Speculation and the Absence of True Scholarship

I just have to say that this is the kind of teaching so typical in the charismatic/word of faith movement. Firstly traditional scholarship (coming from those with true academic credentials) is dismissed out of hand as having missed the entire point of the passage. With that out of the way, with almost apostolic announcement, the “true” meaning of the passage is given. There is never a reference to other scholars who have come to the same conclusion. The teacher has spoken and all we hoped to understand is now revealed, and of course, the “revelation” leaves the listener/reader totally dependent on the charismatic teacher to understand this and any other passage.

Rick Renner (the man in the above video) writes, “Just about the time Jesus finished healing the ear of the servant of the high priest named Malchus, the Gospel of Mark tells us a naked young man was found in the Garden of Gethsemane. Mark 14:51,52 says, “And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: and he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.” Who was this young man? Why was he following Jesus? Why was he naked? Why was he draped in a linen cloth instead of wearing normal clothes? And why was the Holy Spirit so careful to include this unique story in Mark’s account of the Gospel? What is the significance of this event? Take a moment today and watch this short clip, I think it will really give you something to THINK ABOUT today!”

The two fold problem with all this:

1) The supposed insight he gives is the height of speculation rather than revelation. To use an analogy from the world of building construction – a sky scraper doctrine is built on a just a dime of real estate.
2) The conclusion reached is complete and utter blasphemy. In this case, Rick Renner states that Jesus raised a naked boy from the dead by accident! Yes! You read that correctly!

R C Sproul summed up the problem well: “Although tradition does not rule our interpretation, it does guide it. If upon reading a particular passage you have come up with an interpretation that has escaped the notice of every other Christian for two-thousand years, or has been championed by universally recognized heretics, chances are pretty good that you had better abandon your interpretation.”