Hindsight is Nearsighted, Not 20/20

Before I go into tonight’s entry, I want you to do yourself a favor and go read something.   This is a site I subscribe to that I’ve given pub here before, but this entry will be building off of what was said on today’s Slice of Infinity.  (From this page.)  I’ve mentioned here before what a genius I think Ravi Zacharias is, but seriously, you should check out anything he’s written.  Anything.

Alright. Enough publicity for him.  On with the entry.

I keep getting these notes from people who say that the Bible is just a bunch of stories made up by people. People are entitled to their opinion, and quite frankly, if everyone believed that the Bible was literally god-breathed (that’s what ‘inspired’ means, literally) everyone would be Christians.  You can’t say you believe the Bible is Yahweh’s revelation of truth to mankind while at the same time not acknowledging Yahweh.  I understand this fact.  I will write an entry about Biblical criticism here at some point, just to give all the yahoos who think they’re being original by telling me it’s just a book some guys wrote down about something they made up, some places to look if they want to go beyond that pitifully unsophisticated, unsubstantiated claim to something of substance that is worth taking seriously.  Until then, I want to go scratch the surface by making two points.

The first point is simple.  These ‘stories’ have been circulating about Jesus for literally thousands of years, remarkably consistent in form and message.  That the stories so closely resemble one another at all, given the time of writing, the locations of the writing, and the authors, is amazing.  The best theory that those who want to discredit the unity in the Bible can come up with is that all these diverse people from all walks of life and collectively decided on their delusion, and then spread that message all over the earth.  These critics suggest this, knowing full well that this supposed, “brain trust” was made up primarily of women, societal outcasts, a bunch of Galilean fisherman, tax-collectors, etc. None of those people would have been versed enough in writing or theology to develop such a message.  But even assuming that they did (some critics have suggested that this whole thing was the Apostle Paul’s idea, and he convinced everyone else, so there is at least one theory that involves someone trained in theology), these critics miss one incredibly huge point–the people who ‘created’ this message paid for their lives for their ‘creativity.’  How many people do you know who would make up a theology and then just die for it, because they had nothing better to do?  Before Christianity became a religio licita in the Roman Empire, thousands upon thousands of Christians died for their beliefs.  11 of the 12 disciples (not counting Judas Iscariot, but his replacement) died martyr’s deaths.  They were beaten.  They were flogged.  They were hunted down like animals. Why would someone create a story like that, knowing full well what it would mean?  (Remember, Jesus had already been crucified.)  It doesn’t make any sense.  You can say we’re smarter now and that these disciples didn’t know what they were doing, but if you’re a part of a movement, and they kill the leader, you don’t see the underlings lining up at the guillotine, customarily.

(Continued, next entry…I can never seem to make these less than two entries…how frustrating…)