ZEITGEIST REVISITED
Please read this in its entirety.
In an effort to debunk Christianity and religious faith in general, an internet documentary called Zeitgeist was produced (see link below). Someone prompted me to watch it. It is well made and appears convincing and thoroughly researched. It clearly comes from an extremely (even sarcastically) anti-religious bias. The average religious viewer could find himself stumbling in his religious beliefs after watching it, and it may cause the Christian to re-evaluate his faith. However, don’t be so quick to believe everything you see and hear. With this caution, I encourage you to watch the video, and then I dare you to read on to the following thoughts, facts, and questions I have on the matter.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rs9br09jGoc - or “Zeitgeist Part One (Religion)” on YouTube.com
Through the lens of the anti-religious, the video is provocative. However, through the lens of Biblical theology and Christian faith, I found the video to be intriguing, to say the least, and surprisingly inspiring my personal faith in Jesus Christ . Though I do not claim to have all the answers, I want to challenge your perception.
Let’s look at specific examples of concepts conveyed in the video and some of my responses:
From the broader perspective, the first thing that inspires me is that the video clearly indicates that Jesus Christ is the “most recent” example of the “sun gods.” This says to me, as one with a Biblical perspective, that Jesus Christ is the apotheosis of Truth, the paragon of all faiths, although other ancient religions shared many similar truths and doctrines. (Truth is truth no matter the context.)
Is Jesus Christ a plagiarism of the Egyptian god Horus? Not remotely. Once again, Christ was the final, perfected embodiment of truth which God was demonstrating in varying cultures and methodologies throughout man’s history. The fact that many cultures shared very similar religious concepts and doctrines is really old news. One of my friends is Cherokee, and he shares that the Cherokee people, before Christianity was ever introduced to them a few centuries ago, had a strong religious system that had many parallels to Christianity (and albeit other ancient religions). My Cherokee friend says this is the reason the Cherokee people so quickly embraced Christianity: to them, it was the actualization and fulfillment of their own system of faith.
All that to say this: why should it surprise anyone for God to give glimpses of His attributes and His Truth to all cultures throughout known history in an effort to relate to mankind? (There is an old adage: Religion is man imperfectly reaching out to God; Jesus Christ is God’s perfectly reaching out to man.) These glimpses of Himself and His ways are reflected in the various similarities many ancient faiths maintain. (I even tend to disagree with Justin Martyr’s statement that the devils had enough foresight to cause these similarities. Truth be known, the devils aren’t that smart!) Why would God not extend His vision to all cultures in an attempt to find someone who would be true to God. The Judeo-Christian faiths submit that the Biblical Noah, and then ultimately Abraham “fit the bill.”
To see the significance of Astronomy and Astrology and how many of these ancient faiths are, in one way or other, revealed in the stars (as the video points out) is to see that only God could have made Himself known in that fashion. As a Christian, I cannot subscribe to Astrology in the sense of divination, fortune-telling, magic or witchcraft, but what I do subscribe to is that “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1).
The skeptic may say that Christianity is a religion of the stars or the zodiac, that the alignment of constellations is simply part of the natural evolutionary process, etc. However, I submit that the alignment of constellations and patterns of movement in space is another way that God demonstrates His glory, His Truth, His message to humankind.
The quintessentially profane stand-up comedy sound-byte by George Carlin at around the 8-minute mark reflects how little the cynic or skeptic understands, how utterly shallow their concepts are, and how myopic their views are about Christianity. God is not some cosmic gestapo waiting for any chance to send people to the spiritual gas chamber (forgive the crude analogy). He does indeed love mankind, and out of this perfect love, He created mankind with the innate ability to choose - a free will, so to speak. But, true to His nature, God is also just, and respectfully honors our choice to accept or reject Him. So, in essence, we decide our destiny.
Furthermore, is it fair to say that religion and its influence on the world is one big hoax? (The skeptics have every right to view their opinions.) Tell that to the 95% of the world’s population who adhere to religious beliefs, whether Judeo-Christian or otherwise that they are helpless victims to such a colossal “deception.”
I challenge any skeptic to honestly look at the evidence: eyewitness, documentary, corroborating, scientific, historical, etc. Read The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel (award-winning journalist, formerly with the Chicago Tribune) and Josh McDowell’s scholarly work, Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Vols. 1 and 2).
On a more pragmatic note (all academia aside), riddle me this: how else can you explain answered prayer, miracles, workings of the supernatural? Whatever can be said, any attempt to convince me to renounce Christianity, faith, “religious” beliefs, comes “too little, too late.” I have experienced innumerable answered prayers, supernatural occurrences, and miracles in my life - much more than can be explained away by coincidence or natural processes - since I committed my life to worship and serve Jesus Christ, God Incarnate. And I submit that the man with an argument is always at the mercy of the man with an experience.
The skeptic may fire back and say that my observations prove nothing. I respectfully submit (at least in regards to what was presented in this video), neither do yours.
