FIRST LIGHT

A NEWSLETTER OF FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
110 SYDENHAM STREET KINGSTON , ON K7L 3H5

(613) 548-7116
fbckgstn@kingston.net
December 2007

THE HISTORICAL JESUS: REASON TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

The film The Pagan Christ, based on Tom Harpur’s book, and produced by local filmmaker and personal friend, David Brady is now being seen on CBC.  David has been on a personal search for a long time since rejecting the Roman Catholicism in which he was raised.  Harpur argues in the book that Jesus never existed.  This, of course, goes against the teaching of Scripture.  But if it were the case, Christians around the world should cancel Christmas.  What Harpur is arguing goes against the very essence of Christmas that God took on human form.  John 1:14 declares, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”  Eugene Peterson’s The Message puts it, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.”  It also goes against what Harpur has earlier believed.  Harpur at one time believed that Jesus actually was a historical person.  In his earlier writings he stated that Jesus truly healed people and was raised from the dead.  One wonders whether there has been a hardening of Harpur’s heart over the years.  Sadly this would not be exclusive to Harpur.

Internationally respected scholar Dr. Craig Evans of Acadia Divinity College writes: “Not long ago Tom Harpur’s The Pagan Christ created a sensation by presenting in new form the odd notion that Jesus did not exist.  I say odd because almost no serious academic of any ideological, religious or nonreligious stripe - doubts that Jesus of Nazareth actually lived some time in the first century and was crucified by order of Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea.  The evidence for the existence of Jesus - literary, archaeological and circumstantial - is overwhelming.”  (Evans, Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006, p. 220). 

Evans can say this because the two “specialists” on Egypt that Harpur draws on, Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Gerald Massey, never taught in the field of Egyptology at a School of Near Eastern Studies or a School of Oriental Studies which would be the Departments in which such specialists would teach.  It should be pointed out that only large universities typically have such a Department.  These would be schools like the University of Chicago or Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Toronto, Arizona, or Penn State.  In the list of Egyptologists both living and dead, neither Kuhn nor Massey makes the extensive list found in Wikipedia.  It is regrettable why Harpur didn’t seek out the advise of top rank Egyptologists before publising his work.  This is especially puzzling since there is a fine scholar in the field right in Toronto where he lives.       

We began the year with 40 days of purpose.  Those were special days in the life of this congregation.  But what about the occasion and purpose of the gospel writers?   Commentators of Matthew’s gospel have speculated that its purpose might have been to encourage believers in their witness before a hostile world and to inspire a deeper faith in Jesus the Messiah.  It may also be an attempt to evangelize Jewish people to faith in this Messiah.  Mark’s gospel begins with the words, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah.”  Later in Mark 1:15, Jesus began his ministry proclaiming, “The time has come.  The kingdom of God has come near.  Repent and believe the good news.”  We can conclude that Mark wanted to flesh out what this good news related to Jesus was all about.  Luke begins his gospel which is really a letter to Theophilus by saying, “I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught (Luke 1:3-4).”  Luke expands on this at the beginning of the book of Acts where he writes: “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.  After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.“

Near the end of John’s gospel in John 20:30-31, we read these words: “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Clearly all the authors could confidently claim that Jesus existed.  In fact, John’s gospel wants to offer us life.  Indeed as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, more than 500 witnessed that he was raised from the dead.  If Jesus didn’t exist, how does one explain the evidence for the feeding of the five thousand or the four thousand that is found in the gospels.  If Jesus didn’t exist there would be no Last Supper scene.  Indeed, if Jesus didn’t exist, then there wouldn’t be Christianity.  As Robert Louis Wilken, professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Virginia, wrote, “The Christian gospel was not an idea but a certain kind of story, a narrative about a person and things that had actually happened in space and time.  It was, says Origen, an ‘event recorded in history.’” (Wilken, Robert Louis, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, p. 15).  

Such evidence is corroborated among the church fathers early and late.  Clement (AD. 30-100), bishop of Rome, in his Epistle to the Corinthians writes: “Let us look steadfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world.  Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance to all such as would be converted unto Him.”

The Church Father, St. Ignatius (ca. AD 35-107), the third bishop of Antioch,  in his Epistle to the Ephesians on his way to martyrdom in Rome: “There is one Physician who is possessed both of flesh and spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both of Mary and of God; first possible and then impossible - even Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Now Ignatius knew the Apostle Peter.  In fact, Theodoret reported that Peter, the first bishop, appointed him to the see of Antioch.  No doubt, he was in touch with other apostles like the Apostle Paul and John, who would eventually live in Ephesus before being exiled to Patmos.  In his Epistle to the Trallians, a church also in Asia, Ignatius wrote: “Stop, your ears, therefore, when anyone speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ,  who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born, and did  eat and drink.  He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; He was truly crucified  and [truly] died, in the sight of beings in heaven and on earth, and under the earth.  He was also truly raised from the dead, His Father quickening Him, even as after the same manner His Father will so raise up us who believe in Him by Christ Jesus, apart from whom we do not possess the true life.” 

Again, Ignatius alludes to John’s gospel.  But Ignatius isn’t done just yet.  In his Epistle to the Smyrneans, present day Izmir, as he was traveling to his martyrdom in Rome, he writes: “Now, He suffered all these things for our sakes.  And He suffered truly, even as He truly raised up Himself, not as certain  unbelievers maintain, that He only seemed to suffer, as they themselves only seem to be [Christians].”

