Tom Lochner of Contra Costa Times, reported a warning to Sikhs in pamphlets distributed by a local church in El Sobrante, California. Sikhs are told that “Without believing in Jesus Christ, you, my Sikh friend, will die in your sins, and in so doing, will be condemned to Hell forever. Receive Jesus Christ alone as your Lord and Savior today, turning from your sin and your religion.”
Born and raised in India, I had heard of an unknown person named “Essa Masihi.” I had known then that some “low-caste” people followed this Essa. Beyond this I knew nothing nor was there any interest to know. Upon immigrating to the United States, I came to know of “Jesus Christ” through various television programs, local churches, and people. What surprised me the most was that “Jesus Christ” happened to be none other than “Essa Masihi.” This left me puzzled as to why someone’s name changed moving from one country to another! Surely my name didn’t change as I migrated from the East to the West. Many years later, I learnt that Essa happens to be an Arab name for Jesus. Apparently other cultures have their own different names for Jesus.
In 1979, upon joining the U.S. Army, one Chaplain officer offered me the copy of the New Testament to read. From thereon my curiosities deepened: To date I have spent roughly 26 years studying the Bible. Who is Jesus Christ? is a question that has been nagging me ever since. Not convinced with the contents of the Bible, I took a different route. First, I spent a few years reading the apologetics and probing my Christian encounters. Again, not convinced, I searched for alternative views -— views that would make some degree of sense compared to what I was reading myself in the Bible.
This journey has been a long one; on the way I met university professors, seminarians, theologians, and numerous independent pastors who shared their honest opinions with me. For the last few years I have relied more heavily with the skeptical community, critical thinkers, modern historians, and the members of the modern biblical scholarship in satisfying my growing questions on the Bible.
Central to the Christian theology is a person named Jesus Christ. I have been told he was not only a complete God but also a fully human being. This “God-man” never surprised me because this sort of depiction of a deity is quite rampant in Hinduism. Today’s debate is on the topic of Jesus Christ, more specifically Who is Jesus Christ?
This question may sound easy to answer but my experience tells me that the answer(s) is quite complicated and the fault squarely lies in the Bible for creating so much confusion. Many of us who are in the habit of reading the Bible, whether from a believer’s perspective or otherwise, try our best to decipher a complex mythology. This is not too different of a process from understanding Hinduism, Buddhism, or Jainism. They too, like the Bible-based Semitic religions, are shrouded in their own sets of mythologies.
Welcome to this new topic of discussion. I feel fortunate that a number of individuals with varied backgrounds opted to participate in this debate:
1. Gary Zekveld, brother of Rev. Tony Zekveld, was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. He earned Bachelor of Arts in Humanities at Redeemer University College in Hamilton, Ontario. Currently he is enrolled at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Indiana in USA, where he is pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree.
2. Gary DeVaney, a former Hollywood movie star, owns and operate an interesting website www.thegodmurders.com. Using his dry crispy humor, he penetrates into the Gospel accounts while attempting to understand Jesus.
3. Jass Singh is a person who has potential to move on and do greater things for humanity. In addition to what is posted here, I have read a few of his writings elsewhere on the Internet, and I hope someday he will open up and share with us truthfully how he got hooked onto the Bible.
4. & 5. I include in this discussion a rebuttal to Jass Singh’s article by Ed Unger and Daniel Wright.
Ed Unger and Daniel Wright are biblical scholars who have earned my respect. They were kind enough in responding to my request to evaluate what Jass Singh wrote. A sizeable portion of Jass Singh’s article dwells on miracles (beyond the Virgin birth) and resurrection. These topics will be under review at another time. I have myself distanced from replying to Jass Singh because I have already responded critically to his letter in “Re-Visiting the Biblical God” which is posted in the current issue of SikhSpectrum.
6. William Harwood is a noted author of many books on the Bible. How often do you meet a person who has translated the Bible? He agreed to allow us to republish one of his earlier articles. Little did I know that the early Church fathers had described in their writings what Jesus looked like! Instead of a WASP look that is often portrayed, these Church fathers had a totally different physical view of their savior.
