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March 02, 2007
Tomb of Jesus?
Suppose, my years in the future, while digging in the ruins of an American city, somebody uncovered caskets with the names of George, James, Ronald, William and Harry? Would the media rise to the occasion and do a feature story on the discovery of the graves of the American presidents? This is the same kind of logic being applied to the bone boxes drawing media attention today. The finds are real, but the names are very ordinary and common names in Israel. How many Marys come up in the Bible? How many Josephs? Jesus? In Hebrew he has the same name as Joshua.
From the attention this issue has received this past week, you would assume these boxes were just uncovered this month, or certainly within this year. Would it surprise you to know that the tomb was first discovered in 1980 when construction workers were digging in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot to clear the way for new appartments there? So why is this breaking news now??
James Cameron, the name behind the hype, is not an archeologist or scientist, but a film maker known for directing the Titanic. James has now put together a "documentary" which will be aired on the Discovery channel. It used to be that during Lent and Holy Week films like the Robe and the Ten Commandments would be on TV, as everyone was thinking about these kinds of values during those days. But now, the big bucks come from critics who produce fictional stories about Jesus and Mary being married. So now is the time to break the news of this important discovery.
Amos Kloner, the archeologist who oversaw the initial dig more than 25 years ago said "the makers of a new documentary detailing the supposed discovery of Jesus' tomb should be ashamed of the inconsistencies and unscientific evidence they are reporting in the film." He said: "The documentary was made according to the 'imagination of people. I don't accept the claim that this tomb was the burial place for the family of Jesus.'"
What do I think? Peter, James and the other disciples all died very agonizing and torturous deaths as martres, claiming that they saw Jesus alive. Why not spare themselves this unnessary pain and recant? They were ordered time and again to stop preaching about Jesus, but they said they could not stop telling what they had seen and heard. The apostle Paul, who sought believers in Christ to arrest them and put them to death, after personally meeting the Lord, began to preach and teach that Jesus was the Christ. He endured more beatings, whippings, terms in prison, and other abuse than I can imagine, but would not stop taking the message as far as he could. The history of the church is built on the blood of men and women who were willing to give up their lives for what they believed.
I am not worthy to be compared to these witnesses, but I have experienced the power and presence of Christ in my life many times, the promises of the Bible have proved themselves over and over again. Hundreds of details concerning the life and death of Christ were predicted hundreds and even thousands of years earlier in Scripture, and were fulfilled to the letter. Archeologists have been busy digging for generations, and what they uncover is consistent with the teachings of Scripture. I will cast my vote on the authority of Scripture and the testimony that has proved itself throughout history and in my life time and time again. Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures (and there is no other grounds for forgiveness of sins apart from his death). He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and He is alive today, preparing a place with Him in glory for those who are willing to place their trust in Him. This is what I believe. The more archeologists uncover, the more they find that what the Bible states is true. Keep digging.
Posted by Pastorkeith at March 2, 2007 04:25 PM
Comments
William Dever, an archaeologist of 50 years, said recently, "I'm not Christian. I'm not a believer. I didn't have a dog in this fight. I just think it's a shame the way this story is being hyped and manipulated."
Posted by: Pastor Keith at March 2, 2007 05:41 PM
Don't want to give them some ideas, but wonder if they forgot about the nail prints? It's our job to tell them about that TRUE story.
Posted by: ===Fred=== at March 3, 2007 02:54 AM
I haven't been in on any of this, haven't been watching the right channels, I guess. But I have known people to actually consider that Jesus may have been married. My response has always been, then why don't we hear about that in the Bible? Why would God come here and allow himself to be seduced by earthly ways when his entire focus and even existence based on bringing us salvation? It upsets me that people are willing to come to the same conclusions of whoever they happen to be watching that day when they've never really done any research on their own. And this can be said about many things, not just this topic. Come on people, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.
Posted by: Leslie Turner at March 8, 2007 04:18 PM