This article is in response to a series produced by ProfMTH of Youtube called Brief Bible Blunders… In his first episode entitled ‘Where are you going?’ – Profmth uses verses from John chapters 13-16 in an effort to make Jesus look like an idiot. Let’s review the passages he used in his video…
John 13:33 Jesus says – Where I am going, you cannot come.
John 13:36 Peter asks – Lord, where are you going?
John 14:5 Thomas asks – Lord – we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way?
John 16:5 Jesus says – Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
Now then, ProfMTH has painted quite a comedic conversation between Jesus and His apostles… in the video he adds a lot of witty dialogue and flashy little graphics… no one can fault ProfMTH on his production values – but its obvious that he has learned that a well polished presentation can do a lot to gloss over a poorly presented argument… ProfMTH’s obvious goal was to take a stab at Christ and the Bible but there is a reason the professor had to jump around 3 chapters in order to get to his punch line… and thats because it isn’t very funny when you realize what is being said in context… lets take a look…
John 13:33-38 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Here – Jesus indirectly answers Peter without giving specific details, though He assures Peter that he will follow Jesus to this place later… Peter protests – only to learn of how he will deny Christ three times before the rooster crows… obviously – the answer is a little deeper than a simple black and white answer…
As the conversation continues, in John 14:5-6 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Again – Jesus answers the question a little more deeply by explaining that He is the Way! The way to what? The place He is going? What place is that? The place where the Father resides!
John 16: 5″Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
Oh – how clever was the professor here? Not clever enough… in fact – if you want to get down to brass knuckles – one has to wonder if the Professor teaches his classes in such a dishonest fashion. First – lets look at John 16:5-6 and verse 16, I am jumping around a bit myself for the sake of time – but I implore you to read John chapters 13-16 for the complete context of this situation…
“Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
Jesus wasn’t suggesting the Apostles hadn’t asked Him previously about where He was going… in fact – in verse 6, Jesus acknowledged that because of the answers He had given them already that they were filled with grief… but is that it? Did the Apostles ever get what Jesus was saying to them? Check out John 16:17-22
Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
Jesus finishes explaining to the Apostles – answering questions they dared not bring to Him directly… In verse 25 He says “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ”
As was the case with the parables Jesus told – He would often share truth in a way that only those who were His could understand… as the time of His crucifixion grew closer – He began speaking more clearly – why?
The answer is in verse 33…
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
So lets quickly recap – using the technique of jumping around verses in chapters 13-16 of the Gospel of John- such as the professor did:
Jesus says – Where I am going, you cannot come.
Peter asks – Lord, where are you going?
Jesus replies “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asks, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answers, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Thomas says – Lord – we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way?
Jesus answers, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus later says: Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. (Jn 16:4)
This so-called Bible Blunder looses that comedic style and insulting quality that ProfMTH shot for in his video when one gets the whole story… And lets be honest – leaving a video out there like that without an explanation of the story in context is truly – deceptive – isn’t it? How many people will walk away from his video thinking – ah ha! I can trust this video because a professor made it – and it shows us Jesus was an idiot? How many? The answer is too many. For shame ProfMTH – I certainly hope you teach your classes with more integrity than this.
This entry was posted on February 14, 2010, 12:49 am and is filed under Commentaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Answering ProfMTH’s Bible Blunders #1
This article is in response to a series produced by ProfMTH of Youtube called Brief Bible Blunders… In his first episode entitled ‘Where are you going?’ – Profmth uses verses from John chapters 13-16 in an effort to make Jesus look like an idiot. Let’s review the passages he used in his video…
John 13:33 Jesus says – Where I am going, you cannot come.
John 13:36 Peter asks – Lord, where are you going?
John 14:5 Thomas asks – Lord – we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way?
John 16:5 Jesus says – Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
Now then, ProfMTH has painted quite a comedic conversation between Jesus and His apostles… in the video he adds a lot of witty dialogue and flashy little graphics… no one can fault ProfMTH on his production values – but its obvious that he has learned that a well polished presentation can do a lot to gloss over a poorly presented argument… ProfMTH’s obvious goal was to take a stab at Christ and the Bible but there is a reason the professor had to jump around 3 chapters in order to get to his punch line… and thats because it isn’t very funny when you realize what is being said in context… lets take a look…
John 13:33-38 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Here – Jesus indirectly answers Peter without giving specific details, though He assures Peter that he will follow Jesus to this place later… Peter protests – only to learn of how he will deny Christ three times before the rooster crows… obviously – the answer is a little deeper than a simple black and white answer…
As the conversation continues, in John 14:5-6 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Again – Jesus answers the question a little more deeply by explaining that He is the Way! The way to what? The place He is going? What place is that? The place where the Father resides!
John 16: 5″Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
Oh – how clever was the professor here? Not clever enough… in fact – if you want to get down to brass knuckles – one has to wonder if the Professor teaches his classes in such a dishonest fashion. First – lets look at John 16:5-6 and verse 16, I am jumping around a bit myself for the sake of time – but I implore you to read John chapters 13-16 for the complete context of this situation…
“Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
Jesus wasn’t suggesting the Apostles hadn’t asked Him previously about where He was going… in fact – in verse 6, Jesus acknowledged that because of the answers He had given them already that they were filled with grief… but is that it? Did the Apostles ever get what Jesus was saying to them? Check out John 16:17-22
Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
Jesus finishes explaining to the Apostles – answering questions they dared not bring to Him directly… In verse 25 He says “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ”
As was the case with the parables Jesus told – He would often share truth in a way that only those who were His could understand… as the time of His crucifixion grew closer – He began speaking more clearly – why?
The answer is in verse 33…
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
So lets quickly recap – using the technique of jumping around verses in chapters 13-16 of the Gospel of John- such as the professor did:
Jesus says – Where I am going, you cannot come.
Peter asks – Lord, where are you going?
Jesus replies “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asks, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answers, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Thomas says – Lord – we do not know where you are going. How do we know the way?
Jesus answers, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus later says: Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. (Jn 16:4)
This so-called Bible Blunder looses that comedic style and insulting quality that ProfMTH shot for in his video when one gets the whole story… And lets be honest – leaving a video out there like that without an explanation of the story in context is truly – deceptive – isn’t it? How many people will walk away from his video thinking – ah ha! I can trust this video because a professor made it – and it shows us Jesus was an idiot? How many? The answer is too many. For shame ProfMTH – I certainly hope you teach your classes with more integrity than this.
This entry was posted on February 14, 2010, 12:49 am and is filed under Commentaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.