F4F | John Pavlovitz Contradicts Jesus RE: The Scriptures

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the program that, well, compares what people are saying in the name of God to the

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Word of God. Now, I have an interesting topic for you today. Have you ever dealt with somebody who identifies as either emergent, postmodern, or progressive, you know, theologian or liberal or something like that?

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And you hear some of their theological conclusions and you just kind of scratch your head and go, how did they come up with that?

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Because God's Word, like, says the exact opposite of what it is they say, especially as it relates to particular sexual sins.

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Yeah, if you've ever wanted that, go ahead and hit the subscribe button down below. Don't forget to like the video and ring the bell so that you'll be notified when we update the channel.

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So, case in point, what we're going to do today. Those of you who follow me on social media, on Facebook and Twitter, I will say this.

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I'm currently not on any alternatives because one particular alternative got taken down.

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But in the future, we're going to diversify our social media offerings for the purpose of reaching people where they're at because a lot of people are bailing on Facebook and Twitter, and I understand the reasons why they would feel that they needed to.

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So all that being said, we will be diversifying in the days ahead. So there'll be other ways in which you can follow me on social media so that there's not a monopoly.

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I kind of look at it as that my job is to preach the Word and reach people where they're at.

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But all that being said, I got into a little of a dust -up, if you would, over the last couple of days with a fellow by the name of Jon Pavlovitz.

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Jon Pavlovitz, that's his name. And it turns out he is one of the guys who writes for Relevant Magazine.

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And he said something that I found to be quite disturbing on social media and was kind of like a rooster sitting on top of his tweet crowing.

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And so I just decided I'd ask him a question. So what we're going to do today, we're going to look at my exchange with him, talk about his contributions, significant contributions to the theology that's being offered by Relevant Magazine.

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Relevant Magazine, if you're not sure what that is. This is a magazine designed for the skinny jeans set for the pimply -faced kid who doesn't shave yet, who's a worship leader at a megachurch, and that's who they're trying to reach.

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And so you'll note that I excel in irrelevance, okay. But the point is that this is a fellow who contributes to the theology.

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And what we're going to then do when we take a look at the exchange that I have with him, which really didn't go so well for him, we're going to head over to his

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YouTube channel and we're going to take a look at his view of Scripture. We will note the name of the video, but because this particular video is going out on a platform that has a tendency to protect speech for progressives and punish speech from people who are old school, you know, like me, we're going to be very careful how we describe things, for the purpose of not setting off the

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Al Gore dancing thing. You say, Al Gore dancing? Yeah, yeah. I've got rhythm.

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Anyway, you get the idea. So that's, we're being very shrewdish, if you would, on purpose, because, you know, we got to recognize the realities of the platform that we're putting this video out on.

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So all that being said, let's go ahead and shall we, let's whirl up the desktop.

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And this is a shot I took in North Dakota, in a town just north of me.

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But let me fire up the, there it is. It's the, my web browser.

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And here was the original tweet that I saw coming across my

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Twitter feed that just made me want to ask a question. And so John Pavlovitz, you know, notice he uses the meme format, me,

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Jesus never says being LGBTQ is a sin, me, them, but Leviticus, me, not

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Jesus, them, but Romans, me, not Jesus, them, but 1

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Timothy, me, sigh, Jesus is never going to hate people the way you want him to hate people.

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That's going to be a you problem. Boy, there's a lot that I could talk about there.

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But I'm going to focus in on, you know, kind of the big elephant in the room.

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So I asked him a question, and this was back on February 8th, I said, you are aware that Jesus is the same

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God who told Moses to write the words that are recorded in Leviticus, right?

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So yeah, you'll note that he's trying to disconnect Jesus from the rest of Scripture in order to justify his view here regarding human sexuality.

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And then he, I was surprised when today, today's the 10th of February, that I woke up and looked at my

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Twitter feed and he responded. It's like, no. All right. So here was his response.

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You are aware, you're reaching to make Jesus say stuff he never said and to justify a phobia that he doesn't share, right?

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Now, by the way, believing that particular things are a sin has nothing to do with phobias. So I have no phobias when it comes to people who have different sexualities.

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There's no phobia at all. I'm not afraid of him. Not afraid of them. You see, you kind of get the idea.

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So he's doing some really weird kind of slanderous projecting, breaking the commandment that says thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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Yeah. So keep that in mind. And by the way, if somebody accuses you of having a phobia, you need to fire back with thou shalt not, you know, thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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You just fire back with it because they're lying about you. Call them out on the carpet immediately when it happens.

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So here's what I said. Jesus also never condemned. And I'm talking about while Jesus, during his time of his earthly ministry, the three years that are recorded for us in the gospel,

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Jesus also never condemned incest and bestiality. So using your screwball logic, which intentionally ignores the fact that Jesus is the

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God of the Old Testament, all sorts of evil then would be A -OK with Jesus. So this just shows the intentional deceitfulness of your position.

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And so what I'm trying to do here with John is facilitate the collision between his theology and the truth of the entire scripture.

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And we know from the Incarnation that Jesus Christ is the God of the

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Old Testament. Yeah, they're not two different deities, they're one in the same.

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So I'm trying to help him come to grips with the Incarnation and the fact that Jesus Christ is

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God, the Son of God in human flesh. So I thought, you know, he's probably not going to respond to that.

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But he did. He actually responded. So he says, now, no, you're thinking you want to regurgitate something that you've heard that really makes no sense in order to justify discrimination.

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I'm not justifying discrimination. No, I'm agreeing with scripture that what is a sin, as defined by God, is a sin is in no way a form of discrimination.

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In fact, I would argue that, you know, scripture says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten

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Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. And so we learn from scripture, also 1

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Corinthians 15, that the gospel is the good news that Christ died for our sins, my sins, your sins, everybody's sins, whether they're, you know, predominant sin that is obvious to everybody is thieving or lying or stealing or some type of a sexual sin.

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All, you know, we're talking Christ died for my sins. I'm a sinner. So is everybody else. And so it's love to tell people that Christ died for their sins and to define sin according the way

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God's Word does. But he turns around and thinks this is a form of discrimination. And here's why I fired back with, thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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I'm not advocating for discrimination at all. I have no phobias at all when it comes to these types of things.

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So he's at this point slandering me. He's lying. So I fired back with one of the Ten Commandments, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

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And then I said, just kind of asked him a question. Can you please explain how lying about me, slandering me and bearing false witness against me demonstrates your love for me?

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These lies seem rather odd coming from you. And you'll notice I put a little screenshot there. Let me explain where I got that from.

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So I went to John Pavlovitz's website, johnpavlovitz .com. And you know, note that he's an author.

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He's written a book, Stuff That Needs To Be Said. But there is an upcoming, you know, online course, five week online course in compassion.

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And so I clicked on the link and it took me here and it says,

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Being Kind Humans by John Pavlovitz. Okay, so join the early bird wait list for my upcoming course.

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And so John Pavlovitz is teaching a course in the near future on being a kind human being, which

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I think is a good endeavor. You know, learning how to be kind is a big part of, well, what,

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Christian sanctification. So, you know, I would note though, that slandering me, lying about me, bearing false witness against me, that would be the opposite of unkind.

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So that's why I said, you know, these lies seem rather odd coming from you since you're going to be teaching everybody about, you know, how to be kind.

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So just pointed that out, you know, seemed a little bit odd to me. So let me close that tab and close that tab.

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But the conversation then continued. So he, you know, not dealing with anything that he said at this point, he's changing the subject somewhat.

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So he says, So all those times, Jesus says, you have heard it said in the scriptures, but I tell you,

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Jesus is saying, I remember what I said, but now I'm saying something else. Come on. It's okay to admit the conflict between the

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Old Testament and the New Testament. You can be honest. God can handle it. Okay, so I just decided to do a little fact checking, a little fact checking, if we would.

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So I said, Well, let's take a look, shall we? And so I went to Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 and 22.

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Jesus says on the Sermon on the Mount, You have heard it said, heard that it was said to those of old,

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You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is hungry, who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

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Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. Whoever says, You fool, will be liable to the hell of fire.

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So you know, I just decided we'll take a look at one of these texts and see, you know, see what we learn here. Well, I noted then that this first one doesn't seem like a conflict between the

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Old Testament and the New Testament. In fact, Jesus is not condoning murder. It's not like he's saying, Well, you heard the murderers wrong, but now it's okay.

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No, instead, he was pointing out that murder occurs also in the heart. So second text, all right,

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Matthew 5, 27 and 28, You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. Yeah, that's one of the

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Ten Commandments. But Jesus says, But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

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And then I noted, it doesn't sound like Jesus is condoning adultery either. Instead, he clearly is pointing out that adultery also occurs in the heart.

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Okay, so it's not like Jesus said, You have heard that you shall not commit adultery, but now it's okay. He's not doing that.

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So John Pavlovich's point seems to be not working for him.

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And then I decided I'd go ahead and take one of the harder ones, you know, might as well steer right into one of the more complicated texts, see what we can do with it.

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So here's the one that appears like it's in conflict. But again, it isn't. And I said, this is

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Jesus, You have heard that it's said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your

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Father who is in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust.

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For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do you not even the tax collectors do the same?

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And so it goes on, but you get the point of the text. So I said, no, no text in the

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Old Testament actually says, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. There is no biblical text that says that. So the

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Jews of Jesus' day had twisted Leviticus 19 .18, You shall not take vengeance or bear grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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I am Yahweh. And so I then noted that the Old Testament explicitly says to help your enemy.

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So in Exodus 23, if you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.

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If you see the donkey of one who hates you, lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving it with him.

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You shall rescue it with him. And then I noted, I said, maybe you should explain to me how whenever I fact -check you biblically you're always shown to be twisting

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God's Word. So the real conflict really is not between Jesus and the Old Testament.

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The real conflict seems to be between John Pavlovitz and the Scriptures, right?

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Now I noted that he writes for Relevant Magazine. If you don't know what that is, like I said, Relevant Magazine is the magazine of choice for the

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Skinny Jeans set and the Seeker -Driven Jet set and all those people who are out there embracing culture in order to make the church relevant.

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And it has been that way for a long time. They're up to issue 104. But John Pavlovitz is a major writer for them.

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All right, John Pavlovitz. And it says he's a pastor. We'll talk about where he pastors here in a minute.

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He's a writer and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. In the past four years, his blog Stuff That Needs To Be Said has reached a diverse worldwide audience.

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All right. So you can see, I mean, he's written article after article after article that have appeared in Relevant Magazine.

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And one of the first one that shows up is him coming to the rescue of who? Rob Bell, one of the arch heretics of all time.

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So yeah, so my question is why should we be allowing people to be reading

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Relevant Magazine as if somehow the theology is going to be sound? Because I told you we'd talk about where he pastors.

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It says he's a pastor, right? Well, did a little digging. Here's John Pavlovitz, and he is preaching here—in fact, you can find a lot of his sermons online on Facebook—at the

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Unitarian Universalist Peace Fellowship of Raleigh, North Carolina. Unitarian Universalists deny the doctrine of the

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Trinity. They are not Christians. They're heretics. This is a cult. So you'll note that this is embarrassing.

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It's embarrassing for sure, because why? Well, Pavlovitz isn't even a

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Christian. He has a completely different God. And so my question to Relevant Magazine is why on earth are you having this fellow write for your magazine when he denies the doctrine of the

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Trinity and he explicitly and overtly attacks the Scriptures? Case in point.

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So, we're going to head over to his YouTube channel, and I'm going to have you read for yourself the name of this particular video.

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Because again, progressives are protected on this particular video platform. So I would just say this.

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I vehemently disagree with what he's saying on biblical grounds. But I want you to hear what he thinks of the

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Bible. And then we'll do a little comparative work, because the question is, as Christians, how do we answer guys like this?

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Because you'll note that there's a whole bunch of seeker -driven guys, you know, skinny -jean worship leaders who can't even shave yet, who believe this type of progressive theology, and how can you answer them biblically?

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So let's take a look at what John Pavlovitz says about the Bible, shall we? Here we go. The Bible is not a book.

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It's a library of books. Mm -hmm. Now, by the way, that's true. The Bible is indeed a library of books, and so we're going to note here.

