Posted on 03/31/2013 11:46:55 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Norman Barker performed a duet with Judy Garland in the 1948 film “Easter Parade.” His son, Dan, became a pastor, before falling away from his Christian faith in 1984.
In 1990, Dan Barker, by then a devout atheist, published an essay, which he titled “An Easter Challenge For Christians.” And he has reissued his transparent attack on Easter every year since then.
This year, his challenge appears on a blog hosted by the so-called Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist hate group, based in Madison, Wisconsin, for which Barker and his wife serve as co-presidents.
In his anti-Easter essay, Barker writes, “My straightforward request is merely that Christians tell me exactly what happened on the day their most important doctrine was born.”
The atheist suggests that, since he first issued his challenge nearly a quarter-century ago, only an Assemblies of God pastor and Lutheran grad has ever taken him up on it. And neither ultimately got back to him.
But here’s the rest of the story that Barker, the deceiver, conveniently ignores: His challenge is not “straightforward.” Indeed, “The important condition of the challenge,” he writes, “is that not one single biblical detail be omitted.”
Of course, such trickeration is to be expected from those who shake their fists at God; who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ; who disbelieve that He conquered the grave.
Barker seeks to cast doubt upon the Easter story by deconstructing every jot and tittle of the four Gospel accounts of the Easter story, as well as the briefer accounts that appear in the book of Acts and I Corinthians.
He maintains that any putative discrepancy in the Biblical accounts, any apparent inconsistency in Biblical detail (however small, like the matter of whether visitors to Christ’s empty tomb on Easter morning saw one angel or two), is prima facie evidence that the resurrection was a fiction.
But that’s an absurd proposition. Sure there are discrepancies in the Gospel accounts. But no more than those to be found in reading the various biographies of, say, Abraham Lincoln. Does Barker question whether Lincoln truly served as president of the United States?
And while the atheist makes the case that the Gospel accounts of Easter were ahistoric, they actually were corroborated by the first century Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.
In the Testimonium Flavianum, Josephus writes about “Jesus, a wise man” who was “a doer of wonderful works.” He attests that Jesus was condemned to the cross and that he appeared “alive again the third day.”
Barker can dispute Josephus’ historic account of the Easter story, as he questions the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But there is no dispute, no question that something miraculous happened on the first Easter Sunday.
For the frightened disciples who abandoned Jesus on the night he was arrested, who hid themselves away when he was crucified, were suddenly emboldened three days after Christ’s death.
In His name, they set out to make disciples of all nations. And it is no coincidence that, two thousand years later, Christianity is the world’s dominant faith.
Locate and read the passages from the four gospels where the ‘trial’ before Caiphas is described. Each account includes pieces of information not found in the others, but together the accounts make very clear what was happening (like the slap to Jesus’s face and the orders to identify who slapped him).
I agree.
There have many former atheists who have written they set out to disprove everything God only to become Born Again.
Halleluiah!!!
By His stripes we are healed
Sin has lost it’s power
Death has lost it’s sting
From the grave You have risen victoriously!
Ours was too. It was a beautifully sung Latin Chant Mass and it was standing-room-only. Glorious.
In case anyone is interested Barker did a debate with James White and lost horribly. Below is. Link to a synopsis of the debate.
Agree completely.
I am not really a Seinfeld fan. I have been telling my sister this since the early 1990s when I became saved.
The other night Bill O’Reilly said something about the Bible being allegorical but he didn’t mention any specifics. I have been taught the Bible is literal except where explicitly otherwise, such as the parables of Jesus. Can you give me an example or two? Thanks.
It isn’t hard to understand. He prayed for something and didn’t get it and now his wittle feewings are hurt.
I understand that. Your experience with your sister simply reminded me of the funny Seinfeld clip. Sorry if there was an implication that the Seinfeld clip influenced you.
No worries.
All I can do is pray for her and set a good example.
Sin, unresolved, unconfessed, ongoing sin.
I guess the difference is :
Do you know God or
Do you have a relationship with God!
I have a relationship with the Lord, a daily communication through prayer, I couldn't do life otherwise!
Jim_bo in Calif
DEVOUT:
1 : devoted to religion or to religious duties or exercises
2 : expressing devotion or piety
b : warmly sincere de·vout·ly adverb de·vout·ness noun
What does that have to do with post 50?
There are generally two paths: either the man was never a Christian and thought being a pastor would be a job he would be good at, or he fell from the faith when he encountered trials, tribulations, losses and disappointments. It's the parable of the sower of the seeds.
You're assuming he's looking for answers. But he's looking to debate and shame Christians.
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