What do we have to say about this?

[YCGP]

This morning I watched a movie called Zeitgeist. It begins by showing how many different cultures and their own Gods who shared many of the same elements of Christianity. Death, resurrection, miracles, 12 apostles or followers, etc.

What does the church or the religion of Christianity have to say about this fact of history?

 

[Chesterton]

YouTube has several response movies like this one which is pretty good: Zeitgeist Refuted and Debunked.

Zeitgeist is a load of lies, half-lies, incorrect dating, assumptions and bizarre unsupported interpretations.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

YouTube has several response movies like this one which is pretty good: Zeitgeist Refuted and Debunked.

Zeitgeist is a load of lies, half-lies, incorrect dating, assumptions and bizarre unsupported interpretations.

What he said...

 

[YCGP]

Thanks, I'll give it a look-see.

 

[Chesterton]

Thanks, I'll give it a look-see.

Plus, there's a website where you can win $1,000 if you can find info to support what the movie claims.

The Zeitgeist Challenge | Refutations, Links, Videos and More

 

[Anguspure]

This morning I watched a movie called Zeitgeist. It begins by showing how many different cultures and their own Gods who shared many of the same elements of Christianity. Death, resurrection, miracles, 12 apostles or followers, etc.

What does the church or the religion of Christianity have to say about this fact of history?

The Zeitgeist movie lost all credibility for me when it claimed that the Son was the Sun, as if anybody prior to a few centuries ago spoke English. Hilarious.

 

[Ken Behrens]

There are real some real similarities though, like other crucified saviors, miracle workers, virgin births, things like that. I remember once receiving a phone call from an older woman who I knew well, whose parish priest had actually used these kinds of similarities to teach that the Bible is pretty much made up. She was very unnerved. The answer is that when Jesus came on earth, He wished to reach all people with the good news of salvation. Therefore, He fulfilled the expectations of their cultures for what a god should be.

You can turn this idea either way. Those who wish to doubt the truth of Jesus as the Messiah can claim that Christianity copies paganism. Those who wish to believe Jesus truly is the Messiah can simply point out that in their longing for a true Messiah, pagans realized some of the things Jesus would be when He came, and not knowing the truth as it was known to the Jews, they gave these properties to their own gods.

And let's remember, most of what Jesus would be and do was prophesied by Isaiah, etc. hundreds of years earlier. Some was even prophesied implicitly in the garden. So the pagan religions had a head start on what to copy.

 

[YCGP]

The Zeitgeist movie lost all credibility for me when it claimed that the Son was the Sun, as if anybody prior to a few centuries ago spoke English. Hilarious.

HAHAHA

 

[YCGP]

There are real some real similarities though, like other crucified saviors, miracle workers, virgin births, things like that. I remember once receiving a phone call from an older woman who I knew well, whose parish priest had actually used these kinds of similarities to teach that the Bible is pretty much made up. She was very unnerved. The answer is that when Jesus came on earth, He wished to reach all people with the good news of salvation. Therefore, He fulfilled the expectations of their cultures for what a god should be.

You can turn this idea either way. Those who wish to doubt the truth of Jesus as the Messiah can claim that Christianity copies paganism. Those who wish to believe Jesus truly is the Messiah can simply point out that in their longing for a true Messiah, pagans realized some of the things Jesus would be when He came, and not knowing the truth as it was known to the Jews, they gave these properties to their own gods.

And let's remember, most of what Jesus would be and do was prophesied by Isaiah, etc. hundreds of years earlier. Some was even prophesied implicitly in the garden. So the pagan religions had a head start on what to copy.

Very true.

It's quite amazing how many different cultures there are that had gods who shared the same qualities or experiences.

 

[Anguspure]

There are real some real similarities though, like other crucified saviors, miracle workers, virgin births, things like that. I remember once receiving a phone call from an older woman who I knew well, whose parish priest had actually used these kinds of similarities to teach that the Bible is pretty much made up. She was very unnerved. The answer is that when Jesus came on earth, He wished to reach all people with the good news of salvation. Therefore, He fulfilled the expectations of their cultures for what a god should be.

You can turn this idea either way. Those who wish to doubt the truth of Jesus as the Messiah can claim that Christianity copies paganism. Those who wish to believe Jesus truly is the Messiah can simply point out that in their longing for a true Messiah, pagans realized some of the things Jesus would be when He came, and not knowing the truth as it was known to the Jews, they gave these properties to their own gods.

And let's remember, most of what Jesus would be and do was prophesied by Isaiah, etc. hundreds of years earlier. Some was even prophesied implicitly in the garden. So the pagan religions had a head start on what to copy.

It is interesting that Blavatsky seems to have taken much of her astrological content from E.W.Bullinger and the like who also maintained that the story told by the Zodiac was a prophecy of salvation and the Messiah.

 

[Ken Behrens]

It is interesting that Blavatsky seems to have taken much of her astrological content from E.W.Bullinger and the like who also maintained that the story told by the Zodiac was a prophecy of salvation and the Messiah.

In the 1978 book "Investigating the Unexplained", Ivan T Sanderson produced a stunning proof, that the zodiac drawn centered at Babylon with the goat north is simply a geographical guide to where the various commodities were traded for or harvested.

In the late 1990's, a website called Lexiline (now gone on to far more information) produced an attorney's private (and quite convincing) research that most of the Sumerian god stories were simply about star movement that he believed originated from continental shift during the flood, and intended as navigational aids for night movements in the deserts.

It is so amazing that the human mind was able to dream up all this other stuff that it was supposed to stand for.

 

[Soyeong]

This morning I watched a movie called Zeitgeist. It begins by showing how many different cultures and their own Gods who shared many of the same elements of Christianity. Death, resurrection, miracles, 12 apostles or followers, etc.

What does the church or the religion of Christianity have to say about this fact of history?

I recommend this article:

Ben Witherington: The Zeitgeist of the 'Zeitgeist Movie'

 

[Norbert L]

This morning I watched a movie called Zeitgeist. It begins by showing how many different cultures and their own Gods who shared many of the same elements of Christianity. Death, resurrection, miracles, 12 apostles or followers, etc.

What does the church or the religion of Christianity have to say about this fact of history?

There are competing cultures/Narritives for the truth, some of them who are extremely emboldened about their "truth" of death and resurrection. However Christianity from its' witness and testimony found in the Bible is very straight forward about who actually has the goods on delivery. People can choose it or they can choose to give their life to things like this: