The bones of Jesus Christ are supposedly found, rendering my faith irrelevant and making a mockery of all my friends in the faith. I would like to personally thank James Cameron and his crack staff of archaelogists and scholars for saving me from my ignorance. Without him, I would be doomed to a world of disillusionment. After all, our salvation is really "rooted in our mastery of technology," (A quote from Cameron). So all you people out there who can type over 40 wpm, you are well on your way to the hereafter.
Oh yeah, I just need one more thing in order to recant my faith in Jesus Christ and His resurrection with a clear conscience. You'll have to grant me this as a matter of principle. You see, the apostle Peter was crucified upside down for his faith in Jesus Christ. If James Cameron or even any one of his "followers" are willing to do this to support their claims, then consider me "on the bandwagon." In fact, if James Cameron is willing to submit to any one of the following gory deaths, I will again, recant.
Matthew suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.
Mark died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.
Luke was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.
John faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
Peter was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross, according to church tradition because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had died.
James the Just, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club. This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation.
James the Greater, a son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.
Bartholomew, also know as Nathanael, was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed to our Lord in present day Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia when he was flayed to death by a whip.
Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras, Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it." He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he expired.
The apostle Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the subcontinent.
Jude, the brother of Jesus, was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.
Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.
Barnabas, one of the group of seventy disciples, wrote the Epistle of Barnabas. He preached throughout Italy and Cyprus. Barnabas was stoned to death at Salonica.
The apostle Paul was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67. Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire. These letters, which taught many of the foundational doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.
The details of the martyrdoms of the disciples and apostles are found in traditional early church sources. These traditions were recounted in the writings of the church fathers and the first official church history written by the historian Eusebius in A.D. 325. Although we can not at this time verify every detail historically, the universal belief of the early Christian writers was that each of the apostles had faced martyrdom faithfully without denying their faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Reference: Jeffrey, Grant R., "The Signature of God", Frontier Research Publications, Inc. (1996), p.254-257
Remember, all ancient history is based on continuity of manuscripts and scrolls from various historians.
Fact: There are more than 24,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament.These manuscript copies are very ancient and they are available for inspection now. There are also some 86,000 quotations from the early church fathers and several thousand Lectionaries (church-service books containing Scripture quotations used in the early centuries of Christianity).Bottom line: the New Testament has an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting its reliability.
FACT: Norman Geisler makes several key observations for our consideration:
No other book is even a close second to the Bible on either the number or early dating of the copies. The average secular work from antiquity survives on only a handful of manuscripts; the New Testament boasts thousands.The average gap between the original composition and the earliest copy is over 1,000 years for other books.The New Testament, however, has a fragment within one generation from its original composition, whole books within about 100 years from the time of the autograph [original manuscript], most of the New Testament in less than 200 years, and the entire New Testament within 250 years from the date of its completion.The degree of accuracy of the copies is greater for the New Testament than for other books that can be compared. Most books do not survive with enough manuscripts that make comparison possible.
WHAT IS OUR AGENDA? What is lost by believing that Jesus is the Son of God and died for our sins? Only one thing that I can think of and that's Pride. All I hear on the blogs of this generation are attempts to justify themselves by themselves. OK, so man is its own God! What exactly is your plan for the earth? For mankind? Athiest societies (China, Former Soviet Union etc.) have the worst human rights records of all! So you would have us convert to your way of thinking, elect Stalin or Mao Tse Tung as Dictator in Chief, and worship the Government because they provide all of our needs, including an AWESOME secret police force to save us from our own silly thoughts! Yes, I do need someone at the public school to explain to my children the virtues of condom use and homosexuality, I can't be trusted to do that myself, now can I? Wouldn't want the kids to say, Abstain from sex until they're married, (that would be old-fashioned.) And Forbid if they were to marry someone of the opposite sex, (that would be intolerant!)
I propose James McGreevey and Richard Dawkins run on the same ticket for President in '08. They would do the best job in making a statement to the world what a sideshow the United States has become.
BTJ
