Read Zac Smith's original column: Story of Jesus a ‘pervasive nonsensicality’
Jesus column amusing
I was much amused by Tuesday’s column, “Story of Jesus a ‘pervasive nonsensicality’.” There are factual errors, such as the parallels drawn between the Christ story and the deity narratives of Osiris or Mithras. No reputable scholar, believing or skeptical, accepts that those legendary events parallel the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. To state there is no extra-biblical evidence for Christ’s existence is egregious, and completely ignores the ancient biblical writings of Tacitus, Josephus, Lucian, Mara ben Serapion, Clement of Rome, Tertullian, Dionysius of Corinth, Origen and Ignatius, to name a few. But these evidences are not even the best line of argumentation.
For Jesus’ greatest apologetic is to be made in the lives that are changed in his name. Having worked with people for several years who struggle with drug addiction and mental illness, I can attest that no single hope better brings people to a changed life than Christ. No other name has given such hope to people without any. The author of Tuesday’s column might turn to Vonnegut, Moore or Nabokov for hope and meaning in his life – a point to which I have no business taking exception. But the stark reality is, no one I work with will find salvation from their prisons of drugs and abuse in a serial comic or a fiction novel.
In the dark halls of the night, there is no “Rorschach” or “Nite Owl” to save the mentally ill from their paranoia. In the guilt of the addict who has violated probation for the fifth time and is heading back to jail, there is no Campbell there to draw strength from.
At the midnight hour, there is no inspiration from Nabokov for these folks that oftentimes have been thrown away by society. Christ works overtime though, through people like me, who find meaning in the service the body of Christ can bring to people who need hope.
- Matt Dowling, zoology Senior
Jesus story misunderstood
To me, Jesus’ story is not “pervasive nonsensicality” but is one of love and forgiveness. God chose a simple story so that everyone, all over the world, would be able to understand how to be restored to Him. To some, this story of love and forgiveness may seem foolish, but for those who seek understanding, it is the very power of God for salvation.
The story of Jesus is a rather simple one: God created humans and lived in perfect fellowship with us. We messed up and broke that fellowship and are incapable of restoring ourselves to perfection on our own. God desperately wanted – and wants – to be reunited with us, so he sent Jesus to live a perfect life here on earth, to take our punishment for messing up and provide an avenue through which fellowship can be restored.
Those who do not accept the work of Jesus on the cross spend their lives (now and for eternity) out of fellowship. So why did Jesus agree to this deal? He willingly came down from heaven to the earth he created to show us a better way to live. To show us how to seek the good of others before our own, and to show us how to love each other unconditionally, even to the point of laying down one’s life for someone in need. Those teachings are not “horrible, horrible advice.” What a wonderful world it would be if we all lived like that.
Jesus did not have to do what He did, but it was the only way we could be reunited with God. And since there is no other way to restore fellowship, it is neither a shirking of responsibility nor a loophole to receive the work that Jesus did for us. Indeed, for our part, we must take responsibility for our actions and recognize that our own actions and screw-ups were why Jesus had to come to earth in the first place.
- Tim Hart, JD, CPA, Ph.D. candidate, Price College of Business
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dio 3 years ago
Matt,
Although Zac's column was certainly not serious, your counter-argument tends to claim some authority. But I am afraid that you are hiding a certain lack of knowledge behind a flood of pompous words.
"Tacitus, Josephus, Lucian, Mara ben Serapion, Clement of Rome, Tertullian, Dionysius of Corinth, Origen and Ignatius"
"There are factual errors, such as the parallels drawn between the Christ story and the deity narratives of Osiris or Mithras."
Then read the factual errors here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_m...
zparks 3 years ago
To Matt and Kyle, To say that these extra-biblical sources are factual evidence of the existence of a man that lived and died centuries prior to the actual writing of said evidence is absurd. The fact is there is no factual, first-hand account of a man named Jesus from Nazareth, just as Zac Smith wrote. That part of the response was troubling, but by far the worst was yet to come. Just because you feel like Christ has a greater saving impact on peoples' lives than some other source does not make it so. If the mentaly ill and insane are the company your God seeks, thats fine. I prefer intelligence and rationality, which have continually proven to lead toward compassion and peace. The "mystery cults" used to be dominant religions, and hopefully will encourage you to see the true path that Christianity is on: inevitable obscurity.