Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00194)

( Part 2 : 10/7 message from Marc_Welsher@bubbs.biola.edu)

When Jesus and the apostles called upon people to exercise
faith, it was NOT a blind faith. The apostle, Paul, said: "I
KNOW whom I have believed" (II Tim. 1:12). Jesus said,
"You shall KNOW the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
(John 8:32). This implies accepting and dealing with facts,
not denying or ignoring them. Paul Little, in "Know Why You
Believe," wrote: "Faih in Christianity is based on EVIDENCE.
It is reasonable faith. Faith in the Christian sense goes
beyond reason BUT NOT AGAINST IT.

The first thing to consider when dealing with this
intellectual faith is the Eyewitnesses. The writers of the
New Testament either wrote as eyewitnesses of the events they
described or recorded eyewitnesses firsthand accounts of the
events. 2 Peter 1:16 says:
 "For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made
known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty and power."

These writers certainly knew the difference between myth,
legend and reality. There is an obvious difference between
Greek or Roman myths and Christianity: The similar events,
such as the resurrection, etc. were not applied to real,
flesh and blood individuals by the Greeks and Romans, but
rather to mythological characters. However, when it comes to
Christianity, these
events are attached to a person the writers and MANY of their
audience knew in time-space dimension history, the historic
Jesus of Nazareth whom they knew personally.

S. Estborn in "Gripped by Christ" explains this very concept.
He had studied both the Bible and the Shastras. He dwelled on
two biblical themes: The reality of the Incarnation and the
Atonement for human sin. He sought to harmonize these
doctrines in the Hindu Scritpures. He found a parallel to
Christ's self-sacrifice in Prajapati, the Vedic creator-god.
He also saw a VITAL DIFFERENCE: Where the Vedic Prajapati is
a mythical symbol, which has been applied to several figures,
Jesus of Nazareth is a HISTORIC PERSON. He concluded that
"Jesus is the true Prajapati, the true Saviour of the world."

A myth may be properly defined as a "pre-scientific and
imaginative attempt to explain some phenomenon, real or
supposed, which excited curiosity of the mythmaker, or perhaps
more accurately as an effort to reach a feeling of
satisfaction in place of bewilderment concerning such
phenomena. It often appeals to the emotions rather than the
reason, and indeed, in its most typical forms, seems to date
from an age when rational explanations were not called for."

James> I will transmit part 3 (the Final Installment) after I can
 confirm proper receipt of this part.