Is Jesus a myth?

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Is Jesus a myth? We're going to answer that question. To begin, this article has been condensed for time.

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Please note that our full article with references can be found on our website, GotQuestions .org.

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There are a number of people claiming that the accounts of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament are simply myths borrowed from pagan folklore.

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To discover the truth about the claim that the gospel writers borrowed from mythology will break it down in steps.

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The claim that Jesus was a myth or an exaggeration originated in the writings of liberal

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German theologians in the 19th century. They essentially said that Jesus was nothing more than a copy of popular dying and rising fertility gods in various places.

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None of the books containing these theories were taken seriously by the academics of the day.

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These assertions have been investigated by contemporary scholars and determined to be completely baseless.

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This leads us to the next area of investigation. Do the mythological gods of antiquity really mirror the person of Jesus Christ?

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As an example, the Zeitgeist movie makes these claims about the Egyptian god Horus. However, when the actual writings about Horus are competently examined, this is what we find.

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When compared side by side, Jesus and Horus bear little, if any, resemblance to one another.

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Jesus is also compared to Mithras. All the above descriptions of Horus are applied to Mithras.

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But what does the myth actually say? More examples can be given of other mythological gods, but the result is the same.

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In the end, the historical Jesus portrayed in the Bible is unique. The alleged similarities of Jesus' story to pagan myths are greatly exaggerated.

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From a bird's -eye view of a timeline of documented beliefs, it is more logical to attribute any similarities between these religions and Christianity to the religions copying

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Christian teaching about Jesus. This leads us to the next area to examine, the logical fallacies committed by those claiming that Christianity borrowed from pagan mystery religions.

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If one thing precedes another, some conclude that the first thing must have caused the second.

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This is the fallacy of the false cause. A rooster may crow before the sunrise every morning, but that does not mean the rooster causes the sun to rise.

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Even if pre -Christian accounts of mythological gods closely resembled Christ, and they do not, it does not mean that they caused the gospel writers to invent a false

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Jesus. The terminological fallacy occurs when words are redefined to prove a point.

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For example, the Zeitgeist movie says that Horus began his ministry, but the word ministry is being redefined.

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Horus had no actual ministry, nothing like that of Christ's ministry. Those claiming a link between Mithras and Jesus talk about the baptism that initiated prospects into the cult.

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That practice bears no resemblance whatsoever to a Christian water baptism. But advocates of a mythological

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Jesus deceptively use the same term, baptism, to describe both rites in hopes of linking the two.

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This brings us to the subject of the truthfulness of the New Testament. It has more writers, better writers, and earlier writers than any other existing document from that era.

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In addition, history has shown that it takes at least two generations to pass before myth can enter a historical account.

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That's because as long as there are eyewitnesses to an event, errors can be refuted and mythical embellishments can be exposed.

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All the Gospels of the New Testament were written during the lifetime of the eyewitnesses. The New Testament attests to the fact that in the first century,

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Jesus was not mistaken for any other god. He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities because he was preaching

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Jesus and the resurrection and they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying,

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May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears.

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So we want to know what these things mean. Clearly, if Paul were simply rehashing stories of other gods, the

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Athenians would not have referred to his doctrine as a new and strange teaching.

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In conclusion, the claim that Jesus is a copy of mythological gods originated with authors whose works have been discounted by academia, contain logical fallacies, and cannot compare to the

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New Testament Gospels, which have withstood nearly 2 ,000 years of intense scrutiny.

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The alleged parallels between Jesus and other gods disappear when the original myths are examined.

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The Jesus is a myth theory relies on selective descriptions, redefined words, and false assumptions.

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Jesus Christ is unique in history, with his voice rising above all false gods, as he asks the question that ultimately determines a person's eternal destiny.

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Who do you say I am? That answers the question, Is Jesus a myth? Research this question further on our website

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