Answers To Tough Questions

Below you will find a public exchange between myself, a Christian, and

an atheist, who uses the screen name PHOTO ONE on the PC-Link network.

She made some serious charges against Christianity, which I present

first. My responses followed, and I thought this might help you in

some way. My responses were taken from a book by McDowell and Stewart,

titled: "Answers to Tough Questions". I hope you find some use

for this material.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Subj: Religion is a myth.

From: Photo One

Posted on: PC-Link

Christianity is just an old myth. Jesus never existed.

The Bible was written centuries after the events took place and

cannot be relied upon because so many people changed it. There

was no concept of recorded history during that time period.

Nobody recorded history. It's all fake.

Christians are all united in their belief in Christ, and

that's about all they are united in.

Various Christian bishoprics were engaged in a power struggle in

which the chief weapons were bribery, forgery, and intrigue, with

elaborate fictions and hoaxes written into sacred books and

ruthless competition between rival parties for the lucrative

position of God's elite.

The "unity" of the early Christian church was acheived by

bloodshed, repression and Inquisition. The church itself was

built to make men powerful; it was not the gentle pilgrims

spreading the "good word". It was a very lucrative institution,

and it did whatever it had to do, including mass murder, to remain

in its state of power. They sought to control the minds of the

populace because therein lay their wealth and power. .

End of PHOTO ONE'S posting.

----------------------------------------------------------

************** MY RESPONSES *****************

There are still many people today, like Photo, who make the

claim that Jesus never existed, the He was only a mythical

character.

Betrand Russell (one of Photo's favorites) put it this way:

"I may say that one is not concerned with the historical

question. Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ

ever existed at all, and if He did, we do not know anything

about Him, so I am not concerned with the historical

question, which is a very difficult one. I am concerned

with Christ as he appears in the Gospels" (Why I am Not

a Christian, page 11 note 8).

Those who make such statements are not historians, but are

surprisingly ignorant of the facts.

The New Testament contains 27 different documents which

were written in the first Century A.D.. These writings

contain the story of the life of Jesus and the beginnings

of the Christian church from about 4 B.C. until the decade

of the A.D. nineties.

The facts were recorded by eyewitnesses, who gave firsthand

testimony the what they had seen and heard. Moreoever,

the existence of Jesus is recorded by Jewish historian,

Falvius Joesphus, who was born in 37 A.D.. He wrote: "Now

there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful

to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works--

a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.

He drew over to him both many of the Jews and and many of

the Gentiles.... when Pilate, at the suggestion of the

principal men amongst us, had him condemned on the cross...

he appeared alive again the third day.

(Antiquities XVIII, III)

Although his passage has been contested because of a

reference to Christ, the fact of his existence is not

in question.

Cornelius Tacitus (A.D. 112), a Roman historian, writing

about the reign of Nero, refers to Jesus Christ and the

existence of Christians in Rome. Tacitus, in his

"Annals, XV, 44" and in his "Histories" refers to

Christianity and the burning of Jerusalem in 70 A.D..

Roman historian Seutonius (A.D. 120) references Jesus

in "Life of Claudius" and in his "Epistles X".

The testimony, both Christian and non-Christian, is more

than sufficient to lay rest any idea that Jesus, in fact,

never existed. We know more about the life of Jesus than

just about any other figure in the ancient world. His

birth and death are detailed more than the most ancient

figures whose existence is taken for granted by historians.

"Indeed it has been argued--and I think very rightly--that

myth theories of the beginnings of Christianity are

modern speculative hypotheses motivated by unreasoning

prejudice and dislike. 'It would never enter anyone's head,'

says Mereshovsky, 'to ask whether Jesus had lived, unless

before asking the question the mind had been darkened by

the wish that he had not lived.'" (Roderick Dunklerly,

Beyond Gospels).

There seems to be some kind of general consensus among Atheists

that the New Testament documents were written many years after

the events took place and hence do not contain reliable

information. However, the fact is that the life of Jesus was

written by eyewitnesses or people who recorded firsthand

testimony. The writers were all living at the same time these

events transpired, and they had personal contact with the events

or with people who witnessed the events.

There is strong internal testimony that the Gospels were

written at an early date. The book of Acts records missionary

activity of the early church and was written as a sequel by

the same person who wrote the Gospel according the Luke. The

Book of Acts ends with the Apostle Paul being alive in Rome,

his death not being recorded.

This clearly shows that it was written before he died, since

other major events in his life had been recorded. Since Paul

was put to death by Neronian persecution in the year 64 AD,

it is clear that the Book of Acts was composed before this

time. If the Book of Acts was written before 64 AD then the

Gospel of Luke, to which Acts was a sequel, had to have been

composed some time before that, probably in the late fifties.

This would make the composition of Luke at the latest within

30 years of the events. Since Matthew was written before Luke,'

it is clear that the first Gospels were composed well within

the times of the events.

This evidence led the liberal scholar John A.T. Robinson to

re-date the new Testament documents much earlier than most

modern liberal scholars would have us believe.

Robinson argued in his book, "Re-Dating the New Testament"

that the entire New Testament could have been completed

before the year AD 70.

These facts also led W.F. Albright, the great Biblical

archaelogist to comment: "We can already emphatically say

that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any

book of the New Testament after AD 80, two full generations

before the date between 130-150 given by the more radical

New Testament critics of today."

There is a strong possiblity that the Apostle John's

banishment to Patmos under Domitan was as late as AD 95-96

in Revelation I. There is strong tradition John wrote

Revelations there at that time. This is testified by

Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius and Irenaeus (New

Testament Survey, Gromacki).

The evidence points out that (1) the documents were not

written long after the events but within close proximity

to them, and (2) they were written by people during the

period who were acquainted with the facts or were

eyewitnesses to them. The inescapable conclusion is that

the New Testament picture of Christ can be trusted.

From "The Bible and Archaeology" we see the following:

"The interval between the dates of original composition

of the New Testament and the earliest extant evidence

becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the

last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have

come down to us substantially as the were written has now

been removed. Both the authenticity and the general

integrity of the the books of the New Testament may

be regarded as finally established." This was written

by Sir Frederick Kenyon, former director and principal

librarian of the British Museum, an expert and

authority on ancient manuscripts and their authority.

This ends my response. I hope this helps you resolve any

doubts which you may have about the Bible's authenticity.

You may know someone who doesn't put much trust in the

Bible... you may want to share some or all of this information

with them as you witness to the truth.

God Bless you.

Rob


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