Demythoogizing the New Testament or Gutting it of Supernaturalism Unravels the Whole Ediface

 

Gutting the New Testament?

I actually spent several years beginning around 2015 seeking to follow in the footsteps of theologically-liberal Christians like John Spong and Marcus Borg, going so far as to write a blog and website covering my attempt at a reconstructed Liberal Christian worldview. As time went on however, I began to realize that by essentially gutting the New Testament of most of its supernaturalism, I was turning it into the Jefferson's Bible or a kind of watered down pamphlet on Stoicism, like the teachings of Musonius Rufos (which offers comparable ethical ideals to that of the historical Jesus). In other words, I began to realize that I was no longer a "Christian" in any supernatural sense of the word. For not only had I stopped believing in an actual Adam and Eve, a Fall and need of an Atonement, but I had reinterpreted the Satan as only a metaphor representing real world phenomenon like the Dark Triad; and demons had become for me mere metaphors for mental illness and mythical villains, etc. In other words, I had deconstructed the Bible to be mostly a set of metaphors. Yet most Christians I encountered were in disagreement with my more metaphorical faith position, if not rather hostile toward it. I had thus allegorized myself out of Christian Fundamentalism.

You Can't Gut the New Testament of its Supernaturalism without the whole Structure Falling Apart

I began to realize more fully by 2024, that the Liberal Christian position is really an attempt to treat the New Testament (and in particular the Gospels) like a modern secular ethical text, comparable to the more rational, practical, and ethical worldview of Musonius Rufus; but the fact is the the New Testament is just way to full of supernatural craziness to be practically useful if interpreted seriously and honestly within the context in which it was originally written (and intended to be read and applied); for the crazy ideas like a literal Devil and demon possession and literal End-Times, are interwoven all throughout the entire book of the New Testament; so that you end up ignoring what the texts are actually saying when you want to treat the New Testament like a modern ethical text. In other words, rather than merely a bundle of sayings and ideas to just remind you to be kind and generous, etc., in actuality the texts are really mostly upholding the priestly caste of shaman-like figures like Paul claiming to channel the voice of dead ghosts. Paul was not a Stoic philosopher appealing to reason and Nature like Musonius Rufos or Marcus Aurelius. Paul was not teaching one how to be a good person and the path of the Good Life here and now. Paul believed all mortal life was going to be destroyed in his lifetime and very soon his Messiah was going to fly down from the sky and setup a utopian celestial government. For him, the Good Life could not be achieved on earth among mortals, for the earth and the Cosmos itself was controlled by the god of this world (a literal Devil) and a magical force he called Sin! So what most of the New Testament is actually about is becoming a Pauline saint (i.e. a set-aside, living sacrifice); and thus the aim is not our human future on earth but escaping this world through monastic self-denial and the death wish of martyrdom and/or hoping soon to be whisked away up into the sky to meet the Messiah in the clouds (during an immanent Second Coming).