Reasons > Scholarship > Scholar or Myth Maker?
Scholar or Myth Maker? Yes! History of Scholarship Amateur Scholarship
Con: J. Z. Smith Con: AD Nock Con: BM Metzger Sourcebooks
Con: Habermas
Scholarly?  ...not so much
Not all scholarship is serious scholarship

"We require that an accepted applicant be an evangelical believer in agreement with our doctrinal statement."

"The Bible, consisting of all the books of the Old and New Testaments, is the Word of God, a supernaturally given revelation from God Himself..
Talbot School of Theology
Scholar William Craig 
Talbot School of Theology

Here's where we are. We're discussing scholarship about Christian origins. On this page I'm going to show you how to re-think current apologetic "scholarship" not as evidence driven scholarship, but as myth. Modern myth.

The Scholarship Myth
Here at POCM, "myths" are the stories people tell when they start with the answer and fill in "facts" to match what they know to be true. Away back in bible times Paul and Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John understood what a God was, and they thought Jesus was one. So when they told stories about Him, they naturally included the God properties He must have had. Divine father, mortal mother. Prophecies, powers. Reads minds. Lives in the sky. Like that. It happened in that order. First people thought Jesus was another God, then they told stories about His God properties.

Modern Christians do the same. They start off knowing Jesus is real, and then they tell stories about Him. As they tell their stories, they invent facts that make the stories come out they way they know they must: Jesus is real.

Modern myths can be hard to spot, because modern believers fill in their Jesus stories with "facts" that line up with modern ideas we ourselves believe. Let me show you what I mean. Two modern ideas Christians nowadays use to fill in their Jesus stories are scholarship and science.

Scholarship at Hillbilly Bible Colleges
Consider the "scholarship" of two luminaries of the apologetic debate circuit.

Distinguished Research Professor Dr. Habermas, PhD, MA, BCE holds an Appointment teaching in a PhD Program that admits student-scholars only after they've signed an oath affirming that they don't need no stinkin scholarship.

Jesus is real. The bible is true. Ok, now lets scholarize.

Dr William Craig, PhD, DTheol, is Research Professor of Theology at an outfit that admits student-scholars only after they've signed an oath affirming that they don't need no stinkin scholarship.

Jesus is real. The bible is true. Ok, now lets scholarize.

"Liberty University, PHD in Theology & Apologetics
Personal Statement, Doctrinal Agreement

We affirm that the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, though written by men, was supernaturally inspired by God so that all its words are the written true revelation of God; it is therefore inerrant in the originals and authoritative in all matters.

I have read and hereby affirm that I am in substantial agreement with the doctrinal statement of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary...

"Welcome to Talbot School of Theology Admissions
Talbot School of Theology has a history of strong evangelical Christian commitment and holds firmly to the inerrancy of the Bible. We require that an accepted applicant be an evangelical believer in agreement with our doctrinal statement.

When you read the "scholarship" of Dr. Gary Habermas, PhD, MA, OBE, Chairman of the Department of Philosophy & Theology at Liberty University, the Largest Christian University in the World...

... and when you read the "scholarship" of Dr. William Craig, PhD. DTheol, Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, a Part of Biola (Bible In Los Angeles) University...

...you're reading the work of scholars who are not ashamed to start with a result, do some scholar stuff and end up, get this, right back up at the result they started with.

Can I get an "Amen"?