DO YOU EVER "think about" the things you just take for granted about the story of Jesus?
There are things about Christianity which should make honest thinkers scratch their head in wonder.
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When beloved (or hated) public figures are murdered (or executed), some rather large waves of reaction ensue.
There are two kinds of outcry both speculative and descriptive.
Speculative reactions come from those who are not close enough to events to give eyewitness testimony.
Conspiracy theories, fear-mongering, skeptical query, and urban mythologizing are common.
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On the other hand, those most intimately connected are often eager to speak up and speak out, immediately clarifying (historians hope) with specific details, personal reminiscences, and context i
invaluable for overall comprehension.
A modern example would be the assassination of President John Kennedy in Dallas.
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That shocking event is extraordinarily well-attested by historical standards of reporting. The entire world was informed within minutes.
Eyewitnesses spoke out along with official reports by law enforcement and federal authority and medical experts including
the emergency room physicians who attended the death of the president.
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Ironically, half a century has gone by without a definitive conclusion being made by the world at large as to the most important detail of who committed the murder! In fact, 42 groups, 82 assassins and 214 people have, over the course of various speculative investigation, been accused of the crime!
Among those accused being the CIA, the Mafia, Fidel Castro, anti-Castro Cuban exiles, the Military Industrial Complex, the Israeli Mossad, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the KGB, etc.
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Mostly, persons who weren't even present at the murder; persons without any forensic or scientific or law-enforcement expertise (amateurs) have been at the forefront of tackling the details and sorting the many conspiracies! Is it any wonder there is no definitive conclusion?
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WHAT ABOUT CHRISTIANITY?
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With the above example of Kennedy's death set firmly in mind, I now ask the question: WHAT IF NOTHING AT ALL HAD BEEN WRITTEN about the JFK assassination UNTIL NOW?
How much more confused and detached from reality would the details be?
Why do I ask?
Approximately the same amount of time elapsed between the death of Jesus and the first writings!
The first person (chronologically) to commit ideas and contexts down in writing about Jesus Christ had never met him during
his lifetime or ministry! The man, in fact, had made a career out of stopping people from spreading stories about Jesus. This man was Saul of Tarsus. His only contact with Jesus, according to him, was a supernatural vision!
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Just hold on a minute and think about that!
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What if the first writings about the Kennedy assassination were from somebody who hated Kennedy?
What if that first writer about the Kennedy murder had made a career out of shutting people up who wanted to speak up
about what happened on November 22, 1963 and who, when asked, told a wild tale about being visited and blinded
by a vision of John Kennedy?
Be honest now--what would your opinion be?
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The majority of believing Christians are not well-informed enough to know not one of the New Testament Gospels was written by eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry or death. Does that surprise you?
Also, none of those original writings exist any longer.
They have not been preserved. Have any copies survived? No. How about copies of the copies? No. Centuries passed before complete manuscripts were gathered and copied. None of those manuscripts agree.
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Why did it take half a century before anybody bothered to write down the details?
Why were the stories only word-of-mouth? It is likely because most of the early believers were illiterate.
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Is it really any wonder there are 41,000 Christian denominations out there who don't agree? FORTY-ONE THOUSAND who read the same stories and come to different conclusions.
Can it be because the ministry, words and death of Jesus was even more confused, contested and speculative than the death of President John Kennedy?
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It is something to think about, isn't it?
see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/gospels.html