Religious language that requires to be continually modernized by a process of demythologizing or deliteralizing is no substitute for the New Testament Gospel which is grounded in facts - the fact of Christ’s resurrection which authenticates His incarnation (Romans 1:4). The centrality of Christ’s resurrection and incarnation for the Christian Gospel is made clear in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 15:3-11, 14, 17, 20; 1 John 4:2-3). Any interpretation of the Christian message which calls for a demythologizing or deliteralizing of the language of the New Testament must face the question of whether such an interpretation is not essentially founded on a denial of the basic facts of the Gospel. While the Gospel must be interpreted for each generation, we must take care that we don’t present an interpretation which is essentially a denial of the facts, for then we would have no Gospel to interpret.
