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| I don't know about you but we have
grown weary of wild assumptions being presented as "fact". The latest
case being that of the "The Lost Tomb Of Jesus," which the Discovery
Channel presented on Sunday, March 4th, 2007. It is rather interesting that they will present the Aztecs history as fact, and the off the wall predictions of Nostradamus as compelling but when it comes to the Bible, they attempt to discredit it and present 2000 year old bones (which cannot substantiate anything) as being a fact that Jesus NEVER ascended bodily into Heaven. And why? Because they believe not the truth. They follow in the Way of Cain-- and deny the blood of the Lamb and the Lamb's triumph over death and His GLORIOUS ASCENSION, BODILY into Heaven. Every true Christian believes that Christ died for sins and rose again bodily—for this is what the Scriptures say. The Old Testament predicted that Messiah would rise from the dead: Psalm 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. The ludicrous claim of James Cameron, in his new documentary, says that Jesus' grave is occupied! Hollywood, for years, has tried to undermine the New Testament: the Deity, the crucifixion and the resurrection and bodily ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. The latest being the new film, wherein they document some boxes of bones buried in a tomb and because the names inside the tomb have the same names as in the New Testament: Joseph, Mary, Judah, and the name Jesus is on one of them, POOF...this must be the tomb of Jesus. Hello? Were the producers seeking to insult the intelligence of virtually every scholar who was viewing their film? Archeologist Amos Kloner, who described the tomb more than 10 years ago as the burial cave of a well-off family, says there are 900 such burial caves within several miles of the Old City of Jerusalem, that the name Jesus was found 71 times. The name Judah son of Jesus was also found. In biblical times, the name "Jesus" was very popular. In fact, in the Hebrew, it is Yeshua or Yahshua-- which in our English language is Joshua-- A very common name. The reason why they called our Savior, "Jesus of Nazareth" was because there were many men named Jesus in the land of Israel but no one except Jesus of Nazareth did the miracles He did and NO ONE made the claims that He made and NO ONE fulfilled the prophecies that He fulfilled, given in the Old Testament. First, blasphemous Hollywood presents the ludicrous story which states that Jesus survived the crucifixion-- and somehow managed to stay alive and in his half-crucified state journeyed with Mary Magdalene to France. Hello? Roman soldiers were EVERYWHERE in the province of the time period. There was no escape from crucifixion. See our DaVinci Article below for more on this topic. Now, they are saying that Jesus did not die in France but was buried with Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem. Well, Hollywood, which is it? Well, they don’t care as long as one doesn’t believe the Gospel truth. The "evidence" given in the film for this obvious spurious tomb of “jesus” is NO EVIDENCE at all!! We have heard of the dumbing down of society but this is ridiculous. Jerusalem-based biblical anthropologist Joe Zias discredits Cameron's documentary by saying "What they've done here," Zias said, "is they've simply tried in a very, very dishonest way to try to con the public into believing that this is the tomb of Jesus or Jesus' family. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus." "Zias said 48 percent of women living at the time were named Mary, Mariam or the Hebrew name Shlomzion." Source: ABC News Zias described it in an e-mail to The Washington Post as a "hyped up film which is intellectually and scientifically dishonest." William G. Dever, a retired professor of archaeology at the University of Arizona, said that some of the inscriptions on the Talpiyot ossuaries are unclear, but that all of the names are common. "I've know about these ossuaries for many years and so have many other archaeologists, and none of us thought it was much of a story, because these are rather common Jewish names from that period," he said. "It's a publicity stunt, and it will make these guys very rich, and it will upset millions of innocent people because they don't know enough to separate fact from fiction." Source: Washingtonpost.com James Cameron's so-called proof is no proof at all. We have a tomb with bone-boxes and names on them, which are the most common names of the era. And their Mary Magdalene assumption is absurd. THEY WILL NEVER KNOW WITH ANY CERTAINTY if Mary Magdalene is buried there OR ANYWHERE ELSE because there is NO COMPARISON of DNA. In order to test the DNA and match, there must be a sample from the original Mary Magdalene and since there are no surviving relatives...there is NO WAY TO SUBSTANTIATE anything! Oh, but give them time. Some weirdo might come out of the woodwork and claim to be a descendent. “Yes, Mary Magdalene is my great aunt on my mother's side.” And perhaps, the filmmakers will jump on that bandwagon as well. Who knows. According to ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Entertainment/story?id=2905662&page=1 Archaeologist: More Than 900 Tombs Like This One Two years earlier, Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner was the first to find the tomb. He found the tomb and the ossuaries — the urns or vaults used to hold the bones of the dead — interesting but of no particular archaeological importance. He said there are more than 900 buried tombs just like the "Jesus" tomb within a 2-mile radius of Talpiyot. Of them, 71 bear the name Jesus and two Jesus, son of Joseph. The tomb in Talpiyot is one of them. But the inscription, he said, was barely decipherable and therefore questionable. At the time, Jesus was a very common name, as was Mary. But the cluster of all those names together, Jesus, Joseph Mary, not to mention what the filmmakers claim is Jesus' son, Judah, son of Jesus, is indeed unusual. Simply because the tomb is labeled a tomb that "belonged to a Jesus, doesn't make it the tomb of Jesus Christ," Kloner told ABC News. ---End of Excerpt-------------------------------------------------------------- Our