Swapping truth with myth
One form of neo-Marcionism exists now in some British and American scholarly circles, and it dominates German New Testament scholarship. Rudolph Bultmann and his followers maintain that the gospel comes shrouded in myth and needs to be demythologized. In particular, say these men, we need to rid ourselves of the idea that salvation results from the verifiable actions of God in history. The essential characteristic of a myth is that it is a “religious truth” not grounded in real history. Therefore, salvation is punctiliar—it happens in a moment of personal existential encounter with God. Salvation, for Bultmann, has no connection to the Old Testament kingdom of God that reaches its climax in the revelation and work of Jesus Christ. All this Old Testament background is “myth.” The core of gospel must be stripped from its Old Testament context and worldview. Orthodox Christian scholars maintain against Bultmann that God prepared the history of the world by his sovereign providence. Th...