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O'Reilly and "Killing Jesus": Cause for Concern for Conservative Christians
Freeper Editorial ^ | 6 Apr 13 | Xzins

Posted on 04/06/2013 7:51:02 AM PDT by xzins

I have heard and read a couple of comments by O'Reilly regarding his "Killing Jesus" book.

He calls Jesus a revolutionary. He says that his new book in his "Killing" series will present the story in terms of historic and political events that changed the world.

This tracks with the interview he had with Downey and husband on "The O'Reilly Factor" prior to the Bible episodes beginning. He asked Downey their take on the Bible. She replied to the effect that they just wanted to present the stories.

OReilly's reply related to his own book and said something along the line that, as opposed to Downey's version, his retelling would focus on the facts. (My paraphrase after nearly a month, and from memory.)

The first question, given those statements from O'Reilly, would be the extent to which O'Reilly relied on modern, liberal, biblical scholarship for his facts.

The problem with liberal biblical scholarship is that it truly begins with the assumption that "miraculous is impossible." Rudolf Bultmann, for many the star founder of skeptical biblical criticism, was famous precisely for rejecting anything miraculous in the Bible.

Bultmann was also famous, of course, for his dismissal of the miraculous. His famous notions that we who today use electricity to flick on a light switch cannot believe in miracles is often repeated as a microcosm as his thought. Elsewhere he implies that to believe in the miraculous is ridiculous, for we do not read in our newspapers about how demons affect the political or economic scene. [Bult.JM, 37] http://www.tektonics.org/af/bultmann01.html

Obviously, that changes the entire biblical story and requires (1) a search for alternative "non-miraculous" explanations OR (2) a rejection of a story if an alternative "non-miraculous" explanation can't be found. Throwing out the material is the Jesus Seminar's claim to fame with their voting on whether a story is authentic or not, most of which they've found to be "not". If not found by them to be authentic, then they toss it out.

NatGeo teaming with O'Reilly worries me. If they are televising O'Reilly's work for other than pure ratings reasons, then it means that O'Reilly's writing might lean toward the "explain away Jesus" approach.

I've read another item that worries me, and I've heard O'Reilly say essentially the same thing on his program. He is reported to have said that Christians worship "the spirit of Jesus."

Depending on how one interprets that, it is worrisome. If it is a comment akin to O'Reilly's many comments about "the philosophy of Christianity", then I wonder if O'Reilly views Christianity as an Aesop's Fables type Morality Play, or if O'Reilly actually thinks there was an actual physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead in real space, time, and history. I've also long been surprised at O'Reilly's inability to invite the many stellar conservative Christian scholars to his "debates". More often he manages to arrange his debates on moral or biblical issues with unschooled biblical conservatives mismatched against major spokespersons for liberal causes.

What do I fear will be the direction of "Killing Jesus" by Bill O'Reilly?

Just this: the story of a peace-loving revolutionary killed by people trapped in a foment of political turmoil; a Jesus who, after the fact, had the rumor of a resurrection told about Him. From this we are all to draw a moral of the story somewhat on the lines of "don't give up even when life seems the darkest" because "there's light at the end of the tunnel." Therefore, we all should look for "the spirit of goodness" in any situation.

I hope I'm wrong.


TOPICS: FReeper Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: jesus; oreilly; spiritual
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To: xzins
"Killing Jesus"

Yeah...

THAT worked out well!

61 posted on 04/06/2013 4:59:56 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: chicagolady
He is really off, But then again I am just a Bible Thumper!!

Thump away, Honey!

We need MORE folks willing to get SCRIPTURE to the masses!

Isaiah 55:11

62 posted on 04/06/2013 5:03:14 PM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: P-Marlowe

BECAUSE.................

Defense Department classifies Catholics, evangelicals as extremists

The Defense Department came under fire Thursday for a U.S. Army Reserve presentation that classified Catholics and Evangelical Protestants as “extremist” religious groups alongside al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan.
The presentation detailed a number of extremist threats within the U.S. military, including white supremacist groups, street gangs, and religious sects.
The presentation identified seventeen religious organizations in a slide titled “religious extremism.” They include al Qaeda, Hamas, the Filipino separatist group Abu Sayyaf, and the Ku Klux Klan, which the slide identifies as a Christian organization.
“Religious extremism is not limited to any single religion, ethnic group, or region of the world,” the slide explains, in language that closely resembles the text of a Wikipedia page on “extremism.”
While outfits such as al Qaeda and the KKK are explicitly violent, the presentation also lists Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism as extremist groups.
More than half of all Americans identify themselves as members of those two Christian denominations. National Public Radio reported in 2005 that 40 percent of active duty military personnel were evangelical Christians.
“Men and women of faith who have served the Army faithfully for centuries shouldn’t be likened to those who have regularly threatened the peace and security of the United States,” said Col. Ron Crews, a retired Army chaplain and the executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.
“It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization,” Crews said in a news release.
Crews also criticized the presentation for citing the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center to support its findings.
The SPLC has dubbed organizations “hate groups” for promoting Christian teachings on morality and sexuality.
A SPLC map of “hate groups” was used by a gunman in 2012 to target the conservative Family Research Council for its position on gay marriage. The gunman shot a security guard at the FRC’s headquarters. The SPLC has refused to comment on its role in the shooting.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services, a Catholic organization that trains and endorses military priests and chaplains, said in a release that it was “astounded that Catholics were listed alongside groups that are, by their very mission and nature, violent and extremist.”
The AMS called on the Pentagon “to review these materials and to ensure that tax-payer funds are never again used to present blatantly anti-religious material to the men and women in uniform.”
An Army spokesperson said the presentation “was produced by an individual without anyone in the chain of command’s knowledge or permission.” The Army removed the offending slide after receiving complaints.
The person responsible for the presentation, the spokesperson said, “was not a subject matter expert, and produced the material after conducting Internet research.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/5/dod-presentation-classifies-catholics-evangelicals/#ixzz2PggvldL2


