sep.30.01.49.26.1992.7538@geneva.rutgers.edu> dabbott@augean.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au (Derek Abbott) writes:
>I've just read an article about A.N. Wilson's new book where he explains
>why he lost his faith.
>
>One of his points is "unresovled contradictions" in the Gospels.
>The four he came up with were:
>
>1) Jesus called the Gentiles "pigs & dogs" and yet the Church
>   included Gentiles
>
>2) When Jesus was called "Good master" he said only "God is good,"
>   thereby apparently denying both his sinlessness and divinity
>   in one swoop.
>
>3) Jesus chose blood as a symbol, which would be anaethema to Jews
>   at the time. Being a good Jew himself, he "wouldn't do such a thing."
>
>4) The Trial of Jesus happened on the passover. Wilson says that good
>   Jews would not interupt the rituals of an important holy day with a
>   trial for a mere Galilean trouble maker.
>
>
>Any comments?

I can't answer them all, but I'll try a few.
2) Jesus neither said that He wasn't God, nor that He wasn't sinless.
He simply asked why the man called Him good, since the man didn't believe that
He was God, but only a man.  Jesus replied with a true statement, that only God
is good, and allowed the man to draw his own conclusions.  Jesus did this in 
other places as well, saying things that while not necessarily logically and
empirically sound, did serve to confound the people because of their confused
beliefs.  For example, when Jesus was accused of casting out demons by the 
prince of demons, He replied "would Satan cast out Satan?"  His was only a 
question.  It was sufficient to confuse them, since their theology was so bad.
Their problem was one of legalism and religiosity, and His reply dealt only
with that.  He did not say that Satan would not fake a casting-out of demons,
He said He wouldn't, and gave glory to God.  This last part is the key.  Glory
to God.

3) Jesus did a lot of things that really offended the Jews, i.e. healing on the
Sabbath, telling them to hate their fathers and mothers, telling them to take
up their cross and follow Him...  The work that Jesus did _is_ an offense to
the natural man, so of course He offended (I bet the moneychangers in the
Temple were offended too...).

4) Jesus was not just some Galilean troublemaker.  He was the light of th
world, and He revealed so much sin and hypocrisy in their lives, and so chal-
lenged their authority, and was so REAL that they were scared and mad.  They
knew that He was walking in the power of God, and they hated Him for it.  Since
their version of Judaism was not genuine, when a stronger motivation for an 
action came along, i.e. ignoring the Passover in favor of killing the Lord,
they probably had no qualms about doing it.  Their righteousness was from their
own flesh, not from God, for if they had been from God, they would have 
accepted Him when He came in the flesh.

Observe today, during this current outpouring of the Holy Spirit which began on
the wrong side of the tracks in the USA.  The religious leaders condemned it 
because people were really being fed, and were leaving dead churches.  The
religious leaders hurled the same accusations at these pentecostals as the
Pharisees did at Jesus.   It is simply the battle described in Galatians 5, the
flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

Sorry to be so long-winded, I just got carried away.  Hope this answers your
questions somewhat.

:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

	Michael Dubin  dubin@cs.arizona.edu

:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)