Tag: Jesus Christ

Outgrowing God – 3&4

This is my third post reviewing the book Outgrowing God by Richard Dawkins. I have recently finished reading the whole book and find that it has not in the least shaken my faith. He is persuasive in what he writes, but really seems to be preaching to the converted – those who are atheists or pondering on becoming atheists. It is not reasonable to conclude that there is no God from what he writes, but atheists will like it because it superficially supports their contention that science explains, or will explain, everything and that we do not need to believe in a creator God.

In this post, I will cover Chapter 3, Myths And How They Start, and Chapter 4, The Good Book?. I am pretty much skipping over Chapter 3 because, though interesting, there is enough substance in the Bible to dispel it as a myth. I do concede that there might be an element of myth about Jesus’s life before his ministry, simply because the story will likely have been passed through several people before it was written down. However, what is written is consistent in message with what we can certainly declare as factual.

In all of Jesus’s ministry, he was accompanied by his twelve disciples. Paul was not a disciple, but got to know some of them after his conversion and he got to know Luke, who travelled with him and wrote the Gospel that bears his name and the Acts of the Apostles. Paul’s letters are a significant part of the New Testament. We therefore have a pretty good link to the ministry of Jesus, his death and resurrection. Forget myth – it is not as significant as Dawkins would want you to believe.

On to Chapter 4. The Bible is, or was, frequently referred to as “The Good Book”. Dawkins questions whether in fact it is “good”. The Bible is an easy target, especially the Old Testament, where you can select passages that are quite horrific and do not show God or his people in a good light. There is wholesale slaughter of some peoples, their women and children and animals, except preserving their unmarred daughters. Not nice. How do I explain it? I don’t. What we do have are some beautiful books, like Psalms, the Song of Solomon and good words from the various prophets which include passages relating to Jesus Christ some hundreds of years later. The good thing that comes out of Old Testament times is the survival of the Israelites, scripture, and the environment into which our saviour Jesus Christ could be born. (My words – Dawkins would not say such a thing).

Dawkins has less to say about the New Testament and believes that Jesus comes across as a good man. He mentions two things which give me some difficulty. First is causing a fig tree to wither and die because it did not bear any fruit. Sounds petty. Second is the story of the Gadarene swine. When Jesus casts demons out of a man, they ask to be sent to a nearby herd of pigs. Jesus complies, they go to the pigs who promptly charge down the hill into the sea and drown. I can’t get my head around this at all. Why would Jesus comply with their request? Why would the demons cause the pigs to die so that they are left without anything to occupy? The only thing I can get from this is “Be careful what you wish for”. They ended up with nothing.

Dawkins does say that the bits that people do not like, They tend to classify as allegorical – in other words, only included for the message it conveys. I am content to leave things unexplained and consider the Bible as a whole, and I find it very satisfactory as a whole with many valuable lessons for this day, 2,00 years after Jesus.

Dawkins is particularly scathing and mocking about the crucifixion of Jesus. John Stott, an eminent theologian wrote a whole book on The Cross of Christ, it is cogently argued and explains why the cruel death of Jesus was necessary for our salvation. Dawkins should have got together with his fellow atheist Stephen Hawking, who was of the opinion that God cannot break any laws. If God’s law is “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins”, then that is the way it is. Dawkins thinks that God could just forgive everybody anyway, since he is too obtuse to realise that God cannot break his own law. Paul wrote something very apt in one of his letters “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). It is as if Paul foresaw mocking Dawkins who clearly thinks it foolishness. The cross is central to the Christian faith and therefore its symbol.

Flavius Josephus

Flavius Josephus was, amongst other things a Jewish historian of the first century AD. He wrote a couple of significant works of Jewish history, namely “The Antiquities Of The Jews” and “The Wars of the Jews”. The Antiquities Of The Jews covers history from the Creation until the first century AD. It is a long work of 20 volumes that I am not about to read from beginning to end, but it is interesting to Christians in that it covers the time of Jesus and gives us a different perspective on some of the people mentioned in the Bible.

The full text of the book is on Project Gutenberg. I did a search and found the following interesting passages concerning John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and Jesus’s brother James:

John The Baptist

“Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing with water would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not only for the remission of sins, but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when many others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it would be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God’s displeasure to him.”

Jesus Christ

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”

James Brother Of Jesus

“Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity to exercise his authority. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned:”

___________________

When writing about Jesus, Josephus says “And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day”. And still going strong after 2,000 years!

Josephus himself lived from c.37 to c.100 AD, so he was born just after these events took place, so he would have had to rely on verbal testimony and any available documentation. During his lifetime, there would have been many who were witnesses to the events. Although not exactly contemporary accounts, they do confirm that these were historical people and not some religious fantasy, as some would want you to believe.

The paragraph about John the Baptist is revealing because it indicates that Herod was the instigator of the execution of John the Baptist, instead of being beguiled and tricked into it. Either way, he is culpable and it is interesting that Jews viewed the destruction of his army as God’s punishment. Jesus’s brother James was prominent in the early Christian church and his death, and the manner of it, are not recorded in the Bible. Other passages of the book are quite interesting about Pontius Pilate and the other people prominent in Jesus’s time.

