On occasion I receive questions from students concerning a
film called Zeitgeist. I decided to show it to my high school seniors. Part one
of the film attacks religion and specifically targets Christianity connecting
it with all of the worlds problems today. The film was released in 2007,
created and narrated by Peter Joseph. Joseph contends that Christianity is
derived from astrological myths and pagan religions. Most of the information he
received was from D.M. Murdock author of The Christ Conspiracy.
For a Christian unfamiliar in this territory (pretty much
every high school aged Christian that heads off to his secular institution of
humanistic learning) the immediate response to this video might be "Oh
crap, am I believing a lie?" - but upon further inspection they'll quickly
realize the movie is nothing but a house built upon sand. A quick perusal of
the atheists on the website Reddit demonstrates their disappointment with the
movie as it sent their hopes sky high only to be dashed to pieces by historical
reality. I like showing this to my kids in high school because it demonstrates
some important truths. 1. There's a lot young Christian adults need to learn.
2. The attacks on Christianity are fierce. 3. It's easier to defend your faith
than you might think.
Rather than picking apart any minute detail I like to point out the
systemic errors that flow throughout this film.
1. "The Bible is an astrotheological hybrid." This
is like saying that the Satanic Bible is really a Christian book. The Bible is
firm throughout that the heavenly bodies such as the sun, moon, and stars
should not be worshiped. One of the supporting facts that Zeitgeist cites is
that Jesus was born on Dec. 25th. The problem is that Jesus wasn't born on
De.c. 25th. The Bible says nothing of when he was born - in fact it probably
was not winter since their were sheep in the fields.
2. "Jesus is plagiarized from other mythical
Saviors." The film relies on apparent similarities between astrological
myths and pagan saviors. The problem is that once one explores these general
claims it becomes apparent that these claims are stretched. The dozens of gods
that were born of a virgin are mere supernatural births resulting from the dirty
old gods like Zeus. The virgin birth of Horus hardly resembles the birth of
Christ as his mother hovered in falcon form over her dead husband's erection in
the underworld.
3. Who copied who? Interestingly some of these traditions
from other religions probably post-date Christianity. For instance, the stories
of Krishna's life that resemble the stories of Christ's life seem to postdate
Christianity. There are Hindus today that still like to link Krishna and Christ
as being different avatars of the same being - how does that Beetle's song go?
Anyway, the resurrection of Jesus is of special importance in this point. A
physical resurrection like Jesus' does not occur until well-after the
resurrection of Jesus. The other resurrection myths were stories of the god or
hero in the afterlife.
4. Similarities? So what? Why must similarities between religions be a result of them copying one another. One can
find similarities in every belief system. The film claimed that the 10
commandments were copied from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. One could probably
look at all sorts of law codes and find similarities. I'm pretty sure most will
have statements against things like stealing and murder.
5. Should we expect seeds of the truth in false theologies?
Why not? The Christian worldview believes that the ancestors of all humans at
one time had the truth. Why wouldn't some of those ancient messages and
prophecies have been handed down over time? Every ancient culture for instance
has a flood story - the account in Genesis being the best put-together. The
prophecy of a virgin birth and dying Messiah came from Isaiah's hand 700 years
before Christ. Why wouldn't we expect more parallels especially since the
Israelite's history of being exiled in places like Egypt, Greece and Babylon?
For more details on some of the more specific claims check
out the following link: http://www.alwaysbeready.com/index.php?id=124&option=com_content&task=view
Also, here's a fun little video that deals with the same issue:
No comments:
Post a Comment