Some subjects are terribly complicated like Gravity, Dark Matter, Wormholes and the whole idea of Quantum Physics. Recently, though, these difficult subjects have taken a back seat to the search for the historical Jesus, especially, after Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code. Yet, it should be pointed out that the search to identify Jesus of Nazareth is not as difficult as liberals have led to believe. One problem is that liberals refuse to debate in the traditional manner of denying or affirming a proposition that can be proven true or false based on the evidence. Liberals insist on presenting hypotheses dressed in a postmodern worldview that allows subjective imagination to be valued as highly as historical facts. They present opinions without labeling them as such, responding that, "My views are as authoritative as yours!" They do this while discounting and distorting concrete historical facts, without which, conservative scholars are left shadow-boxing avoidance and silence. ROBERT FULLER is an ordained minister having received his BA degree in the Biblical Field from Abilene Christian University and a M. Ed from the University of North Texas. Mr. Fuller's goal in this book is to reduce the highly technical material surrounding the Jesus-debates into a more easily understood vocabulary that avid readers without degrees can comprehend. This subject is extremely interesting and important to the laity and those who have no idea about what is going on in this cultural conflict. I believe this book accomplishes its goal by unveiling the "slight-of-hand" illusions of scholars who present personal opinions in the guise of scholarship. Read this book and find out that some liberal scholars have stacked their bunk higher that a two-story building!

Some subjects are terribly complicated like Gravity, Dark Matter, Wormholes and the whole idea of Quantum Physics. Recently, though, these difficult subjects have taken a back seat to the search for the historical Jesus, especially, after Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code. Yet, it should be pointed out that the search to identify Jesus of Nazareth is not as difficult as liberals have led to believe. One problem is that liberals refuse to debate in the traditional manner of denying or affirming a proposition that can be proven true or false based on the evidence. Liberals insist on presenting hypotheses dressed in a postmodern worldview that allows subjective imagination to be valued as highly as historical facts. They present opinions without labeling them as such, responding that, "My views are as authoritative as yours!" They do this while discounting and distorting concrete historical facts, without which, conservative scholars are left shadow-boxing avoidance and silence. ROBERT FULLER is an ordained minister having received his BA degree in the Biblical Field from Abilene Christian University and a M. Ed from the University of North Texas. Mr. Fuller's goal in this book is to reduce the highly technical material surrounding the Jesus-debates into a more easily understood vocabulary that avid readers without degrees can comprehend. This subject is extremely interesting and important to the laity and those who have no idea about what is going on in this cultural conflict. I believe this book accomplishes its goal by unveiling the "slight-of-hand" illusions of scholars who present personal opinions in the guise of scholarship. Read this book and find out that some liberal scholars have stacked their bunk higher that a two-story building!

Did pagan mythologies represent Christs miracles in order to convince them to accept the Christian faith? Beyond these miracles is there enough evidence to prove there was a Jesus? Cutner says no. He also says that the Apostle Paul never portrayed Jesus as a man, but as a spiritual being. To Paul, Christ is found in a spiritual sense within oneself, as opposed to being an actual historical personage. When the Church accepted Paul, this inner reflection was outwardly projected by the Church into an actual mana saviour, according to Cutner. This might be why Paul was almost rejected by the Churchhis views posed a danger to those who might rely on their own spiritual knowledge, rather than the authority of the Church. Whether Jesus lived or not, we still have a lot to learn about ourselves and our true place in the universe. This book, although critical, may be useful in that respect.

Including a range of materials dating from the nineteenth century to the present, this comprehensive collection brings together the essential research into the historical reality of Jesus the man, his teachings, and the acts and events ascribed to him that comprise the foundational story of one of the world's central religions. br br The set features a substantial new introduction by the editor in the first volume and a full index in the last, and provides work covering all of the key aspects of the field, including the recent discussions concerning anti-Semitism in early Christianity, and the political and ideological filtering of the Jesus story through the Roman empire and beyond.

The Christ myth theory (also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism or simply mythicism) is the hypothesis that Jesus of Nazareth never existed. It does appear that most scholars of antiquity agree that there was an individual named Jesus of the period. What also becomes apparent is that much of the philosophy, dogma and supernatural teachings of Christianity can be traced to much earlier religions and that the Jews of the time adopted these pre-christian cultural and religious myths as their own. They subsequently evolved into legend as often happens. The Christ myth theory takes a very adversarial approach and contradicts the mainstream view in historical Jesus research, which accepts that there are events described in the gospels that are not historical but which still assumes that the gospels are founded on a basic historical core. Many proponents of the theory use a three-fold argument first developed in the 19th century: that the New Testament has no historical value that there are no non-Christian references to Jesus Christ dating back to the first century that Christianity had pagan or mythical roots. Despite this there remains a strong consensus in historical-critical biblical scholarship that a historical Jesus did live in that area and in that time period. However, scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts of Jesus, and the only two events subject to "almost universal agreement" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate. Some scholars have made the case that there are a number of plausible "Jesuses" that could have existed, that there can be no certainty as to which Jesus was the historical Jesus. Christ's given name, commonly Romanized as Yeshua, was quite common in first-century Galilee. (Jesus comes from the transliteration of Yeshua into Greek and then English.) Archaeologists have unearthed the tombs of 71 Yeshuas from the period of Jesus' death. Many of the allegories, events and proclaimed miracles attributed to Jesus were ever-present throughout history and not at all unique to Jesus of Nazareth. Some of the arguments attributed to many scholars are that: 1.The gospels were written many decades or even a century after Jesus' estimated year of death, by individuals who likely never met Jesus, and then were edited or forged over the centuries by unknown scribes with their own agendas. 2.There are no surviving historic records about Jesus of Nazareth from any non-Jewish author until the second century and Jesus left no writings or other archaeological evidence. 3.Certain gospel stories are similar to those of dying-and-rising gods, demigods (sons of gods), solar deities, saviors or other divine men such as Horus, Mithra/Mithras, Prometheus, Dionysus, Osiris, Buddha and Krishna, as well as Christ-like historical figures like Apollonius of Tyana and numerous others. In the days where people kill for their beliefs, it should be a high priority to better understand our humanity and commonality rather than accept religions which divide and take the stand that 'my belief is the one and only true belief'."