Jesus the Christ is Probaby the Result of Creative Writing.

I never said that you were trying to discredit the whole New Testament. I am merely explaining the reliability of the narrators. I am trying to point out that the Jesus we know from the NT is the same Jesus that walked this earth and was mentioned in the OT. -------- Now, I do not see the reasoning behind your argument strategy. First you say that you are not trying to discredit the NT. Then, you say this: "Secondly, the NT makes reference to historical events that are not corroborated by any extrabiblical sources, but are conveniently self-corroborated by other parts of the Bible. For example, the Star of Bethlehem - it is not recorded in any historical account. .. but it is in Numbers 24. The NT states that the earth shook, the land darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two at the time of the resurrection. This is not recorded in any historical account. .. but is perfectly described in Amos 8 and Ezekiel 37. " Jesus' writings were probably lost, or he deemed it the jobs of other men to record what he was saying. Traditional authorship, in Hebrew, would have been less mobile. However, I believe that we have agreed that the Apostles did not write the Gospels named after them. Therefore, what reason would an unbiased party have for fudging the books? I have provided explanations for the similarities is Middle Eastern mythology: "4) Middle Eastern mythology. I agree that the stories may have similar roots but that is possible without making the NT invalid. The events could have happened and multiple battles could have been fought against them. The events could have happened simultaneously (or almost) in different areas and the heroes of the day dealt with them in the most current fashion. The different cultures could have had a different name for the one legend who was the sole hero. " "3. What themes of Middle Eastern mythology? Why could they not be true for both? Gods=celestial signs. Check for most religions. Plausibility of Hell. Check for almost all religions. Easily angered Gods (are you referring to God or Jesus? God's anger plays no part in the factuality of Jesus' story. Whether God was or wasn't, does not make Jesus' story more believable. Yes, most religions have a messiah. Are you suggesting that they all saw others doing it and wanted one for themselves? Why is it so hard to believe in multiple prophets? Okay, there is a lot of talk about Jesus rising from the dead, but it never actually states that. He has not come back; all we know is that his body disappeared. That doesn't mean he has risen and is among us. Oh really? Dionysus, God of wine? please don't tell me you made the connection between Dionysus' indulgence and Jesus changing water into wine. " Now, for mistranslations. I am sure the translators did their best but everyone makes mistakes and there is no set way to translate from one language to another. You need context clues, which may have been misread. The Messiah stories do not directly pertain to Jesus. Back then, a messiah was one who could save them from foreign (i. e. Roman) empires. nice tidbit of information: "Here's something interesting. .. "Thomas" is derived from the Aramaic T'oma. The same character is also called Didymus. T'oma and Didymus mean "twin" in Aramaic and Greek. Coincidence, or did was Thomas called "The Twin" because he looked like Jesus? Did 500 people see Jesus, or did they mistake Thomas for Jesus? ?" Why would Thomas be there? Now, my opponent states that the Gospels match "pretty darn well with details in the OT". I suppose these details are not the ones that dissuade him of Jesus Christ's reality? Why is it so hard to believe, that, 30 years after the fact, people are having a hard time coming up with details? Isn't it more likely that they remember the big events? Perhaps the Discovery Channel movie was not the most researched, but the theory holds. Jesus' tomb could easily have been found, worshipped, moved, lost, etc. Since we do not really know where it is, is it that surprising that we don't have records of people visiting? If we did, we might be able to find it. In conclusion, the possibilities of this argument are endless. However, I hope I provided you with enough reasonable doubt to vote Con. Thanks to my opponent for the interesting debate. Denied.