05.02.06
The gospel according to Bill O’Reilly?
In case you missed it, ‘The Oreilly Factor‘ had a priest on the other day to address the claims that are being made about the recently released gnostic gospel of Judas. Usually Bill O’Reilly engages his guests in a hard hitting, fact -seeking interview, but this show would have been hilarious, if it were not so sad.
For starters, the ‘priest’ which Bill chose as his guest was of couse of the liberal persuasion (which is as difficult to find as dirty needles in a downtown alleyway) who wasn’t bothered by the claims of the ‘gospel of judas’. I am not bothered by those claims either, but for entirely different reasons. Bill O’Reilly discounted the ‘gospel of Judas’ and so did his guest because it is not a ‘historical’ document. Unfortunately, then Bill asserted that the 4 gospels of the New Testament of the Bible were not ‘historical’ documents either.
While his guest sat there tight-lipped, Bill went on to say that no serious scholar or theologian views the gospels of the Bible as authentic, reliable documents. He off-handedly referred to the ‘many contradictions, such as…
feeding the 5000 or was it 4000, Nicodemus shows up here one time, there another, one time up in a tree…”
Unfortunately, Bill showed his total ignorance of the scripture. Nicodemus was never portrayed as being up in a tree- that would have been Zaccheus…an entirely different person and place. Not having a good grasp of the scriptures is not a big deal…unless you claim to understand what it all means…which is what Bill went on to try to do. He said it isn’t necessary that the events of the Bible be ‘historically true’, but we need to see the ‘message of the story’. Like the whole deal with Judas is only meant to teach us not to love money…you know, the whole 30 pieces of silver, etc.
For any true believer, it should be obvious that the events and persons of the Bible DO matter. If the Bible can be reduced to a mythological tale, then all of Christianity is a total waste of time. Find a Christian leader or mentor that KNOWS their Bible, and believes that it is the inerrant word of God. Otherwise you will be led by the blind, and you know where scripture says you will both end up! Luke 6:39
