Showing posts with label Rohrbaugh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rohrbaugh. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

New Reply to James Patrick Holding's unconvincing backpeddling

Since I began showing the world in 2008 what a piece of shit scumbag James Patrick Holding really is by reason of his absurd Harsh Language article, and other similar online screeds, he has changed the wording in that article several times.  I respond to it point-by-point below:

Printed from http://tektonics.org/madmad.php
As of 9/2/2017, Barry Jones, aka turchisrong, owes me $24,074.35. When is he going to pay his bills?
I'm never going to pay that bill.  You will simply a) update the amount each year, and b) suffer from incessant questions as to why Licona and other legitimately credentialed Christian apologists started wanting nothing to do with you soon after my libel lawsuits against you became public knowledge.  Jesus would never agree with you that because a secular judge awarded you fees, you must have deserved those fees.  Yet you hold up this granting of fees as if lower court judges are incapable of getting things wrong.  If you supplied to your followers ALL of the briefing that I filed and you filed which led up to that court judgment, they would notice that the judge ignored mandatory precedent numerous times.

But no, I'm sure that your drooling followers, so quick to presume you innocent and me guilty, find it more important to remain ignorant and thus comfortable, rather than educate themselves on what really went down, and thus take the risk of finding out this court judgment was immoral and unlawful.
The Christian and Harsh Language
There’s a particularly moronic notion that some people might come up with in response to what is below. They might ask if the Context Group (whose work I cite below) agrees with what I’m saying here, and think that actually is a meaningful question. It’s not.
Yeah right. Asking whether the scholar whose work you use, drew the same conclusion from his work that you did, this is a "moronic" question that is not "meaningful".  Are you drunk?  Dr. Rohrbaugh certainly thought it significant that you draw a different conclusion from his work than he did.  He said your article (the one I'm refuting right now) was a perversion of the New Testament, ALL Context Group work, and particularly a perversion of his own work.  The issue is why Rohrbaugh finds it so "obvious" that you have "perverted" Context Group scholarship, if in fact all you doing is drawing a different conclusion from it than he does.
The Context Group certainly agrees that riposte was the norm in Biblical times, which is the single and sole point that I derive from them.
 Which is to your disgrace, since you take what you 'derive' from them and use it to justify the type of slanderous talk that most mature Christian scholars quickly classify as sinful.  Rohrbaugh even said this article of yours was so bad, it didn't even merit a response, he said it would be a waste of his time.

And once again, it doesn't matter that riposte was normal in biblical times.  YOUR particular brand of riposte often involves sexually inappropriate slurs and is otherwise sufficiently extreme as to qualify as "slander", a thing the bible repeatedly prohibits (Mark 7:22-23, Ephesians 4:31), and lets not forget that Michael the Archangel did not bring a railing accusation against even the devil, 
  7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.
 8 Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.
 9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
 10 But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. (Jude 1:7-10 NAU)
 ...despite the availability of arguments that the devil so often publicly slanders Christianity that publicly slandering him back might constitute justified "riposte".
What they may not agree with me on is whether it is appropriate today. I don't disagree with their interpretations. I disagree with their applications. I don't draw conclusions about those applications from their research. I do that on my own. And if they think what I argue is a perversion of their work, then it's likely they've been grossly misinformed by a tendentious source that is giving them leading information to draw out a desired opinion.
No, there you are lying again.  You know perfectly well that the reason Rohrbaugh steamrolled you in 2008 was because I had emailed him a cut and paste from one of our debates where you were gratuitously insulting me in ways that mature Christian scholars find to be a shocking violation of basic NT ethics. 

For those interested, my 2008 correspondence with Rohrbaugh, including Rohrbaugh's comments to the effect that James Patrick Holding gives Christianity a bad name and is just a boor with no manners who doesn't deserve to be given the time of day, is publicly documented here.

Furthermore, in 2015, I emailed to Rohrbaugh a link to your "Harsh Language" article, and his reply email is the one where he said your "harsh language"  article was a perversion of the New Testament, Context Group work in general, and his own scholarship in particular.  This and more is all documented here.