Josephus was an observant Jew and not a Christian, and so was recording history as he knew it. He wrote Antiquities Of The Jews in c.94 AD, so about 60 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection. Clearly at that time, and throughout the life of Josephus, there was wide knowledge and presumably discussion of Jesus and the origins of Christianity so that he needed to make mention of John the Baptist, of Jesus Christ and of his brother James. James is believed to have been killed in 62-69 AD, so Josephus was an adult at the time and probably knew of it first hand.

Addendum 10/07/2024

I have looked into this subject a bit more, having been told that Josephus’s original text had been “edited” subsequently by Christians.

A strong argument to support the theory that it was edited is that it is highly improbable that Josephus, an observant Jew, would refer to Jesus as the Christ. The word “Christ” derives form the Greek “Christos” which means anointed, as is also the meaning of the word Messiah.

It is more plausible that he wrote something like Jesus was thought (by some) to be the Christ. The thing is that all extent texts derive from a version from Eusebius, a 4th century Christian theologian.

What is in less doubt is that Josephus’s writing is one more piece of evidence that Jesus really did live and that he was crucified. As also stated above, Josephus mentions John the Baptist and James, brother of Jesus, who was killed in his living memory. It is unlikely that those mentions are additions, because if one were intent on doctoring the Josephus text to such an extent to support Bible records, one would include more and different topics.

So I am inclined to think that later Christians probably did make alterations to the text, but I also think they were probably limited to identifying Jesus as the Christ.

It is not implausible for Josephus to have said that followers of Jesus were known as Christians “to this day” (i.e. the time Josephus wrote). It is worthy of note because there were other sects at the time

Fight The Good Fight

While contemplating my situation the other day, the hymn “Fight the good fight” came to mind. As someone who is completely unable to sing, I don’t often think of hymns, but this one seems to me very apt, both from a faith and a health point of view.

Whether you agree with the Christian emphasis or not, the advice is just excellent. We are encouraged to live this life without fear and with determination to do our best. These are the words:

1 Fight the good fight with all your might,
Christ is your strength and Christ your right.
Lay hold on life, and it shall be
your joy and crown eternally.

2 Run the straight race through God’s good grace;
lift up your eyes, and seek his face.
Life with its way before us lies;
Christ is the path and Christ the prize.

3 Cast care aside, lean on your guide;
his boundless mercy will provide.
Lean, and the trusting soul shall prove
Christ is its life and Christ its love.

4 Faint not, nor fear, his arms are near;
he changes not, and you are dear.
Only believe, and you will see
that Christ is Lord eternally.

Naturally I would like everyone to enjoy the benefits of faith, but either way there is a load of good advice contained within the Bible and within Christian songs and literature. Some of it, like this hymn, is very stirring. Other things are very calming, like Jesus’s encouragement “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11v.28-30). There are certainly times when our cancer makes us feel “weary and burdened” and at those times I am really thankful for my faith because I never feel anxious or depressed. I praise God that He makes this joy so freely available.

Good News!

A couple of days ago I had my scheduled appointment with the oncology consultant. I was both eager and anxious for this appointment because I was to get the results of my recent scans. The CT scan of my body does not worry me greatly, although my lungs have four small metastases. Left to themselves, they are too small and slow-growing to be of much concern to someone my age, and they are totally symptom-free. On the other hand, the tumour in my brain stem is a major concern, and I have an MRI scan of my head for that. It was the symptoms of loss of balance and difficulty pronouncing some words that led to its discovery. If it grows too big, it will affect the ability of my brain to control my body, with devastating consequences.

The good news is that the MRI head scan showed that the brain tumour has shrunk significantly, as has the surrounding oedema, since my last scan 4 months ago. Praise God! This was my first scan since going back onto the Everolimus and Lenvatinib therapy at a reduced dose of Lenvatinib, so good to know that the reduction hasn’t done any harm.

That is not to say that the good result has come easily. First off, I give thanks to my Christian brothers and sisters who have supported me and the medical staff with their prayers. I firmly believe that this helps in general and specifically in steering us towards the right treatment.

The drugs have unwanted side effects, the worst for me being low energy and tiredness. On top of this, I have made major changes to my diet and supplementation to both detoxify and to consume those things that fight cancer and avoid those that tend to promote cancer growth.

The biggest dietary change has been to completely exclude sugar, red meat and dairy. I thought of going completely vegan at one time, but have since learned that the occasional organic free range egg is fine, as is a little white chicken meat, some fish, and cheese from sheep or goat milk. But I certainly miss my bacon at our monthly men’s breakfasts at Christ Church, Brownsover, which were about the only times that I had a full English breakfast. I still attend these for the company and the invariably interesting discussion after.

