Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-h Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:aeq From: aeq@pucc-h (Jeff Sargent) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Replies to Bickford/Sargent on Christian mythology Message-ID: <641@pucc-h> Date: Thu, 5-Apr-84 18:27:34 EST Article-I.D.: pucc-h.641 Posted: Thu Apr 5 18:27:34 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 7-Apr-84 04:15:24 EST References: <2665@azure.UUCP> Organization: Purdue University Computing Center Lines: 47 Jon White, quoting Lloyd M. Graham, cites 15 stories which are said to be similar to that of Jesus. C.S. Lewis had an interesting explanation of that: In "Mere Christianity", Lewis suggested that one thing God has done to spread His message is to give the race "good dreams", i.e. those stories scattered all through the non-Christian religions about a god who dies and comes to life again and, through all this, has somehow given new life to humans; that all these stories are indeed hints of Christ. Lewis even alluded to yet another such story, which my vague recollection tells me was common in medieval Europe, that of the Fisher King (if anyone knows this story in any detail, please relate it), in another book; in his "Space Trilogy" or "Ransom Trilogy", the character originally named Ransom (to whom Christ at one point says, "My name also is Ransom") changes his name to Fisher-King; a rather obvious allusion. I would think that Lewis considered the Fisher King story yet another "good dream". White and Graham wonder why there isn't a lot of historical information on Jesus. I would think that the major historians of the period would have been based in Rome, or possibly in Athens or other Greek centers; no one would have paid much attention to this dusty province hundreds of miles from any Imperial culture. Not until the Christians began "turning the world upside down" did Christianity attract much notice in the power centers of the Empire, by which time Jesus was no longer bodily on the scene. Which reminds me: Surely there is evidence from the 1st century A.D. to show that the Christians existed and endured all sorts of persecution for their faith? I would ask whether believers in any of the other pseudo-Christs Jon listed have ever gone through anything similar *and stuck to their faith despite everything*? If not, that would lend credence to the idea that Jesus really lived; for who would risk his life for a myth? Someone might say that the early Christians wrote the Gospels and perpetrated a hoax for their own gain. Seeing that what they gained was persecution and often death, how could this be? Why would they blow their lives on a hoax? The most reasonable explanation of their willingness to endure what they did was that Jesus really lived, died, rose again, and continued to live within them, as He does in us. Perhaps that is why God permitted the persecutions-- precisely because the history of the Christians enduring them patiently and never denying their faith would dramatically show the reality of their faith and of the One in whom they had faith...especially since the Christians were never entirely stamped out. Circumstantial evidence is very strong; and there's plenty of circumstantial evidence that Jesus did in fact walk the earth. -- -- Jeff Sargent {allegra|ihnp4|decvax|harpo|seismo|ucbvax}!pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq Software maintenance: It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.