Holding continues: 
But that said, so what if they don't like my applications? I would say in reply: That’s their problem, not mine.
So apparently, if a skeptic uses a "that's your problem not mine" excuse, you approve.
Last I checked, Rohrbaugh, for example, thinks the book of Nahum is too nasty and should be removed from the canon. That’s obviously a position I don’t agree with, and it's not a matter of intellectual deficiency for Rohrbaugh to hold that view since the key facts (such as that Nahum has harsh language) are not in dispute. Rohrbaugh's view on Nahum is a moral decision he makes based on his own preferences.
It's also a moral decision he makes as a person who has been a Christian for many decades.  Sorry, Holding, but you are going to have to say Rohrbaugh went for decades as a Christian without ever noticing that the bible justifies modern-day Christians to use sexually inappropriate slurs the way you do.  Rohrbaugh's long experience with and scholarly-level knowledge of the bible are also part of the reason he finds your slurs to be so devilish.

Or have you stopped slandering people now that your dark side was brought into light through the Courts, and you can no longer get away with posting filthy language online?   I have to wonder how many of your former mentally comatose followers started obsessing in Googling your name and mine, after I fucked up  your image over at theologyweb.
I do think those preferences are absurd, narrow-minded and out of touch.
What we learn from the world's foremost Christian apologist, then, is that even if we skeptics get our Ph.d's in some area of study associated with the sociology of the biblical world, and even if we also become Christians sufficiently that we end up writing scholarly tomes on the bible that are well-respected among bible scholars, we can still end up drawing conclusions that are absurd, narrow-minded, and out of touch.

Sounds to me like biblical issues are fatally ambiguous, thus justifying refusal to bother with that stupid bullshit, unless one does it solely as a personal intellectual hobby, like me.
I would even go so far as to say that such views about the canon are a perversion, and that Rohrbaugh is guilty of perverting the truth to that extent.
 That phrase wasn't included in your earlier editions of this article. But your late choice to say "perversion" appears to be biting back at Rohrbaugh, who himself was the first to use that word in this controversy, using it to characterize YOUR article. 

And there you are, the old J.P. Holding, returning insult for insult, doing exactly what the Context Group says constitutes a perversion of the bible and their own work.

What we further learn is that even if we skeptics accept Jesus, become educated in apologetics and then for 20 years thereafter operate a website that answers skeptical objections to Christianity, boasting of how scholarly we are the whole time,  we might still end up getting an "F" in Basic New Testament Ethics 101.

And the reason that often happens is because there is no Holy Spirit to effect spiritual growth in anybody in the first place. THAT is how you can be intensely involved in Christian defense for 20 years and yet miss the forest for the trees the entire time.
But the bottom line is: I agree with their findings, and I don't think they misinterpret the New Testament.
Well they sure said you "pervert" the New Testament.
However, I also don’t agree with all of their applications of those findings. There’s a huge difference, and very simple minds may not grasp that difference.
Then stop presenting biblical issues in the format of YouTube cartoons catering toward 40-year old adolescents, and maybe the juvenile delinquents who think you died for their sins will discover how the Holy Spirit kept Christians interested in his work for 2,000 years without needing internet bells and whistles and cartoon sound effects to overcome their inherent lazines, you stupid cocksucker. 
They also fail to grasp that it is quite possible for someone like Rohrbaugh to be judiciously informed on one matter while being profoundly ignorant on other matters. (This in contrast to fundy atheists, who are profoundly ignorant about just about everything.)
You weren't leaving room for Rohrbaugh to be "profoundly ignorant" on other matters back in 2008, when you were lauding his bible expertise and using some things he said to justify your slandering of other people.  Now that you've been steamrolled by the scholar you quoted the most for this stupid childish bullshit, suddenly, you remind the world that Rohrbaugh isn't perfect.  

