Tag Archives: Old Testament

Marcionism

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I’m not a big fan of jargon, but I used a bit the other day. Jargon becomes a shorthand that lets you express a fuller idea with just a word or two, but everyone involved has to know the extended meaning behind the term.

I referred to Marcionists the other day when discussing the Old Testament. But I never explained who Marcion was.

Marcion of Sinope was born near the end of the first century. He was the son of a church leader and was raised in a Christian home. He came to be strongly influenced by popular philosophies of his day and developed his own unique approach to Christianity. (Eusebius called him a gnostic; I’ll let you research gnosticism on your own)

Marcion believed that the God revealed in the Old Testament was merely what he called a demiurge, sort of a sub-God. He wasn’t God the Father, the God revealed in the New Testament. Whereas the God of the Old Testament was an angry, unmerciful God, the God that was revealed through Jesus was only love and grace.

To strengthen his views, Marcion published a “canon,” a list of the inspired writings as opposed to the other Scriptures. Completely rejecting the Old Testament as an inferior revelation, Marcion’s canon had eleven books in two sections:

  1. The Evangelikon, which consisted of ten chapters from the book of Luke, carefully selected and trimmed by Marcion.
  2. The Apostolikon, which consisted of ten letters by Paul. Marcion thought that only Paul really understood and taught what Jesus taught.

Because of this, the term Marcionism is often applied to the rejection of the Old Testament, even though this doesn’t accurately reflect all of Marcion’s teachings. (I’ve only presented a few pertinent points here; his was a much more elaborate system of thought)

One other interesting tidbit: it was this heresy that first moved the church to seek to identify the canon. Many claim that the canon was established by councils of the Catholic church, but the truth is that the canon was discussed and identified much earlier than those councils.

So when did God become a Christian?

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Richard Dawkins (thanks Rex), in his attack on Christianity called The God Delusion, famously wrote:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

That’s not a surprising quote from an atheist. The fact is, however, I think a lot of Christians would offer an “Amen” to that statement, whether they whisper it or openly proclaim it. Reminds me of the old joke about the Sunday School teacher who was similarly describing God in those terms when one of her students popped up and said, “But then He became a Christian.”

In the churches of Christ, there are a lot of Marcionists. I’ve described what I consider to be one of the low points of my ministry, when I failed to defend a young man who was attacked by a preacher. The young man had dared to quote the Psalms during a discussion, and this longtime preacher cut him off, saying, “My Bible says it’s been nailed to the cross.”

I know it seems antiquated, unintellectual, and naive, but I take a high view of Scripture. I believe the Bible to be the Word of God. I believe that the whole Bible is inspired. I personally feel that many of our problems come from trying to make the Bible into something that it’s not, trying to make it a law book or a science book or a history book. It’s none of those and isn’t meant to be read like any of those. It’s not even a love letter, which has been popular the last few years. It’s a collection of writings, of different genres. But above all, it’s a holy book and needs to be read as such.

I take Paul’s words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 very seriously. I know that he was writing specifically about the Old Testament, but I don’t have a theological problem with applying them to the rest of Scripture:

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

It’s all inspired. It’s all useful. It can make me wise for salvation and thoroughly equip me for what I need to do. The Old Testament and the New Testament.

I willingly and intentionally place myself under Scripture. I don’t seek to master the Bible; I seek to be mastered by the Bible. When there is something I don’t understand, I place the blame on me and not on Scripture. When there is something I don’t agree with, I accept that I’m wrong. Again, I know that it’s popular to scoff at such a view. Feel free to scoff. As the commercial says, I’m comfortable in my own skin. I’m comfortable with my relationship with Scripture. And I’m comfortable in my belief in God.

Does the Old Testament call for cutting a woman’s hand off?

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Yesterday I mentioned Frank Viola’s long post titled “What is God Really Like? Hell, the Old Testament God, and Love Wins – An Interview with the Author of “Is God a Moral Monster?””

One thing I found interesting was a discussion of a difficult Old Testament passage, one which a friend and I were discussing just a few weeks ago. Here’s the beginning of that discussion (which is in the form of an interview; bold represents question asked of author):

    If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity (Deuteronomy 25:11-12) Doesn’t this make clear that the Old Testament was written by a man? Come on now. How is this consistent with a good, loving, reasonable God? If God wrote this, I wouldn’t want anything to do with a God like that. So what did God have in His mind when He authored this Law? And how does it reflect His nature? What say you?

    This action was considered shameful—touching an area where only a man’s own wife is allowed to touch. Also, the man could possibly be permanently injured and thus deprived of future children. At first blush, this passage apparently requires that a woman’s hand must be cut off if she seizes the genitals of the man fighting with her husband—and scholars typically take this view.

    If so, this would be the only biblical instance of punishment by mutilation; beyond this, where ancient Near Eastern laws call for bodily mutilation for various offenses, the Mosaic Law does not. The Babylonian code of Hammurabi insisted that certain crimes be punished by cutting off the tongue, breast, hand, or ear—or the accused being dragged around a field by cattle. The Law of Moses—though not ideal—presents a remarkable improvement when it comes to punishments.

Read the rest of the interview and tell me what you think.

(Yeah, the book image is an associate link. If you decide to buy and use that link, I get enough commission to buy a stick of gum)

Is God a Moral Monster?

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I wanted to send you today to read an interesting article. Frank Viola has a long post entitled “What is God Really Like? Hell, the Old Testament God, and Love Wins – An Interview with the Author of “Is God a Moral Monster?”” The title should clue you into the fact that it’s a long post!

The interview at the end of the post is fascinating. I’m interested in reading this book now, Is God a Moral Monster? Read through some of his explanations. Is he overreaching to justify God or do you think what he says has some validity? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

(Yeah, the book image is an associate link. If you decide to buy and use that link, I get enough commission to buy a stick of gum)

A framework for understanding New Testament miracles: Old Testament times

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337522537_ebc4a82409In the Old Testament, one of the most common things that we see regarding the Spirit is that the Spirit “comes upon” a person, causing him to say or do what the Spirit wills. Sometimes this is a good person, sometimes it is an evil person. But when the Spirit comes upon them, they are under the control of the Spirit.

You can look at some of these passages: Num 24:2; Judg 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1Sam 10:6, 10; 11:6; 16:13; 19:20, 23; 2Chr 15:1; 20:14; 24:20; Ezek 11:5

Miraculous activity under the power and control of the Spirit was neither a sign of godliness nor of God’s approval. And, based on what we saw last post, it had nothing to do with God’s indwelling Spirit, which was not given until after the cross. God’s Spirit has existed since the beginning, has worked among men since Old Testament days, but has not lived in the hearts of men until after Jesus’ death on the cross.

We’ll continue this study tomorrow (Lord willing).