In an effort to debunk Christianity and religious faith in general, an internet documentary called Zeitgeist was produced (see link below). Someone prompted me to watch it. It is well made and appears convincing and thoroughly researched. It clearly comes from an extremely (even sarcastically) anti-religious bias. The average religious viewer could find himself stumbling in his religious beliefs after watching it, and it may cause the Christian to re-evaluate his faith. However, don’t be so quick to believe everything you see and hear. With this caution, I encourage you to watch the video, and then I dare you to read on to the following thoughts, facts, and questions I have on the matter.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rs9br09jGoc - or “Zeitgeist Part One (Religion)” on YouTube.com
Through the lens of the anti-religious, the video is provocative. However, through the lens of Biblical theology and Christian faith, I found the video to be intriguing, to say the least, and surprisingly inspiring my personal faith in Jesus Christ . Though I do not claim to have all the answers, I want to challenge your perception.
Let’s look at specific examples of concepts conveyed in the video and some of my responses:
- It’s interesting that the video points out the similarity of the words “son” and “sun”. Symbolism aside, the similarity of the words is a linguistic anomaly. Other than the Germanic languages (German, Dutch, English, etc.), no other language shares this similarity.
- The Three Kings eluded to are, according to the video, supposedly included in Christian doctrine. It is, in fact, not a Christian doctrine. The Biblical account of the Christmas story only documents the visit of the Magi (wise men, not specifically numbered). The three may be derived from the three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. From what I could tell, the Three Kings became connected to the Biblical account by way of a Christmas carol, “We Three Kings.”
- The pagan symbol of the cross with circle behind it could indeed be a pagan symbol. It is agreed that many pagan symbols made their way into the icons and symbolism of Christianity. However, historically the cross Christ was crucified on did not have the halo or circle behind it, and, in fact, may have looked more like a upper case “T” than a lower case “t”.
- When the video claims the multitude of similarities between the Egyptian Horus and Jesus, they portray the multitude by scrolling down a list of similarities. It is done for effect, and effectively done, but it repeats itself one or more times. It’s a nice “slight of hand.”
- While the video explains that the Biblical account of the Great Flood (written down c. 1440 B.C.) is a plagiarism from the epic of Gilgamesh from 2600 B.C., it stands to reason that any culture existing at the time would have documented such a momentous event as the Great Flood. What culture wouldn’t?
- The video notes the “similarities” between Moses and Sargon of Akkad, but its account of Sargon is not quite accurate. The only similarity I could find between the two was that Sargon was found as a baby floating down a river, and that’s where they stop. He was found and raised by a gardner, to be a gardner. He was a self-made man, rising up the ranks on his own to become a cupbearer to the ruler of Kish, in upper Sumer. He came to supremacy by fighting a battle with Lugalzaggisi of Uruk (biblical Erech, in central Sumer). “Historical records are still so meager, however, that there is a complete gap in information relating to this period” (The Akkadians, by Robert A. Guisepi and F. Roy Williams, University of California). Much of Sargon’s account has been chalked up to legend. Moses’ account was firsthand, written by Moses himself.
- It is claimed that the Ten Commandments delivered to Moses were a plagiarism of excerpts from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. There appears to be like statements in both documents. It is already known that the Israelites had lived in Egypt, as slaves for most of that time, for over 400 years. It doesn’t take much to show that after so many generations Israel would have adopted much of the Egyptian culture. So, it stands to reason that God would use similar phrasing in the Ten Commandments to bring an ease to Israel’s receiving them, breaking down culture barriers (a theme that runs throughout the Biblical writings - e.g., Acts 17:22-34). Besides, most cultures and religions adopted similar standards of conduct to live by; the similarities between the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Dead is not an exclusive phenomenon. (Thought: Could much of the Egyptian beliefs derive from Israel’s influence on Egypt during the captivity or otherwise?)
- The video shows Joseph of the Old Testament as a prototype of Jesus. This is clearly true, but Joseph was not the only one. There were many types of Christ in the Old Testament, as well as many prophecies. These foreshadow the promised Messiah, and help to tie the New Testament documents to the Old Testament. Nothing new, really; why should that surprise anyone?
- On the question of the virtual lack of testimony from the various historians contemporary to Jesus, the video documents that there were only three historians who made reference to one called “Christ.” So, if these references did not mean “Jesus Christ,” to whom did they refer? Who else could they have referred to but Jesus Christ? Also, let it be known that there were a multitude of “revolutionaries” that cropped up in the Roman Empire of the day, most of whom were stifled right away, and put to death like criminals by crucifixion or other means. These occurrences were common and numerous, so much so that historians at that time did not bog down their writings with these “unremarkable” events. They only notated history that was “remarkable.” To see that three historians did so is to prove that this Christ did, in fact, make a mark in history.