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So Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, Joshua probably, you know, the sixth, and then moving forward, there's questions as to who exactly are the authors of the histories found in the

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Old Testament, and then you get into the Psalms, into Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, and then into the

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Minor Prophets and the Major Prophets, who we know who wrote those. And then we'll get into the

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Gospels themselves, Matthew, eyewitness of the life -teaching death resurrection of Christ, Luke, who interviewed the eyewitnesses, and then you get to Mark, and we know from Church history that Mark, his

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Gospel, these are the preaching notes of the Apostle Peter, and then you get to the Gospel of John.

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Gospel of John is an eyewitness account of, again, the life, death, crucifixion, resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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And then we get into the Pauline epistles, then you talk about, you know, what, Peter's epistles,

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James, Jude, the Book of Hebrews, and Revelation. Indeed it's a library, and when it comes to human authors, you can say that there's quite a few that we know of, and at least 40 -something -ish different authors of Scripture, something to that effect.

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But all of that being said, we'll take a look at some Biblical texts that make it clear that there is only one common author.

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There is a common author for all of the books of the Bible. There is one common author. So but we'll get to that,

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I'm getting ahead of myself. But watch what he's doing here. He's talking about what the Bible is, not in order to have you have a great view of Scripture, for you to embrace its doctrines, to hear the voice of God in it.

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No, he's pointing this out in order for you to reject what the Scripture explicitly says.

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We continue. Sixty -six separate books written thousands of years ago, collected over hundreds of years, written by dozens of different authors, some whose names we know and some we don't.

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And those words were originally oral tradition before they were written down on... No, you can say that portions of Genesis show signs that it was an oral tradition that was handed down.

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There's indicators within the Hebrew text itself that kind of lend itself towards that. But the information we find in Genesis is pretty much the only bit that was an oral tradition.

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And then you'll note that Moses is an eyewitness and a participant in the history that's written in the book of Exodus.

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So moving forward, that's just not the case. And when they were written down, they were written down in several different languages and they've been revised and edited over thousands of years.

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No, that's not true. There is no evidence that the Scriptures have been revised and edited over thousands of years.

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Patently false. That is absolutely not true. And the science of textual criticism and all of the different manuscripts we have of Scripture totally debunk this.

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He's lying here. There is no proof of there being editing. It's not like we have an early copy of the

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Gospel of Matthew that talks about Jesus being a mere man and then later they edit it and in the fifth century you start seeing appearances of Christ being deified.

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Nope, that's just not how it works. In fact, the copies we have of the New Testament in particular, oh man, we have so many of them that are so old, they maintain the accuracy and veracity of the text that we have today and show that no edits were made.

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It's up to him to prove that there have been edits and revisions and he will not be able to do that.

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You ever heard of a snipe hunt? Yeah, so if he were to go looking for all those edits and revisions, that's pretty much a snipe hunt.

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So yeah, what he's saying here is false. The Bible is a record of a particular group of people at a specific place in time in the history of the planet trying to document their lives and answer the big questions of life.

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Trying to document their lives and answer the big questions of life. Now, I'm going to back this up.

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I want you to hear him spin this out. What we're going to notice is that what he's doing here, this is a false metanarrative, a false narrative regarding what

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Scripture is and what it's about. So all of that being said, let me back this up just a smidge.

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Listen again. The Bible is a record of a particular group of people at a specific place in time in the history of the planet trying to document their lives and answer the big questions of life and to describe the world around them with the knowledge and the information that they had available.

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If we understand that, then it's really irresponsible to take a handful of words written by someone we've never met thousands of years ago and use that as a basis upon which to discriminate and perpetuate prejudice against people.

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Yeah, because that's what's going on. Look at it this way. Let's say you have open heart surgery scheduled and on the day of the procedure, you go into the hospital and you see your surgeon there reading from a 6 ,000 year old medical journal.

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Well, you might get a little nervous. You'd probably run out because you want someone, if they're going to work on your body, you want them to have the latest information.

