Is Jesus a myth? No. But that certainly doesn’t deter some people from claiming that he is. Thankfully, many theologians and apologists have responded to this assertion well. We’ve rounded up some great responses and videos that throttle and trash the claim that Jesus is not what Christians believe him to be.
8 Links about the Jesus “Myth”
- Jesus Wasn’t a Real Person? That’s Dumb!
article by Clay Jones
“First, and I can’t emphasize this enough, the notion that Jesus wasn’t an historical person, but just a rehash of earlier myths, commits the fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of it). Just because something chronologically follows something else doesn’t necessarily mean that what preceded it was its cause.” - Historian Vs Mythicist: Is Jesus A Copy Of Pagan Gods?
a debate with Gary Habermas, Ph.D, Lee Strobel & Tim Callahan
- Zeitgeist: “Oh man. If this is true, I’m a total moron“
by Jon Morrison on Grounded Gospel
“When I first watched Zeitgeist, I confess that I was unqualified to refute any of its claims (if only my Bible College offered classes in Christian apologetics!). The documentary claimed that Christianity is just a collection of pagan myths that predate the first century, the era that supposedly birthed the Christian movement. The producers of Zeitgeist also claim that Jesus Christ never existed; that the one Christians worship as God is actually just an expression of a movement known as Astro-theology or Sun worship that transcends many cultures, religions and ages in history.
If Zeitgeist is correct, all Christians are gullible, wrong and wasting their lives.” - Horus ruins Christmas!
video by Lutheran Satire
“Hey, did you know that the life of Jesus was stolen from the Egyptian God Horus?”
- Did Jesus exist as a real historical figure?
by BeliefMap.org
“Question: Jesus is supposed to have been a Palestinian Jew in the 1st century (roughly 4 BC to AD 30), the personage around whom the Christian church was formed. Did such a Jesus walk the earth as a real historical figure? Historians unanimously say “YES”“ - Was the Story of Jesus Borrowed From Pagan Myth?
by David Marshall on The Stream
“Yet I have also concluded that Dr. Ehrman is not merely wrong; he simply cannot be trusted anymore on ancient books. Ehrman grossly misrepresents old texts to coax believers away from Christ. Read fairly, those works actually demonstrate the utter uniqueness and deep historical credibility of the Gospel accounts.” - 23 Reasons Why Scholars Know Jesus Is Not A Copy Of Pagan Religions
by James Bishop
“It is in recent times that a great number of people are claiming that Jesus is simply a rehash of older pagan secretive religions, and of the religions of dying and rising gods. We see this masqueraded as truth in films such as Zeitgeist, The Da Vinci Code and Irreligious which, to the layperson, seem to be factual and convincing. But how factually based are these claims? Surely anyone can misconstrue evidence to suit their presuppositional biases, especially if they don’t want to believe something. The first step for anyone really seeking to understand these allegations would be to consult the scholars in the relevant and necessary fields of expertise. What do they have to say? Is such an issue even on the table of debate nowadays? If so, or if not, then why?” - How can you trust a book that is nothing but myth?
by Matt Slick on CARM.org
“Finally, usually those who deny the authenticity of the Bible also deny that miracles are possible. When someone says that miracles cannot happen, the Bible (to them) becomes a myth. They can’t accept that miracles are real, and since the Bible has them they think it must be myth. But that just begs the question. To assume miracles cannot happen, and then subject the Bible to their assumption, is merely to avoid proving anything. It means the person assumes to be true what he is trying to prove.”
+1 from an Atheist Blog
Think it’s only Christians that think some myth claims are a bit on the conspiracy theorist side? Stand to Reason found a good reason to think again:
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The unofficial Atheist Experience response to Zeitgeist
by Russell Glasser on Atheist Experience
“The first third of the film is an unscholarly, sophomoric, horribly flawed, over-simplification that tries to portray Christianity as nothing more than the next incarnation of the astrologically themed religions that preceded it. Like all conspiracy theories, they combine a few facts, focus on correlations and build an intriguing story that seems to fit the pieces together nicely – provided you don’t actually dig below the surface to find out where they might have gone wrong.”
So, what do you think? Will the children in your life be shaken by such a claim, or will they have already been inoculated against this strain of skepticism? We hope that by reviewing the above articles and watching one of the Horus videos with your kiddos, they may have an advantage when they hear “Isn’t Jesus a myth?”