Ha Ha, you are ANYTHING but a threat to bible critics.  And nothing spells "Emergency! Clam up! Emergency!" quite like your blocking my ISP from being able to access your website.  You are like the child during a fight saying "I'm not scared of you" while running away from the attacker.  You cannot escape the fact that talk is cheap; your actions speak louder than your words.
However, if any of the Context Group ever wished to argue that such language is inappropriate today, my reply is that they need to mind their own business and look past the rarified confines of academia.
And according to you that would also require that they abandon the basic morals they learned as children, and become willing to libel others in spite of the bible's many prohibitions against "slander".
Scholars like Malina and Rohrbaugh don’t spend any time confronting atheist idiots like DarkMatter2525 or NonStampcollector.
Probably because these well-qualified bible scholars have never seen any justification in the bible for spending their time confronting atheist "idiots".  So if you see such justification in the bible for this activity, the reader has to decide who is more likely to have gotten the biblical message correctly, qualified bible scholars, or one lone ranger on the internet who lost the support of his own favorite scholars when truth was brought to light in two libel lawsuits. Gee, that's a hard one.
They’ve never engaged in forum debate with lunatic fundy atheists who keep quoting Thomas Paine as an authority on the formation of the canon, or who have some sort of personality disorder and keep posting mile-long blog entries no one ever reads, or who have never done anything with their lives except work as day laborers or truck drivers and sit around collecting government checks and don’t have a job while they otherwise rack up huge six-figure debts they can’t pay off.
It appears you haven't learned your lesson perfectly, but you've certainly learned some of it.   Your subtle reserved language about me, and refusal to specifically mention my name, is in sharp contradiction to the demon-possessed three year old who was operating your website in 2015, and who slandered me hundreds of times over because of his psychotically narcissistic inability to recognize his own stupidity.  I was correct:  You are such an obstinate fuck, it really does take the extreme measure of kicking your head in, and causing you to associate pain with your stupid choices, to get you to calm down, since trying to convince you on a purely intellectual level is like trying to convince an alligator to repent and believe the gospel.  Your brain simply doesn't have the hard-wiring necessary to enable to you give a fuck about being wrong.  You missed your calling, Holding, you should have been a lawyer.  They too give a shit far more about how to trifle this and that, than about actual truth.
They also, not shockingly, never appeal to the Bible as authoritative justification for their views about modern behavior (because as the Nahum example shows, the Bible isn't their chief defining authority).
What skeptics learn here is that even if we became Christians and became as smart as Rohrbaugh, there is no guarantee we'd adopt the view of the bible God wants Christians to adopt...thus justifying the average unbeliever to say "fuck you" to any Christian challenge to learn biblical things.
They don't think Nahum is a good example for us. So of course the Bible isn't their final word as a moral guide.
And with all of your unbiblical slandering of other people, the bible apparently isn't your final word as a moral guide either.
It's also relevant that they aren't out there like the fundy atheists peddling their views deceptively and in gross ignorance.
Preaching to the choir.  You are scared blind of challenging me with any of your apologetics dogshit, you know you'll get steamrolled.  Most Christian apologists do not intentionally configure their website to make it inaccessible to certain people.  But you sure do.
If any Context Group member doesn’t think there’s a place for hard language today, good for them – they need to get out more.
If any internet apologist thinks there IS a place for hard language today, good for them --  they need to get out more.  Isn't  it funny that your excuses always sound stupid when anybody else use them? 
They are far from being my favorite Bible scholars, nor have I ever worshiped the ground they walk on; nor do I quote them the most on this website.
That's irrelevant, you weren't expressing or implying any of this backtracking in 2008 before you found out Rohrbaugh thinks you give Christianity a bad name.   I'm happy to infer from your constantly modifying this article that behind the scenes your followers have serious problems with you, sufficient to get you to constantly update this article. 
I respect their expertise and use it, but I can use the research of the Context Group even if they disapprove of my views and the way I apply that research.
The issue is not what you are "allowed" to do with somebody else's research.  

