Parable of the Day (Dave Tomlinson)

March 21, 2008 By 5 Comments
Jesus told this parable to a gathering of evangelical leaders. ‘A Spring Harvest speaker and a liberal bishop each sat down and read the Bible. The Spring Harvest speaker thanked God for the precious gift of the Holy Scriptures and pledged himself once again to proclaim them faithfully. “Thank you God”, he prayed, “that I am not like this poor bishop who doesn’t believe your word, and seems unable to make up his mind or not whether or not Christ rose from the dead”. The Bishop looked puzzled as he flicked through the pages of the Bible and said “Virgin birth, water into wine, physical resurrection, I honestly don’t know if I can believe these things Lord. In fact, I’m not even sure if you exist as a personal Being, but I am going to keep on searching.” I tell you that this Liberal Bishop rather than the other man went home justified before God. For anyone who thinks he has arrived at his destination has hardly begun, and he who continues to search is closer to the destination than he realizes.’

From Dave Tomlinson, The Post-Evangelical (Zondervan, 2003) pp. 61-62.

Filed Under: Uncategorized 5 Comments
  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/06198312723247416995 Forthekids

    Hmmm….it’s obvious that Tomlinson, as he seems to admit, has no clue what he believes regarding the words of scripture. Apparently, though, he believes it’s perfectly acceptable to put words in the mouth of Christ. But then, he probably doesn’t think twice about that because obviously, in his opinion, all the NT characters made up endless stories about Christ and put words in his mouth as well.Why anyone would want to be called a “Christian” when they dismiss so much of what is written about “Christ” is beyond me. Why not just call yourself a follower of god? Makes much more sense, IMHO.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/03126711689901268060 Quixie

    dig that.:)

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/07711295082644210782 Juno Walker

    Hi James -I know your a LOST fan, so I thought I’d give a link to my LOST blog, if you’re interested. Here’s the link:L O S T, Hearts & Minds Juno

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/17131154882107531113 Qalmlea

    Awesome parable. And, ftk, is it more arrogant to assume a single interpretation is the only interpretation, or to be open to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be? To assume that you already know the truth and can stop looking or to keep your mind ready and open for whatever-may-be? To “put words into Jesus’ mouth” or to assume that you know exactly what every recorded word of Jesus is?

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/02561146722461747647 James F. McGrath

    What Tomlinson was trying to do was to give a version of the parable that would shock the self-proclaimed righteous of our time in the way the same would have been shocked by the parable in Jesus’ time. Modern readers know beforehand the Pharisee is the ‘bad guy’ and so do worse than merely miss the challenge of the parable – they assume the situation of the Pharisee by assuming they are the ‘good guy’!As for view of what it means to be a Christian, the problem I see is that you clearly have never studied the Bible in sufficient depth and detail to be aware of the issues. It is easy to claim to “believe the whole Bible” when one only really knows a few verses well, taken out of context.For some thoughts on history, honesty, Christianity and Easter, please do take a look at my latest blog post, which follows up on the earlier one about which you said simply ‘um…wow’, whatever that means! :)