At the risk of getting this thread back on topic, I've just realized another big hole in Lumpenproletariat's line of argumentation.
Lumpenproletariat's argument is based on the idea that the miracles of Jesus were far and away more impressive than those of anyone before or since. He has spent a considerable amount of effort extolling the uniqueness and impressiveness of the Jesus miracles. He has implied (without any evidence whatsoever) that as early as 65 A.D. Massive numbers of people believed that Jesus performed all these wonderful miracles that set him apart as being the one true god.
But the same myths Lumpenproletariat uses to argue these claims are the same ones that tell us Jesus made this prophecy:
John 14:12-14
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Now back in the good old days, Moses said the following about prophecy:
Deuteronomy 18:20-22
But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
Now it would appear to me that Lumpenproletariat is riding on the horns of a miserable dilemma. On the one hand he's claiming that nobody else's claims to the miraculous ever approached those done by Jesus. On the other hand, Jesus claims that someone is going to do greater miracles, and does so prophetically. So either Jesus is a false prophet and nobody should be afraid of him, or someone has managed to eclipse the miracles done by Jesus. Lumpenproletariat has been claiming all along that nobody since that time has even come close, a point germane to his whole argument.
And just as telling, Jesus asserts that "If ye will ask any thing in my name, I will do it."
Few things are more clearly stated in all of scripture. Lumpenproletariat could settle this whole argument right now if he would simply ask Jesus to help him find an avalanche of unimpeachable evidence. An entire, preserved trove of artifacts saved by Jesus's momma would be the sort of thing one would expect. Some adversarial letters written by Jewish officials talking about this Jesus person who was setting the entire countryside on its ear would make a lot of sense, or a court order authorizing the use of Roman guards to watch the tomb. A letter from Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimithea, Zaccheus or Jairus, all evidently well-educated and powerful people who could easily have settled the matter for all time by doing everyone the favor of just marking their extraordinary encounter with this alleged man by having an ornate pot commissioned with a record of the event or a painting or a statue.
But Jesus won't do that will he? It's easy to rationalize and say "They won't believe with all the evidence they have, they wouldn't believe if Jesus came and talked to them face to face."
Well that's just a big fat lie. I
would believe if there was a reason to believe it. All my life I have sought nothing but truth and I continue to do so even to this day. I used to believe Jesus was a real person who had done all these things and I believed it with fervor and conviction. But I only believed it because others whom I trusted told me it was so. My parents were devoutly religious; my home town preacher was a man I admired for many reasons; everyone seemed to believe it without reservation. I knew of no reason to doubt.
But then I went to college to become a preacher myself. I spent 16 years preaching in congregations all over the Southeast US. During that time I remained a student of the very things I preached, continuing to gain more and more knowledge about the reasons for the hope that was within me. I had good reason to continue believing -- my very livelihood depended on it. Sure, I had questions, but I figured all these experts knew what they were talking about and they had access to the information I needed to settle the issue for all time. One day I would do the work to see the information myself and settle all these issues.
The time came when I decided it was no longer acceptable to lean on those nameless experts who knew. I needed to know for myself. It took years, but one by one the walls fell. Each seemingly impregnable bulwark of evidence was nothing but a facade, an illusion held up by nothing more than bluster and furrowed eyebrows dripping with sincerity. There was no substance behind any of it.
Anonymous, contradictory gospels filled with thousands of interpolations. Pseudo-graphical epistles written far later than advertised by people claiming to be someone else. Yes, there was Paul's authentic epistles, but what of it? What if Paul was the Joseph Smith of Christianity? All the evidence, and I do mean
all of it was completely consistent with that premise. Surely the one, true and living god, the all-powerful, wise and all-knowing god I had believed in all my life could have taken better pains to ensure that his message wasn't so difficult to ascertain with absolute surety and confidence.
So here we are. I'm still a truth-seeker. Let's see the truth if there is any to see.
