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April 7, 2006Oh, And Jesus didn’t die on the crossGot that? That’s the latest “theory” which someone came up with and which NBC’s Dateline saw fit to “explore”. Are you keeping track, yet? Yesterday I wrote this: Can’t help but wonder if some of this is meant to be a prelude to the release of the Da Vinci Code movie - advance work, if you will. Here we have a plethora of stories trying to debunk common Christian understanding, and I am wondering if it is all part of the movement to mush-up soggy Christians - to foment doubt - and to soften up the non-believers to the idea that if everything Christians believe is worthless, well then, their influence is to be discounted or even disdained, lessened and disresepected. Easter is coming, too. That always brings out a few “let’s debunk Christianity” stories - but this year, it’s really an all-out assault. In yesterday’s comments, Dave Justus said that it didn’t matter what “miracles” might be debunked, because the greatest miracle - of Jesus’ resurrection was the only one that counted. And so, here we find someone postulating that it never happened: A secret deal with Pontius Pilate He says Pontius Pilate, who ordered Jesus’s death, actually made a secret deal to save his life. Baigent: It was rigged. It was a fraud. I think the crucifixion was set up precisely to remove a particular political problem which both Pilate and Jesus found themselves within. Pilate, Baigent argues, he needed to appease the crowd which was calling for Jesus’s death. But because Jesus had urged his followers to pay their taxes to Rome, Baigent argues Pilate also had an incentive to let Jesus live. Baigent: It’s my hypothesis that he rigged the crucifixion such that Jesus would survive but very quickly removed Jesus from the scene. According to Baigent, Jesus and his supporters were also in on this plot. Baigent acknowledges there no proof of his theory, but it was possible to survive crucifixion. Nothing can be proved, of course - most matters of faith cannot be proven. But the publicity being given to every dubious scenario which may foment doubt - that is proving something to me: there is a movement afoot to debase and destabalize the Christian community at its deepest foundations. These stories are not in play because they are “interesting to the large Christian community” as some might speciously suggest. They don’t serve that community, but another. I’m not worried about it…but it’s annoying. The same press that gives airtime to this fellow would not dare to suggest that what others believe is not true. More on that, later. http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/04/07/oh-and-jesus-didnt-die-on-the-cross/trackback/ 18 Responses to “Oh, And Jesus didn’t die on the cross” |
April 7th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Apparently, we live in an age where conspiracy theories trump facts we understand them.
Is there any other evidence of phony crucifixions- or was this first attempt a success?
I could on, but you get the point…the object of the game is, as you say, to destabilize. Deceit as a form of political expression and academic expression is now accepted.
That ‘academic’ stamp of approval worked well for the bigots, racists and fascists of the 20th century.
This century, it’s eugenics and ‘right to death’issues.
So far.
April 7th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
They have some interesting company –
“And for claiming that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of GOD. In fact, they never killed him, they never crucified him - they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him.”
– Sura 4:157 (Koran)
April 7th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
And how about the “gospel” of Judas - which something like this can properly be called?
http://ohhowilovejesus.com/2006/04/07/something-stinks-here-and-its-not-papyrus/
April 7th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
That’s an old one so it isn’t surprising to see it raising it’s hoary head again just like some of those other heretical ideas.
April 7th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
I think you’re right about the Da Vinci Code connection, and about the season. But I don’t think it’s so much an orchestrated attempt to advance any particular agenda so much as it is television folks looking at the huge success of the book and saying, how do we get a piece of that action?
April 7th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
That’s possible, Vaughn - I’m sure that it might be a partial explanation, except if that were so, it would play out consistantly. When the Muhammed Cartoons story was huge, the press would have said, “how can we get ahead, a piece of that, a scoop on that story…”
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That’s not what happened.
April 7th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
If I were one to buy into conspiracy theories, I would suggest that all of this lines up nicely with plans for the Islamification of the world. Jesus is just a prophet according to Islam, correct? All that stands in the way of winning the hearts and minds of the masses are the divine details that should be easy enough to debunk with modern science.
Of course, I’d never suggest that Islam is the tool of the Enemy. Nor that foolish human pride and the false idol of Science could be used to turn us away from God. I’m too sophisticated for that - aren’t we all?
