{"id":1584,"date":"2011-10-26T19:38:21","date_gmt":"2011-10-27T00:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/?p=1584"},"modified":"2011-10-26T19:38:21","modified_gmt":"2011-10-27T00:38:21","slug":"jesus-myth-or-messiah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2011\/jesus-myth-or-messiah.html","title":{"rendered":"Jesus: Myth or Messiah?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while, it comes back.  This whole idea that the story of Jesus was actually a conglomeration of pagan beliefs from the time.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

 You know, this-or-that religion had a belief in a god that rose from the dead, so that was incorporated into Christianity.  This-or-that religion had a belief that their god was virgin-born, so that was added into the Christmas story.<\/p>\n

Christians have answered these claims, but – speaking of rising from the dead – these ideas pop up again with a new generation which hasn’t heard of (or doesn’t care to hear) the Christian response.<\/p>\n

As you may guess, I feel these claims are pretty unconvincing.  But just in case you’ve heard such things, or you’ve gotten into a discussion about such things, I thought I’d point you to a debate that was done in 2009 between Christian apologist (Alpha and Omega Ministries<\/i>) Dr James White<\/b>, and Dan Barker<\/b>, atheist from the Freedom from Religion Foundation<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Sometimes things are a little clearer when you can hear two sides of the story.  So if this is something you’ve been hearing about, spend a few dollars (I think it’s US$4) and download this debate on MP3.<\/p>\n

Here it is – James White vs Dan Barker… Jesus: Myth or Messiah<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while, it comes back.  This whole idea that the story of Jesus was actually a conglomeration of pagan beliefs from the time.  You know, this-or-that religion had a belief in a god that rose from the dead, so that was incorporated into Christianity.  This-or-that religion had a belief that their god […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[970,966,968,969,967,186],"class_list":["post-1584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-and-bible","tag-alpha-and-omega-ministries","tag-dan-barker","tag-dr-james-white","tag-freedom-from-religion-foundation","tag-james-white","tag-jesus","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"\nJesus: Myth or Messiah? - Finding direction<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cottrillcompass.com\/blog\/2011\/jesus-myth-or-messiah.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jesus: Myth or Messiah? 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