- The video questions the veracity of Josephus’ account of Jesus in his The Antiquities, particularly the passage known as the Testimonium Flavianum. The video suggests that Josephus’ account is a fraud. However, one of the nation’s leading experts in ancient history, states: “Scholarship has gone through three trends about it. For obvious reasons, the early Christians thought it was a wonderful and thoroughly authentic attestation of Jesus and his resurrection...Then the entire passage was questioned by at least some scholars during the Enlightenment. But today there’s a remarkable consensus among both Jewish and Christian scholars that the passage as a whole is authentic...” (Edwin Yamauchi, Miami University, Oxford, OH - emphasis mine).
- The video demonstrates the atrocities done in the name of Christianity and Jesus Christ over the last two millennia. No one questions this fact. There is no doubt that things done in the name of Jesus and Christianity were (and still are) abhorrent, but that cannot be blamed on God or Jesus Christ. The fault rests with mankind alone and his perversion of Christian conduct and doctrine.
- They quote Robert Ingersoll: “Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.” This is a true statement. Religion cannot. True Christianity is not religious by nature, but relational. A genuine relationship with Jesus Christ can reform the individual man, personally, and thereby reform his relationship to mankind. Furthermore, Christianity in its truest form is not oppressive and binding, controlling or manipulative; on the contrary, it is liberating and fulfilling.
From the broader perspective, the first thing that inspires me is that the video clearly indicates that Jesus Christ is the “most recent” example of the “sun gods.” This says to me, as one with a Biblical perspective, that Jesus Christ is the apotheosis of Truth, the paragon of all faiths, although other ancient religions shared many similar truths and doctrines. (Truth is truth no matter the context.)
Is Jesus Christ a plagiarism of the Egyptian god Horus? Not remotely. Once again, Christ was the final, perfected embodiment of truth which God was demonstrating in varying cultures and methodologies throughout man’s history. The fact that many cultures shared very similar religious concepts and doctrines is really old news. One of my friends is Cherokee, and he shares that the Cherokee people, before Christianity was ever introduced to them a few centuries ago, had a strong religious system that had many parallels to Christianity (and albeit other ancient religions). My Cherokee friend says this is the reason the Cherokee people so quickly embraced Christianity: to them, it was the actualization and fulfillment of their own system of faith.
All that to say this: why should it surprise anyone for God to give glimpses of His attributes and His Truth to all cultures throughout known history in an effort to relate to mankind? (There is an old adage: Religion is man imperfectly reaching out to God; Jesus Christ is God’s perfectly reaching out to man.) These glimpses of Himself and His ways are reflected in the various similarities many ancient faiths maintain. (I even tend to disagree with Justin Martyr’s statement that the devils had enough foresight to cause these similarities. Truth be known, the devils aren’t that smart!) Why would God not extend His vision to all cultures in an attempt to find someone who would be true to God. The Judeo-Christian faiths submit that the Biblical Noah, and then ultimately Abraham “fit the bill.”
To see the significance of Astronomy and Astrology and how many of these ancient faiths are, in one way or other, revealed in the stars (as the video points out) is to see that only God could have made Himself known in that fashion. As a Christian, I cannot subscribe to Astrology in the sense of divination, fortune-telling, magic or witchcraft, but what I do subscribe to is that “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1).
The skeptic may say that Christianity is a religion of the stars or the zodiac, that the alignment of constellations is simply part of the natural evolutionary process, etc. However, I submit that the alignment of constellations and patterns of movement in space is another way that God demonstrates His glory, His Truth, His message to humankind.
The quintessentially profane stand-up comedy sound-byte by George Carlin at around the 8-minute mark reflects how little the cynic or skeptic understands, how utterly shallow their concepts are, and how myopic their views are about Christianity. God is not some cosmic gestapo waiting for any chance to send people to the spiritual gas chamber (forgive the crude analogy). He does indeed love mankind, and out of this perfect love, He created mankind with the innate ability to choose - a free will, so to speak. But, true to His nature, God is also just, and respectfully honors our choice to accept or reject Him. So, in essence, we decide our destiny.
Furthermore, is it fair to say that religion and its influence on the world is one big hoax? (The skeptics have every right to view their opinions.) Tell that to the 95% of the world’s population who adhere to religious beliefs, whether Judeo-Christian or otherwise that they are helpless victims to such a colossal “deception.”
I challenge any skeptic to honestly look at the evidence: eyewitness, documentary, corroborating, scientific, historical, etc. Read The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel (award-winning journalist, formerly with the Chicago Tribune) and Josh McDowell’s scholarly work, Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Vols. 1 and 2).
On a more pragmatic note (all academia aside), riddle me this: how else can you explain answered prayer, miracles, workings of the supernatural? Whatever can be said, any attempt to convince me to renounce Christianity, faith, “religious” beliefs, comes “too little, too late.” I have experienced innumerable answered prayers, supernatural occurrences, and miracles in my life - much more than can be explained away by coincidence or natural processes - since I committed my life to worship and serve Jesus Christ, God Incarnate. And I submit that the man with an argument is always at the mercy of the man with an experience.
The skeptic may fire back and say that my observations prove nothing. I respectfully submit (at least in regards to what was presented in this video), neither do yours.