Clearly the gospel witnesses and the earliest of Church Fathers were unified in agreeing over the existence and the mission of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.  As a result, as we approach Christmas, we can with confidence have faith in Jesus and proclaim what he has done for us to the surrounding world.  We can rejoice at God’s plan of salvation.  We can sing the Christmas carols with no qualms that our faith is in vain.  One carol that is less familiar to me was written by the church father Ambrose of Milan in the fourth century.  It is entitled Saviour of the Nations, Come.  It is # 168 in our hymnal.  During this season of Advent, it looks to the second Advent, Christ’s return to earth to establish His kingdom.  The words go as follows:
            Saviour of the nations, come, show yourself the Virgin’s son.
            Fill with wonder, all the earth, that our God chose such a birth.

            Not by human power or seed did the woman’s womb conceive;
            only by the Spirit’s breath was the Word of God made flesh.

            Christ laid down his majesty, passed thro’ dark Gethsemane;
            though he left his Father’s home, Christ now sits on God’s own throne.

            Christ in glory, intercede for your creatures’ suffering need;
            let your resurrection power soon complete the victory hour.

            Praise to you, O Lord, we sing; praise to Christ, our new-born King!
            With the Father, Spirit, one, let your lasting kingdom come. 

May we all enter into grateful praise during this season when we celebrate the birth of our Saviour, Jesus, God with us.  May the joy and love of the Son of God spread from us to all we encounter.  On behalf of Anne-Marie and my family, I would like to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas!

Rev Kevin Smith

 

SHEPHERDS

The first to hear about the birth of the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Messiah, were a bunch of dirty, stinky, anonymous shepherds. We may wonder why God chose these people to tell the good news to first. Why not announce the birth of the Messiah to the priests or to the scribes? To us, these might have seemed like the logical choice of who should know first. After all they were the spiritual leaders of the day, should they not have the privilege of being told first? But by visiting the shepherds first, the angel revealed the grace of God toward humankind; that God does not call just the rich and mighty but that he also calls the poor and the lowly.

At the time of Jesus' birth, shepherds had a bad reputation. The nature of their work kept them from observing the ceremonial law which meant so much to religious people. Add to this, their unfortunate habit of confusing "mine" with "thine" as they moved about the country, and as a class, they were considered to be unreliable and were not permitted to give testimony in law-courts. To these simple, "unclean", "unreliable" men, God reveals the good news of great joy that a Saviour has been born, a Saviour that will bring peace.

I love the fact that a group of anonymous shepherds were the first to hear the news of Jesus’ birth because it provides hope for all of us. It tells us of God’s character, that he does not work in the same way that we might. He cares for those that society would consider lowly, dirty and unworthy. Instead of shunning them as worthless, he takes the message right to those people on their turf, declaring that hope has come! 

Paul tells us that "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong" (1 Cor. 1:27). It is certainly true that the ministry of Jesus was not what people were looking for in the Messiah. He was not the militaristic, political figure that many sought, instead he was the humble king who ministered to the lowly and willingly went to his death so that all might have life.

As we come to this Christmas season, let us remember this demonstration of God’s grace; that right from the beginning it was clear that God’s message through Jesus was not going to be for those who had it all together, but it was for ordinary, dirty, broken people. . .even shepherds.

May your have a blessed Christmas,

Joshua Mutter
Next Generation Pastor

 

 

FOR THOSE WHO LIKE TO READ

Countless books have been written about Jesus Christ.  Let me highlight a few:

The first is Craig Evans’ Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006).  I have just finished reading this volume.  Evans brings his expertise in the field of the Gospels, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament to address the plethora of books which go against the truth found in the New Testament.  A generation ago, people attacked the church.  Now they are attacking our Lord and making unfounded claims that he never died and that he married (Australian lecturer Barbara Thiering argues that Jesus was married first to Mary Magdalene and then in AD 50 to Lydia in Philippi).  Evans offers a very competent critique of some of these bogus claims.  I encourage you to buy this book and read it in advance of Dr. Evans visit to First Baptist Church in October 2008 when he will be our anniversary speaker. 

A second book is a critique of Tom Harpur’s book The Pagan Christ.  It is written by Stanley Porter and Stephen J. Bedard and is entitled Unmasking the Pagan Christ: An Evangelical Response to the Cosmic Christ Idea (Toronto: Clements Publishing, 2006).  This is also a fine book by the inaugural Rawlyk Lecturer, Stanley Porter and a McMaster Divinity School graduate, Stephen Bedard.  It is a very fine critique of Harpur’s book and is available at a number of sources including the Read On bookstore at our Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec offices. 

A third book by a former professor at my alma mater, Bethel Seminary is Robert H. Stein’s Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of the Life of Christ (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1996).  Stein is an expert in the Gospels and brings that expertise to this very fine book.  If you want to read an excellent survey that interacts with the critical material and with the gnostic gospels this is an excellent source. 

Finally, for those who really want to read a deeper scholarly work, I recommend Larry W. Hurtado’s Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003).  This is a major work.  Hurtado worships at a Scottish Baptist church in Edinburgh and is Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology at the University of Edinburgh.  Hurtado formerly taught at Regent College in Vancouver and also at the University of Manitoba.