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| http://thejesusdiscovery.org/ |
Friday, March 2, 2012
Can we discover Jesus on our own?
In a
recently published book, entitled The
Jesus Discovery: the New Archaeological
Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity, the authors tell of a
discovery that is supposedly the earliest archaeological evidence of
Christianity. According to the authors, James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici, the images depicted
on the ossuaries, or bone boxes, (shown above) are scenes from Biblical
stories, such as Jonah and the Whale and Christ raising people from the dead.
There are also inscriptions on the ossuaries that say “Jesus, Son of Joseph”
and more. According to Tabor and Jacobovici, these ossuaries contain the bones
of Jesus and His family, including His children. There is also a cross carved
into one of the ossuaries and, supposedly, an inscription that states, “Divine Jehovah, raise up, raise up."
However, these “facts” are disputed by Christians, scholars, and archaeologists
alike, who claim that the assumptions made by Tabor and Jacobovici are not only
invalidated, but also completely fabricated for fame and profit. Scholars state
that the names depicted on the ossuaries were extremely common in that time,
and that the bones probably belonged to a common Jewish family.
The article about The Jesus Discovery reminds me of our
most recent class, in which we had a discussion about our ability, as fallen,
sinful humans, to know about and understand God. God has given us the ability
to see who He is through Natural and Special Revelation. Natural Revelation is
defined as the way in which the Lord has revealed Himself in nature, or His
creation. Through creation, He reveals His existence, power, wrath, and
character. However, due to our fallen nature, our ability to see God through
Natural Revelation has been blurred. Therefore, Special Revelation is required
for us to see God clearly. Special Revelation is God’s way of assisting us in
seeing who He is, through the Bible and His Son, Jesus Christ. These two gifts
to humanity give us an aid in seeing God’s Natural Revelation clearly.
The way in which The Jesus Discovery relates to Natural
and Special Revelation is in its clear attempt to define God on man’s own
terms. The authors of this book are not the first to attempt this. People,
non-Christian and Christian, are constantly searching for “proof” or “non-proof”
of God’s existence. In doing this, man is disregarding the gifts that God has
given to us, in which He has already proven His existence and His power. Only
through seeking the Lord on His terms will we find Him. Just like everything
else we seek to do without the help of the Almighty, we will not succeed in
proving that He is real without His involvement. The Lord created us to be
dependent on Him, and we will not find contentment, success, or answers if we
try to achieve anything with our own strength.
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Bethany, I really liked your post! I find it interesting that so many people over the years have claimed that they have found the remains of Christ, yet not a one of them have been proven true. And the astounding thing is that they never will because Christ's body is no longer here but in direct fellowship with the Father in heaven. I was intrigued by your post as well in that though I love apologetics and finding out actual proofs of God and Christ's time on earth as well as his resurrection. However, I seem to be finding more and more today that though these things are becoming more and more important in our generation today, it's really not about the "facts" anymore. There is, as you say, already plenty of "proof" in our world today just through God's natural and special revelation, and it isn't so much about people having the facts but a refusal to believe regardless of what's already in front of them. It's often a heart issue as well as an intellectual issue. Great post!!
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