Anything to Discredit Faith in the Lord Jesus

I’m amazed at the lengths people will go to discredit Christianity. The International Herald Tribune reported yesterday about a “three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus.” (http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/05/africa/06stone.php) The stone is of interest to many because “it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days”. According to the daily this is important because it “suggests that the story of his [Jesus] death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.” Israel Knohl, a professor of Bible studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem bluntly states, “"This should shake our basic view of Christianity . . . Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story."

And . . . . .?

Why this should shake our view of Christianity is beyond me. Perhaps Mr. Knohl should re-read Matthew 5:17:

“Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

Fulfill. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines fulfill as “to carry out, as a promise”. In other words Christ was carrying out the promise of a resurrected messiah.

The Catholic News Agency (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=13168) answered the Tribune’s article by posting its own, arguing that “while one scholar claims the find could ‘shake our basic view of Christianity,’ a Catholic Professor of Scripture suggests the tablet is actually evidence for the historical probability of Christian belief.” (Why the Tribune didn’t see fit to interview a Christian scholar about Knohl’s claims is a story in itself)

Dr. Timothy Gray, a professor of Biblical Studies at the Augustine Institute in Denver , points out that Jesus made many references to the Book of Daniel and “that the Jewish expectation of a dying messiah is shown in Daniel’s prophecies, noting that Daniel chapter 9 talks about how an anointed messiah will be cut off and killed.” Gray also exposes the hypocrisy of many who seek to discredit Christianity:

“On the one hand, scholars argue no Jewish tradition about a messiah suffering shows that the Church added this idea. And once you show a document, an ancient document to point to, showing that they did interpret a prophet like Daniel to expect a suffering messiah, well then people say ‘Well this proves Christianity can’t be true.’”

“You can’t have it both ways,” Gray said.

“The point is that our people in modern media and modern scholars will use any evidence as disproof of Christianity, even if it illustrates the evidence of Christian belief. And this evidence clearly points to the historical probability of Christianity, to the historical Jesus.

Well said, Dr. Gray.

Donald Tremblay