The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 42 Issue: 24 - Thursday, March 24, 2005
If We're Questioning Christ, It Must Be Easter
Newsweek has posted its annual hit piece on Christianity, calling this year's effort, "From Jesus To Christ." I say, 'this year's effort' because they publish basically the same piece, year after year, under different titles.
Newsweek (and TIME,) scour the countryside for new 'experts' or different skeptics for each year's column, but the point and purpose stays unchanged; Jesus was a guy who was made INTO Christ by popular legend.
He was a failure and a fraud that was elevated to godhood sometime in the fourth century by the Emperor Constantine, etc., etc. yada, yada.
"First the Kingdom failed to materialize at the time of the Passion, forcing the disciples—at least the male ones—into hiding. Next came the initially mystifying Resurrection. Then came ... nothing.
"A central prophecy preached in Jesus' name, his Second Coming on "clouds of glory," failed to happen. "Truly, I say to you," Jesus tells his disciples in Mark, "there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power."
"And yet, as the decades of the first century came and went, the world wore on", concluded Newsweek.
"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2nd Peter 3:3-4)
The author had some real problems to overcome to make his case: "The uniqueness—one could say oddity, or implausibility— of the story of Jesus' resurrection argues that the tradition is more likely historical than theological."
"Either from a "revelation" from the risen Jesus or from the reports of the earliest followers, Paul "received" a tradition that the resurrection was the hinge of history, the moment after which nothing would ever be the same. "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain ..." Paul writes.'"
One problem, opins Newsweek, is that 2000 years have passed since Jesus and His untimely Death forced believers to make things up as they go. . . .
"At this distance, such passages are stirring and have the glow of victory about them, but Jesus can be confounding, and he forced the early believers to become masters of theological improvisation. "
Newsweek poses more questions than it answers, including references from the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. Writing about the time of the Destruction in AD 70, Josephus noted; "About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man. He worked surprising deeds and was a teacher .. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks ... And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, has not disappeared to this day." In a separate reference, Josephus writes of "James the brother of the so-called Christ."
No longer able to deny the historicity of Jesus, Newsweek takes pains to note that, "A good Jew of the priestly caste, Josephus is not willing to grant Jesus the messianic title."
Neither, evidently, is Newsweek.
Assessment:
Over the course of the last dozen years, the annual Easter assault on Jesus has changed. In the early 1990's Newsweek and TIME both questioned the historical existence of Jesus and the historical accuracy of the Scriptures.
But the growing mountain of archeological evidence, such as the discovery in Israel of the burial ossuary of Caiaphas ben Joseph, High Priest of the Sandhedrin, circa AD 37, and the discovery of a dozen graves from the first century marked with a cross and believed to include those of Martha, Mary, Lazarus and Mathias (Juda's replacement) have stifled those arguments -- or at least, put a dent in them.
Arguing against the historical existence of Jesus no longer credible, Newsweek began to run s annual Easter message attacking the historicity of His teachings.
For several years, the Jesus Seminar became Newsweek and TIME's preferred experts. Over the course of their existence, the Jesus Seminar has determined that 98 percent of the Bible's recorded sayings of Jesus were made up after the fact.
Of the Lord's prayer, the only words the Jesus Seminar attributes to Jesus Himself are the words, "Our Father."
That tactic is also losing steam as more and more of the Dead Sea Scroll document translations are being made public.
Having failed to overcome the historical evidence for the existence of Jesus, and unable to deny new emerging evidence of His ministry, this latest effort attempts to argue that Jesus was SOMEBODY, but even He wasn't aware of Who.
Imagine the uproar if Newsweek or TIME were to run a piece on Islam's high holy day questioning whether the Prophet Mohammed was nuts, or whether his followers were liars who made the whole thing up.
Imagine if Newsweek compared the Koran to the Old Testament in its quest to determine who the 'historical' Mohammed was.
For that matter, imagine a international news magazine like Newsweek or TIME running a column questioning the truth and accuracy of any other religion except Christianity?
A piece arguing Buddha never lived, for example, or poking fun at the Hindu god Vishnu, (or any other of the 320 million gods of Hinduism)?
So, what is there about Jesus that makes Him fair game when Mohammed is off-limits? For that matter, since secular magazines don't attack other religions, why is Christianity such a tempting target?
That is the thing about Jesus. One can have a civilized discussion about the relative merits of religion, even discuss some of the sayings of Buddha or debate the merits of Judaism or Islam.
But introduce Jesus into the discussion and the room is instantly polarized -- nobody is neutral about Jesus. One can quote Confucious without much fear of backlash, but quote Jesus . . . well, there is nobody reading this column that is unfamiliar with the kind of response that evokes.
The very fact so many question Jesus is evidence of His Deity. His Name is so far above all other names that its mere mention is enough to provoke conflict.
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
The world cannot understand Jesus, and so it tries to find ways to make Him fit into a pantheon of gods, instead of recognizing Him as the one True God. But, as the Newsweek effort proves again this year, it just can't be done.
"For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty." (2nd Peter 1:16)
Jesus is real, Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is coming again. Whether Newsweek believes it or not.
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