j*******7
发帖数: 6300 | 1 The Reasonable Expectations That Cause Mythologies to Resemble Jesus
While the similarities between Jesus and the “divine” mythological
characters that preceded him are grossly overstated, we ought to expect some
parallels between Jesus and the imaginative creations of those who lived
prior to Christ’s appearance on earth. As ancient people began to consider
the possibility of God’s existence, a series of reasonable inferences
certainly must have guided the fabrication of their mythological deities.
Consider the following reasonable conclusions one might draw when thinking
about the possible existence of God:
A Creator God would be incredibly strong and likely emerge in our world in a
way that defies the natural order of things.
A Creator God would have the power to perform miracles and control the
forces of the natural environment.
A Creator God, if He wanted us to know Him, would likely provide us with
some form of mediator.
A Creator God, if He was to come to earth, would certainly draw attention to
Himself, gathering disciples.
A Creator God would be powerful enough to defeat death.
A Creator God would want to save his children and come to their rescue,
particularly if they are facing an eternal threat.
A Creator God, if He loves us, would likely make it possible for us to join
Him in his eternal life.
A Creator God would likely have infinite wisdom and be the master of our
lives.
All of these expectations are reasonable. If there is a God, we could
sensibly expect him to possess these characteristics. So it really shouldn’
t surprise us when we find ancient mythological descriptions of pre-
Christian gods who emerge into the natural world in some unnatural way,
perform miraculous deeds, intervene as mediators, gather disciples, defeat
death, rescue believers, provide a path to eternal life and serve as the
source of all wisdom. I would expect those who are dreaming and thinking
about God to describe these common features in the gods they create; these
characteristics emerge from reasonable expectations. This is largely why
there are any similarities at all (even though they are minimal and
exaggerated) between ancient mythologies and Jesus.
Paul recognized this inclination to create Gods from our expectations.
Addressing the people of Athens on Mars Hill, two thousand years ago, Paul
told his listeners that while they had imagined the nature of God, there was
actually a true God, Jesus Christ, who came into the world and exceeded
their expectations:
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens
! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and
looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with
this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something
unknown I am going to proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and
everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in
temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed
anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything
else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the
whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places
where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps
reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘
For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets
have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s
offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver
or stone-an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God
overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to
repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by
the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising
him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31)
Paul seemed to recognize that God had an answer for those who had been
dreaming about His nature. God was aware of all the mythologies that
preceded His true appearance. He was aware of the dreams and expectations of
these ancient people; He knew how they had shaped their gods. It shouldn’t
surprise us, then, that God would eventually appear and prove He was the
one true God by meeting our expectations, point for point, and then
dramatically surpassing these expectations in a demonstration of power and
glory. In Paul’s words on Mars Hill, I hear the faint echo of God’s
encouragement: “Children, I know you have imagined me to be a certain way.
In some small measure you have imagined correctly. In many other ways you
have been very far from the mark. Let me show you who I am. Watch me meet
all the expectations you had about my nature. Let me assure you by pointing
you to the miraculous life I lived among you. Let me show you how I rescued
you in a way you could never have dreamt of.”
In the end, it was the powerful eyewitness confirmation of the Resurrection
that Paul highlighted in an effort to convince the Athenians that Jesus was
the one true God who met their expectations. Jesus was described as the true
God who would “judge the world with justice”, and Paul said that God had
“given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” How do we
know Jesus is not just another mythological creation of ancient men who had
reasonable expectations? Because (according to Paul) we have a reliable
eyewitness account related to the Resurrection. That’s why this historic
eyewitness claim became the focus of my investigation as a skeptic, why I
spent so much time investigating the claims of the gospels as eyewitness
accounts, and why I have such confidence today. The accounts are reliable
under any template we might use with witnesses in the courtroom, and if they
’re reliable, Jesus is the true God who met our expectations and then
surpassed them in a way we could never have anticipated.
J. Warner Wallace is a Cold-Case Detective, a Christian Case Maker, and the
author of Cold-Case Christianity
http://coldcasechristianity.com/2013/the-reasonable-expectation |
|
