Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19970219.htm

MARK: GOSPEL OF THE SERVICE OF CHRIST, GOD'S SERVANT
Part XLVII: Discerning How To Counter Classical Liberal Mishandling Of Scripture
(Mark 12:18-27)
  1. Introduction
    1. Liberal Theology denies not only Christ's deity and Scripture's inerrancy, but Creation account miracles are replaced with naturalistic, evolutionary explanations. Some Evangelicals have yielded to this evolutionary thought to appear scientifically credible; they assert that the "days" of Gen 1 are really ages of evolution via 2 Peter 3:8's claim that a day is as a thousand years with God. (Bib. Sac., v. 151, Num. 602, p. 174)
    2. Well, the Sadducees of Jesus' era similarly promoted natural explanations in their theology: (1) the resurrection was disbelieved as they thought man's soul did not exist after death; (2) they denied the future judgment (3) and the existence of angels and spirits, Acts 23:6-8. (Bible Know. Com., N.T., p. 162)
    3. Christ's response to them examples for us how to counter such errant theological tendencies:
  2. Discerning How To Counter Classical Liberal Mishandling Of Scripture, Mark 12:18-27.
    1. The Sadduccees with naturalistic presuppositions came to Jesus to try and trip Him up, Mark 12:18-23:
      1. Not believing in the resurrection since they denied the existence of the soul after death, the Sadduccees questioned Jesus to trip Him up were He even to admit there was a resurrection, Mk. 12:18.
      2. Their question was this: if a woman who had seen seven consecutive husbands die were to have all of them resurrected by God, wouldn't God thereby put her into a sinful adulterous situation by making her bigamo us, so doesn't this situation prove that there cannot be such a resurrection? (Mark 12:19-23)
    2. Jesus' response to the Sadduccees points out two glaring errors of Sadduccean theology:
      1. First, such a theology fails to comprehend the extent of God's miraculous POWER, Mark 12:24c-25:
        1. Presuming that God's miraculous powers were not at work in the world, the Sadduccees had overlooked the idea that were God to raise the dead, He could make their bodies asexual, 12:24c-25
        2. Jesus pointed out this presumptive error that underestimates God's POWER, Mk. 12:14a.
      2. Second, the Sadducees had misused SCRIPTURE to form their conclusions, Mark 12:24b,26-27:
        1. As the Sadduccees felt only the Pentateuch was divinely inspired Scripture (Ibid.), Jesus referred to the Pentateuch passage of Ex. 3:6 where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, 12:26b.
        2. In that passage, God declared that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now we know from Genesis 25:8-10, Genesis 35:29 and Genesis 49:28-33 that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob respectively had all died and been buried before God spoke to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus 3:6.
        3. Jesus argued that if God was still their God in Exodus 3:6, these men existed while DEAD, 26b-27.
        4. This was a powerful rebuttal to the Sadduccees, for it undermined their reason for denying the resurrection, which reason was that they thought there was no longer anything to raise after death. Jesus showed that the souls of these men were still very much in existence, though not with the body.
    3. Finally, Jesus stated that these Sadduccees greatly erred, Mark 12:27b!
Lesson: To discern if a party errantly appeals to natural explanations for Scripture's words as does Liberal Theology, (a) see if the party underestimates the supernatural ability of God to produce what Scripture claims to occur. (b) Also, see if he misuses Scripture.

Illustration: (a) Often, theistic evolutionists, like Liberal Theologians or Sadduccees underestimate God's power: without a currently understood, natural explanation, they cannot accept how light from stars billions of light years from earth can reach us now were creation limited to seven consecutive solar days only 15,000 years ago! (b) Also, note if he mishandles Scripture: ((a)) contrary to theistic evolution's assumptions, Genesis 1's 6 "days" each CONSIST OF an "even ing" and a "morning", negating the possiblity of "age" for the word "day" there (1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31); ((b)) also, the seventh weekly solar day of rest ordered in Ex. 20:8-11 is built upon the precedent of these Gen. 1 "days". Were the "days" in Gen. 1 really ages, God would have been deceptive to say the least in the Ex. 20:8-11 explanation of these Gen. 1 days.