The issue is why the authors of that research complain that your use of their research constitutes an "obvious perversion" of it.  You cannot get rid of Rohrbaugh's Christian moral view by simply noting that somebody can be smart in one area and judiciously ignorant in another.  Rohrbaugh clearly thought your slanders were a violation of basic NT ethics, it was the equivalent of him feeling compelled to say that another Christian doesn't recognize that stealing is unbiblical.  One of you is not just in the wrong, but in the wrong so deep that it can only be explained by brick-level stupidity, or willingness to violate clear NT ethics.  I let the reader judge which extreme you are.
For the record, no Context Group member has ever written to me about any of this.
Because Rohrbaugh said a reply to your article wasn't worth his time.

The better question is whether you did the scholarly thing, and contacted Rohrbaugh to clarify his views about you.  In 2008, you pretended that you'd never contact him because he was too busy to worry about other people's personal problems, but on the contrary, Rohrbaugh's views of you are so low, he was effectively asserting that you sinned against him by "obviously perverting" his scholarship... just a modern way of making a claim that you are a false witness.  So unless you wish to go all the way into the liberal toilet and claim that even if you sin against somebody, there's no need to discuss it with them personally...then you don't have a choice, you have a biblical obligation to personally communicate with and seek forgiveness of, those who charge you with being a false witness.

And we all know that the real reason you didn't attempt any such contact is because you were genuinely fearful that Rohrbaugh would simply castigate you more and confirm that what I was putting out on the internet was accurate.
And if they ever did, I'd invite them to spend a few hours on YouTube and get some eye-openers.
That's rather stupid given that you've been made aware they think such conduct is wasteful.
But I don't expect they'd waste their time anyway. Rohrbaugh is in his 90s, and it is absurd to think that he or any of the other distinguished academics that are part of the Context Group spend any time trolling YouTube channels.
Good call.  It's more reasonable to assume only dumbfuck assholes who think of themselves as the center of the universe, would go around trolling YouTube channels looking for skeptics to refute.  Did you ever look in a mirror, or did your therapist insist that you need to start spending less time gloating over yourself?

Saturday, May 27, 2017

The bible scholars who condemn Holding for his childish name calling

I've already shown in prior posts that Holding's favorite bible scholars, those of the "Context Group", think Holding gives Christianity a bad name and they say that his use of their scholarship in his most intense effort to show biblical justification for insulting one's critics, was an "obvious perversion" of their work and of the NT itself.

This blog will be dedicated to providing the world with the news that Holding's worshipers don't wish to know, that well-qualified Christian scholars see no justification in the bible, whatsoever for modern-day Christians to verbally besmirch and shame their critics.
==================

As a result of my libel lawsuit against Holding, I forced him to reveal private emails he had sent and received from his friends and lawyers, which showed him libeling me like crazy.  In several, Gary Habermas expresses that he is glad that Holding is allegedly no longer engaging in "strong comebacks."


James White, Ph.d, is a 5-point Calvinist, author of many books,  and has been doing public debates with Christians and others for years.  When he critiques Holding in his article "How not to do exegesis", he disagrees with Holding's choice to start resorting to ad hominem attacks, and calls Holding a "nasty apologist", whom White will be glad to wash his hands of for good:
The man is a master at mockery of Christians—is that the attitude of one who is still “availing” himself of “further resources”? I think not. In any case, I will post my response, without referring to Mr. Holding’s ancestory, but only to his claims, as soon as I can. And then I shall be done with it, for while I have to engage the claims of nasty apologists from various groups, I do not have to respond to “evangelicals” who act in the exact same manner. 

Holding pushed his use of homoerotic illustrations to such extreme levels in his debate with Christian apologist Steve Hays, that Hays had to complain and rightly observe that Holding has a filthy mind:
 …As a flavor of the level at which Holding’s mind operates, his latest thread is charmingly headed: “Steve Hays needs to stop passing gas at his betters.” This is a specimen of Defendant’s recurrent obsessive-compulsive anal fixation.
…Defendant’s personal antagonism towards me is so extreme that he will pounce on anything I say simply because I was the one who said it. And by being so utterly reactionary, he backs himself into the most indefensible corners imaginable.
…This is not the first time that Defendant has taken a personal interest in my backside. Defendant would be well advised to resist his unsavory attraction so many homoerotic illustrations.    

