The Logic That Wasn’t There

My Acadia laptop died on me last night, which wasn’t surprising considering the Dell Latitude 6xx-series are little more than disposable “Fisher-Price” computers. No, scratch that… Fisher-Price makes good, sturdy product as designed to withstand the violent affections of two-year-olds. The Dells wouldn’t last 30 seconds in that environment. But enough grumbling about my laptop…

I booted up my old Compaq Armada and was clearing out some of my old bookmarks when I came across a site that prompted a little investigation. I learned about the film, The God Who Wasn’t There, from ACF student Nicole Oliver. She had posted a link to the webpage on the ACF message board and suggested looking into it and perhaps responding. I immediately started poking around the film’s website and was struck by two things: Its boldness and its ignorance.

Have you ever known someone who is so convinced of their singing abilities, yet wails like a tone-deaf dying cat? I’m sure most of us have, or at least have witnessed the outcasts of American Idol, like William Hung. That’s what this movie reminds me of. Its creator, Brian Flemming, doesn’t like Christianity. Specifically, he doesn’t like American politically-driven Christian fundamentalism, but he calls that “Christianity.”  He believes Christianity poses a threat to human liberty and quality of life, and has created a film to demonstrate his point. The creator also places his film alongside some of the most successful documentaries in recent history, claiming:

Bowling for Columbine did it to the gun culture.
Super Size Me did it to fast food.
Now The God Who Wasn’t There does it to religion.

“Wow,” I thought, “even if I disagree with his views, it sounds like it’s worth a peek if only for it’s pointed assertions and potentially challenging questions.” As I perused the site a little more, it became clear that the comparison with those other films likely wasn’t justified. In his official press-kit, he states the following:

The documents covering that gap were largely written by the apostle Paul, who is generally credited as the main architect of Christianity. Without Paul, most secular and religious scholars believe, there would be no Christianity. His zeal and love of Christ helped spread Jesus’ message far and wide.
And here’s what most Christians don’t know about Paul: If Jesus was supposed to have been a real human who recently lived, nobody told Paul about it .
Paul’s writings — 80,000 words — never mention a historical Jesus. The story you know about Jesus? Paul never heard of it. He never heard of Mary, Joseph, a birth in Bethlehem, King Herod, any miracles at all, any ministry at all, no trial by Jews, no trial by Pontius Pilate.

“The gap” that Mr. Flemming is referring to is the years between the death of Jesus and the writing of the first Gospel. Now those of us who have spent time reading the arguments of those opposed to conservative Christian scholarship regarding the writing of the New Testament know that the most common claim is that the gospels were written long after Jesus had died. Considering the oldest New Testament manuscript is P52, a small piece of John’s gospel, and the earliest dating of that is around 110-125 AD, it’s easy for someone to claim that the gospels were written a century after the death of Jesus, and even after the death of their supposed authors. Most conservative Christian scholars understand Mark’s gospel as being the first one written, and they will generally date it between 65 and 75 AD, depending on how they understand Mark 13:1-2 and Jesus prophecy of the destruction of the temple. If one understands that Jesus was prophesying future events, and Mark wrote that down prior to the event taking place, then you will date it before the destruction of the temple by Rome which occurred in 70 AD. It is perfectly orthodox, however, to understand that Mark is writing after the destruction of the temple, and recalling Jesus’ prophecy, makes sure to mention that in his written account. One of the most refreshing things about Mr. Flemming’s documentary is the fact that he assumes the conservative dating of Mark to be true. He states in the film:

The gospels all came later. Mark was the first one written, and the other three are clearly derived from Mark. Mark mentions the destruction of the Jewish temple, which happened in the year 70, so the gospels all came later than that. Probably much later. There’s a gap of four decades or more.

Immediately we begin to see problems stemming from simple ignorance. Firstly, not even the most liberal scholar would claim that John’s gospel was derived from Mark, which demonstrates that Mr. Flemming doesn’t understand the relationship between the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). Secondly, we see that while he flirts with the idea that the gospels came much later, the timeline that accompanies his voiceover in the film displays a very early dating of Mark:

Looks to me like he dates it around 71-72. Regardless, the creator doesn’t seem to recognize that he’s undercut his entire argument. From Mr. Flemming’s perspective, Jesus never existed, and was simply a mythical figure that developed into a historical figure in the minds of believers over time. His lynch pin is the claim that this gap between the alleged life of Jesus and the writing of the first gospel is filled by the writings of the true creator of Christianity, Saul/Paul of Tarsus, and Paul know nothing of a historical Jesus. As previously cited:

The story you know about Jesus? Paul never heard of it. He never heard of Mary, Joseph, a birth in Bethlehem, King Herod, any miracles at all, any ministry at all, no trial by Jews, no trial by Pontius Pilate.

