Saturday, Feb 14, 2026
Below is a lightly adapted excerpt from my email to a friend who, at this writing, is following an author, podcaster, and professor who disputes Jesus’ history.
Good friend,
I read through your comments from the biblical critic’s presentation. Rather than address his points one by one, the most redemptive thing I can do is tell you my story.
I ran into the skeptical historical Jesus movement while at Fuller Seminary decades ago. Fuller is a Protestant seminary. My classmates ranged from Pentecostals to Episcopalians/Anglicans. I was the only one from my Nazarene tradition around. The professors were from a wide range of traditions, too. I entered, suspecting I'd find my Nazarene theology inadequate and might need to change traditions - or seminaries. But I found the opposite. While there, I discussed some Nazarene specifics with my professors and was surprised by their positive response. They helped me understand where my tradition fits in the Christian faith.
Fuller did not advocate for the historical-critical movement, but taught how it fit within religious teaching. I thought/think Fuller dealt with it honestly. At the time, biblical historical criticism was new to me and shook my faith a little. I think it's a given that proponents of the historical Jesus studies are, by definition, skeptics who intend to shake the faith of Christians.
I'm a fourth-generation Nazarene, which, along with the Wesleyan Church and the Free Methodist Church, sits at the center of the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. Several other denominations show significant similarities to these. The Wesleyan-Holiness movement began with John Wesley's work in 1700s England. He was an Anglican minister in the Church of England who had a moving personal experience of the Spirit of the resurrected Jesus in midlife that led him to launch a ministry for England's working class. He started preaching at the factory gates where workers left work to go home, and set up various social and educational services to serve working-class people in many very practical ways. Wesley never officially left the Anglican Church, but his work sparked the Methodist movement, which crossed the Atlantic and played a significant role in the early days of America's colonization. The Nazarene tradition (denomination) emerged when several Wesleyan-Holiness affinity groups, each with inner-city ministries to the poor, merged in 1908. It’s far from perfect, but it’s where my roots began.
Here's how we view the historical Jesus movement:
We respect historical scholarship but reject the skeptical reduction of Jesus to a merely human figure, grounding our confidence in Scripture, the resurrection, and the living experience of Christ’s sanctifying power.
We take history seriously, but not as our final authority. The historical-critical method, by design, brackets out the supernatural.
We center faith on the resurrected Jesus. Wesleyan theology is deeply experiential, grounded in the ongoing reality of Christ's presence and power in the present age.
We affirm the reliability of Scripture without requiring wooden literalism. That's one thing that separates us from fundamentalists.
We emphasize following the Spirit of the resurrected (living) Jesus and affirm the possibility of moral renewal. While the Holy Spirit is an important part of our Nazarene tradition, speaking in tongues is not, which is probably the main thing that sets us apart from Pentecostals.
We believe God did and continues to do miracles.
So, feel free to continue researching the historical Jesus, but please keep your mind open to the supernatural Holy Spirit showing up in your life, as many in our tradition will attest.
Blessings,
Tim