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You don't want them going back 6 ,000 years and trying to rely on the information available at the time. So, you know, defining sin according to the way

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Scripture defines sin is the equivalence of medical malpractice. You know, that would be, you know, a physician using 6 ,000 year old medical techniques rather than the latest techniques approved by whatever their governing board is.

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Uh -huh. That's quite the narrative, by the way. It's not going to hold up when we scrutinize it, just to say,

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I want to make that very clear. Well, using the Bible to address sexuality is no different. We simply know more than we knew then.

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Oh, I see. Okay. I always think it's funny that people who want to use the Bible to justify their prejudices.

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Again, you're slandering here. Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor. So, you know, notice everybody who disagrees with him are trying to justify their prejudices.

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False. Okay. Fears and phobias will go to the creation story in Genesis, the one that you're probably familiar with.

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Oh, yeah. And they'll say, John, it says right here, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

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They'll actually say this. I know. And notice here, he's like tattling on people who would point that out.

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I would note then, this is where we'll make the turn. Let's take a look at somebody notable who also pointed that out.

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In fact, it's kind of embarrassing here for John, because the person

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I'm going to point out who also noted that back in Genesis that God made Adam and Eve and created a male and female, it's

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Jesus. Now, this is where I'm going to point you to. We'll put a link to this down below in the description.

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Back in, it was actually before 2014, but I posted this on the

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Current Fighting for the Faith website back on January 30th, 2014. And so the name of the article is

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The Greatest Biblical Expert Who Ever Lived and His View of the

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Bible. And if you're not sure who that is, it's Jesus. And I'm going to walk you through a portion of this article.

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Again, it's going to be linked down below, so if you want to read it in its entirety, you can. But I want you to consider what we've got going on here.

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And this is how you refute these guys, all right? And when I wrote this, the postmodern and the liberal emergence were still a thing, at least by title and name and identity.

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Those particular dandelion seeds have been blown into the church. Clearly, John Pavlovitz is one of them who imbibed in their theology at the time.

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But here's what I wrote back then. Modern and postmodern liberals, also emergence, and their higher critic and deconstructionist co -belligerents have an almost obsessive preoccupation with undermining, impugning, and maligning

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God's Word. Case in point, what we just heard John Pavlovitz do, right? They incessantly attack the inerrancy, historicity, and the sufficiency of Scripture, and their attacks are getting bolder by the day.

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These people appear driven to reduce the Bible to a mere human product that is nothing more than a man -made mythological narratives.

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Stories of pristine gardens, Adam and Eve, forbidden fruit, a worldwide flood, the

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Ark, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and a prophet being swallowed by a big fish are too silly and childish to be believed as actual historical events by this growing progressive liberal emergence, resurgence.

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So before you fall for these so -called progressives and their postmodern reimaginations of the Scripture, you should consider

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Jesus' opinion and views of the Bible. You really need to think about that.

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So as you will see, Jesus had much to say about the Scriptures, and His statements reveal

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His assumptions regarding the Old Testament texts, as well as the veracity of the stories recorded in them.

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All right? So here's, by the way, Jesus' credentials. Before we look at Jesus' opinion of the

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Scriptures, it would be prudent for us to first be reminded of Jesus' credentials and His authority regarding the

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Scriptures. When we examine the eyewitness testimony concerning Jesus that is recorded for us in the contents of the four biographies, these are the

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Gospels, of the New Testament, we learn that Jesus Christ, that He claimed to be none other than the one true

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God in human flesh. And I'm going to note this, any nut or lunatic can claim to be

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God, but proving such a claim is a whole other issue.

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Now in this regard, when I usually present this material, I always like to throw in a little joke here. It's a joke regarding a fellow back in the 1800s who's one of these early guys who was pioneering psychology and what to do with those who are insane, you know, the people in the insane asylums of the 19th century, not exactly known for their, you know, their great care in the way they took care of the insane.

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And so this fellow was traveling through the United Kingdom, visiting different insane asylums for the purpose of kind of formulating ways in which they can reform the system.

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And in one particular visit, he went to a facility and the people there allowed him to mingle with the general population during lunchtime, right?

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And so while he was there, you know, there was a fellow he noted was wearing a very large overcoat and had his hand kind of in his chest and was kind of parading around as if he was an important person.

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And this fellow asked him, he says, and who are you exactly? And he says, I am Napoleon Bonaparte.

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And so he thought he would try to help this guy out. And he says, well, how do you know that you're

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Napoleon Bonaparte? And he says, God told me. And so from across the room, you heard another fellow scream out, no,

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I didn't. I never said that. I never told you you were Napoleon. So you get the point here.

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Any lunatic can claim to be God, proving it is a whole other issue.

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Fact is, Jesus proved his claim to deity by raising himself from the dead three days after he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

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And the men who authored the New Testament documents were also eyewitnesses of Jesus's life, teachings, miracles, and his bodily resurrection from the dead.

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And most notable among the apostles then is Paul, who was an archenemy of Christianity.

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He was on his way to arrest, persecute, and murder Christians, he was heading up to Damascus when he had a run -in with the real

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Jesus. He becomes an eyewitness of the resurrection, and Christ calls him to be one of his apostles. So yeah, you kind of get the idea.

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So since Jesus proved his claim to being the one true God in human flesh by raising himself from the dead, there is no greater authority, living or dead, on the subject of the

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Bible than Jesus. There is no scientist, there is no modern scholar or biblical critic, regardless of the number of degrees he or she may hold, who can speak with greater authority on the subject of the

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Word of God than Jesus Christ. Therefore, kind of a challenge point here, if you call yourself a

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Christian or a Christ follower, then you would do well to pay close attention to what

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Jesus believed and taught regarding both the Old and the New Testament Scripture, and bring your thinking and your convictions in line with his.

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He is, after all, you know, the Lord of the Church. So here's Jesus's view of the Old Testament creation in Adam and Eve.

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So what exactly did Jesus believe and teach regarding the Old Testament stories? That's a fair question, right?

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Did Jesus consider them to be mere man -made mythological stories, or did he believe them to be accurate accounts of real events that took place in real history?

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Well, we'll answer these questions by first reviewing Jesus's thoughts regarding the stories concerning Adam and Eve.

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And you'll note that Jesus is going to have a wildly different view of the creation account than what we just heard

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John Pavlovitz give. So in Matthew 19, verses 3 to 6, the eyewitness biographer,

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Matthew, who also was martyred for the Christian faith, he records this exchange between Jesus and the

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Pharisees, Matthew 19, 3. The Pharisees came up to him and they tested Jesus by asking,

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Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? And Jesus answered,

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Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female?

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Whoops. And he said, Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, so they are no longer two but one flesh.

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What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. Uh -oh,

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Jesus just quoted Genesis 1 and 2 as if it's authoritative. So the topic that the Pharisees were testing

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Jesus on was marriage and divorce, and Jesus's answer tells us a lot about his view of the book of Genesis.

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First, Jesus points the Pharisees to Genesis as if it alone provides the authoritative answer to their trick question.

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And then Jesus quotes Genesis 1, 27 as if it literally meant what it said, God created him male and female, he created them.

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Then Jesus quotes Genesis 2, 24 as if it literally meant what it said, Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

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There was no equivocation on Jesus's part, no hint that he secretly believed that the opening pages of Genesis contain a man -made poetic creation myth, or that it was historically inaccurate.

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In fact, Jesus's answer makes it perfectly clear that he was a creationist.

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And not only that, he also believed, get this, that humanity, human beings, are made in binary genders of male and female.

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That's Jesus's view, right? So in fact, Jesus's answer makes it perfectly clear he was a creationist, and this should come as no surprise to anyone because Jesus is the

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God who is revealed in the Old Testament. I always like to put it this way, since Jesus is the

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Word made flesh, when we hear the voice of God in Genesis 1, let there be light, who was doing the talking?

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The Son of God. All right? So furthermore, Jesus's answer also reveals that he believed that Adam and Eve were literally the first two people that he created.

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So here's my challenge question. So if you call yourself a Christian or a Christ follower, yet you don't believe that the story of Adam and Eve is historically true or accurate, what authority are you basing this belief on?

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That's my question. By what authority are you coming to this conclusion? Is it right for you to call yourself a

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Christian or a Christ follower when your view of the scriptures is at odds with Jesus's views?

