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Truth Seeker: Objections To Christianity
Category:
Religion
Publisher: Create Space
ISBN-10: 1508864888
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 184
Copyright: May 22, 2015
ISBN-13: 9781508864882
Price: $2.50 (eBook)
This is the latest book in my Truth Seeker Series. It is a dialogue between myself and my father who was a critic of the Bible and Christianity. My father was a prolific reader and believed in looking off the beaten paths of accepted history to discover truth since "the winners write history." If you are interested in learning about the Bible or criticisms of it, this book is for you!
In recent years, there have been a number of popular books that have questioned who Jesus was. Was he a
Zealot, Messiah, misunderstood prophet or someone who was mythologized by the Roman Church to gain power and
influence? This book explores these and many other objections to traditional Christian views as a dialogue between a father and son who hold polar opposite beliefs about Jesus, his message and his mission.
Excerpt
Introduction
My father was a free thinker and voracious reader his whole life. In 1979, I became a born again Christian which he received with skepticism. He said, “Come back in ten years and then I will believe there has been a genuine change in your life.” Over the next thirty-three years, I have returned many times to my dad trying to convince him of my faith in Jesus and the changes that have resulted in me. While he liked to talk about religion and politics, he typically would soon become emotional which would end the discussion. In his later years, he gathered weekly with other retired men to discuss religion and politics despite the fact that frequently he became physically ill afterwards due to the strong emotions that such discussions aroused in him. While we remained close, we were never able to reconcile our views about the Bible.
In 2009, my dad became very ill and almost died. After his recovery, I decided to have copies of an autobiography he wrote bound into a soft cover book. I gave him enough copies to distribute to family and, he enjoyed this so much that he decided to write more books. For several years he wrote several fictional and non-fiction books which reflected his critical thinking about the Bible and Christianity. He believed that “God was within him” and that, when he died, his spirit would go back to God. He also believed that the books of the Bible reflected the interpretations of the early church theologian Jerome who compiled a multitude of fragmentary and variable copies of the books of the Bible to form the Latin Vulgate. This became the basis for the modern Bible and reflects the views of the Roman Catholic Church about Jesus. He said that he did not know who Jesus was. He believed Jesus was involved in a zealot plot to revolt against Rome and the Jewish religious leaders and this is why he was crucified.
Since his death in 2012, I have wondered why God gave him several more years of life. In his final days, he spoke of being in church and so I do not know if he had a change of heart and thinking prior to his death. However, I am grateful for his writings which have helped me to better understand his thinking. In his last years, he tried to convince me to “think beyond what the Bible says.” On a few occasions he would raise some problems he perceived with Bible verses. After we discussed them, he would conclude that I knew quite a lot about the Bible and soon he did not continue this line of criticism. However, he did write down many of his ideas related to criticisms that he perceived with various Bible verses which he gave me shortly before his death. These writings have inspired me to further our dialogue after his death. I believe there may be others who have similar criticisms, questions and concerns about the Bible. The thought has occurred to me since my dad’s death that God gave him several more years of life so that we could finish our conversation about the Bible and help others who may be confused about parts of it. Thus, this book is structured as a dialogue between my father and I reflecting his thoughts and my responses to problems he perceived with the Bible. The Bible verses selected by my dad are in bold followed by his comments in italic and then my response in regular font.
Gospel Of Mark
1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Father
Mark is usually regarded as the most reliable of the Gospels. He presents Jesus as a perfectly normal man, with a family that includes brothers and sisters! So who rewrote the first verse? All male Jewish believers were called “Sons of God.”
Author
The gospel of Mark is the briefest of the Gospels and focuses more on deeds than parables and lengthy discourses. It was written by John Mark, who accompanied Paul on part of his first missionary journey. He was a missionary companion of Paul and Barnabas who was his uncle. From the early days of the church, Mark’s Gospel has been thought to reflect Peter’s view of Christ since he was his scribe.
The fact that Jesus had other brothers and sisters is found in Mark 3:31-35 & 6:3; Matthew 13:53-55; 12:46-49 & John 2:12. This conflicts with the Roman Catholic teaching that Mary remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus. Attempts to reconcile the perpetual virginity of Mary with these verses typically include the idea that Joseph had children by another woman prior to Mary. Another idea is that the term brothers and sisters is an endearment not a reference to a biological relationship. This latter idea is more difficult to accept given the fact that John 2:12 refers to brothers and disciples in the same verse.
While it is true that not all copies of Mark have the term “Son of God,” it is a term used in many places in the New Testament to refer to Jesus. The presence of this phrase in some copies of Mark is more likely a result of the fact that Jesus himself and other New Testament writers referred to him as the “Son of God.” Thus, it could be an insertion resulting from use in many other places. Jesus is descended from King David and so the title “Son of God” attributed to this king also applies to him.
Depending on the context the term “Son of God” could refer to any Jew, to a pious Jew, to a king claiming divine attributes or to the Messiah. In the case of Jesus, it has all of the preceding meanings. This is perhaps best shown in Matthew 16:15-17 where Peter acknowledges that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Other instances where this phrase is used to refer to Jesus are related to his walking on water (Mt 14:33); annunciation of the virgin birth (Lk 1:35); casting out of demons (Lk 4:41; Mk 3:11); baptism (Jn 1:34) and reason for his crucifixion (Jn 19:7).
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