Felix is asking you for evidence which could only be furnished by myself, or people that knew me well.
Have you lost the thread?
It seems like you’re basing your claim of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus on the empty tomb story. That story appears only in the canonical gospels which were written by believers. It doesn’t appear in any Roman or non-believing Jewish documents from the time. Nor does it even appear in the New Testament letters of the apostle Paul. So treating the story as if it were necessarily based on fact or physical evidence is unjustified.
This website is really not used lately & I haven’t been able to sit down yet and update everything.
ichthus77.com/2013/04/07/a-twel … ic-puzzle/
The thing that I think is cool about it is that there is a handout attached towards the bottom that my friend designed for the puzzle.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the accounts, even as they are do not agree?
with a grain of salt
ichthus77.com/biblenarrativepro … k-harmony/
That’s true. The story lines do not mesh. That’s true generally about the chronology in the Gospels by the way. Those concerned with the historical veracity of the texts might ask themselves why those who canonized the New Testament in the fourth century were unconcerned about it.
That is a patent lie about canonizing it in the fourth century and you know it. People should edumacate themselves because God knows our edumacators ain’t gonna do it. Mostly because their freaking hands are tied by the freaking Nazis.
“The earliest known complete list of the 27 books is found in a letter written by Athanasius, a 4th-century bishop of Alexandria, dated to 367 AD. The 27-book New Testament was first formally canonized during the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) in North Africa. Pope Innocent I ratified the same canon in 405, but it is probable that a Council in Rome in 382 under Pope Damasus I gave the same list first. These councils also provided the canon of the Old Testament, which included the apocryphal books.” Wikipedia
Edumaction seems to have passed you by.
To agree upon an already agreed-upon thing is to do nothing new. We don’t need no edumacation.
highly recommended: Cold Case Christianity by J Warner Wallace.
You are a living example of why this statement is BS
BS: beautifully stellar
Any way, here’s a link to the movie CAESAR’S MESSIAH: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus - OFFICIAL VERSION,:
Felix I did start watching that video, but… how do I say this politely? I recommend this instead: reasonablefaith.org/podcast … ast-things
I’m just saying. Unless someone is going to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, then isn’t that kind of a crappy education you’ll eventually have to rip out & start from scratch…? Time and money wasted. There are a lot of things in society that have much room for improvement (self incl. obv). I would love to be the czar of a lot of different things. I wish I could snap my fingers and things would just happen. Oh well.
“From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians” tells the epic story of the rise of Christianity. The four hours explore the life and death of Jesus, and the men and women whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom created the religion we now know as Christianity.
Drawing upon historical evidence, the series challenges familiar assumptions and conventional notions about Christian origins. Archaeological finds have yielded new understandings of Jesus’ class and social status; fresh interpretations have transformed earlier ideas about the identity of the early Christians and their communities.
Through engaging on-camera interviews with twelve scholars–New Testament theologians, archaeologists, and historians–the series presents their contributions to this intellectual revolution. For example they talk about the quest for the historical Jesus - what can we really know? And how do we know it?
The scholars together represent a range of viewpoints and diversity of faiths and a shared commitment to bring new ways of thinking about Christianity to a public audience. They discuss the value in a historical approach to Jesus and the Bible and whether Christian faith can be reconciled with such an approach.
From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians, Part One (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians, Part Two (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
I watched the video and yes, I think it is important to realise how people are being manipulated, and how that has gone on through the ages. However, a purely historical observation is not helpful, and in fact irrelevant in many cases. Researching the available scriptures must be done, but it tends to take over and wash out the spiritual aspect. The same had happened when the various “Messiahs” had risen to push out the Romans and were crushed. Orientating themselves on a historical figure, the Jews fought and lost. Christianity arose as a completely different movement, which suppressed the idea of a warrior Messiah, and instead presented a pacifistic, spiritual leader, who saw the revolution as a spiritual liberation, which made people free regardless of who reigned the country. However, as Christ is recorded as saying, there are people who will see such a person as a threat, because they are not manipulatable.
Problems arose with the execution or natural death of most of the Apostles and the church leaders, and the fact that Christianity had become a widespread movement, waiting for the end of the world. At the same time, the most successful political uprising caused the Romans to come down in force and ultimately destroy Jerusalem (70 AD) and become hostile towards Jews in the Empire for a while, which also caused a further suppression of Christianity. The eschatological hopes of Christianity seemed to be dashed on reality and so a return to the purely spiritual practise was advisable, even though this also had problems. It became normal for Christians to have to prove their allegiance to Rome and sacrifice to Caesar. The seems to especially true of Nero (54-68 AD), and Domitian (81-96 AD), and amongst the Christians there were many who refused to do this and suffered horribly. This has been left out of the video.
It may well be that the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between AD 69 and 96, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian (69–79) who destroyed the temple, and his two sons Titus (79–81) and Domitian (81–96), may have utilised a floundering Christianity to portray an alternative, peaceful Judaism. We know that Josephus was employed by Vespasian, who wrote about events that were incredibly important to Christians: the life and death of John the Baptist, the existence of Christ, the growth of early Christianity and the fate of some of the apostles. The Testimonium Flavianum states that Jesus was the Messiah and a wise teacher who was crucified by Pontius Pilate. It would coincide with the Gospel of Mark, that was written as a tragedy.
However, as is also well known, the Gospel of Mark was “improved upon” by Matthew and Luke, and eventually John described the cosmic Christ. This indicates that the last Gospel was picking up from Paul’s letters, who also saw Christ Jesus as the manifestation of a cosmic figure and taking the Christian movement into a new lease of life. The eschatological writings suggest that this movement became critical of Rome, further foreseeing an end of the world and a new Jerusalem. There were gnostic communities who hid their scriptures and there were strands within Christianity dating back to the time of the apostles that emphasized asceticism, celibacy, and poverty.
So, for me it seems that the attempts to utilise Christianity actually backfired to a certain degree, because it wasn’t possible to eradicate the spiritual movement that was still undermining the authority of the emperors by declaring Jesus to be the Cosmic Christ of God and having dominion over all – including the emperors. Of course, the oppression didn’t end. In the 3rd century, Paul of Thebes (227 – 341) and Anthony of Egypt (252–356) fled and lived as hermits in the desert and Anthony gradually gained followers who lived as hermits nearby, later known as the “Desert Fathers” which coincides with the reign of Diocletian (284-305 AD), who issued four edicts against Christianity:
- Tear down the churches to the foundations and destroy the Sacred Scriptures by fire. Degrade those who were in honourable stations if they persevered in their adherence to Christianity.
- Arrest and imprison all Christian bishops and priests.
- Any imprisoned clergyman could now be freed, so long as he agreed to make a sacrifice to the gods. But if they refused to sacrifice, they should be subject to torture.
- Let all persons, men, women, and children, gather in a public space and offer a collective sacrifice.
It was Constantine, who was Roman emperor from 306 to 337, who put an end to this in 312 AD, being influential in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire. But he also made a declaration what was not to be taught and the penalty was death. He also allowed the Church to take over much of the organisation of the empire.
Whereas I think there has been extensive influence by the Romans on Christianity and a utilisation of symbology, I believe that there has always been a minority that evaded this influence, and which renewed the movement at various times, despite the attempts to destroy them. So, I think that, although the video makes some important observations, they forget that the church has continually had to accept figures they had previously executed as genuine teachers of spiritual Christianity, well after Constantine.