A One-Two Punch
/“Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.”—Matthew 22:29
In major cities the past few years tourists and shoppers have been the victims of “the knockout game.” A street thug will approach an unsuspecting victim, usually from behind, and simply knock the victim to the ground with a sucker punch. The victim does not see it coming and usually ends up unconscious or otherwise seriously injured. The Sadducees tried to play “the knockout game” with Jesus by approaching him in a crowd and asking seemingly difficult, out of the blue, blind-siding questions, not unlike the intellectuals of our day do with Christian students. Secular university professors, media commentators and celebrities use their pulpits to preach that God is irrelevant in the pursuits that really matter—academics, business, science and politics. One may have a privatized religion that may bring some semblance of comfort to the individual; however, it is merely the same comfort that the mythology of the Greeks and Romans brought to their citizens. The Bible may provide personal comfort and may even contain moral truths, but it is not historically, scientifically or even philosophically reliable and thus not applicable in any discipline of academia.
At The Abbey, students in The Worldview and Apologetics class are constantly reminded that if the Bible is not true everywhere, then it is not true anywhere. The Abbey faculty are committed to The Bible as the basis for epistemology, for knowing. Secular educators, however, refuse even to acknowledge the possibility that the Bible could be relevant to knowing. Jesus was never blind-sided by the Sadducees. He was ready for them. With a one-two punch, He knocked out these learned men, the theologians of the day, 1) with not understanding the Scriptures and 2) with failing to recognize His power. How that rocked the Sadducees on their heels and delighted the common people who saw the Sadducees as the heavyweight fighters of the day! Jesus exposed them as the lightweight, street thugs they actually were.
Notice the Sadducees were the intellectual elite AND the theologians of the day. In our time not only are the secular university professors and media elite heaping doubt on the reliability of the Bible, but also theologians and some well-known, Christian leaders often claim the Bible has little to do with science, philosophy, government, art, etc.
The Abbey students currently are investigating what scripture has to say about origins. Secularists are constantly trying to knock out the trustworthiness of the Genesis account because it is foundational to everything found in the Bible from why clothes are needed (sin brought shame) to the need for Christ and the foreshadowing of His death and resurrection (Genesis 3:15). The question of origins is foundational to every doctrine of the Christian faith.
Yet, today’s Sadducees include many popular Christian leaders, pastors and especially national speakers who have caved on this foundational issue, as well. Recently, during class discussion I mentioned that I, as a six-day creationist, am in the minority even among Christians. I noticed several of the students looked at me in disbelief since most of our students come from families who teach Genesis as literal history. So, I asked them to poll three people about their views on Genesis in the various Canon City churches our students attend. Several students came back shocked to report that congregants and elders and even some pastors of otherwise biblically solid churches do not hold to an historical view of the origins account in Genesis.
We seek to guarantee that upon graduation our Abbey students will not get blind-sided either by the Sadducees “knockout game” in their churches and Christian colleges or by the thugs in secular institutions. We seek to train them to deliver the one-two punch of the power of Scripture and the power of God.
- Bill Jack