Dan,
Thank you for your note. I will gladly respond in greater detail but for now, let me say that I try very hard to be accurate in everything I publish. So that my response does not come across as anger, let me say that I have read a few of your articles and have explored your “Backyard Church” several times. You write with compassion and do not hesitate to “call out” the extreme elements of other professing Christians. For that I respect and compliment you.
My statement that you challenged rather aggressively reads: “outside of the New Testament, nothing whatsoever is known about the life of Jesus” is in fact accurate. Not one single thing outside of the New Testament is additional information. No new speeches or sermons, no reports of travels or miracles, not even if he was married or not. The few times he is even mentioned, it is third-hand and many of those are highly disputed as not being authentic. Even the Gospels were not written until a few decades after the events they recorded.
Josephus’ statement that Jesus was the Messiah is without doubt an inserted forgery. Not only did he remain in Judaism…a direct denial that Jesus was the Messiah… said passage was never quoted until many decades after his nine volumes were published. Even a superficial reading of the paragraphs before and after screams loudly that it does not fit. Nine volumes with only a fraction of one page devoted to declaring the king of the universe and then staying in a religion that denies it speaks volumes.
Some people say that there were 500 witnesses that saw Jesus alive after a crucifixion because one person claimed there were. No names, no reports by any of them, etc. Just a statement by one person.
A mention by someone “20–150” years later is not new information. Did not numerous people write about Zeus as being a real god? Huge temples were built for Diana, Apollo, Poseidon, Artemis, among many others around the world, by sincere and devoted followers; but were all an invention of someone’s immigration. The same third-hand report from a hundred people does not in any way make it true.
As you know, the main point I was obviously making was, if an all powerful and loving god desired that the only way to avoid an eternity in hell was to know him, he certainly has not done a good job at getting out the message. As confusing as that message is today, with the numerous denominations and other religions, how much harder was it to understand his “message” (or even hear it) for the billions of people who lived without the internet or even literacy? For the first 1800 years, the vast majority of people could not read and lived in isolated villages.
You are right that back then, writing and reporting was very difficult. However, an all powerful god who was not able to make darn sure that the most important message in the world got out, seems to make him either uncaring or not powerful. Wouldn’t you have written it in the sky?
Dan, you misinterpreted (I do not imply it was intentional) one sentence of a very long article I wrote which contained ten separate issues in an attempt to discredit me. Having responded to it, may I now respectfully ask you to respond to the other nine issues that this article contains? Maybe you and I can do a separate back and forth with them on any platform that you think best. It would be civil and objective. Neither you nor I write for money, but to help those who are struggling to try to know and understand just what is true. Please consider this.
