Evangelical Alliance response to the Channel 4 documentary scheduled for Christmas Day
21 December 2006
It’s Christmas, and true to form, Channel 4 has slotted a controversial programme on Christianity into its evening programming for the big day.
The Secret Family of Jesus, hosted by lecturer and broadcaster Dr Robert Beckford, claims to tell the story of Jesus’ real human family and why they were “airbrushed from history and excised from the Bible.”
Beckford looks at the belief that Mary Magdalene and Jesus’ family were undermined by the early church, with Paul winning the power struggle for control of Christianity.
“What’s now clear is that the very earliest Jewish Christians, including Jesus’ own family, didn’t see him as God and ultimately, that is why the Church has gone so far to delete them from the Christian story,” he says.
But Beckford still concludes that, as a Christian with a personal experience of Christ, he believes Jesus is God, saying that the “greatest conspiracy in Christian history” is losing sight of Jesus’ original human message: speaking out against injustice and oppression, His moral code and heralding the Kingdom of God on earth here and now.
Joel Edwards, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, says: “There are no surprises from Robert as he chips away at the core features of the Christian message. “Debates about the juxtaposition of Paul with the apostles are as old as the hills.
“Contrary to Robert’s allegations, the one sustainable abiding truth of early Christians was the highly exalted and unique view of Jesus as God, which was the benchmark for orthodoxy.
“We’re so pleased that Robert himself ends his own convoluted arguments by emerging with an orthodox consensus.
“We say a loud ‘hurrah’ to this – and so would millions of Christians around the world and the increasing numbers of people flooding to church over Christmas to hear the message of Christ dwelling among us.
“We applaud his case for justice, which is also part of my Christmas message.”
The Evangelical Alliance statement of faith says: “We believe in the incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ — born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.”
Ends
Joel’s Christmas message can be downloaded.
Further information on some of the issues highlighted in this documentary can be found by visiting Re:Jesus, reading The Meaning of Jesus, by NT Wright or looking at Da Vinci Code resources and articles listed below:
Is there more to Jesus' life than the Gospels tell us?
Jesus : beyond the New Testament
Da Vinci Code: Film Review
Da Vinci Code: Evangelical Alliance Statement
Media Contact:
Bill Shaw / Lucy Cooper
Evangelical Alliance
020 7207 2115/ 2107
b.shaw@eauk.org / l.cooper@eauk.org
Notes to editors:
The Evangelical Alliance UK, formed in 1846, is an umbrella group representing over one million evangelical Christians in the UK and is made up of member churches, organisations and individuals. As part of a movement ‘uniting to change society’, the Alliance promotes unity and truth, acts as an evangelical voice to the state, society and the wider Church, and provides resources to help members and other evangelicals live out their faith in their communities.
