Wednesday, July 09, 2008

The Stumbling Stone

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080709/the-stumbling-stone.htm

[The Christian Post] 9 Jul 2008--You are probably familiar with the expression “like moths to a flame.” It refers to the way people are attracted to those things that can harm them. As Shakespeare put it in The Merchant of Venice: “Thus hath the candle singed the moth.”

What’s true of people as individuals is equally true of them collectively. Take, for example, the media. They are irresistibly drawn to stories about discoveries that supposedly undermine historical Christianity. Yet every time, their credibility comes away looking like the proverbial moth after its encounter with the candle.

The latest “sensational” discovery is no different.

Over the July 4th weekend, the media was abuzz with a story about a stone—specifically, a “three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew” that dated to the decades just prior to Jesus’ birth.

According to the New York Times front-page story, the discovery is “causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles . . .” Why? Because, the Times says, “it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.”

This in turn, the Times claims, “will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique, but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.”

If you are wondering what the big deal is and asking, “Don’t Christians believe in the continuity between Judaism and Christianity?” you are obviously not a moth—or a New York Times reporter.

Related article:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080708/scholars-downplay-tablet-debate-on-messiah-resurrection.htm
Scholars Downplay Tablet Debate on Messiah, Resurrection - The Christian Post

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