Update July 19, 2017:  In April 2015 I emailed Daniel J. Kirk, Ph.d, who was then with Fuller Theology Seminary, asking whether he saw any biblical license for modern day Christians to insult their critics.  He said Christians who do that today are mindlessly imitating cultural norms that no longer apply, and sound like people who cannot be reasoned with:


 On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 12:19 PM, Barry Jones <barryjoneswhat@yahoo.comwrote:
Hello,

I am having some issues with a brother who tries to justify his public insulting of atheists by appeal to the social science work on the bible done by the "Context Group".
When this brother preaches to unbelievers, and they challenge something in the bible, he insults and belittles them.
I have tried to fulfill the Matthew 18 obligation to go to him in private, but he responds that in light of the social science work on the New Testament performed by the Context Group, the statements in the NT that seem to prohibit arguing or insulting those who criticize Christianity, must be interpreted in light of the honor/shame culture which produced them, which means the example of Jesus and Paul in insulting their critics publicly, is to be followed by Christians today.  He thus concludes that he has biblical justification to continually return "insult for insult". When I remind him that us modern-day Christians do not live in first-century Mediterranean lands, he just laughs and says we are bidden under 1st Corinthians 11:1 to imitate the ways of Paul and Christ.

I would like to know:

1 - Are you familiar with the work of the context group, and if so, how familiar are you with it?

2 - Do you find anything about the Context Group's scholarship on biblical honor/shame issues, which would support the argument that modern day Christians are biblically justified to insult those who criticize Christianity?   I have tried to email various members of the Context Group with this question, but the email addresses available on the web are either dead, or they are simply not responding.

3 - Can you think of any scholar of the NT who would support making the public insulting of skeptics, an exception to the "do not be quarrelsome" in 2nd Timothy 2:24?

4 - Do you feel there are any verses in the NT that prohibit modern-day Christians from publicly insulting those who publicly criticize Christianity?  I can buy that the NT allows a bit of witticism, but the brother whom I speak of literally "calls names" and uses euphemisms referring to the buttocks and spanking, among other such imagery, to describe what it was like for him to win an argument with an unbeliever (!?). I would have thought his whole demeanor was a simply case of the "filthy talk" that Paul prohibits, but maybe I just don't know enough about honor/shame mentality in ANE cultures to justify criticizing this brother?

Thank you for your time,
Barry Jones barryjoneswhat@yahoo.com

--- On Mon, 5/4/15, Daniel Kirk <jrkirk@fuller.eduwrote:
From: Daniel Kirk <jrkirk@fuller.edu
Subject: Re: your opinion of challenge/riposte
To: "Barry Jones" <barryjoneswhat@yahoo.com
Date: Monday, May 4, 2015, 1:32 PM
Barry, It sounds like you are up against someone who is not going to be reasoned with. There are verses that talk about acting in such a way that people see our goodness and honor God. Not sure those will help, though. The idea that the "context group" gives this kind of license is somewhat absurd. As you point out, the point of studying context is to learn about context--what worked and was assumed in theirs does not work and is not assumed in ours. We have to be faithful to the place we're called, not mindlessly imitating cultural norms that no longer apply. Peace,jrdk
---- J. R. Daniel Kirk
Associate Professor of New Testament
Fuller Theological Seminary
Menlo Park, CA

When Holding found out about this, he said my communication with Dr. Kirk was a good reason to report me for stalking, and since he was addressing me, his mortal enemy, he cannot seriously have expected me to take this as hyperbole or sarcasm, especially not since later he accused me of criminal stalking:
On Thu, 5/7/15, jphold@att.net <jphold@att.net> wrote:
Subject: Re: Fuller Theological Seminary thinks you are 'absurd'
To: "Barry Jones" <barryjoneswhat@yahoo.com>
Date: Thursday, May 7, 2015, 4:49 AM

Sounds like good reason for me to report you for stalking!

