It seemed to Marcion on his reading of the Bible that the God of the Hebrews was a bad God and that the New Testament God was a good God, so he solved his problem by throwing out the Hebrew Scriptures and making his own canon, consisting of most of the present New Testament. Eventually the church declared him a heretic and threw him out, but although Marcion is forgotten, his way of solving problems in Scripture is by no means gone. His precise variation is no more, but the basic method, resolving a problem by throwing out older revelation which seems to conflict with new truth, comes in countless varieties - and of breath-taking destructiveness. Today, some of Marcion's disciples misread the whole Bible and conclude that most of it is a bad Bible with a bad God, and they solve this problem by throwing out whatever they find inconvenient and making their own canon, just as Marcion did. But many others, including many who think they believe the Bible in every word, use countless variations of the same method, depending on the problem they are trying to solve.
Marcion's folly proceeded from his hatred of Judaism and the Jewish Scriptures, an example of how hating Judaism will make you stupid. But as far as I know, the beginning of his ways in Scripture is the dispute of the Pharisees and the Saduccees over the resurrection (Luke 20:27-40). They both set Moses and the Prophets against one another, because in their vast ignorance of Scripture they both agreed that the Law did not teach the resurrection. The Sadduccees stuck up for their reading of the Law to deny the truth of the resurrection, repudiating the authority of the prophets; the Pharisees asserted that the prophets had a superior revelation, thereby implicitly putting down Moses. The Pharisees absurdly agreed with the Saduccees that the prophets had invented the doctrine of the resurrection as a complete novelty, in contradiction to Moses - which if true would have been evidence that the prophets had spoken falsely.
This little episode in the gospels portrays the beginning of a system of folly which has come in countless devastating variations since, of which Marcion's was only one. In it we see all the main points:
1) Tom teaches a falsehood based on a misunderstanding of some
subset of divine revelation.
2) Jack knows that's wrong, but agrees that that divine revelation
teaches this falsehood, or at least does not support the truth. So
he supports his truth from some other source.
3) Tom stands by the original revelation, and rejects the new
source of authority.
4) Jack presses his claim by asserting the superiority of the
later authority, at least implicitly putting down the earlier authority,
and thereby confirming to Tom that Jack is an apostate and that the truth
Jack wants to prove is wrong.
5) Since both are arbitrarily, on their own authority, choosing
what to believe - and that is the essence of heresy - they reach an impasse.
A sterile trench warfare follows, nobody learns anything, and reconciliation
is impossible.
Jesus diagnosed the problem precisely. "You are greatly mistaken, because you know neither the Scriptures, nor the power of God." Considering the colossal ignorance of Scripture among us (at least in other people), and how little knowledge of God's power we show in our lives, it's no marvel that these two great problems should keep bringing forth endless variations of this great mistakenness. In general, those today who hold to the inerrancy of Scripture agree absurdly with those who despise its authority, and in their common adherence to the same lies, they reinforce each other's folly.
My trip to Lebanon drew my attention to all this in a fresh way, because there I met a slight mutation of the gospel original. I heard an Arab Christian agree with Israeli West Bank settlers that Moses teaches the tribal understanding that Israel was supposed to destroy people and seize their land for themselves, while only the prophets came up with the insight that all people were to be treated with justice and that ethical behavior is universal. To believe this, the Arab Christian and the Israeli settlers must ignore many things in Moses - for instance Jacob's attitude, even years later, toward Simeon and Levi's actions at Shechem (Nablus). I know the Scriptures in the Law that give the wrong impression to the inattentive, but a careful reading shows this to be nonsense - and doesn't loving the Lord with all our minds call us to read carefully? I address the teaching of Moses on this issue in a short paper to give a start to those who wish to dig deeper. The prophets taught as they did because Moses taught it first.
Followers of Marcion today in the same way mutilate the teaching of Jesus, notably in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus there contrasted the teaching of the Pharisees with the Law and the Prophets. But foolish men today ascribe the false teaching of the Pharisees ("You have heard it said") to the Law, while claiming that Jesus taught a new and higher standard ("but I say to you") - in the same way that the Pharisees conceded to the Saduccees that the Law taught no resurrection, even though it did, and claimed that the prophets taught something new and better.
But as Jesus specifically stated, He was not bringing a new teaching there. He was documenting His introductory assertion that the "righteousness" of the scribes and Pharisees fell far short because it was unfaithful to the Law and the Prophets, first stating what the scribes and Pharisees taught and then contrasting that error to what the Law and the Prophets teach. Whether people today want to obey what Jesus taught or find ways to wiggle out of it, the general consensus is that what Jesus taught contradicts Moses, and even that Jesus made that claim. In this way, in their great folly, they directly contradict Jesus and repeat the error of the Pharisees and Saduccees, who agreed that Moses did not teach the resurrection.
