Reading Time: < 1 minute International press agencies are reporting that, due to a tragic case of mistaken identity, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ was shot dead in the West Bank on Friday. “The IDF regrets shooting Jesus,” said an Israeli army spokesman. “In our defence, the dove he was holding looked just like a grenade from 500 yards away. […]
Jesus
Posted inReligion
Damning Bible contradictions: Who Would Jesus Convert? and more
Reading Time: 5 minutes What are your favorite Bible contradictions? See how many of yours are in this list. This time: transgenerational punishments, day of crucifixion, Jesus’s target, Jesus’s return, and answered prayer.
Posted inDeep Dive
Who invented Christianity?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Here’s the thing: No one knows for sure if the words of Jesus in the gospels are his actual words. We’re fairly certain that some of them definitely aren’t. There is even a not-very-good argument to be made that Jesus never existed. Most biblical scholars accept that Jesus probably did exist. They agree that at least […]
Posted inReligion
Guest article: The improbable vs. the impossible, or Will the real Jesus please rise up?
Reading Time: 12 minutes The empty tomb is a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and to many Christians, proof of Christian beliefs. Could the story of Jesus Christ be as empty as the tomb? The following is a look at the unacknowledged dual narratives contained in the gospels.
Posted inReligion
Jesus as the new Moses
Reading Time: 8 minutes Jesus is many things to many people. To the early Christians, authors of the Gospels, he was certainly a construction of sorts. For example, for Matthew, Jesus was written in a way that emulated Moses in order that he appealed to Matthew’s Jewish audience. The use of this formula for a theological agenda strongly calls […]
Posted inReligion
Critique of ‘The Star of Bethlehem’ video
Reading Time: 3 minutes A popular video lays out an interesting case for the star of Bethlehem being a series of real astronomical events, but it’s time for some tough love.
Posted inReligion
The Star of Bethlehem, a real event?
Reading Time: 4 minutes What was the Star of Bethlehem—a nova? A planet? A star? A comet? And can any of these explain, “the star … went ahead of [the magi] until it stopped over the place where the child was”?
Posted inMyth & Folklore
The first 1000 words written about Jesus
Reading Time: 5 minutes Let’s remember what we’re not dealing with, and what we are dealing with, in a gospel writer. Goodbye journalist, biographer, historian. Hello mythologist and fabulist. Mythologists and fabulists have been the most successful storytellers in the history of writing. Their books have been on best seller lists for thousands of years. Some of their writings […]
Posted inReligion
Why believe Jesus when legends develop in our own time?
Reading Time: 6 minutes We’ve explored the idea that the gospel story is a legend. Let’s now look at some modern legends to see how easily they develop, even in our science-saturated age.
Posted inReligious News
Christian ‘prophets’ claim Jesus was wealthy: ‘He had five houses!’
Reading Time: 2 minutes Self-described Christian “prophet” Robin Bullock says that Jesus was a wealthy man who owned five houses. This isn’t mentioned in Scripture, but Bullock has never been a guy known for citing his sources. He made the comments on Saturday during the Fresh Fire Prophetic Conference 2022: … Now you can see it play out on […]