Gungor and the Fallible Jesus

“And even if He (Jesus) was wrong, even if He did believe that Noah was a historical person, or Adam was a historical person, and ended up being wrong, I don’t understand how that would deny the divinity of Christ,”

“The point is it wouldn’t freak me out if He was wrong about it, in His human side.”

“Even if Jesus knew that Noah and Adam were mythical, but knew He was talking to people who thought they were real, that’s another possibility.”

-recent comments by Christian singer/songwriter Michael Gungor

Maybe this hits you hard; maybe you’re yawning and wondering “What’s the Fuss?”

And there is quite a fuss, evidenced by several posts about Gungor’s remarks, see for yourself with a quick google. Me, I think it’s a legitimate, necessary fuss, and I hope credible teachers and pastors will respond.

Not everyone shares my hope. I know some shy away from criticizing a leader’s public remarks, insisting we mustn’t judge or nit-pick, turn on our own, or become Pharisee busybodies, and Amen to all of that. To judge Gungor is to presume to know what’s going on inside him, or to render a verdict on his spiritual state, or his general value as a believer and a man. I won’t go there, and I hope you won’t, either. Likewise, to nit-pick is to major on minors, scrutinizing every little point someone makes, finding a tiny error on a secondary issue, and clamping down on it like a pit-bull chomping his unfortunate victim’s leg.

So OK, let’s not be, as my old friend used to say, Sin Sniffers and Flesh Finders. But when a prominent believer promotes wrong ideas about essentials – like the divinity and nature of Christ, or the accuracy of Scripture – then someone needs to cry foul, and loudly. Because wrong ideas on key issues promoted by people of influence can and should be criticized. To challenge a man’s words is never the same as attacking or judging the man himself, and no one in leadership is exempt from having her or his statements assessed in light of the Word. (The noble Bereans of Acts 17:11 surely ring a bell.)

Fighting Words

Gungor already raised hackles a few weeks ago by dismissing the idea of a six day creation, or of a flood covering the earth and all animals somehow navigating the ark and the aftermath. That caused a stir, largely because of his high level of influence. Gunger is a remarkably talented man, half of a remarkably talented duo, and has by all accounts blessed and upbuilt the Church with his artistry. Now, upping the stakes, he’s claiming poor Jesus wasn’t aware that Adam and Noah were myths, but hey, Christ’s ignorance hardly diminishes His divinity. Or, he muses, perhaps Jesus deliberately lied, knowing these Old Testament figures never existed but, in deference to His ignorant hearers, He referred to them anyway.

Let’s unpack this. If Jesus was misinformed about the scriptures, or about major characters within them, then His claim to have been one with the Father (John 10:30) pre-existing Abraham (John 8:58) the I AM who said “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14: 8-9)  – that guy was bogus. He said He was God but was, in fact, limited in knowledge, misinformed about the Torah, and thereby short on info and somewhat naïve.

Some God.

Or maybe He just had a problem lying. Perhaps, as Gungor suggested, He knew Adam and Noah were more allegorical than literal, but chose to refer to them as historical because – well, He fibbed.

God cannot lie. (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2) Jesus lied. So Jesus cannot be God.

Either way, some heavy essentials here are getting stomped: Jesus as a member of the Godhead, His sinless nature, His mastery of scripture, His honesty, Adam’s existence (and thereby the cornerstone of Paul’s essential explanation of the First and Second Adam, see I Corinthians 15) and the role of the supernatural throughout both Testaments.

Fully Human, Fully Divine, or Confused?

Compounding the error is Gungor’s wide eyed assumption that one can consider Christ divine while also believing He botched it on Old Testament history, or deliberately lied, leaving me wondering, despite my earlier objections to judging, whether the Alpha and Omega I worship is the same Jesus he’s referring to. Clearly, he and I at least have differing takes on what “divinity” means.

Gungor recently noted on social media that “there is a trend in modern society . . . an idolatry that elevates Scripture above Jesus.” I say baloney. In fact, I think the current trend goes in just the opposite direction, a shift away from respecting the authority of Scripture, and toward subjective, personal speculations. And that’s a foundation for the sort of chaos we saw in Israel when “every man did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)

Contrary to Gungor’ assertion, to defer to Scripture’s authority is to honor Christ, not to elevate anything above Him, because it was He, after all, who told His Father, “Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17) We are, in fact, in the Biblically ignorant state we’re in today precisely because so few modern Christians have applied themselves to serious study of the Word, while so many have avoided it in lieu of shallow entertainment or secular wisdom.

Responding, Not Reacting

In response to all of this, commenter Rick Zebro said on the Charisma Magazine website, “When God rebuked Job didn’t he say ‘Where were you when Gungor and I laid the foundations of the earth?’ How can we expect the eternal God to remember all the details of history? Thankfully we have Gungor to clear up any doubt.”

OK, I’d put it a little nicer, but his point’s very well taken: when any of us in leadership or laity dismiss essentials of scripture, we become a danger to ourselves and our hearers. When our words are damaging then clear rebuttal is needed, which does indeed constitute judging, but of a person’s words, not the person himself. So here’s hoping sound judgment will come, and that it will come from leaders with genuine clout, in love, with clarity, and soon.

Because either all scripture is inspired of God, as Paul told Timothy, or it’s not. Let’s not try having it both ways.