Doubts
Last night on the Discovery Channel, there was a program on Jesus. The purpose was to find out who He was.
I was only half paying attention to it, but the host interviewed a few people, and the conclusion he presented included Jesus being a political revolutionary.
And then there was the discovery of the Gnostic "Gospels", among them apparently one written by Thomas, one of Jesus' 12 disciples. In this "gospel", apparently Thomas did not stress on Jesus' divinity, thus making a case for detractors that Jesus wasn't the Son of God.
It was so historical, so neatly presented, so authoritative, that even I had slight doubts, as in "Hmmm...is it possible?"
Of course, I brought my doubts to God. And immediately God reminded me that the devil is a great liar, and that at the end times, lots of false teachers and teachings will appear trying to deceive 'even the elect, if that were possible', and ultimately that Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
And to reinforce the point, He gave me another encouraging reminder: I was browsing through the March-May 2008 edition of Our Daily Bread and the page opened to March 25 - The Tomb Of Jesus, written by Dennis Fisher.
He had a really good point - "Most compelling is the fact that every disciple except John died a martyr's death. Central to their message was Jesus' resurrection. If Christ had not been raised from the dead, why did the disciples choose to die rather than deny it?"
This is so true. They left everything behind to follow Jesus. Even after His death, they continued living the way He taught them to. And trust me, Jesus doesn't advocate a cushy lifestyle.
Not only is this willingness to die for the true gospel confined to the 12 disciples. Even in recent times, people are still willing to die for Jesus. And by 'dying for Jesus', it doesn't mean kamikaze-style-take-unbelievers-out suicides.
They were willing to die for Jesus in the sense that they would rather die when persecuted by authorities than renounce their faith. In Japan, the believers were tortured, hung upside down over a pit, and forced to step on a fumie (a likeness of Jesus) as a sign of renunciation.
Why would these believers go through such torture if they did not believe in Him?
In Roman times, Christians would be rounded up and cruelly left to face lions and tigers in the arenas and amphitheaters for the entertainment of spectators.
Even in modern times, believers are not exempt from persecution. I have heard of a girl whose hair was cut in an ugly style by her angry mother, just to shame her in hopes of preventing her to go to church. And that's just one of the milder persecutions.
Christians have been martyred and persecuted from Jesus' time until now: http://www.persecution.com
Why would they persevere if Jesus and the gospel aren't real?
I was only half paying attention to it, but the host interviewed a few people, and the conclusion he presented included Jesus being a political revolutionary.
And then there was the discovery of the Gnostic "Gospels", among them apparently one written by Thomas, one of Jesus' 12 disciples. In this "gospel", apparently Thomas did not stress on Jesus' divinity, thus making a case for detractors that Jesus wasn't the Son of God.
It was so historical, so neatly presented, so authoritative, that even I had slight doubts, as in "Hmmm...is it possible?"
Of course, I brought my doubts to God. And immediately God reminded me that the devil is a great liar, and that at the end times, lots of false teachers and teachings will appear trying to deceive 'even the elect, if that were possible', and ultimately that Satan masquerades as an angel of light.
And to reinforce the point, He gave me another encouraging reminder: I was browsing through the March-May 2008 edition of Our Daily Bread and the page opened to March 25 - The Tomb Of Jesus, written by Dennis Fisher.
He had a really good point - "Most compelling is the fact that every disciple except John died a martyr's death. Central to their message was Jesus' resurrection. If Christ had not been raised from the dead, why did the disciples choose to die rather than deny it?"
This is so true. They left everything behind to follow Jesus. Even after His death, they continued living the way He taught them to. And trust me, Jesus doesn't advocate a cushy lifestyle.
Not only is this willingness to die for the true gospel confined to the 12 disciples. Even in recent times, people are still willing to die for Jesus. And by 'dying for Jesus', it doesn't mean kamikaze-style-take-unbelievers-out suicides.
They were willing to die for Jesus in the sense that they would rather die when persecuted by authorities than renounce their faith. In Japan, the believers were tortured, hung upside down over a pit, and forced to step on a fumie (a likeness of Jesus) as a sign of renunciation.
Why would these believers go through such torture if they did not believe in Him?
In Roman times, Christians would be rounded up and cruelly left to face lions and tigers in the arenas and amphitheaters for the entertainment of spectators.
Even in modern times, believers are not exempt from persecution. I have heard of a girl whose hair was cut in an ugly style by her angry mother, just to shame her in hopes of preventing her to go to church. And that's just one of the milder persecutions.
Christians have been martyred and persecuted from Jesus' time until now: http://www.persecution.com
Why would they persevere if Jesus and the gospel aren't real?
posted by sleepypurplepiglet at 8:42 PM
2 Comments:
agreed.
the pic that you put is not a piglet!
A documentary is not a good documentary if it chooses to see only what it wants to see.
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