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See, Adam and Eve are not the only people that Jesus believed were real historical people and whose stories were accurately documented in the book of Genesis.

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In Matthew 23, verses 34 and 35, Jesus affirms the historicity of Abel and his murder.

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Abel was one of the sons of Adam and Eve, and it was his brother Cain who killed him who was also a son of Adam and Eve.

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And so Jesus affirms the historicity of Abel and his murder at the hand of his brother

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Cain. Here's what it says. So Matthew 23, 34, Therefore I send you prophets and wise men, scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of innocent

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Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Berechiah whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

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Look at that. The blood of innocent Abel. That's what Jesus said right there. So here's the point then.

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If the story of Cain and Abel were mere man -made myths and Jesus's claim that he would hold the

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Pharisees accountable for the blood of the righteous from Cain to Zechariah, sorry, from Abel to Zechariah would be simply meaningless.

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You see, after all, how do you hold someone accountable for mythological blood that was never actually shed because the person who supposedly bled it never historically existed?

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That's a little awkward, you know? So here's my challenge point. Having a lesser view of Scripture and denying that Adam and Eve were the first literal human beings created by God, denying that Cain and Abel existed and that their stories are accurately recorded in Genesis turns

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Jesus into a moronic buffoon. I mean, after all, according to the eyewitnesses, Jesus actually believed the

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Genesis accounts to be historically accurate and true. If they're not true, then Jesus is not

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God in human flesh. Instead, Jesus was nothing more than a tragically stupid and deceived religious nutjob.

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The same can be said about Jesus's view of Noah and the worldwide flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jonah and the big fish.

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And so I go through and kind of chronicle those things for you, but I also want to throw in a little more Jesus, if I could, because here's

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Jesus's view of inspiration. And we can find this for ourselves in the book of Mark chapter 7.

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This is a text I recently went to on a video we did regarding, you know, how the

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Pharisees viewed Scripture and their belief in what they called the Oral Torah that supposedly

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God had given to Moses up on Mount Sinai, and that was the basis of their man -made doctrines.

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But in this text, you can see Jesus's view of inspiration, and then we'll take a look at Peter and Paul just for good measure, because you'll note they're in complete agreement with Jesus.

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So in Mark 7, it says, Jesus didn't permit his disciples to obey the commands of the

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Oral Torah, otherwise known as the Tradition of the Elders. Yeah, it was a body of text, you know, a body of work.

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So the Pharisees and all the Jews, they don't eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the

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Tradition of the Elders. This really needs to be capitalized because it's an actual formal body of work. And so when they came from the marketplace, they did not eat unless they washed.

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And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.

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And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to the

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Tradition of the Elders, which is a body of work. But they eat with defiled hands, and now

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Jesus lays into them. And Jesus said, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you, you hypocrites?

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Now note here that Jesus actually believed that Isaiah prophesied about the

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Pharisees hundreds of years before there were Pharisees. Uh -oh,

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Jesus also believed in the supernatural. Can you believe that? Anyway, so he says, as it is written, this people honors me with their lips, and their heart is far from me.

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In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

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And that's kind of the problem with progressives here, is that they are making void the

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Word of God and teaching their own doctrines, as if somehow those come to the level of the actual commandments of God.

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So what does he say? You leave the commandment of God. You leave the Word of God. That's his point. And you hold to the tradition of men.

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And then he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God.

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Now watch where he goes with this. So in here, you can see Jesus' view of Scripture and its inspiration.

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So Moses is the one who wrote down the Torah. But note who Jesus says whose commandments people are rejecting by rejecting what's in the

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Torah. He says, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of who? God.

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Right? Uh -oh. Yeah. So in order to establish your own tradition, for Moses said, and notice what he says,

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Moses said, but he says this is the commandment of God, honor your father and mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.

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But you say, you say, if a man tells his father or his mother, whatever you would have gained from me is korban, that is a gift given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, and watch this, thus making void the

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Word of God by your tradition. Oh, he's talking about the Torah. And Jesus says it's the what?

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It's the Word of God. Hmm. So my immediate question is, why should

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I be listening to John Pavlovitz's alternative metanarrative regarding the

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Genesis, the history of the Bible, when it is at odds with Jesus's own view?

