Arizona Superman has a reputation for coming up with really good metaphors and here I shall endeavor to compete.So the "Tough Question" for you this time: Since stories of people with the same characteristics of Jesus' life pre-date Jesus' life by hundreds of years, do you really believe those were invented by the devil to fool Christians, or is it possible - just possible - that the story of Christ has been created, or embellished, with the characteristics of stories that have existed for a lot longer than his story has?
A man on a long road trip has covered about 200 miles and notices that his fuel is beginning to run low. Finding the next opportunity, he exits and pulls into a filling station. Groaning at the price, he goes about refilling his tank.
Only seconds later, another car pulls in, parks, and the driver gets out and accosts the man, saying, “I have been driving behind you for the last 150 miles. You did all the same things I did, only sooner. You changed lanes right before I did. You merged from one highway to another right before I did. Clearly, you are following me from in front and I want to know why.”
We will come back to this in a moment. But first, please consider the following characteristics:Who am I describing?
- Mothered by a virgin
- Born in a humble setting
- Birth announced by stars
- Birth attended by wise men
- Birth coinciding with announcements from on high that a blessing has come to the poor world
- Hunted as a child by tyrants
- Grew up to perform miracles
- Met with a violent death
- Lay dead for three days
- Rose from the grave
Most Christians will be very quick to blurt out a very obvious answer. Some will hold their tongues in trepidation, reasoning quite correctly that this question is too obvious and therefore must be a trap.
But let’s not kid each other here. Eleven characteristics I have listed and on each one, the very same obvious figure occurred to you. You know it, we know it, we all know it, so no one’s fooling anyone here. The real question here is what other more obscure figures might be so described [with those eleven characteristics]?
In fact, there are quite a few: Osiris, Baccus, Hermes, Mithra, Lao-tse, Fo-hi, Rameses, Apollo, Samson, Baldur, Hercules and Quetzalcoatl, every last one of them born three days after the winter solstice; a date indicated on our calendar as December 25.
Now when Christianity first began, the Pagans noticed this similarity and asked the Christians about it, and the response they received was that the Devil had foreseen the birth of Christ and forged these various imitations in advance, in order to mislead humanity sow seeds of doubt. I will now remind you of my previous metaphor. Who is more likely following whom?
TOUGH QUESTION FOR CHRISTIANS # 31:
DID SATAN INVENT GOD-MEN STORIES HUNDREDS OF YEARS BEFORE JESUS, OR IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE LIFE OF CHRIST WAS CREATED OR EMBELLISHED USING PRE-EXISTING STORIES?
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Why do you think Christianity lasted and those religions that might have come before Christianity, that talked of the same things, didn't last?
ReplyDeletePopularity does not equal right or true.
ReplyDeleteI think it is fairly funny that you use a character from the bible (Samson) to rebuke the life and death of Christ.
ReplyDeleteI also did some research on the characters you used in this video and could not find one reference to when they were born let alone to be so precise as to depict them as three days after the winter solstice or December 25th as claimed in the video. The Julian calendar was not in force until 46 BC (which was eventually replaced by the Gregorian calendar in 1582)and it is impossible to to say a precise date prior to then. Yes there were calendars prior to the Julian calender but with so many problems with then that they cannot be counted as a reliable source of date setting.
The next thing that I find wrong with your argument is that the prophesies about Jesus's coming were foretold hundreds of years prior to his birth. Such as the virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14) written 700 years before Jesus. Grew up to perform miracles Isaiah 35:4-6.and tortured for our sins Isaiah 53: 1-12. Every 66 books in the bible has teachings about either the coming of Jesus, the life of Jesus, or the return of Jesus.
The last item is the belief that the teachings of Catholicism (where most of the pagan practices come from)has anything to do with true biblical teaching. Catholic teaching is not even close to true Christianity that they should not even be associated with then. They should and are referred to by many as cultist.
True Christians celebrate Christmas as a day set aside to remember His birth but not because of His actual birth.