“NEW” DISCOVERIES
Folks who love the Lord and respect the Bible
have to put up with a great deal of foolishness. I noticed this week
that the Hollywood director James Cameron is involved with a project
concerning the supposed discovery of a tomb that has in it the relics of
Jesus and an earthly physical family He is said to have had. The
implications of such a “discovery” for traditional Christianity are
profound. According to what I read about it, this means that Jesus was
married with a family, was not raised from the dead and the New
Testament story is just altogether wrong.
There are a couple of things about this that
really bother me. But before I get to those, let me say that media
events such as these do not have any bearing on my faith, nor should
they on the faith of any thinking person. Faith arises from the Word of
God (Romans 10:17 ). Faith results from decisions made based on the
evidence that God is and the Bible is His Word. Evidence is important in
the Biblical process by which we gain faith. Evidence, not foolish
supposition, is the thing.
So, do I view the recent flurry of news about
this tomb to be foolish suppositions? Of course, I do, and for good
reason.
A careful reading of the articles in the news
about this matter reveals that it is not a new discovery at all, dating
to 1980. Scholars have known about it since then. No one knows when
the thing was built. It could have been built by someone way back in
antiquity wishing to attack traditional Christianity and the Deity of
Jesus Christ. Seems to me that it would fit in with a number of heresies
known to exist in the first three or four centuries of Christian
influence in that part of the world.
Another thing folks must remember is that
names like Jesus, Mary and Judah were among the most common names there
and then. As our Hispanic friends will tell us there are still a lot of
folks names “Jesus” just as we in the English world frequently name our
boys “Joshua” (which means the same as “Jesus”) and our girls “Mary”.
So, it could be a deceptive hoax or it could
be an innocent coincidence. What we do know is that the spin being put
on it has a purpose: the destruction of traditional Christianity. I
don’t expect the people on cable TV or in Hollywood to admit their
prejudice against Christianity, but it is as real as real can be. After
all, when was the last time you witnessed the mainstream media attacking
Islam as a religion that was born in dreams and built by brutal military
force? Don’t wait up.
I (and likely, you) could go on and on about
what is wrong with this. I read that they are even citing statistical
analysis as proof of the veracity of their claims about this old tomb.
There is an old saying about lies that I must paraphrase here: There are
lies, “really bad” lies, and there are statistics. Any one who has
studied the art and science of statistical analysis knows that though
such analysis can be meaningful and real, data can be manipulated so as
to “prove” whatever one wants proved.
But here is the thing that really “gets” me.
The whole thing is so nonsensical from the very beginning. No educated
person (of faith or not) can fail to see that this is but a crass
attempt to generate interest in some movie or TV show. Remember, this
media that is all atwitter about this tomb are the same folks who are
covering the delayed burial of a pop-culture icon, the patriarchy of her
child, and the haircut of another has-been warbler.
We know about Jesus’ tomb. It was empty. It
stayed empty. Why? He arose.
by Bill Irby