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Jesus says it's the Word of God. It's the commandments of God. To reject those commandments is to reject the commandment of God, which makes sense because Jesus is none other than God in human flesh, the

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God of the Old Testament, the one who appeared on Mount Sinai, that God in human flesh.

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All right? So, hmm, yeah, we've got some issues here, but let me throw in a couple more texts. In 1

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Timothy chapter 3, in 1 Timothy chapter 3, let's—oh, sorry, it should be 2

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Timothy. My apologies, little finger fumble there, you know, the memory isn't as sharp as it used to be when

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I was 20. All right, in 2 Timothy chapter 3, let's see here.

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Understand this. In the last days, there will come times of difficulty. People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, abusive, arrogant, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous—yeah,

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I pointed that out already—without self -control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, hmm, but denying its power.

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Hmm, sounds like a relevant magazine. Anyway, so among them are those who creep into households, capture weak women, burdened with sins, led astray by various passions, always learning, but never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

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Just as John of Zinjambres opposed Moses, watch this, so these men also oppose what?

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The truth. They oppose the truth. Ooh, it sounds to me like John Pavlovitz.

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He's one of these fellows that Paul prophesied would come around. Those who oppose the truth, uh -huh, and he's doing it in the name of God.

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Men who are corrupted in mind, disqualified regarding the faith, but they'll not get very far. Their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

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But you, however, young Pastor Timothy, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, which persecutions

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I endured, yet from all of them the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

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But as for you, continue in what you have learned, and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you've learned it, and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, ah, sacred writings, what would those be, grammata, the sacred writing, oh, you know, the

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Bible, the Scripture, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, and then watch

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Paul's view of Scripture, which is the exact same view as Jesus' view of Scripture.

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All Scripture is breathed out by God. All of it. Every portion.

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Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2

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Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, on down the line. It's all, it's all inspired. It's theanoustos,

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God -breathed, and it's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

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Well, that's weird. Paul doesn't have a different view of Scripture than Jesus, and Paul doesn't attack the

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Scriptures either. He maintains that they are theanoustos, and Jesus told us that what

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Moses wrote was the actual commands of God. That would include Leviticus. Just saying.

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Just saying. That's Jesus' view, man. So all that being said, let's take a look at another text.

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Peter, the Apostle Peter, he has a view of Scripture, too. And here's what he says.

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He says in 2 Peter 1, verse 16, We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for when he received honor and glory from God the

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Father, and the voice was borne to him by the majestic glory. This is a reference to the transfiguration. Excuse me a second here.

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This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, and we were with him on the holy mountain, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed.

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The what? The prophetic word? More fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

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No prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit. So, why should we listen to John Pavlovitz and all these other progressives who have, who despise, loathe, and hate, and created a lie of a narrative to undermine, impugn, and destroy the credibility of the

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Word of God, when Jesus, Peter, and Paul all affirmed that God is the one who is the single author of all the books of the

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Bible, despite however many different men there were that wrote those texts down?

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There is one single, unified author for every biblical text, and that's

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God, God the Holy Spirit. Yeah, that's just a little bit awkward, but I would note that Jude, the half -brother of Jesus, foresaw the days that we are in right now, and foresaw men like John Pavlovitz.

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And here's what Jude, the half -brother of Jesus, wrote, You must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

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It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, who are devoid of the Spirit. That's what the apostles prophesied and Jude recorded for us, and I would say that anybody within the visible church who is scoffing at and despising, loathing, and saying you can't listen to the

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Bible and how God has defined what is sin and is not sin, yeah, they fulfilled the prophecy of the apostles as recorded for us by Jude, in Jude verses 17 through 19.

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I think you get the point. So do I think that John Pavlovitz is somebody that we should be listening to?

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No. He's a Unitarian Universalist, denies the doctrine of the Trinity, and attacks, openly attacks the

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Word of God and its legitimacy, its authenticity, and its, well, authority to tell us and define what is and what is not right or wrong.

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You get the idea. So hopefully you found this helpful. If you did find this helpful, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description, and until next time, may

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God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.