From: zobell@lute.mitre.org (Steve Zobell)
Subject: Re: I'm God.
Reply-To: szobell@mitre.org (Steve Zobell)
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean, Va
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 19:32:15 GMT

In article <69360@hydra.gatech.EDU> rpitts@emperor.gatech.edu (Richard Pitts) writes:
>In article <1992Sep29.143239.23634@linus.mitre.org> zobell@lute.mitre.org (Steve Zobell) writes:
>|In article <69250@hydra.gatech.EDU> rpitts@emperor.gatech.edu (Richard Pitts) writes:
>|>In article <1992Sep28.192927.23673@linus.mitre.org> zobell@lute.mitre.org (Steve Zobell) writes:
>|>|
>|>|In article <69165@hydra.gatech.EDU> rpitts@emperor.gatech.edu (Richard Pitts) writes:
>|>|>Summary of Dr. D. James Kennedy's book "Why I Believe"

[On cases where the Bible and Archeology disagree]

>|OK, here is what I remember from reading "The Bible as History" by
>|Verner Keller:
>
>I ask as a whole, where did Keller get his reasons for saying he
>has the right view?

You obviously haven't read his book! ;) Read it.  He provides his
references if you want to check them out.  By the way, Keller is not
trying to disprove the Bible, he is only writing about how the Bible
compares to other history and Archeological findings.  He's perfectly
willing to show cases where there is agreement!

>| - The Bible states that Pharoh Neco went against the King of 
>|   Assyria in II Kings 23:29. A fragment from Mesopotamia 
>|   translated in 1929 shows Neco went to help the King of Assyria. 
>|   NOTE: The NIV has correctly changed this passage.
>|   Could someone with an NIV Study Bible look this up. I'm
>|   interested if they used anything outside of Biblical sources
>|   to help with this passage.
>
>I have no problem with correcting translation errors, here is 
>an obvious case where it needed to be done.  The KJV is not 
>perfect.  However, this error is not detrimental to the Bible as a whole.

You will accept non-Biblical sources as corrections to the Bible?
Why not change the flood story also.  After all, Noah could not have
known how much of the world was flooded!

[About historical "proof" of Jesus:]

>|>Many of these are support for the historical figure and that is
>|>a fair amount of the argument - agian with this historical proof,
>|>what happened to Jesus' body? It seems to have disappeared like
>|>the Bible says.
>|
>|Good joke! Trying to pass the lack of a body as evidence of Jesus.
>|Look, here's a tomb with no one is in it, must have been Jesus' tomb!
>
>He was a historical figure and if his body was around, don't you think
>the early church leaders would have made a shrine out of it, but
>God planned to avoid such a problem - Jesus rose from the dead and
>ascended into heaven - he is not on earth today, but he is returning.

I think it would have been quite an embarrassment for them to have
Christ's body.  I doubt they would want to advertise it!  Didn't Tom
Robins write a book about this?  Sorry, lack of a body is not proof
for your argument of a historical Jesus.

[About the letters of Pilate:]

>|>Could you cite some real historians?
>|
>|OK, but I don't think you will be happy about opening up this one! :)
>|They only show that early Christians were more than willing to make
>|up stories about Christ and pass them off as history.
>
>Thanks for the cites - they by giving some level of support to the 
>actions of the leaders show that other people knew of the leader's 
>actions.  

I'm sorry, I don't understand what your are saying!  Who is the
"leader" you're talking about?  

Are you saying that you are actually willing to accept this
bad-Christian-propaganda-disguised-as-history?  I would really advise
against it!  You obviously haven't read them! ;)  I'm sure any
knowledgeable Christian scholar (including the Catholic Church but
apparently excluding Dr. D. James Kennedy) will distance themselves as
far as possible from this crap!

>Again, if these cites had been exactly and as gloriously 
>as stated as in the Bible, would you not have said they were Christian 
>writings and so discounted them for being biased?

They tended to sound exactly like the Bible!  Do you imagine that a
letter from Pilate in a seventh century manuscript is more or less
plausible because it sounds exactly like the Bible?

>|I'm reading from "The Lost Books of the Bible" compiled by Dr. Frank
>|Crane.
>| [citations deleted]
>|-- Steve
>
>Sincerely,
>Richard Pitts
>
>-- 
>rpitts@cerl.gatech.edu       |    
>Atlanta, GA                --|-- 
>                        -|-  |  -|-
>                         |   |   |
>
-- Steve
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