Selecting which Bible verses matter shapes who evangelicals imagine Jesus to be

Evidence

Evangelicals claim to uphold the Bible as the highest authority in the Christian life, but there are more than 31,000 verses in the Bible. Which ones are considered essential guides to faithful Christian practice, and which are readily ignored or explained away? In like manner, when evangelicals define themselves in terms of Christ’s atonement or as disciples of a risen Christ, what sort of Jesus are they imagining? Is their savior a conquering warrior, a man’s man who takes no prisoners and wages holy war? Or is he a sacrificial lamb who offers himself up for the restoration of all things? How one answers these questions will determine what it looks like to follow Jesus. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 13

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to scholarship on selective biblical literalism (e.g., what evangelicals emphasize vs. ignore — think of the missing verses on wealth, divorce, or turning the other cheek).
• QUESTION: Which specific verses about Jesus-as-warrior get emphasized in the evangelical consumer canon vs. which are ignored?