7. Before I introduce the final participant, allow me to express a few words. I have been involved for more than two decades trying to unfold the mystery surrounding Jesus. Largely because of the Bible, Jesus has been portrayed in numerous images to include: as a Messiah, as a Teacher, as a Revolutionary, as a Heretic, as a Magician, as an Exorcist, as a Gnostic, as an Essene, as a Zealot, as a Spirit Person, as a Jewish Reformer, as a Myth, as a Composite Figure, and as a Rabbi. This list is not exhaustive.
Every one of these portrayed images had its roots in the Bible and they are convincing only to a point while failing to account for something more concrete. Recognizing Jesus as a committed Jew, I couldn’t understand why New Testament was so anti-Jewish. The answers put forth were not fully convincing. Moreover, it has been difficult to account for a sect called Christianity ultimately triumphed and replaced the powerful Roman Empire. Answers were not forthcoming to the point where I felt comfortable with the research dating back to mid 1800s. All along I felt something crucial was missing and only persistent research in the future could shed a new light. And that “new light” surfaced recently in a person named Joseph Atwill.
Joseph is the author of Caesar’s Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus. He claims that Flavius Titus is Jesus, and it were the imperial Romans who fabricated the Gospel accounts for their own political and religious purposes. I recognize this theory will have its own set of believers and non-believers, and the future ongoing research will one day lay validity to this theory provided the evidence and the methodology adopted by Atwill gains credence. At this early stage of investigating Atwill’s thesis, I will say that he has touched the core questions that have been festering around me for years.
I have been asked to write an article on “Who is Jesus,” which I feel is putting the cart before the horse. The logically prior topics should have been the existence of God, the possibility of miracles & the historicity of the New Testament. There is ample evidence for each of these
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By far the best place to answer this question is to read the words and teachings of Jesus Himself, as recorded in the gospel accounts. Why should we try to impose our own opinions about Jesus’ identity onto Him when we can hear it from His own mouth! The following discussion is a humble attempt to explore just a little bit of who Jesus is as found in the names by which He identifies Himself.
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This article is a reply to Jesus- According to Orthodox Historic Biblical Christianity, by Jass Singh. I will not attempt to answer every point in his lengthy article, as most of them are irrelevant or can be classed as unsupported assertions. Jass Singh begins by assuming that God exists, and miracles are possible as a corollary. Aside from making an assumption, he states as a corollary a proposition, which has to be proven, and he has not done so.
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I have been asked to write a response to the article “Jesus - According to Orthodox Historic Biblical Christianity.” Of course, I have to wonder exactly what “Orthodox Historic Biblical Christianity” is. I mean, I can think of many Christians that say their beliefs are orthodox and based on history and the Bible, yet disagree on many important issues.
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A fact often overlooked by historians is that Christianity’s origins are suspicious. During the entire era in which the religion purportedly emerged; another Jewish messianic movement, called the Sicarii, fought in Judea against imperial Rome. This militaristic movement interpreted -- quite logically -- that the same prophecies that the Gospels claim envisioned Jesus, actually predicted the coming of a warrior Messiah who would lead the Jews against Rome.
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Biblical historians are evenly divided on the question of whether Jesus the Nazirite was a posthumously deified real person or a creation of fantasy literature. G. A. Wells and Robert Price argue that Jesus did not exist (although Price’s latest book is ambivalent on the question), Michael Arnheim and Martin Larson believe he did, and John Crossan insists that there really was a Jesus while simultaneously presenting a reconstruction of Christian origins that would be logical and coherent only if there was not a real Jesus.
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The question is simple enough and the answer is anything but simple. I am thankful to Gary Zekveld for writing a simple paper from a believer’s perspective. However, my reading of the Bible draws me to a different set of conclusions. I shall restrict my analysis to names and birth of the messiah Jesus to include his childhood. His adulthood and the rest of the theological matters are beyond the scope of discussion at this time.
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This work focuses on selected controversial Bible passages. Paraphrased? Yes. If they were not paraphrased it would be 4-5 times longer - and boring. Many, who learn some of these concentrated facts become afraid, not bored. It often triggers thought where thought has not been before. This work gives you over 90% of its C&V sources.
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