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History has revealed
the Gnostics, Arius, Nestorious, to name a few in the pantheon of the
negaters of divinity. There is nothing new under the sun...the old
heresies have new names and more technology to perpetuate their
encrusted hardness of hearts. It is said an insensitive soul is already
a corpse. If one honestly dismisses the God/Man...fine, but why enter
into warfare with Him. If He is not, why try to prove that He is
not...He is not, simple. In the past several years there was the Jesus
forum in Santa Barbara, California, whose main goal was to disprove the
miracle stories; the Da Vinci Code...the married Jesus with Mary
Magdalene, and another book written in Canada by a journalist from
Toronto who asserts that the Jesus story is based on ancient Egyptian
mythologies.
A few years ago the sarcophaghus of James, the brother was discovered,
another alleged that Jesus did not resurrect but His body was eaten by
dogs, and on and on goes the lists of rejectionists. It is strange, it
is impossible even dangerous to even utter a mere verbal slur or
criticism of other religions, but Christianity is fair game.
Hollywood has become the new measuring stick of truth.....a place where
truth is a subjective, mental projection based on the idiosyncratic
flippancy of so-called actors in a world of glaring illusions. The
headline seekers thirst for the clamor of the press and their slavish
audience by their outlandish flash theories that are baseless in fact.
How many before them have tried to diminish the Person of the Christ...?
The unconquerable Presence has captivated generations with His inspiring
love while being an offense to the cynics. Truth is a Person: the
God/Man who has endorsed our humanity. There is no other philosopher or
prophet who can claim that their followers are incorporated in His
Person, that is, a Christian can proclaim that he/she is "in Christ."
This is a stunning claim, that one is totally immersed in the Christ who
chases humanity "with a mad love." There is no force, no power, no
system or ideology.(communism or socialism) that can level the Truth
that " God became man, so that man may become God." (St. Athanasius)
It seems to this writer that the vain and fruitless efforts of a few to
seduce the weak among us by propagating hypothesis constructed on sand
will be and are a dead end of vacuous intellectualism and will come to
naught. In parenthesis, our society is rapidly sinking into oblivion
because of the proponents of secularism. My question is: is our society,
are our children more enlightened and safer by debunking all that is
holy, beautiful and true? I think not...it is a tragedy of the highest
magnitude, with a huge emotional and spiritual price tag. Finally the
one who gave us the Titanic wants to sink the ship of the church.
However the Alpha Omega of history has promised that He will be with us
unto the end of all ages...
Published in The Word Magazine, March 2007
*Jesus' brother's burial box 'a fake'*
June 19 2003
An ancient burial box purported to have held the bones of Jesus'
brother, James, is a fake, Israel's Antiquities Authority said
yesterday.
The ossuary, which bore the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother
of Jesus," had been touted by some scholars as the oldest archaeological
link to New Testament figures. But Israeli officials described
that inscription, as well as another purported archaeological marvel,
the "Yoash inscription," as "forgeries." "The inscriptions,
possibly inscribed in two separate stages, are not authentic," the
Antiquities Authority said in a statement. The officials reached
their conclusions after intensive examinations by several committees of
experts.
Oded Golan, the Israeli owner of the "James ossuary," dismissed the
officials' findings. "I am certain the ossuary is real, I am
certain that the committee is wrong regarding its conclusions," Golan
said today. He also said he believed the Yoash inscription, which
he was connected to as well, was authentic.
Golan had previously said he had problems with the committee, which he
said had "preconceived notions." The Israel Antiquities Authority
and the Jerusalem police launched separate investigations into the two
items after Golan offered one for sale.
The Yoash inscription is a shoebox-sized tablet inscribed with fifteen
lines of ancient Hebrew with instructions for maintaining the Jewish
Temple in Jerusalem. When it was first disclosed two years ago, it
caused a stir in the archaeological world, with some experts dating the
stone to the 9th century BC and calling it a rare confirmation of
biblical narrative.
The existence of the James ossuary was revealed last November at a news
conference in Washington by the Biblical Archaeology Review. At the
time, the editor of the magazine, Hershel Shanks, said the owner
insisted on not being identified. The inscription on the limestone
box reads "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," leading some
scholars to believe it contained the remains of James, the brother of
Jesus of Nazareth. Other experts have said the item might be a forgery,
or that it might have been the burial box of a different James,
unrelated to Jesus. "The inscription appears new, written in
modernity by someone attempting to reproduce ancient written
characters," the Israeli officials said in the statement.
Golan said he bought the James ossuary in the mid-1970s from an
antiquities dealer in the Old City of Jerusalem for about $US200
($A300), but he said he could not remember the dealer's name.
However, antiquities inspectors, who have questioned several Old City
dealers, were also checking suspicions Golan bought the ossuary only a
few months ago. In such a case, those involved in the sale could be
prosecuted for dealing in stolen goods. The police investigation
into how the box was acquired will continue regardless of the
committee's findings.
Robert Eisenman, who wrote a book on Jesus' brother, studied the box and
said the writing on the box, written in two different hands, along with
the artifact's sudden appearance, made its authenticity questionable.
"I always considered the timing of the James ossuary very odd and
worrisome. There was a spate of books on James and his importance in
1997 and 1998, then the box appeared," he said.
*AP*
/This story was found at:
*http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/18/1055828386744.html* /
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