Albert the Pious goes after a theologian trying to rescue Christianity from the obvious absurdities of the Bible.
At this point, Stanley goes on to amplify his concern with a Bible-based Christianity. “If the Bible is the foundation of your faith, here’s the problem: it is all or nothing. Christianity becomes a fragile, house of cards religion.”
And, as he states boldly, “it is next to impossible to defend the entire Bible.”
[ … ]
This is an apologetic disaster and would leave Christians with no authoritative Scripture. Instead, we would be dependent upon historians (among others) to tell us what parts of both testaments we can still believe.
Those parts will inevitably grow fewer and fewer. This is what must happen when the total trustworthiness, sufficiency, and authority of the Bible is subverted.
Honestly, this is among the most astonishing things Mohler has ever written — and that’s saying something.
Those parts [that “we can still believe”] will inevitably grow fewer and fewer.
This is exactly the character failure that ‘faith’ demands, and why faith is the root of so much moral error. Even as historians and others — Scientists? — “inevitably” shrink that portion of the Bible which is believable, Mohler will continue to insist upon the inerrancy of his ridiculous old handbook, will continue to preach for deference to the cult over family, will continue to condemn gays, lesbians, transgenders — all the … others.
What was formerly just sick is today indecent -— it is indecent to be a Christian today. And here begins my nausea. I look around: not one word has remained of what was formerly called “truth”; we can no longer stand it if a priest as much as uses the word “truth.” If we have even the smallest claim to integrity, we must know today that a theologian, a priest, a pope, not merely is wrong in every sentence he speaks, but lies — that he is no longer at liberty to lie from “innocence” or “ignorance.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Antichrist, §38
Christianity is dying, but not alone; all of the Abrahamic religions are on their way out. Anybody who pays attention understands, in this dismal election season, that reaction against the failure of Christianity dominates our domestic turmoils just as reaction against the failure of Islam dominates our international turmoils.
Whatever the outcome of this election, that will remain so for decades. Defeating the Abrahamic faiths, their inexhaustible hunger for degradation of anybody who isn’t as screwed-up as themselves, is going to be the work of the next century, just as defeating communism was the work of the last century.