Christianity Today

James, you don't know that "fundamentalists are rich in ascent and shallow in faith." You obviously don't know any fundamentalists. You claim that Jesus lives in your heart through his Spirit, and yet deny that the books which tell you about Jesus and his Spirit contain the truth. You're own hermeneutic principle (other cultures consider miracles nothing but myths) tell me that the resurrection is a myth, so the Gospel stories about Jesus and his Spirit are myths as well. How do you separate myth from history? Most scholars at top schools deny the truth of the Gospels and some even deny that Jesus ever existed. So how do you know that the "spirit" you follow is the Holy Spirit and not an evil spirit?

@joseph--Great advice But your interpretation is unique and raises even more questions. For example, you have interpreted the resurre of mt 27:51 to accomodate your theory of inspiration and biblical authority. New Testament scholars i have spoken to claim its a theological statement and not a historical one. Plus, wouldn't any other NT writer or any other jewish or Roman historian think a wandering bunch of formerly living Jews is at least worth mentioning? The absence of the account suggests it's lack of historical factuality. Perhaps we disagree my friend but we do agree on the resurrection!

@JAMES DAUER: I, too, had questions about Matt 27:51-53, & instead of just throwing the question out without studying it, I found that it is in line with Christ's role as King, & that careful study shows that this particular event happened AFTER the Resurrection. Those that came out of the graves were OT saints, not necessarily old like Abraham, but those who died before Christ's ministry. Because Jesus "led captivity captive" (Psalm 68:18; Ephesians 4:8), taking those in the Paradise section of Sheol to heaven after His resurrection, & the Bible does not tell us these resurrected OT saints died again, we can logically deduce these saints were taken to heaven after "appearing to many" as well. Instead of complaining about things that may not make sense to you, it is best to actually study the verses, the linguistic context, historical context, the meaning of the original language, etc, along w/asking the Holy Spirit to provide interpretation (Ephesians 1:17; James 1:5). God bless.

Don't confuse mental ascent with faith in Christ. So many fundamentalists get reasoned into Christianity and their faith and then feel the need to be experts on apologetics in order to protect their faith for fear they will be reasoned out of Christianity. I am a Christian because Jesus lives in my heart through his Spirit not because someone gave me some facts to agree to. Angry, bitter, hostile fundamentalists exist because they are rich in ascent and shallow in faith.

I believe in the resurrection because when I heard the Word I was convicted by the Spirit and I said ‘Yes’ through the “Yes” of Christ as my representative. Subsequently I learned that Christianity is historically based. Gospels are written with the intention of providing details to history (place, location, e.t.c) but are written with sophisticated literary devices such as interlocutions, groupings, miracle mapping, arrangement of material e.t.c. I do not believe in Jesus because someone gave me facts to look at. Facts don’t lead to faith—they explain faith. That is the flaw of fundamentalism. Nobody believes in Christ because they discovered a prophecy, a 10000 year-old rock that proves Genesis is literally historically true, thus thinking the resurrection is true. Other religions do not convict me and lead me to believe in them so I didn’t convert to such religions. I maintain the Bible can teach through myth or allegory or parable and such stories are still true because the Spirit uses them to lead us to Christ.