Christ was exactly who he claimed to be or he was THE largest Hoax ever perpetrated on the entire recorded history of Humankind.
2.2 billion-strong hoax?
The CLAIM is the whole class. He strives to prove that Jesus himself didn’t claim to be son of G-d, and that, for instance, where he says “I and the Father are one” is one of many mistranslations. In this case, “one” being from a Greek word meaning “at or as one.”
And after establishing Jesus’ authentic Torah Judaism, he tries to show the apostles as increasingly open to absorbing new ideas and customs (pagan, for instance) to increase follower-ship, and as increasingly anti-semitic to make a distinction.
Lastly, he touts standard Jewish orthodoxy (Maimonedes, etc) that Christianity and Islam are part of G-d’s plan to “format” the entire world for monotheism (well, except for the pesky Hindus and Buddhists.)
I for one, see the logic and agree with him completely. But I’m sure there are Christian soldiers and special forces in Free Republic who know all of the wiley rabbi’s tricks...
If you have ever read C.S. Lewis, you might have come across a phrase that went something like this...
~ He was either just who he said he was, the Christ, or He was a total lunatic, like someone who thought he was a fried egg ~
I have made my choice. The rest of you have been given free will to make your own.
I just wish I could be less a sinner than I am, so cast no stones in anyone else’s direction.
Yes, I think that is a most accurate assessment. I’m certain Jews would rather Christians be right than any other rival religion, since Christianity by its nature totally affirms Judaism as written, just outdates it. Also, no more dietary restrictions :D
29 If you have ever read C.S. Lewis, you might have come across a phrase that went something like this...
~ He was either just who he said he was, the Christ, or He was a total lunatic, like someone who thought he was a fried egg ~ I have made my choice. The rest of you have been given free will to make your own.
33 “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
1898 – 1963 – C.S. Lewis: British novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist. He died in Oxford, England, on the same day, 11/22/1963, but before, POTUS #35 JFK was assassinated in Dallas, TX. Fellow British author, Aldous Huxley (Brave New World, © 1932), passed away in Los Angeles, CA, later on the same day after Kennedy’s assassination. Huxley had taught British author George Orwell at Eton.
Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis, p54-56, © 1952
Lewis's “trilemma” is an argument intended to prove the divinity of Jesus. It was the proposal of a trilemma (mentioned by others the previous century) that was popularised by C.S. Lewis in a BBC radio talk and in his writings. It is sometimes summarized either as "Lunatic, Liar, or Lord", or as "Mad, Bad, or God". According to Bart Ehrman, an American New Testament scholar, 'there could be a fourth option – legend'. Lewis himself denied the accounts of Jesus were legends: "I have read a great deal of legend and I am quite clear that they are not the same sort of thing."
Richard Colson had been a special counsel to POTUS #37 RMN and was convicted of obstruction of justice in the Watergate Scandal. He credited the Lewis trilemma as the basis for his conversion to Christianity. In 1974, he served 7 months in the federal Maxwell Prison in Montgomery, AL, as the 1st member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges. His mid-life conversion to Christianity sparked a radical life change that led to the founding of his non-profit ministry Prison Fellowship and to a focus on Christian worldview teaching and training.