Love Truth Blog

I was scanning though channels on the television, and came across a feature on the History Channel called “Bible Tech,” which explored the ways the ancients may have constructed things like Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, and Herod’s Temple. During the Herod’s Temple segment, the narrator rightly indicated that Jesus made a prediction about the temple’s destruction. The Lord said, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which would not be torn down” (Mark 13:2). However, just prior to the commercial break, under the heading of “Trivia,” the following flashed upon the screen: “Although Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple in the Gospel of Mark, many scholars believe that Mark was written after the temple was destroyed.” There might be a number of scholars who believe “Mark was written after the temple was destroyed;” however, a case can be made for an even earlier completion of this Gospel. It is important to observe that neither the Gospels...

The Christ-Krishna connection pops finds its way into many spiritual conversations. It is a way of communicating that we are all on the same journey, and looking for the same thing. Both are said to be sons of God divinely conceived, both had prophesied births, both were born in unique circumstances, with Christ in a manger and Krishna in a jail cell, both escaped death from evil forces as infants, both entered into worlds filled with social upheavals, both were pierced with sharp weapons—Christ with nails and a spear and Krishna with an arrow, and both taught love and peace. How do the two really match up? Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man in one person (John 1:1-3, 14), whereas Hinduism teaches Krishna is an avatar and one of many incarnations of Vishnu, thus Krishna says, “Manifold the renewals of my birth have been.” 1 They teach Brahman decided to enter into the world as the eighth child of DChristianity teaches Jesus Christ was born of a virgin ...

Alexander the Great became a great Grecian conqueror of nations around the fourth century BC, and his empire stretched from the Mediterranean to just beyond the Indus River. Hellenism became the dominant social force in Alexander’s kingdom. So influential was Hellenistic culture that by the third century BC the Hebrew Old Testament begun to be translated into Greek or the Septuagint. By the time of Jesus Christ, the Greek empire fragmented, and Rome became the ruling power. Did the Greco-Roman culture influence biblical writers into pattering their Christ after Gentile pagan gods? This simply was not the case. In fact, the idea of pagan deities like Attis, Dionysus, and Mithras were virgin born dying and rising gods really does not pan out. According to Greek mythology, Attis was the son of a nymph named Nana. She was “impregnated by an almond from the tree which grew from the severed genitals of Agdistis.” 1 The goddess Cybele loved the shepherd Attis and made him her priest on the...

Skeptics of Christianity say ad infinitum ad nausea the Jesus of the Bible is one of many other dying and rising gods from paganism. The typical approach is to point out certain Christian beliefs and practices, like Christmas, the star in the East, three kings (magi), twelve disciples, miraculous sings and wonders, the divine titles attributed to Jesus (“Lamb of God,” etc.), Judas’ betrayal, and the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection on the third day, have roots in paganism. This is then followed by a blitzkrieg a dogmatic assertions of alleged connections between Jesus to pagan gods. Discerning people, however, need to check the facts before signing off on them without some research. When one does look into the pagan religious sources, one finds they just do not pan put. The pagan gods have nothing in common with the Jesus of Christianity. The basic idea of Christianity evolving out of pagan myths originated with the History of Religions School which flourished between 18...