Here is a simple and valuable exercise. Take each teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount - on divorce, on murder and hatred, on love of enemies - and discover each one taught in Moses, just as Jesus claimed. He said to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. A good way to start heeding that warning is to learn how they were wrong about Moses and the Prophets, and how Jesus understood these writings better. Jesus taught as He did because the Law and the Prophets taught it first.
The sons of Marcion today teach that the Biblical creation account conflicts with the witness of created things, as discovered by modern science. In this the modern Saduccees commonly agree with them and dismiss modern science, often taking refuge in all sorts of absurd pseudo-science to prove folly which the Bible does not teach, since, like the Saduccees and Pharisees of old, they agree with their opponents that it does. Darwinian evolution has big problems of its own, and would have been abandoned long ago if Bible "literalists" had not been propping it up by making it look like the only alternative to their folly. In fact, a truly literal reading of Genesis 1 and 2 rules out 24 hour solar days and agrees perfectly well with the real scientific data - though not necessarily with speculations derived from it.
The sons of Marcion today teach that the Bible supports the suffocation and oppression of women, and go so far as to claim that Paul taught so himself. Unlike many of them, Paul noticed in Genesis 3 that Adam, not Eve, was responsible for bringing sin into the world and specifically taught that point in Romans 5. Paul always read the Bible with a view to seeing a way to let people in, not to put them down or shut them out, as we see clearly concerning the Gentiles: shouldn't that make people look a little more carefully at his apparently anti-female statements, as Moses looked at the apparent contradiction of a bush burning and not being consumed? Instead, the feminists often agree quickly with their adversaries concerning what the Bible teaches concerning women, just as the Pharisees and Saduccees agreed that Moses does not teach the resurrection.
The original example in the gospels was a specifically Jewish theological problem. Today as well, Israeli society is dangerously divided by specifically Jewish varieties of Marcionism. On a number of issues, not only the land and the settlements, Israelis are divided over the authority of Moses and the prophets because these have been hijacked by those who supposedly believe them, but who pervert them in order to impose odious beliefs. The usual response of the secular is again to reject the authority of Moses and the prophets, rather than to patiently and rigorously refute their perversion by the "observant." In general, the Law has been presented by the Orthodox as essentially about regulations concerning food, liturgy, and Sabbath obervance, and this perversion has led others to accept that understanding, at least implicitly, and to reject the Law altogether or to explain away its authority, even to the point of condoning sexual perversion.
The right response, as Jesus showed, is to accept the authority of the Law and show that it really is about loving your neighbor as yourself - that Hillel was right when he said, "Whatever is hateful to you, do not to others. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary."
It is not enough just to agree with Hillel in this, relying on his stature. That's no substitute for the hard work of proving him right. What should make this especially obvious is that those who actually believe Jesus of Nazareth to be the Son of God are still not persuaded by this to believe and do as He says in the Sermon on the Mount. People must be shown how He was making sense in order to follow Him in these things.
A beginning is to recall that God did not say anything about sacrifices and offerings, dietary laws, or liturgical observances in the day that He led the people out of Egypt. He said, "Listen to my voice." Micah the prophet summed it up thus: "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God." The Law had said earlier: "What does the Lord require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul?" in order in this way "to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes that I am commanding you this day for your good."
American Christians have the same sorts of problems. Those that uphold Biblical authority generally seem reluctant to address what undermines it in the minds of others. As in modern Israel, it is mostly because those who claim to believe the divine revelation are so foolish - so devoid of plain ethical sense, ordinary human compassion, and simple truthfulness. The religious people are as mistaken today as in the days of the Good Samaritan, when only the guy with the wrong theology revealed any sense of God's will.
Israelis get nowhere while the secular are confirming to the observant that they are right by treating Moses and the prophets with obvious contempt, while at the same time the observant prove the secular correct by teaching and behaving in such fashion as to be repulsive to everyone else. American Christians are in just the same impasse with American non-Christians. Just as Jesus unraveled this sterile theological deadlock in His day by teaching what the Law really says, whenever we see such an impasse today, we need to unravel it in the same original way by learning and teaching what the Bible really says.
Well, that's easy to say, but how do we do it? We have to recognize these truths:
1) When we're in an impasse, as in the question of Biblical authority,
everyone is wrong, somehow. No excuses! If we're right, we'll
put the foolish to silence like Jesus, and like Moses and the prophets
before Him. If not, "If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God."
2) We're in this mess, as Jesus said, because we know neither
the Scriptures nor the power of God. We need His wisdom and understanding
from above. If we settle for less or try to get it some other way,
we're saying in our hearts that God isn't there or won't help us - and
that's why we're without understanding. Return to (1).
3) "Come let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins
are as scarlet, they will be whiter than snow." As we learn to reason
with God, we will find that the prophets are right. We really will
see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and understand with our hearts so
that we turn and get healed - and get understanding. We no longer
have to stay stuck in these tangles that Jesus used to unravel all the
time - and still does.