Very topical, as Christmas approaches, is that my alternative treatment involves both Frankincense and Myrrh, as oil in a blend of oils that I apply around my head and neck because of their anti-cancer properties. What we apply to our skin is absorbed into the body, which is why we need to be so careful about what cosmetics we use, as well as any chemicals with which we come into contact. Frankincense and Myrrh get several mentions in the Bible, not only as gifts to the newly born Jesus, so that reinforces their value. I also take Frankincense internally in the form of Boswellia Serrata capsules.

God, through His creation, has provided us with many natural medicines that we can use. In fact this was all that people did use until the pharmaceutical industry took off and persuaded people that man-made medicine was the way to go. Certainly the industry has done good, as well as a lot of harm. I think we have a problem in that a lot of the old “folk” remedies have been forgotten, but fortunately they are being rediscovered. Cannabis, for example, is a wonderful medicine for many ailments, including cancer, but is sadly hardly available legally in the United Kingdom, apart from the non-narcotic component CBD, which is legal and also beneficial, but not to the extent that the whole plant is.

Clearly the thing to do now is to continue along the same lines of medication and diet, perhaps refining it as I learn more. But as they say: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Probably the best advice I can give myself for now. But I would really like to be free of the medication, so that I can feel normal again. Perhaps the oncologist will agree to a break of a month or two when my brain tumour is smaller.

Atheist Delusions

I have just started reading Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart. While reading the first paragraph of the first chapter, I realised that I was going to like this book, both for its style and its content. It was published in 2009, but is perhaps even more relevant today. The paragraph starts with the fact that today newspapers and book publishers have never before been so open to those who will denounce faith in general and Christianity in particular because it is such an easy target. To quote:

“As I write, Daniel Dennett’s latest attempts to wean a credulous humanity from its reliance on the preposterous fantasies of religion, Breaking the Spell, has arrived amid a clamor of indignant groans from the faithful and exultant bellowing from the godless. The God Delusion, an energetic attack on all religious belief, has just been released by Richard Dawkins, the zoologist and tireless tractarian, who – despite his embarrassing incapacity for philosophical reasoning – never fails to entrance his eager readers with his rhetorical recklessness. The journalist Christopher Hitchens, whose talent for intellectual caricature somewhat exceeds his mastery of consecutive logic, has just issued God Is Not Great, a book that raises the wild non sequitur almost to the level of a dialectical method. Over the past few years, Sam Harris’s extravagantly callow attack on all religious belief, The End of Faith, has enjoyed robust sales and the earnest praise of sympathetic reviewers. Over a slightly greater span, Philip Pullman’s evangelically atheist (and rather overrated) fantasy trilogy for children, His Dark Materials, has sold millions of copies, has been lavishly praised by numerous critics, has been adapted for the stage, and has received partial cinematic translation; its third volume, easily the weakest of the series, has even won the (formerly) respectable Whitbread Prize. And one need hardly mention the extraordinary sales achieved by Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, already a major film and surely the most lucrative novel written by a borderline illiterate. I could go on.”

Of these, I have only read Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. I do not consider that I was a Christian at the time I read it, though as stated elsewhere in this blog, I did at the time believe it probable that God existed. This book was so bad that it tended to reinforce my belief rather than consider it a delusion. I do not doubt that those already of an atheist mindset thought that it justified their opinion.

Christopher Hitchens I have heard in debate, but I have not read anything of his. I did not find him particularly convincing.

His Dark Materials was turned into a television series, and I only know it through having watched a few episodes. It was clearly a fantasy for children and, for me, unwatchable. I did not see enough to know whether it was “evangelically atheist”.

I saw the film of the Da Vinci Code, which was clearly nonsense and it in no way encouraged me to read the book. I was not a Christian at the time I saw it, which is perhaps why I did not see it as overtly anti-Christian, even though it is.

Resurrection

Still in the first chapter of Atheist Delusions, David Bentley Hart goes on to say something that is very important and that we should never forget:

“Harris is quite correct to say, for instance, that Christ’s resurrection – like any other historical event – is known only by way of the testimony of others. Indeed, Christianity is the only major faith built entirely around a single historical claim. It is, however, a claim quite unlike any other made, as any perceptive and scrupulous historian must recognize. Certainly it bears no resemblance to the vague fantasies of witless enthusiasts or to the cunning machinations of opportunistic charlatans. It is the report of men and women who had suffered the devastating defeat of their beloved master’s death, but who in a very short time were proclaiming an immediate experience of his living presence beyond the tomb, and who were, it seems, willing to suffer privation, imprisonment, torture, and death rather than deny that experience. And it is the report of a man who had never known Jesus before the crucifixion, and who had once persecuted Jesus’s followers, but who also believed that he had experienced the risen Christ, with such shattering power that he too preferred death to apostasy. And it is the report of countless others who have believed that they also – in a quite irreducibly personal way – have known the risen Christ.”

Beautifully expressed. I like this book.

Addendum

I have now finished reading this book and am very impressed. I certainly liked the way he dismissed the pronouncements of prominent atheists. As the book goes on, the author clearly outlines many of their errors in logic and their lack of knowledge of history. David Bentley-Hart is amongst other things, both a historian and a philosopher and he has put together an enthralling history of Christianity – the good and the not so good – in the context of the times. A very scholarly work.