Is Christianity based on myth?
Some people who leave the message (or another Christian cult) move on to reject any concept of God. They are opposed to the very concept of Christianity as a result of their prior bad experiences and become atheists or agnostics. This is quite understandable given the deception, lies and spiritual abuse they experienced while in the message.
The purpose of this series of articles is to present a reasoned response to some of the questions relating to Christianity and God that former ex-message followers have presented to us. We certainly understand their pain and how this has led them to doubt the existence of God and the good news that Jesus Christ brought to the world.
Click on the link below to go to the specific topic. You are currently in the article that is in bold.
Questions raised:
- Science is the only way to gain knowledge of reality
- Is Christianity based on myth?
- Christianity represents a God who is unfair
- Did the resurrection take place?
- Is Christianity based on blind faith?
Jesus died by crucifixion
John P. Meier views the crucifixion of Jesus as historical fact and states that, based on the criterion of embarrassment, Christians would not have invented the painful death of their leader.[1] Meier states that a number of other criteria — the criterion of multiple attestation (i.e., confirmation by more than one source), the criterion of coherence (i.e., that it fits with other historical elements) and the criterion of rejection (i.e., that it is not disputed by ancient sources) — help establish the crucifixion of Jesus as a historical event.[1] Eddy and Boyd state that it is now firmly established that there is non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus – referring to the mentions in Josephus and Tacitus.[2]
Most scholars in the third quest for the historical Jesus consider the crucifixion indisputable,[3][1][4][5] as do Bart Ehrman,[5] John Dominic Crossan[3] and James Dunn.[6] Although scholars agree on the historicity of the crucifixion, they differ on the reason and context for it, e.g. both E. P. Sanders and Paula Fredriksen support the historicity of the crucifixion, but contend that Jesus did not foretell his own crucifixion, and that his prediction of the crucifixion is a Christian story.[7] Geza Vermes also views the crucifixion as a historical event but believes this was due to Jesus’ challenging of Roman authority.[7]
- Appearances of Jesus were documented - Gospels, Paul - some died for this belief - Gert Ludeman
- Sceptics converted - Paul and James
- Empty tomb - Knew where the tomb was - Joseph of Arimethea. Women’s testimony worthless.
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 John P. Meier "How do we decide what comes from Jesus" in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research by James D. G. Dunn and Scot McKnight 2006 Template:ISBN pp. 126–128, 132–136
- ↑ Template:Cite book
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedautogenerated145 - ↑ Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey by Craig L. Blomberg 2009 Template:ISBN pp. 211–214
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 A Brief Introduction to the New Testament by Bart D. Ehrman 2008 Template:ISBN p. 136
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedJDunn339 - ↑ 7.0 7.1 A Century of Theological and Religious Studies in Britain, 1902–2002 by Ernest Nicholson 2004 Template:ISBN pp. 125–126