Here we get to see Mr. Flemming’s ignorance really shine.  Mr. Flemming doesn’t like Christianity, which is fine… I don’t like marshmallow peeps, and have even been known to occasionally make fallacious arguments against their consumption. I usually restrict my anti-peep rants to light-hearted discussions with friends, and don’t take time to make documentaries about them. That being said, Mr. Flemming has chosen to proclaim his ignorance on film and in print with claims that are not only impossible to substantiate, but stand in direct opposition to his own stated facts. Firstly we see an argument from silence, that since Paul didn’t record a gospel account himself, he was therefore ignorant of them. Even if we ignore the simple fact that Paul’s frequent assertion that Jesus died inherantly means that at one time Jesus lived, Mr. Flemming’s early dating of Mark means that many of those who had witnessed Jesus’ life were still alive.  Paul encourages his readers with this fact in 1 Corinthians 15:6, speaking of the ressurection.  Interestingly enough, Paul felt that the ressurection of Jesus was what was important and worth checking out with witnesses.  He didn’t feel the need to write “Jesus was a REAL guy.  Seriously.” because nobody was making the claim that he wasn’t. 

Even more ironic is Mr. Flemmings use of the name “Pontius Pilate.” The full name of the Roman governor appears only three times in the New Testament. While Matthew, Mark and John all refer to him as simply “Pilate,” two other NT authors use his full name. Those are Paul, and his companion, Luke. When Paul encourages Timothy, he writes:

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 6:12-14)

One wonders why, if Paul is ignorant of a trial by Pontius Pilate, he mentions it to Timothy? A mental hiccup perhaps? Paul’s use of Pilate’s full name may also explain why Luke also uses it as well, in both his gospel (Luke 3:1) and in Acts (Acts 4:27). Luke was a close companion of Paul, which is why he records Paul’s ministry in Acts. Paul mentions Luke several times in his writings (Colossians 4:14, 2 Timothy 4:11, Philemon 1:24), so one wonders why, if Paul was utterly ignorant of a historical Jesus, his companion would go on to write two books documenting Jesus’ life, his death, his resurrection, and the foundation and proliferation of the early church?

Those counter-arguments, however, are a waste of ink (or keystrokes in this case), since I am convinced that Mr. Flemming has never read the New Testament, nor has he investigated critical biblical scholarship, or any other writings of antiquity for that matter. You won’t find any interviews with a Bruce Metzger or a Craig Evans in this film, or even a hostile discussion with a Nicky Gumbel for that matter. Mr. Flemming knows that if you want to fairly represent 2000 years of Christian orthodoxy, you should interview random people in the parking lot of a Billy Graham festival.

That’s not entirely fair, because Mr. Flemming also attempted to get a more scholarly, balanced view of the Christian faith from Scott Butcher, creator of RaptureLetters.com, a website that will email your loved ones after you’ve been raptured… or when Scott Butcher dies… whichever comes first. Yes, this documentary is a resounding testimony to fair and balanced scholarship. Ouch… I think I strained my sarcasm gland!
All that being said, a more formal response to Mr. Flemming is entirely unnecessary. Apparently it’s not only Christians who under-appreciate his film, but the larger community as well. During the film, Mr. Flemming compares the profits of The Passion of the Christ to two other films to demonstrate the blood-drenched violent tendencies of Christians:

When it comes to Jesus movies, this movie [The Passion of the Christ] is far and away the number one choice of Christians. Adjusted for inflation the “Singing Jesus” [Jesus Christ, Superstar] made 55 million dollars, the “Horny Jesus” [The Last Temptation of Christ] made 13 million dollars, but the Bloody Jesus [The Passion of the Christ] – 370 million dollars and still counting.

Of course those numbers have nothing to do with The Passion’s $10 million advertising budget, or the historical understanding of the nature and purpose of the sufferings of Jesus. Clearly it’s because Christians are bloodthirsty barbarians who want to kill everyone who disagrees with them. Given that comparison, it should be equally fair to compare the two films that Flemming himself compared his documentary to. Bowling for Columbine had a production budget of 3 million dollars, and a worldwide gross of $40 million. In the first two months of it’s release, it was shown in some 248 theatres and by the November 29th weekend in 2002, it had grossed nearly $12 million (source). Super Size Me had a production budget of a meager $65,000 and its worldwide gross has been over $28 million. It’s first two months saw the inside of 230 theatres and grossed $9.5 million (source).

