Do you believe in a literal Christ?

by Monsieur 26 Replies latest jw friends

  • Monsieur
    Monsieur

    Do you believe in a literal Christ?

    Someone that walked the earth and did the things the Bible states he did? (miracles, etc.)

    Some here have aluded to 'historical evidence' as being the basis of their belief. Where can one go to see this evidence?

  • Fernando
  • braincleaned
  • Nathan Natas
  • MadGiant
    MadGiant

    NO

    Evidence for the historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ) as portrayed in the Bible is only found in three places: the Bible itself, other early Christian writings, and references by the various early churches (c. 100 CE) to the long dead leader of those churches.

    Other than that, their is no evidence.

    Thats why 2000 years later people keep asking the same question.

    Ismael

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    There's a movement to reclaim the historical Jesus. I think the Christ we proclaim today bears a glancing resemblance to the historical one. I think the historical Jesus was a Jew, believed he was the Messiah, expected persecution, and the imminent restoration of God's people.

    I think Jesus' message was embellished and fleshed out by Paul who justified Jesus' death to match the circumstances, and emphasized a heavenly hope.

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    Heck, MadGiant. It's not like people carried around birth certificates in those days. We're lucky to have a lineage of Kings.

  • Seraphim23
    Seraphim23

    I do because of the Turin shroud, the first photo in history, which is a good place to look.

  • MadGiant
    MadGiant

    “Heck, MadGiant. It's not like people carried around birth certificates in those days. We're lucky to have a lineage of Kings.” - jgnat

    Attila the Hun ?–453

    Historians have no idea of Attila's birthday, and even though history is written by the victors, most of what we know about this person was written by the enemies of the Huns. We know he lived.

    Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC)

    The exact date of his birth is not known. He features prominently in the history and myth of Greek and non-Greek cultures. We know he lives and at one point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.

    Where is the evidence for jesus?

    What qualifies as good evidence?

    1) Contemporary evidence: Evidence that dates to the time the person or event actually happened.

    2) Derivative evidence: Evidence that is known to use contemporary record-evidence that has since been lost.

    3) Comparative evidence: Evidence that gives details that can be checked against known factors of the time.

    A good rule of thumb here is that history records the unusual, the special, and the important; and the amount history records is generally directly proportional to when these factors achieve a critical mass. If a person is said to be important and popular during their lifetime then one would expect contemporary or at the least derivative evidence documenting this.

    Respectfully,

    Ismael

  • zombie dub
    zombie dub

    re: christfiles, the website says:

    documentary reveals the earliest and most important manuscript evidence for Jesus of Nazareth, including the writings of Josephus, Mara bar Serapion, the apostle Paul and the controversial Gnostic Gospels.

    Josephus - roman employee, probably helped made up the christian religion

    Mara bar Serapion - wrote a letter that allegedly referred to Jesus, never mentioned Jesus. A letter referring to someone is proof of nothing, Tolkien wrote letters referring to Bilbo Baggins

    Apostle Paul - Sha'ul of Tarsus, if he existed, probably wasn't anything like the Paul in the bible, he never met Jesus, he pretty much invented christianity, it was his religion

    Gnostic Gospels - no original copies, copies of copies of copies are proof of nothing, they could easily be a copy of nothing and spurious

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit