Did you see the article in the paper about it?

I know some of you did.

Things like this really shake some people up, and I can understand that. We tend to think "scholars" know what they are doing.

But, of course, they don't always.

The Jesus Seminar is a gathering of "Bible scholars" who set out to determine how many of the sayings of Jesus recorded in the scriptures are authentic.

Their result: 18%.

They determined this by sitting around in a group, with someone reading the sayings of Jesus. Members of the group would "vote" on the authenticity by dropping in little colored balls, with varying colors to determine varying authenticity.

Doesn't sound like an exact science, does it? This isn't brain surgery. And it doesn't sound "scholarly" at all.

And there's something we really need to know. Many of these "scholars" are actually just ardent biblical skeptics who have their own axes to grind.

One of the organizers of the Seminar, J. D. Crossan, is a burned - out Catholic priest who doesn't want to have anything to do with the Church anymore.

He wrote a book a few years ago on the Crucifixion, saying that the only truth in the scriptural account is the information that Jesus was crucified. The rest, he says, was made up by the Early Church.

Listen - you who are old enough - do you remember the day Mr. Kennedy was assassinated? Do you remember where you were - what you were doing - and the sequence of events that day?

Of course you do!

Traumatic events are etched indelibly into our minds.

The Crucifixion event would have lived on in detail in the minds of those first disciplies - and would have been told so often that no one could have substantially changed the story even if they had wanted to.

This is the way the mind works, isn't it? Don't we all have sense enough to know this?

Don't let that word "scholar" fool you. It means absolutely nothing when you hang it on someone who lacks the common sense God gave a goose. (I will be preaching on this on November the 9th. And I would love to see you there.)