Again, in April of 2015, I emailed similar questions to D.A. Carson.  He replied that trying to dissuade today's Christian who goes around insulting others is a waste of time since the view of such a person will not be easily "corrected", that some Context Group work is exaggerated, they do their work as functioning atheists despite some of them being Christians, and that the NT does not support modern Christians going around ceaselessly excoriating their critics:


On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 2:23 PM, Barry Jones <barryjoneswhat@yahoo.comwrote: Hello,
I am having some issues with a brother who tries to justify his public insulting of atheists by appeal to the social science work on the bible done by the "Context Group".
When this brother preaches to unbelievers, and they challenge something in the bible, he insults and belittles them.
I have tried to fulfill the Matthew 18 obligation to go to him in private, but he responds that in light of the social science work on the New Testament performed by the Context Group, the statements in the NT that seem to prohibit arguing or insulting those who criticize Christianity, must be interpreted in light of the honor/shame culture which produced them, which means the example of Jesus and Paul in insulting their critics publicly, is to be followed by Christians today.  He thus concludes that he has biblical justification to continually return "insult for insult". When I remind him that us modern-day Christians do not live in first-century Mediterranean lands, he just laughs and says we are bidden under 1st Corinthians 11:1 to imitate the ways of Paul and Christ.

I would like to know:

1 - Are you familiar with the work of the context group, and if so, how familiar are you with it?  From what I can gather through google books, they say much about honor/shame mentality in the biblical times, but they never draw the conclusion that modern-day Christians should publicly insult those who publicly criticize Christianity!  Did I miss something?

2 - Do you find anything about the Context Group's scholarship on biblical honor/shame issues, which would support the argument that modern day Christians are biblically justified to insult those who criticize Christianity?  I have tried to email various members of the Context Group with this question, but the email addresses available on the web are either dead, or they are simply not responding.

3 - Can you think of any scholar of the NT who would support making the public insulting of skeptics, an exception to the "do not be quarrelsome" in 2nd Timothy 2:24?

4 - Do you feel there are any verses in the NT that prohibit modern-day Christians from publicly insulting those who publicly criticize Christianity?  I can buy that the NT allows a bit of witticism, but the brother whom I speak of literally "calls names" and uses euphemisms referring to the buttocks and spanking, among other such imagery, to describe what it was like for him to win an argument with an unbeliever (!?). I would have thought his whole demeanor was a simply case of the "filthy talk" that Paul prohibits, but maybe I just don't know enough about honor/shame mentality in ANE cultures to justify criticizing this brother?>
Thank you for your time,
Barry Jonesbarryjoneswhat@yahoo.com 
--- On Tue, 5/5/15, Carson <carson.aa@gmail.comwrote:  
From: Carson <carson.aa@gmail.com
Subject: Re: your opinion of challenge/riposte
To: "Barry Jones" <barryjoneswhat@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2015, 7:22 AM
Dear Mr. Jones,  
The Context Group is a collection of biblical scholars who study (mostly) the New Testament using social-scientific methods, such as sociology, anthropology, and the like. Whatever their personal beliefs, they do their work as functioning atheists (even though some of them are not personally atheists). One of the things they emphasize, partly rightly and partly in an exaggerated way, is the role of shame in the first century as opposed to guilt. Those of us who work in East Asian countries sometimes today see something of the same shame-culture.  

I would argue that in the Bible, sin generates both guilt and shame. The West has in recent centuries emphasized the former; East Asian countries emphasize the latter. Both categories are biblical, and both are rightly addressed in the gospel.  

If someone were really concerned to operate within a shame culture, it seems to me they would be wise not to bring shame on those they are addressing, but to bring truth with Christian integrity and love. To bring someone shame in a shame culture is among the unkindest things you can do.  

Biblically, there are clearly some places where both Jesus and Paul excoriate opponents with a certain amount of animus designed to elicit both shame and guilt. I think it is possible to learn when and why they do so. In other instances, however, many passages demonstrate that their more common demeanor was rather different. For example, Jesus is the one who will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoking wick.  

