Pastor Dr. Kenny Rhodes

Kenny and Tami Rhodes

Children: Tajiana (8), Micaela (5), Kent (4)

Pastor Rhodes has a D.R.E. from Golden State School of Theology, CA and is a Ph.D. (c). in Theology & Apologetics  from Calvin School of Apologetics and Theology , Kerala, India. See also, Trinity School of Apologetics and Theology , Kerala, India. 

MODESTO BEE ARTICLE

The Bible isn't divinely inspired.

Questions about the existence of God are irrelevant.

Those are just a few of the controversial views shared last weekend by two visiting scholars from the liberal Jesus Seminar.

Robert Funk, founder of the Santa Rosa-based group, and Thomas Sheehan, a religious-studies professor at Stanford University, offered the comments at a two-day conference at Grace United Methodist Church on "Jesus Past & Future." About 70 people, most of them supportive of the group's views, paid up to $50 each to attend the event.

The Rev. Alexis Easton, pastor of the church, said she invited the scholars to town as a way to bring together people who have questions about the Bible.

"Christians and others who are interested in the historical Jesus need a chance to have a community."

Jesus Seminar members have been studying and discussing the words and acts of Jesus since 1985. Using colored beads, they vote on what they believe he actually did or said. Funk said the goal of the group is to be "ruthlessly honest" about what the Bible is.

"We simply have to give up the notion that the Bible is the word of God."

Most Bible scholars in secular universities and liberal seminaries long have agreed that the Resurrection wasn't a historical event, said Sheehan.

"Nothing happened on what we traditionally call Easter Sunday."

Sheehan believes that Jesus' followers made up the story about the Resurrection because they couldn't come to terms with his crucifixion.

"I would argue that the last historical fact in the life of Jesus was his death."

The Gospel accounts of the end of Jesus' life didn't appear until 40 years after his death, Sheehan said. He added that the details of the stories do not match.

Three of the Gospels, for example, refer to sightings of Jesus after his death, but the earliest version of Mark ends with women meeting an angel at the empty tomb. The women run away without telling anybody what they saw because they are too scared.

"You cannot make the Gospels fit together as a unified story," Sheehan said.

Matthew 27 contains an account of Jesus' death that defies belief, Sheehan added. In verses 52-53, it says: "The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people."

Sheehan questioned what happened to those dead people. He asked sarcastically during the seminar whether they went back to their homes and got back on their pension plans.

The professor believes today's Christians should be more concerned with helping one another and promoting social justice than thinking about the Resurrection. The old story doesn't make sense in today's world, he said.

"What kind of God is it that would demand blood atonement from his own son?"

Of course, millions of Christians worldwide still wholeheartedly believe the biblical account. The Rev. Kenny Rhodes, a Modesto minister who did not attend the Stockton conference, said he remains convinced that Jesus rose from the dead.

"When the New Testament was written, it was written with eyewitnesses still alive."

Rhodes, who heads Mable Avenue Baptist Church, pointed out that chapter 15 in 1 Corinthians, written only about 20 years after Christ's crucifixion, says more than 500 people saw Jesus after his death.

The pastor also is not bothered by the discrepancies in the Gospel accounts. Eyewitnesses to a crime routinely have different stories, he said.

"It would be rather suspect if (the Gospels) all agreed exactly and said exactly the same things," he said.

Both Sheehan and Funk said their speeches about the historical Jesus are not intended to rob people of their faith. Funk said he doesn't argue with people who are convinced of the Bible's literal truth. He said that interpretation simply doesn't work for him and other members of the Jesus Seminar.

"We are trying to salvage historical scholarship of the Bible."

When asked if he believes in God, Funk said he considers the question "obsolete." The major issue, he said, is whether people would change their ethics if there was not a God. If they wouldn't, the existence of God doesn't matter, Funk said.

Funk isn't sure what will happen to Christianity in the future. It's clear to him, however, that the religion's theology must be rethought to make it relevant to the modern world.

That's something that makes sense to Peter De Graaf, a Waterford resident who attended the conference. He believes Christianity today largely distorts the teachings of Jesus. He calls himself a "Christ follower" rather than a Christian.

"I think this (conference) is a step in the right direction, like Martin Luther, the church reformer, was a step."