April 7th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Well Anchoress, there wasn’t really a commercial tie-in to the cartoons, but you touch on a great point — for the media controversy is usually good for business so why shy away? It’s a question we’ve not yet heard a good answer to (although the South Park guys are doing a pretty good job of helping us understand). Cheers!
April 7th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Class. See dat? Dat’s class!
Well done!
April 7th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
I will note that I also said yesterday that the proof of that miracle isn’t in science or history or even the Bible. It is outside the realm of all of that.
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This sort of attack, if you want to call it that, only has power if it is viewed as a threat. If Christians say ‘you are attacking my faith’ in response to something like this, it provides proof that their faith realies on weather or not such things can be proven.
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As the quote from the Koran above points out, this is a very old theory. The fact that this theory exists, and has existed for a long time is undoubtably true. If that shakes a person’s faith, their faith is built upon improper foundations.
April 7th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Undoubtedly true, Dave, and well said. But if a faith is built on a rocky foundation, there is hope that understanding might come.
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Knock the foundation down and the building must begin again - for some a stronger and truer structure will be built, and that’s great. But for others, their rickety faith may be replaced with nothing. Or with something worse than nothing. THAT is where my concern comes in.
April 7th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
#11 Maybe however it’s a two way street? They’re ganging up on Christ and this strayed sheep doesn’t like it one bit. Good luck Anchoress on your project and hurry back.
April 7th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Proof? Facts? New Information/Discovered Documents? No. We don’t need no stinkin’ facts! We’re the MSM! Just like Global Warming. I hope the guys in the “God Project” at Loyola, you know the ones that always contribute to those TV religion pieces with insights like “the Last Supper never happened– Does Jesus look like the kind of guy who would throw a dinner party?” look into this. It is right up their alley!
I have it on good authority that Dateline doesn’t exist. With the help of God, and low ratings, this one might be true.
April 8th, 2006 at 12:28 am
Okay. Time for me to sound like a moonbat again. I refer you to a book (or actually, a set of books) I have mentioned before: The Mystical City of God, written by Sister Mary of Agreda, translated from the Spanish by Fiscar Marison. It is, essentially, the biography of Mary as revealed to the good Sister by the Blessed Mother herself. In it, Our Lady tells of several incidents in the life of Our Lord when Satan set out to undo all the good that He had done.
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This is what is happening now. Last year, Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ was released, a movie which resulted in thousands of conversions and reversions. The movie was released to coincide with the Easter season—in fact, if memory serves me correctly, it was actually released during Holy Week.
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Now, exactly a year later, we are dealing with the release of the DaVinci Code. People whose faith may have been weak to start with have been dragged completely away by what they read in that book. Others, who have not read the book, but will see the movie, will also be drawn away.
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Oh, it’s a conspiracy, all right, but not your common, garden-variety man-made conspiracy. I posit that this whole mess was set in motion by the Prince of Darkness to undo—or at least cancel out—the good wrought by The Passion of the Christ.
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No, I’m not too sophisticated to believe in things like that. Nor should anyone else be. Because that’s what the devil wants; he wants everyone to be convinced that he doesn’t exist, because then we won’t take precautions against his lies.
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I hope someone who has been, or may be, drawn away from Christianity by what he has read, or will see, in the Code, reads this and is moved to further thought by it.
April 8th, 2006 at 1:22 am
About POTC — it was released on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004.
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And I agree — I’m not one of those who thinks that Satan is just sitting around twiddling his thumbs, wishing he had some air conditioning. He’s not sitting this one out. He and his minions are out there, actively engaged.
April 8th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Thanks for the POTC info, Bender.
April 9th, 2006 at 10:17 am
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April 12th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
Seems to me there was a book, published in the late 1960’s-early 1970’s, that also claimed that the Crucifiction was a conspiracy. I tried looking for the name online, but I haven’t found it. Wonder if it will get republished?
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I was still in high school (so it would be the ~very~ early 1970’s) when the book was published. I can remember my religion teacher claiming that the arguments were very shaky historically as well as theologically.
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Goes to show there’s nothing new under the sun!