Frankly, I would not waste much time trying to convince your friend. It sounds as if he has adopted a pretty rigid stance that will not easily be corrected. Instead of spending your energy trying to correct him, spend your energy trying to bear faithful and fruitful and loving witness to the wonder of the gospel to those who do not know Christ.
With all good wishes, Yours faithfully,
D. A. Carson
Research Professor of New Testament
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
2065 Half Day Road, Deerfield, IL 60015  
DAC:da

Again, in April 2015, I emailed to bible scholar Craig Blomberg the following questions about whether the bible supports modern-day Christians who insult and belittle their critics:
    From: Barry Jones
    Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 7:57 PM
    To: Blomberg, Craig
    Subject: questions on 2nd Timothy 2:24-26

    What is your opinion of modern day Christians who persistently insult critics of Christianity?
    
    I noticed that you yourself never attempt to characterize your winning some debate about the bible, by using euphemisms that describe the sexual parts of the human body, and you never use insulting rhetoric, when you communicate with unbelievers or heretics who criticize the faith.  Are these things missing from your demeanor solely by reason of personal preference/choice, or are they missing because you believe that the bible without exception forbids Christians acting like that?
    
    How would you respond to the argument that "because Jesus and Paul insulted critics of Christianity, this is license for modern Christians to do the same?"
    
    It is my opinion that when 2nd Timothy 2:24-26 says "the Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all...", the "all" includes unbelievers who criticize and attack Christian faith.  Do you agree or disagree, and please provide your reasons.  Some Christians have given me what appears to be very tortured exegesis in the effort to argue that this passage is consistent with their daily ceaseless persistent foul-mouthed insults against skeptics and atheists.  They say I only disagree with them because I don't know enough about honor/shame cultures or the ANE to speak on the subject.  I'm certainly no scholar, but I don't see anything in the scholarly literature about the ANE or honor/shame cultures, that would justify saying this passage is consistent with modern day Christians who routinely insult and belittle atheists and skeptics.
    
    Are you familiar with the work of the "Context Group" (i.e., Malina, Rohrobough, etc)?  If so, can you think of any contribution to biblical studies they ever made, which could reasonably be taken to support the idea that the New Testament approves of Christians who daily and routinely insult their critics?  I certainly appreciate their work, and most of it is not even hinted at in standard protestant commentaries, but I also cannot, for the life of me, find anything in their works that would suggest biblical justification for modern-day Christians routinely insulting unbelievers who attack Christian faith.
         Thank you,
         Barry Jones.
 Dr. Craig replied that those who act like this today, do a fair amount of damage to the Christian cause, and that he is not aware of anything in the Context Group scholarship of Malina or Rohrbaugh which would provide justification for modern Christians to insult and belittle those who publicly criticize Christianity:

From: "Blomberg, Craig" <Craig.Blomberg@denverseminary.edu>

To: Barry Jones <barryjoneswhat@yahoo.com>

Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2015 7:14 PM

Subject: RE: questions on 2nd Timothy 2:24-26



A thorough study of the NT discloses that Jesus and Paul consistently reserve their harshest criticisms for the religious insiders to their movements (Pharisees, Judaizers) who are overly conservative and should know better but are unexpectedly solicitous to outsiders in hopes of wooing them into the kingdom.  Unfortunately some modern-day Christians precisely invert those priorities and usually do a fair amount of damage to the cause in the process.  No, I know nothing about Malina and Rohrbaugh’s work that would justify what you describe.
I responded with a few follow-up remarks and further questions:

From: Barry Jones <barryjoneswhat@yahoo.com>
To: "Blomberg, Craig" <Craig.Blomberg@denverseminary.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2015 11:02 AM
Subject: Re: questions on 2nd Timothy 2:24-26

Mr. Blomberg,

Thank you for your response.

Just a few quick followup questions:  How familiar are you with the work of Malina and Rohrbough on the subject of honor/shame cultures?

Is it your opinion that there is absolutely nothing in the New Testament justifying those modern-day Christians who routinely insult and belittle the atheists who criticize Christianity?

How exactly would you respond to the argument that, because Jesus and Paul insulted those who criticized Christianity, this constitutes license for modern-day Christians debating atheists, to imitate this behavior today?

