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- Well it's a very popular idea
that you hear and read everywhere.
Unfortunately,
looking a little deeper into the idea,
we see some problems.
But first, the reason people say this,
it's true in the ancient world,
there were gods,
or heroes,
who,
in some cases, are
reported to do miracles.
They, in a few cases, supposedly,
were born of a virgin.
They did exorcisms.
They,
in some cases, were
claimed to have been killed
and then raised from the dead.
We hear these stories and we say,
wow, that does sound an
awful lot like Jesus.
In fact, some try to say things like,
well, maybe the Jesus of the Gospels
is a plagiarism
of these
other ancient
stories.
The problem with all this is that
it denies some very simple
facts.
Number one, the history of Jesus
is profoundly different than the mythical,
and I would put it this way,
obviously mythical
nature of the pagan gods.
For instance, we live at a time when
even non-believing scholarship recognizes
the historical Jesus cannot be denied,
and, in fact,
not only did He live and die,
but He is recognized to be this
amazing figure from the
ancient world, such that,
even if you deny that He
worked miracles or any of that,
we know more about him
as a historical person
than anyone from antiquity.
Contrast this with,
say the Homeric
gods or heroes,
or any of the other Roman
gods and heroes from the past,
it's just a dramatically
different situation,
and, in the case of Jesus,
we indeed now find that
many non-Christian scholars
will even say things like,
it's apparent from these
amazingly early documents,
notice I'm referring to
both non-Biblical documents,
as well as the Biblical documents
we call the Gospels and
the New Testament letters,
that these are so early,
that even if you don't
accept them as the Word of God,
they are so early that they relate
eye witness testimony of a man,
that these scholars
who are not Christians,
will admit appears to have been
some kind of miracle worker.
We live at such a time that
His historical resurrection
is indeed one of the most talked about
features of historical
Jesus studies today,
and the majority, even of
non-Christian scholars,
recognize something so amazing happened
that they come up with counter theories
that are very similar to what
we've seen throughout history.
These counter theories
really become implausible
if you don't simply reject
the history because you are,
let's say, a philosophical naturalist
and you believe that
miracles are impossible.
On the one hand, we have the
problem of a historical person,
indeed the most influential
person in all of history,
documented by historiography
that transcends
anything that we have
from the ancient world,
that can only be rejected
precisely because
of a philosophical viewpoint,
not because of history.
contrasted with mythological figures.
But, secondly, the person of Jesus
is so profoundly different than
any of the other so-called heroes or gods
that we look at in
these other mythologies.
Let me give you a couple of reasons why.
First of all, his philosophical portrayal.
It's true that, for instance, if you read,
say, The Iliad or The Odyssey,
you will see that there are
miracles all over the place.
You will have gods say, for instance,
arguing with one another,
and those arguments will
lead to dramatic changes,
let's say, in weather
patterns on earth and sea.
The very real difference,
in the case of Jesus,
is that you see a world
that's much like our own,
wherein God's ordinary providence,
the seasons are as he promises
all the way back in Genesis.
They're regular, they
reflect His faithfulness.
But unlike the Homeric gods,
in which a hero is at their mercy,
and the weather patterns are
capricious and unpredictable,
the very real difference is
that the Jesus of the
Bible actually can change
these standard, reflecting
of God's faithfulness
type of weather patterns
because He is indeed God.
Very very different
philosophical portrayal,
unlike anything else in history.
Secondly, His teachings and His character
are so different than
anything else you see
in these ancient mythologies.
I would simply say to someone
interested in this subject,
compare and contrast.
Don't just take a general talking point,
but actually read
the Gospels and see what
that person of Jesus looks like
and then read one of the
so-called mythologies,
or pagan god stories, and see
if they sound at all the same.
And then I would argue
a better starting place
would be to read a book like, say,
Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ".
It's a good introduction to
the very issue we're talking about,
where you can see there
is very real scholarship
that supports the amazing
testimony Christians have
of knowing this raised Jesus,
in our prayer life, in
the way He changes us,
and most importantly, in
the way He forgives us.
- [Narrator] Thanks for
watching Honest Answers.
You can submit your questions by e-mail,
Twitter, or in the comment section below.
And don't forget to subscribe
to find out the answer to
next Wednesday's question.
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