Christianity Concluded

My opponent has given you 8 contentions: 1. Christianity is based on Judaism. I correct my statement. Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. Judaism may have set up some of the framework, but recall all of the New Testament is original. The net result is an original religion. 2. Jesus did not fulfill the prophecy of a messiah accepted by Jews. .. actually, there is no prophecy for this in the Bible. This point also shows my opponent's ignorance of Psalms 69:4, Isaiah 53:1, Zechariah 13:7, Zechariah 12:10, Zechariah 11:12-13, Zechariah 11:4-6, Isaiah 53:12, Isaiah 53:5 and about a dozen other prophecies that the Jews had. 3. Jesus was not predicted by God in early Genesis, so as he wasn't prophesied once he can't ever have been prophesied. To be honest, I do not understand this logic one bit. Please elaborate. I suspect my opponent just wanted to add that I'm illogical by adding some illogic of his own and pretending to be me. Illogical plan by the way. 4. What prophecies in the Old Testament ARE prophecies? Let me list six that I just so happen to know a bit about, although my readers should know Jesus apparently fufilled many others: 1) Zechariah 9:9 (Messiah will come to Jerusalem on Donkey) 2) Jeremiah 31:22 (Virgin-born) 3) Isaiah 53 (pretty much sums up the story of Jesus in a chapter) 4) Isaiah 25:8 (Resurrection) 5) Isaiah 6:9-10 (Parable-speaking) 6) 1 Chronicles 17:11 (Messiah of David's line) I will add that my opponent fails to mention any prophecies not fulfilled by Jesus. 5. Similarities I have to out-list (sorry, must use note form to fit) a) Not a similarity. Queen Olympias did not claim to be a virgin (. http://en.wikipedia.org......), she just didn't like Philip. Plus Alexander wasn't a God. b) Egyptian vs Christian differences X10: Egyptians were polytheists, they built pyramids, they worshipped emporers, they used magic, they put lots of goods in tombs, syncretism, Egyptian balance/order vs Christian God-victory, Christian God comes to Earth, Creation myth very different, concept of communion different (I have more. .. ) c) Not similarities. None of them was crucified, they were TORTURED and KILLED. There's a big difference. In each of the religions you mention there are at least 10 Gods who are not tortured and killed so I'll use them as my answers. One of your religions was founded AFTER Christianity. d) Not a similarity. Greek religion does not have a "savior," the word means the same thing in any language. If God chose to name himself the Greek for savior then that doesn't disprove anything. e) Not a similarity. Paul was rejected by James on a theological issue (who could be a Christian). He was also rejected by Peter. Later he reconciled with all of the above as they saw that they were in the wrong. There is nothing he added to Christianity that can be considered "Roman". 6. Nobody saw Jesus resurrect. True. But the Bible doesn't say "And then I watched Jesus stroll out of the tomb. " It says what people saw. People saw Jesus wander about, fish and fly into the sky after his death. That is in the bible, and that does tend to lead to the conclusion (coupled with the tomb story) that maybe Jesus left the tomb exactly as he predicted. Did he resurrect? That's for you to decide. You must consider the evidence for yourself - as I say, there is evidence for and against. What I oppose is you saying "it's false" because we don't know if it's false. 7. People's belief does not add credibility. Neither, apparently, does historical writing or anything else. So, I ask my opponent: does he believe in anything? Is anything credible to him that he has not directly experienced himself? If so, then this point falls to me. If not, then my opponent is a bit odd. If my opponent saw Jesus resurrect he would be an eyewitness, correct. And that would add extra credibility to the story. After all, an event seen by 1000 people is more credible than an event seen only by one. And by the way, not all of the people that saw Jesus saw him in real life like you suggest. 8. My opponent states the Christians stole the body (basically, that's what I get through his terrible grammar). Evidence, please! Besides, this theory doesn't explain how the Christians managed to steal it. Jesus body was sealed in the largest and most heavily guarded tomb in the most exclusive graveyard in Jerusalem - the tomb of Joseph of Aramatheia. The Christians could, of course, be liars and have actually stolen the body. But I think this is very unlikely. Besides which I do not claim the Christian version of events is true (I don't personally believe it is), rather that the Christian faith does have some evidence, however bad, behind it and therefore is not a hoax for Christians. You can personally believe anything is a hoax - many believe the holocaust was a hoax - but that doesn't give you the right to pass that objective judgment. My opponent's other flaws are: 1) "I do not question whether you are RIGHT or WRONG" - then again, round 1 he said: "Christianity is a false belief. " Contradiction. 2) Still using "false belief system" instead of "false belief," then arguing it's a false belief. What the hell! ? 3) My opponent did not rebut the weight of evidence for Jesus compared to other figures. 4) My opponent is yet to tell us why Jesus is NOT credible. Taken against my large body of sound evidence it seems a most glaring gap in his case. Remember, to win this debate, I need to prove three things: fulfillment of prophecy, originality and credibility. I've shown there is a credible case for being a Christian, my opponent has not yet out-listed me, and because Jesus fulfills every prophecy my opponent has found, I must win this debate. My opponent has not given any evidence for why it is a hoax influenced by prior belief.