Lord's name, Yeshua, means "God is salvation" or God Saves. His name was common but His life was anything but common. He was God come down in human flesh and died for the sins of mankind and rose again, triumphant over death and bodily ascended up to Heaven. Oh, this takes faith to believe! In order to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, one must first believe the Old Testament prophecies concerning Messiah and then weigh the evidence in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus fulfilled the prophecies absolutely. And the faith to believe the Bible comes from God. Those who seek God shall find Him-- for He makes Himself known to those of a humble heart. This latest documentary is denying the bodily resurrection and bodily ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ! Jacobovici, said in an interview: "...If people believe in a spiritual ascension, there is no issue. People believe in a physical ascension then that’s something Christian theologians will have to discuss. But what we have done, we have just come back and reported a set of facts. There is a tomb. There are inscriptions in it. They match the gospel story. They match the noncanonical text: The text that didn’t make it into the Christian bible." Notice these are their facts: 1) "A Tomb" - PLENTY OF THEM IN ISRAEL 2) "Inscriptions In It" - WOW! THAT IS SO UNIQUE? 3) "They match the Gospel story" - Uh, NOT! The Gospel story says that Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven and was seen on earth by over 500 witnesses after His PHYSICAL resurrection: The Lord Jesus said in Luke 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. 4) "They match the noncanonical text"- Well, that we can believe. The reasons why those texts have been rejected for 1900 years is because they are spurious and are not consistent with the true Gospel account. They are not even consistent with one another-- yet alone consistent with the Gospel record. The 4 Gospels in our Canon are there because they LINE UP with what the Old Testament prophesied of Messiah AND ARE CONSISTENT WITH WHAT THE OLD TESTAMENT PREDICTED THAT MESSIAH WOULD DO. To deny the bodily ascension of Jesus into Heaven is to deny that Jesus Is Lord. Hollywood is seeking to present another Jesus and another gospel. They pick out what they want to believe and throw out the rest that they do not agree with. Well, one can pick apart a painting of the solar system but in the end the actual Solar System still remains unchanged! Men attempt to discredit the bible and deride our Savior but their efforts are futile. Truth always prevails. They shall have their reward someday-- for Jesus will judge them all by His own hand. It's not our job to judge them... But what we can do, as Christians, is NOT support networks that air assumptions as “fact”. As Christians, we don't have to support the sponsors who advertise during the programs. It's time for Christians to wake up and do what is right! We are not to give place to the devil. It is up to each and every Christian to recognize trash when they see it; and SHOULD CHRISTIANS buy products from the companies who sponsor programs that attempt to discredit the Scriptures? What if every Christian no longer gave ratings to networks who blasphemed our Savior. Ah...maybe the networks would think twice about airing programs, being presented as "fact". Such networks would not even dream of attempts to discredit the Muslim faith or the Buddhist, etc. but Christianity is always on the "hit list". What can we do? Christians can boycott the companies that sponsor offensive programming, if they choose to. And for those of you, who still go to movie theatres: blasphemers do not deserve your money either! Think twice about supporting movies with directors who previously produced anti-Bible films and actors who curse the name of our Lord Jesus on film. Think twice about buying products from companies who sponsor or give "endorsements" to such. LET'S SPELL IT OUT PLAINLY What is so threatening about the Christian faith that men attempt to discredit it at every turn? The answer? Everything! Because if Jesus is who the New Testament claims He is, then He is God and He is the Savior who died for man's sins and rose again, conquering death, and ascended bodily into Heaven and He will be Judge someday every unbeliever and will be King over all the earth! THE BIBLE TEACHES THIS. Oh yes, for the unregenerate man, the bible is very threatening. And should we wonder why they try so hard, in vain, to grasp for something that would assure their hearts that they are okay to not believe? The foundation of the Christian faith is a risen Savior-- the One who died for the sins of mankind and who was buried and who rose again on the third day bodily and ascended into Heaven bodily. To deny this is to deny the Christian faith! Luke 24:3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. Luke 24:4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: Luke 24:5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? Luke 24:6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Luke 24:7 Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. Luke 24:8 And they remembered his words Luke 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Notice that one must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead in order to be saved! CONCLUSION Whenever someone in the secular world announces that they have discovered some new fact that threatens to shake the foundations of our faith, you can be sure that the source behind it is walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). And such a "new discovery" should be treated as we treat the source. The Heavenly Father, His Son--the Word who became flesh, and the Holy Ghost as the triune Godhead are omniscient, omnipotent and sovereign. God's word is true, and as He said in Matthew 24:35 concerning His words; "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." God knows the end from the beginning, and He is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19). His word is truth and truth remains. What could this latest blasphemous film possibly do to the God that created the universe? Absolutely nothing! Cobblestone Road Ministries |