Unfortunately, The God Who Wasn’t There has never been theatrically released, so there are no box-office numbers. They did, however, make it to the #1 position of Amazon.com’s independent documentary list back in April, in the distinguished company of titles like The Golden Era of NASCAR, and Zona Rosa – Male Strippers. What we do have, however, is the list of public screenings of the film which is published on the website. The total number of worldwide screenings (and I do mean worldwide… one of them is in Japan), not for it’s first two months, but since its release on May 21st, 2005 has been…

(drumroll)…

Forty-one. Yes, that’s right… the atheists have rallied behind this movie in such masses that there have been a total of 41 worldwide screening over the past year. Wow. I originally felt that this film was not worth responding to simply because it offered no meaningful interaction with REAL Christian scholarship – it is simply a diatribe against Mr. Flemming’s own understanding of US Christian fundamentalism. After seeing the screening numbers, a better reason to not respond is simply lack of relevance to Christian apologetics. When your main argument against the existence of Jesus is that people didn’t write biographies soon enough, then guess what… just about every single historical figure prior to the 2nd or 3rd century never existed. I always knew that “Alexander the Great” was a sham.

Catching Up

It’s been a relatively eventful week, so it’s time to do a little updating.  I had my interview with folks from my supervised field education (SFE) church on Thursday last week, and that was an encouraging get-together.  Unfortunately, they still have to bring it to the congregation, so I’m not comfortable giving the name of the church until I hear some sort of confirmation there.

Marsha and I have been blessed by God through our church family, which continues to encourage us through prayer, and help us meet our needs with their generosity.  Marsha had the wonderful opportunity to return to her Mom’s Take-A-Break group, where she was met with both spiritual encouragement, as well as generous gifts welcoming her back to the group.  She was so touched, she couldn’t stop talking about it!  It was a tremendous joyful blessing for her, and a reminder that God’s leading us, not us.  We both would have to confess, however, that we sometimes worry about our SFE ministry, and leaving our wonderful church family for two years.  Yet we remind ourself that the care we’ve received isn’t that of people, but God’s moving in people’s hearts.  He will provide our needs, no matter where we are.

Meanwhile, my E.I. status is still up in the air, and that’s become a serious problem.  To put it another way, I haven’t received any pay for a month and a half now, and with a mortgage and car-payment, you get the idea.  On the plus side, our insurance costs has gone down now that I’ve been a non-smoker for a few years, and our new agent came out on Monday to tell us all the scary things that could happen to us if we don’t have insurance.  I can’t stand insurance, or the sales-tactics used to peddle it, but this fellow wasn’t too bad and had a decent sense of humour.

A sister in our fellowship came across a hymn last week, so she printed it off and sent it to us.  It’s by an ancestor of mine, Thomas W. Freckelton.  I’m not sure how we’re related, but we’re all related in one way or another.  Anyway, after reading the hymn, one line caught my eye:

The toil of brain, or heart, or hand,
Is man’s appointed lot;
He who God’s call can understand,
Will work and murmur not.
Toil is no thorny crown of pain,
Bound round man’s brow for sin;
True souls, from it, all strength may gain,
High manliness may win.

O God! Who workest hitherto,
Working in all we see,
Fain would we be, and bear, and do,
As best it pleaseth Thee.
Where’er Thou sendest we will go,
Nor any question ask,
And what Thou biddest we will do,
Whatever be the task.

Our skill of hand, and strength of limb,
Are not our own, but Thine;
We link them to the work of Him
Who made all life divine!
Our brother-friend, Thy holy Son,
Shared all our lot and strife;
And nobly will our work be done,
If molded by His life.

That title, “brother-friend,” is one that you’ll occasionally hear in LDS works, as well as those Unitarians who deny any deity in Jesus (denying even post-baptism adoptionism).  Sure enough, after a little bit of investigation, it turns out ol’ Thomas W. Freckelton pastored at the Unity Church, a unitarian congregation in Islington (London, UK), in the 19th century.  Their website declares:

In this Unitarian and Free Christian Church there is no set creed or dogma. Most believe Jesus was the greatest of the prophets but not part of a divine Trinity. Nevertheless, no other prophet or teacher has so influenced world history.

There are lots of people out there who don’t consider that a dividing line at all, but I believe that who Jesus is cuts to the very basis of our faith.  A human Jesus could not be my substitute.  I cannot be clothed in the righteousness of a human Jesus.  What good is having faith in a fellow human?  Sorry folks, but that’s a different Jesus as warned about in 2 Corinthians 11:4.  It reminds me of that famous C.S. Lewis rant:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else He would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God—or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool; you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (C.S. Lewis.  Mere Christianity)

So, it’s troubling that my ancestor not only may not have known the true Christ, but also taught that heresy to others.  If his was the Jesus who died for me, then I remain lost.  At the same time, it is a reminder that our need to give an answer for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15) is not a futile cause, because it’s not just the person we’re speaking with who hears us.  God honours His truth, so be ready to share it with anyone.