63 posted on 04/06/2013 5:31:36 PM PDT by chicagolady (Mexican Elite say: EXPORT Poverty Let the American Taxpayer foot the bill !)
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To: xzins

I pray we’ll be pleasantly surprised.


64 posted on 04/06/2013 10:01:01 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: chicagolady

I was at a Military funeral yesterday for a relative who was killed by an IED last month in Afghanistan.

There was PLENTY of Catholics and Evangelical Protestants in attendance and speaking that were dressed in their finest military uniforms.

There will be literal HELL to pay if a command would EVER come down from on high to ‘do something’ about the Catholics and Evangelical Protestants!

(Very many guns were also present throughout out the crowd, in a local HIGH SCHOOL and no one got shot!)


65 posted on 04/07/2013 4:29:59 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: FR_addict

“Devout Christians don’t usually engage in phone sex, especially when they have a family.”

And BOR’s wife was having an affair w/ a cop. Obviously not a happy alliance. I wonder if they are now divorced?


66 posted on 04/07/2013 5:22:26 AM PDT by Dudoight
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To: Elsie

I believe there eventually will be, who knows if WE will be around to see that day.

Things are happening and deteriorating so fast, I would not be surprised!

But, well, we know how it will end. God Wins!


67 posted on 04/07/2013 6:26:21 AM PDT by chicagolady (Mexican Elite say: EXPORT Poverty Let the American Taxpayer foot the bill !)
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To: stephenjohnbanker
Hey there SJB, it's been a while since I've seen a post from you.

Everything out there okay? It's good here, but it's been a cold spring (due to global warming of course)..........

68 posted on 04/07/2013 12:43:05 PM PDT by Lakeshark (!)
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To: stephenjohnbanker
Oh, I forgot:

I was about to post this almost verbatim

Great minds.....:-)

69 posted on 04/07/2013 12:44:03 PM PDT by Lakeshark (!)
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To: Lakeshark

Great minds fo sho!

Good to see ya.


70 posted on 04/08/2013 11:14:27 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker
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To: oh8eleven

They were well written, but didn’t offer anything new that hadn’t already been discussed again and again.

...his next book should be titled ‘Killing Jim Bishop’...since Bishop just happened to write books on the exact same three luminaries as O’Reilly...by the way, all three of these books are recommended reading, highly informative, meticulously researched, and contain a personal element missing in the BOR tomes...


71 posted on 04/09/2013 9:03:30 AM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: IrishBrigade
I remember Bishop and read a couple of his books waaaay back when. Interesting point that BOR would copy replicate his writings.
72 posted on 04/09/2013 9:15:59 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: xzins

If a supposed contradiction can be reconciled, then it is not a contradiction. Some reject any effort at reconciliation, because it disrupts their agenda of claiming that “the bible contradicts itself.”

...I absolutely do not reject reconciliation, quite the contrary, I seek it avidly in the New Testament...yet that does not blind me to any contradictions or lack of independent confirmations...for instance, the Lucan and Matthean lineages for Jesus are completely at odds, and I’m not aware, though I could be wrong, that Paul references himself as Saul of Tarsus, as do the Lucan Acts of the Apostles, or in his corpus of epistles describes his event on the road to Damascus...if I am wrong about stuff like that I would like to be corrected, so please let me know...


73 posted on 04/09/2013 9:18:30 AM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: IrishBrigade

The lineages can be reconciled with one being Joseph’s side and one being Mary’s. Both are from the line of David, and that was the point. So, it can be reconciled.

I’m not sure your question about Saul/Paul because you don’t spell out what you see as an issue in need of reconciliation.

If you are wondering why sometimes Paul and sometimes Saul, then it is the same for Simon and Peter. One’s Greek and the other Hebrew, and it was not uncommon for a “newly born” Christian to take a new name. Matthew/Levi is another example of more than one name.

As always, reconciliation can take time, given, for example, the Pilate stone. It has happened so often that I’ve seen the Bible’s track record of correctness so often that it’s easy for me to say, “it’s only a matter of time”.


74 posted on 04/09/2013 10:13:22 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! True supporters of our troops pray for their victory!)
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