For those of you who couldn't find it and want to read the article from
Focus on the Family, here it is.


   April 5, 2004
   'Jesus and Paul': A Review

   by Tom Neven

   Peter Jennings' latest religious special is filled with the
   anti-Christian touches that have become his trademark.

   This three-hour TV special is pretty much what we should expect from
   Peter Jennings. Some of the usual suspects John Dominic Crossan, John
   Spong, Elaine Pagels, Paula Fredriksen (she was one of the chief
   critics of Mel Gibson) and Robert Funk (founder of the Jesus Seminar)
   get prominent roles. There's only one obviously conservative
   commentator, Ben Witherington of Asbury Theological Seminary, although
   a few others seem to hold to an orthodox view of Scripture in places,
   at least.

   The underlying worldview of the special is unbelief. Nowhere is Jesus'
   divinity mentioned, and nowhere do they discuss the inspiration of
   Scripture. In fact, Jennings repeatedly refers to "the Jesus
   movement," as if it were just another political party or faction.
   Commentators also pit Paul against Jesus, as if the apostle taught
   things that contradicted Jesus; and some refer to Paul as "the founder
   of Christianity."

   One device used throughout is "some scholars think . . ." or "scholars
   debate . . ." In such cases, the conservative, orthodox position, if
   represented at all, is usually as a throwaway.

   Among other sticking points:

   The special uses Joan Osborne's song "What If God Was One of Us?,"
   which asks what would happen if God was "a slob like one of us"
   "riding on a bus, trying to find His way home."

   In describing the world that Jesus was born into, one commentator
   says, "Jesus would have heard about a Messiah." Jennings follows by
   asking a hypothetical question in Jesus' words: "Hey, maybe I'm the
   Messiah." Jennings also says, "Scholars debate whether Jesus knew he
   was the Messiah."

   There's a strong element of the social gospel throughout.

   One scholar asserts that the High Priest had Jesus arrested solely to
   avoid Pilate's wrath. He was not arrested for blasphemy, according to
   Jennings. Talking about Jesus in Gethsemane, Jennings says, "Jesus
   would have understood that he was in danger," and another says of
   Jesus, "It would have occurred to him, 'I might die tonight!' "

   Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane is cut short, making it seem that all he
   prayed was, "Take this cup from me," leaving out "but not my will, but
   your will." Crossan says, "Jesus was worried about self-preservation."

   Jennings takes the position that Judas was not a real person, saying,
   "Many historians don't believe it."

   One commentator says of Jesus' death, "He gave His life for the least
   of these. If we turn Him into the eternal sacrifice for sin, that sets
   aside so much of what was important to Him." (This follows a
   discussion of Jesus' willingness to mix with the poor, sinners and tax
   collectors.)

   Jesus is spoken of as a political revolutionary and compared to Gandhi
   and Martin Luther King Jr.

   The apostles "claim" they saw the risen Jesus.

   Crossan questions whether Jesus was buried at all, claiming that He
   would have been left on the cross to rot or be thrown down to be eaten
   by dogs. He says, "I feel terribly sympathetic to the followers of
   Jesus, because I hear hope there, not history."

   Jennings pretty much denies Paul's Damascus Road experience, asserting
   that his conversion was a process, not a blinding moment.

   The entire second half of the program is fixated on Paul's belief that
   the world was about to end. While that is generally true, it is used
   as a prism to view all of his other teachings. Nowhere does salvation
   by grace or the law's having been fulfilled by Jesus come up. In fact,
   Paul's assertion that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised is
   treated strictly as a pragmatic move, something to make adult males
   more likely to join "the Jesus movement." Commentators also say that
   he constructed a new theology because it "works."

   Paul is accused of embellishing and distorting Jesus' "message." One
   pastor says, "Paul saw himself as Jesus on earth."

   The program spends an unwarranted amount of time on the spurious
   Gospel of Thomas, nowhere mentioning that it is filled with the
   Gnostic heresy. (Why are liberals so preoccupied with the Gospel of
   Thomas, by the way? It treats women much worse than Paul is alleged to
   do in his epistles.)

   One commentator says, "People have taken Paul's letters as if he meant
   them to be some kind of blueprint. We do not know if Paul intended
   Christians to live by these rules 2,000 years later."

   Accordingly, there's a strongly implied message that the biblical
   teaching on homosexuality should now be abandoned. Jennings contrasts
   Fred Phelps (who spreads the message that "God hates fags") with
   Mother Teresa.

   Copyright © 2003 Focus on the Family.
   All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

References

   1. LYNXIMGMAP:http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0031543.cfm#citlink2