"The God Who Wasn't"
In case you have not heard, there is a new documentary titled, “The God Who Wasn’t.” Brian Flemming, a former “born-again Christian” who made the hour-long documentary, argues that the biblical Jesus never lived! According to Flemming, Jesus was a mythological figure like Paul Bunyan.
Flemming grew up attending a Methodist church with his parents. When they became concerned about the violence in the Sylmar, California public schools, they enrolled him in the Sun Valley Christian School. There he came to believe what his teachers taught about the Bible. Those beliefs began to crumble when he attended the University of California at Irvine and began studying philosophy and science, especially evolution. According to Fleming, in college, he “learned” that Christians misrepresented evolution.
Fearing that children are being indoctrinated in the Christian faith, Flemming made the documentary to demonstrate Jesus never lived. To promote his movie, Flemming places it in the company of other exposés anticipating that it will expose religion like “Bowling for Columbine” did the gun culture and “Supersize Me” did the fast food industry.
I’m amazed that in the name of intelligence someone can be so ill-informed.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus said that Jesus was a wise man, whom Pilate condemned to the cross and that he appeared alive again the third day (Josephus, Antiquities,18:3.3). Eusebius (ca. 325 AD), a Christian historian, cites this passage from Josephus (Josephus, Ecclesiastical History 1.11). In another book, Josephus says that James was “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ” (Josephus, Antiquities,20.9.1). Tacitus, (55-117 AD), the dean of Roman historians, mentions Christ in his writings.
Michael Wilkins and J. P. Moreland conclude that from non-Christian writings such as Josephus, the Talmud, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger it would be possible to know that 1) Jesus was a Jewish teacher. 2) Many believed that He performed healings and exorcisms. 3) He was rejected by the Jewish leaders. 4) He was crucified under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. 5) His followers believed that he was still alive and spread beyond Palestine so that there were multitudes of them in Rome by 64 AD. 6) By the beginning of the second century, “all kinds of people from the cities and countryside-men and women, slave and free, worshiped Him as God” (Wilkins, Michael J. and Moreland, J. P., eds. Jesus under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995).
Dr. Thomas Rausch, a professor of Theology at Loyola Marymount University says, “I don’t know any serious scholar who questions the existence of Jesus.” Rejecting Jesus as God in the flesh is one thing. To say He never lived is just plain ignorant.
© G. Michael Cocoris, 8/28/2005
Flemming grew up attending a Methodist church with his parents. When they became concerned about the violence in the Sylmar, California public schools, they enrolled him in the Sun Valley Christian School. There he came to believe what his teachers taught about the Bible. Those beliefs began to crumble when he attended the University of California at Irvine and began studying philosophy and science, especially evolution. According to Fleming, in college, he “learned” that Christians misrepresented evolution.
Fearing that children are being indoctrinated in the Christian faith, Flemming made the documentary to demonstrate Jesus never lived. To promote his movie, Flemming places it in the company of other exposés anticipating that it will expose religion like “Bowling for Columbine” did the gun culture and “Supersize Me” did the fast food industry.
I’m amazed that in the name of intelligence someone can be so ill-informed.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus said that Jesus was a wise man, whom Pilate condemned to the cross and that he appeared alive again the third day (Josephus, Antiquities,18:3.3). Eusebius (ca. 325 AD), a Christian historian, cites this passage from Josephus (Josephus, Ecclesiastical History 1.11). In another book, Josephus says that James was “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ” (Josephus, Antiquities,20.9.1). Tacitus, (55-117 AD), the dean of Roman historians, mentions Christ in his writings.
Michael Wilkins and J. P. Moreland conclude that from non-Christian writings such as Josephus, the Talmud, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger it would be possible to know that 1) Jesus was a Jewish teacher. 2) Many believed that He performed healings and exorcisms. 3) He was rejected by the Jewish leaders. 4) He was crucified under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius. 5) His followers believed that he was still alive and spread beyond Palestine so that there were multitudes of them in Rome by 64 AD. 6) By the beginning of the second century, “all kinds of people from the cities and countryside-men and women, slave and free, worshiped Him as God” (Wilkins, Michael J. and Moreland, J. P., eds. Jesus under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995).
Dr. Thomas Rausch, a professor of Theology at Loyola Marymount University says, “I don’t know any serious scholar who questions the existence of Jesus.” Rejecting Jesus as God in the flesh is one thing. To say He never lived is just plain ignorant.
© G. Michael Cocoris, 8/28/2005