There never was a Jesus

[jonny jacked]

Lee Strobel was an atheist, and editor for a major newspaper, compelled to prove Jesus was a fake. After traveling the world over and looking at the evidence, found the truth. Great book!

yes, he wrote for the chicago tribune for 13 years and was a "spiritual skeptic" until 81' when he set out to find the truth. today, he serves as teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago

 

[jonny jacked]

??? I'm actually a Christian, but I find it rather odd that you said "a man named Jesus who was crucified...". That proof would not help us, since other historicial records show that the Catholic church renamed him "Jesus" centuries after his death in order to help convert Greeks to Christianity by making the name similiar to the Greek god "Zues". I know that statement will anger a few of the other Christians on here, but those are the facts. The name "Jesus" did not appear in any of the early Christian writings that our new testment was later translated from.

interesting point. derived from greek Iwsous and latin Iesus. we got jesus from a combination of hebew, greek, and latin (Yahshua).

I originally miss-read your post bbf

 

[Robert Jan]

OF course nobody ever called him Jesus even if he DID exist.

He spoke Hebrew. you guys are losing it

 

[HodgeMN]

Jesus is nothing more than a first century political construct. The gospels, written 40 to 70 years after Jesus' stated death, were composed in a time when Christianity was desperately trying to break away from being a sect in Judasim. The reason for this desire to break away was due to the Jewish rebellion against the Roman Empire. The Christians did not want to be slaughtered as the Jews were (although many Chrisitans were indeed later killed for their beliefs). The gospels were "politically motivated" and influenced by the events going on when they were written. That is why the Jews, especially the preisthood, were portrayed in such a negative way in them and the Romans in a positive way. The gospels are nothing more than first century political spin at its best.

 

[silver_shadow]

Certainly if there has really been a Jesus and he caused the things he is supposed to have caused, Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus would have mentioned him somewhere in their detailed notes of this time, which included comment on the events in the area of jesus' life.

The passage in Tacitus' "Annales" liber XV, caput 44 that describes the trial and execution of a Jesus is simply a later editing, not written until some hundreds of years later, simply a fraud.

There is no Eastern religion, in which some sacred virgin doesnt give birth to a Messiah. Not only is Christianity untrue, its also shamelessly unoriginal.

good post . here is a slightly different take on it that may interest u. i was watching this prog on bbc world a few yrs ago abt the dead sea scrolls. they were written in hebrew and apparently hebrew has no written vowels. as the reader reads along he is supposed to add his own vowels! so apparently with one set of vowels, they talk abt these fantastical miracles that happened (which were described in the bible) and with another set of vowels, it gives the same story but in a mundane way which is believable. the point is that there are HISTORIANS that believe that what is in the bible is not untrue but just described in a more poetic way. they say that jesus was probably a very real person but contrary to religious belief, he wasn't the "son of god". he was probably just a rebellious young man. u have to remember that the bible was neither written by christ himself nor was it written during his time- it was written much later and there is a possibility that it was doctored the first time as well as later. remember jesus was born in the middle east and the bible was written hundreds of miles away in europe.
u see, there is actual historical evidence that he might have wandered east and learnt abt eastern religions. there is some evidence (though not conclusive and certainly not widely known) that he did pass thro kashmir which is the northern most part of india. staunch christians ridicule the idea bcoz supposedly christ never wandered more than 150 miles from bethlehem. but why then does the bible wipe out 18 yrs of his life- we have a sketchy account of his childhood up to the age of 12. then, we learn about what he did between the age of 30 and 33 when he was crucified. that is 18 yrs unaccounted for, more than half of his life and certainly the most important yrs. based on the little historical evidence, he may have wandered east as i said. but apparently he learnt so much of eastern spiritualism, that the catholic church which regarded it as paganism perhaps thought that it should be covered up. so there is a good chance that christ did exist but certainly christianity as we know it today is not quite what christ himself put forward. and by the way, in case anyone is wondering, i am indian myself but i'm not a hindu- i'm catholic.

 

[silver_shadow]

as for things like 9/11 and wars- well here's my take. sure they are bad things. but the bitter truth i believe is that man actually needs to suffer to know true happiness. happiness loses it's meaning without suffering. jesus himself suffered. if u see all the great religions, the holy ppl in all of them suffered- another example is the buddha.

 

[manny78]

Where is Curling ?

 

[Robert Jan]

as for things like 9/11 and wars- well here's my take. sure they are bad things. but the bitter truth i believe is that man actually needs to suffer to know true happiness. happiness loses it's meaning without suffering. jesus himself suffered. if u see all the great religions, the holy ppl in all of them suffered- another example is the buddha.

pretty ignorant and simplistic. There is MORE than enough suffering in this world

 

[silver_shadow]

pretty ignorant and simplistic. There is MORE than enough suffering in this world

actually i find the traditional idea that suffering is all bad simplistic. remember i come from a country that knows enough abt suffering so i'm not just talking thro my rear end- it's a little bit of cynicism bcoz of the fact that i see so much suffering. the first thing that hits europeans or americans when they come to india is the misery of the majority- guess what- when u see that day in and day out it hardly equates to ignorance.

 

[Robert Jan]

Maybe I should come over and rape your sister and steal your car and shoot you in the knees then