[Z-man]

Stuart - you asked me how I deal with this new possibility of the bones of Christ. I kept my comments short since I didn't think anyone would want to hear my struggles with my faith in Christ, but here goes nothing...

Years ago, I really struggled with my faith. I was going through some very difficult person times that really shook the foundations of not only my faith, but my very being. I spend many a tearful day coming to grips with myself, and many other days shaking my fist at everyone including God.

Shortly after that experience, I really, really began to doubt that God even exsists. I started to question all those Bible accounts, and compared them with what 'scientific evidence' there was about evolution, and the origins of the world. So I searched and searched for the meaning to life, the universe, and everything.

I did not exclude the possibility that God doesn't exsist, and that my faith was not worth anything. I carefully considered that idea the closest. Yes, I did a lot of reading, self-examination, and 'soul searching.'

The only conclusion that I came to, no matter what avenue to searched and examined was this: God does most certainly exist. He is real, and He is an active God with whom I can have a personal relationship with. The exciting part of my 'quest' was that it only brought me closer to God. And contrary to what you may think, He didn't strike me down with a lightning bolt - rather, He encourages man to question Him, to study the alternatives, to come to our own conclusions. Indeed, we are not puppets or robots that He controls - He has given us the free will to obey or disobey.

Now some of you may question how far I went in my quest - that is fine. I know that I shook the very foundations of my faith - I questioned everything. My conclusions may not be what you expected, but they are what I believe, not what you want me to believe.

Oh, and by the way, my quest is unfinished - I continue to question, seek, analyze my faith - while I have faith in God, He did not create me as a narrow minded fool, but rather a human with intelligence to decide for my own what I believe.

Hopefully that sheds some light upon what I mean by not finding evidence beyond a shadow of a doubt about the non-exsistence of Christ.


That said, allow me to get back to the subject at hand, namely the bones of Christ. Logic would dictate that one of two groups of people would have buried the bones of Christ - His followers, or His enemies. He was very controversial in His time - a radical Man with a message. He polarized the people around him -- there was no one 'neutral' who was neither for nor against Jesus. Thus, only friend or foe would have buried Him.

Now let's say that Christ was just a man. If I were one of His followers that proclaimed that He was risen from the dead, why would I make sure to bury Him in such a way that He could be identified later on in life and the whole resurrection event could be determined to be a big lie? No sir, if I wanted to propegate such a lie, I would make sure that the remains of Jesus would be unidentifiable. I would probably scatter his remains - maybe have His body cremated or his bones buried in a mass tomb to make His remains indistinguishable amongst many others.

Now on the other side, if I were an emeny of Christ, not only would I bury His body, I would also ensure that EVERYONE in that age and all ages to come would know for certain where the remains of this Jesus was. According to the recent news articles, it seems this tomb was just discovered some 30 years ago. So if enemies of Jesus buried Him, they really didn't do that good a job of making sure it was a known fact that Jesus did not rise from the dead.

So what if someone 'neutral' buried Christ? The Romans were meticulous record keepers -- wouldn't they have kept a close eye on this crucifiction, and made sure everyone knew where the final resting place of Christ was, regardless of who buried him?

So initially, to me, it seems this whole bones of Jesus doesn't hold a whole lot of H2O. I do need to research this article a bit more...

Sorry for the lengthy post,
-Zoltan.