Josiah Concept Ministries

David Boles is the webmaster of a blog entitled Urban Semiotic, which “was founded to address tender questions of human living and rougher matters rotting the urban core.” I have no problem with Boles, his blog, his opinions, or anything of the sort. The comments policy on his site states, several times, that not all comments will be published. Based on the feedback I’ve been receiving from a few readers of this blog, I have no doubt that anything I submit will not be published either. Therfore, I wish to respond to this article, titled “Jesus Found Dead in His Grave” right here so that I will not risk deletion.

Overall, the tone of the article is of someone who is vindicated. At last, we can rest easy since the tomb of Jesus has been found. There was no Ressurection. Now religion can die in peace and we’ll never have to hear from it again. The grotesque picture of Christ is more than enough evidence of that.

His standpoint is evident by the use of the term “Jesus myth” following the lengthy quote that summarizes the Jesus Tomb controversy. I have no intention of restating that here; for a big picture analysis check out the Time Magazine blog on the subject.

I doubt Boles is an actual “Christ myther,” as the adherents to the school of thought that Jesus Christ was never a real, historical person are dubbed by the Tektonics group. Here, I think that Boles simply means that Jesus’ ministry is a modern myth, the way that pantheon of Greek gods is regarded today. In fact, our beliefs about Jesus are called “myth” a few times within the article. This cements for me that Boles does not believe that the stories told in the gospels are true, but a later “mythology” developed by zealous followers.

It should be noted that the discovery of Jesus’ “body” in a tomb is not the “process of shattering of the Jesus myth into Atheism [sic],” but would only serve to bolster alternate positions of how the Ascention occured. The orthodox position is that Jesus ascended body and soul into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. However, there is a school of thought that says only His soul was assumed into heaven.

I am, of course, getting ahead of the issue. There is still no reliable evidence that indicates this tomb is the tomb of Christ and His family. Boles does not appear to be a theologian nor does he have any interest in bolstering either side of that argument. His naive statement betrays that he has no idea other school of thoughts on that matter even exist. The real issue is stated here:

I understand this revolt against the sanctity of the core of Christianity is a direct response to the rise of Christian Fundamentalism in America where Believers now force their myths into mandatory mainstream acceptance: “If you don’t Believe, you’re sinner; if you don’t Repent, you’re going into the fires of hell.”

     The Fundamentalists achieve that punctilious end by poisoning the Political process with their harsh and unloving beliefs and the rest of America — the unmoved middle class who prefer soccer to sacrilege — go along with the movements of the breeze as long as it doesn’t adversely affect their lifestyle.

     With the Far Right Fundamentalists pressing their agenda into Iraq and Iran and even here on the Homeland in the Supreme Court and in the villages and the valleys, the middle class are beginning to see their precious personal rights are winnowing away in the sweaty palms of those who believe in blood and nails and those who worship the implements of death like crucifixes and spears — instead of loving each other just enough to leave people alone.

     If the myth is unwillingly perpetuated into popular culture by the True Believers — sooner or later people, good people, will rise up and fight back for the right to be left alone and to think as they wish and not as others command them to think.

     One of the weapons the mighty ordinary wield against the Myths of the Believers is the scientific process.

Yes, the real issue is that conservatives have control of government, and are attempting to impose morality upon the masses of people. We desire people to live as the Bible commands, as our Creator desires we live. However, that is not how Western culture teaches a person to behave. Here in the United States, people are taught to think for themselves, not to let anyone push them around, and anyone who wants you to behave as part of a collective whole is automatically wrong and you must fight them. It is all about individualism.

The supreme popularity of websites like MySpace is just more evidence of this. With MySpace, a person creates and personaizes a page that is all about him or herself. Is this not the pinnacle of vanity and self-asorbtion?

The Bible was written to a collectivist society. Those folks readily understood that individuals were part of a community. They knew that there were consequences for each action. We certainly do not live like that anymore. In this age of individualism, something about that gets lost. No one asks what they can do for each other, only what others can do for them. Fewer and fewer people are accepting consequences for their behavior; they always blame someone else.

This is also true of people who call themselves Christians, unfortunately. That is why Boles can make the claim that those of us who are in the far left are forcing our way of thinking on the other folks. Boles speaks for the world, I think, when he calls for us to knock it off. The world, by and large, rejects God and His authority. We have since the Garden of Eden refused to submit to even the simplest of commands from our Creator.

We Christians come off as very judgemental, calling for the world to repent when we ourselves still live in sin. In part, it is because our culture waters down the message of the gospel, reducing God to (in one presentation) begging on His knees for us to accept His gift of salvation in Christ. God begging us? Nothing could be further from the truth.

God chooses us. We do not choose Him. Christianity is not something that you decide to do on your own because it sounds cool. It is a calling from God. When you respond, you must accept the fact that you need Him, not the other way around. God will get the work of this ministry done another way if I keel over tomorrow. That He is choosing to use me is an honor to me. Having me on His team is not His privaledge because I chose it–far from it.

That said, Christians would do well to remember that we are sinners, too. Remember that list of sins in Romans? After listing off all of those horrible sins, Paul tells us that we are no better than that! We came out of all that by God’s grace and His choosing, not because one day we felt like it. We act like we’re better than the world, but we are just like them, or worse.

Everytime I read a passage along the lines of what Boles is saying I cringe because I know that this person has encountered Christians that think they are better than the worldly folks because the former are in Christ. But Christians are not better; they are forgiven.

If you feel convicted and called by this message, then I waste no time! Repent of your sins and accept God’s salvation in Jesus Christ. E-mail me; I’ll help you in your first steps as a new Christian.

If you press “Lord Jesus” into our public schools and in our Courthouses beyond a cursory wave, science will be used to slay your myth and humble your outrageous and hateful claims against those you brand as unworthy and foreign and unlike you and those who choose not to believe as you Believe.

     This challenge to the Jesus Resurrection will prove interesting as science and technology become even more powerful and infallible. Carbon Dating is hard to render into belief but it easily shatters myths. DNA does not lie or require Blind Faith to be believed.

Here are two more appeals to science, a total of three so far counting the one above. Saying that “science and technology [will] become even more powerful and infallible” is telling; it reveals our atheist’s god-figure. Of more concern to me as an apologist and evangelist is that Boles calls our claims “hateful.” He says we brand people “unworthy.”

I have just discussed this at length above. Boles is obviously scarred by some experience he had with a Christian. This is sad that so many people think that salvation makes them special. Do they listen when they quote from John 3:16, or has this verse just become so trite that no one really pays attention anymore? It starts “For God so loved the world…”, not “For God so loved Bob…” or some such similar nonsense. That’s the entire world, guys. Not just you. Not just Christians. And for those who know their theological positions, that statement came from me–and I’m a Calvinist!

The point is stop being so judgemental. Someone may be living in abject sin and total denial of God’s love. Yet that person may be one of the elect–you cannot know one way or the other! Showing that person Christian love may be the vehicle God has chosen to bring that sinner to Him. Jesus did not come to judge, but to save. Why, then, should we judge?

It is sad that Boles feels this way about Christians. I think that we should all pray for him to realize that God’s love is the only answer to human suffering, which oddly is what his blog is about. Christianity is not something that can be forced on someone, as some Christians clearly attempt to do. Rather, it is a gift God gives freely to us, and it gives us the power to conquer sin and death. It grieves me to read things like this and to know that there are people out there that have had such negative encounters with Christians as to breed such contempt.

But all of this will figure into God’s plan somehow. We must trust that He is complete control. This is, however, another sign of the eminent return of Jesus Christ.