Can you think of any Christian or non-Christian bible scholars who have ever opined, either publicly or privately, that the New Testament justifies modern-day Christians in insulting those who oppose Christianity?

What is your opinion of an interpretation of a bible verse that has indirect scholarly support, but no direct scholarly support from any bible scholar?  Is it pretty safe to conclude that such interpretations are so unlikely to be correct, that we can safely dismiss them without argument?  It is my opinion that because there is so much scholarship out there, the idea that one person should come up with an interpretation of a passage that seems to have been missed by every single bible scholar on earth for the last 200 years, is so far fetched that they are on the order of Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the "cult" stuff claiming to see things in the bible that everybody else has somehow missed, and we do far better for believers and unbelievers to simply dismiss immediately such interpretations.

I once had a Christian attempt to get away from the "do not be quarrelsome" in 2nd Timothy 2:24-26, with the following argument:  that passage is not addressing Christian conduct taking place in public forums, or places where the speculators are trying to spread their ideas, it is instead addressing one-on-one relationships.  Do you agree with that interpretation?  does the "all" in the phrase "but be kind to all" include unbelievers who criticize Christianity?  If so, can you think of any biblical exceptions to the rule requiring Christians to be kind to unbelievers who criticize Christianity?

As a foremost authority on the gospels, can you think of any gospel passages that, in your opinion, absolutely prohibit today's Christians from insulting those who oppose Christianity?

What is your opinion of the argument that, even if we cannot initiate the name-calling, we are allowed to return insult for insult when and if the atheist critic we deal is the one who starts the name-calling?

Do you believe that modern-day Christians who routinely resort to harsh insulting language against critics of Christianity, are clearly sinning with this kind of talk, or would you rather say that the circumstances the Christian is in when using  insulting rhetoric, decide whether the name-calling constitutes sin?
 Blomberg's final reply indicated that he felt negativity was to be reserved solely for ultra conservative Christians who need to be rebuked, and that any bible interpretations that lack support from any bona fide scholars are likely false:
From: "Blomberg, Craig" <Craig.Blomberg@denverseminary.edu>
To: Barry Jones <barryjoneswhat@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2015 12:18 PM
Subject: RE: questions on 2nd Timothy 2:24-26

I answered several of these  questions explicity or implicitly in my previous response.  I don’t care to expand on it much  One can never make absolute statements about Scripture never justifying insulting behavior.  The Twelve are to shake the dust off their feet for those who reject them.  But, in general, we do much better to be positive, except to the ultraconservative Christian who needs to be rebuked. Interpretations that no bona fide scholars anywhere support are likely to be suspect because detailed scholarly studies will have canvased them already.
From: Barry Jones <barryjoneswhat@yahoo.com>
To: "Blomberg, Craig" <Craig.Blomberg@denverseminary.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2015 1:00 PM
Subject: Re: questions on 2nd Timothy 2:24-26
thank you for your time.
 Mr. Holding's magnum opus, that Christians of today have biblical authority to go around ceaselessly insulting their critics with shameful belittling vituperation, is not agreed to by ANY "bone fide" legitimately credentialed Christian scholar.  So under Blomberg's own criteria, we have full rational warrant to be suspicious, at the least, that Holding's view of the matter is false, and yet, true to form, Holding prances around like an attention-deficit peacock, screaming at the world how obviously correct he is and how "dumbass" and "moronic" anybody who disagrees with him is.

See my open letter to Blomberg, asking how he can reconcile his reasonable normative view with his continuing to show sympathy to Holding after my lawsuit exposed Holding's egregious unChristian libels and defamation of my character (such as accusing me of crimes I did not commit, to the point of him filing a frivolous police report against me, which the investigator refused to take seriously.)

Jason Engwer doesn't appreciate the strong justification for skepticism found in John 7:5

Bart Ehrman, like thousands of other skeptics, uses Mark 3:21 and John 7:5 to argue that Jesus' virgin birth (VB) is fiction.  Jason Eng...