Zealot – a person who has very strong opinions about something, and tries to make other people have them too
Fanatic – a person whose strong admiration for something is extreme and unreasonable
The other day in one of my blogs I received a comment from someone that denied the existence of God and that Jesus was a myth.
Fine; more power to him.
I have a steadfast rule that I have for the most part followed throughout the last two years of my ministry. I will allow any comment to be published that is not crude.
So fine he was not a believer.
You have to also understand this. My ministry is not for those that are unbelievers, but for the lukewarm. This is who God has placed the burden upon my soul to seek out and cause them to think and wonder where it is they stand on their faith. I also adhere to the direct instructions of Jesus Christ in these matters:
Matthew 7:6 “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.” The zealot fulfilled Christ’s admonition to a tee.
You also need to understand this about me. I am a fan of science. To me science is just another form of conformation that God is real. I am a fan of Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and Madame Curie.
I see things within the Bible that others over look because I see the science in them. For example at the end of the Revelation. It states that God well create a new heaven and a new earth. Since science states that the state of matter cannot cease to exist, it just exists in different forms. This causes a quandary with the Big Bang theory since it is speculated that from no matter came enough matter to create the entire universe. To me the creation of a new heaven and earth is the answer in this. God simply transfers the matter from one reality or dimension and places it in the other in a Big Bang. Yet most will question this hypothesis.
You have to understand one thing. I have always questioned the accepted theory of how the Grand Canyon was formed. The going theory is that the Colorado River eroded it over the centuries. At nine years old I said it was caused by a flood that was in 1969. Being nine I did not have access to the material of J Harlen Bretz who stated the same belief I came up with at nine in the 1920s.
He theorized that an ice dam caused the creation of the canyon. It was not thought highly of and pushed aside. Then in 1996 an ice dam broke and caused a tremendous amount of damage in Iceland. This event allowed for the resurfacing of Bretz theory. In 2005 Nova presented a program on the subject (Megafloods of the Ice Age) and showed that this theory was very plausible. This is why I am a fan of true science. A science that is not afraid to say it is wrong and to analyze other theories till it cannot be disproved and matches the evidence.
Then we have the religion of science. A thing many scientist say is not possible, yet there is evidence that it does exist. One of the methods a religion is passed on is by someone of authority passing the belief of their faith on to others. This is also an earmark for the religion of science. The person of authority is the professor in a university who in most cases will indoctrinate his or her students in the flaws, in how they see it, of the Christian religion and how it is not able to stand on its own two feet due to humanity changing it to meet their needs. This statement in itself would mean a parchment nearly two thousand years old would in no way match the Bible we read today. Yet the fact is the Bible has only change 2% in over 3000 years. Now why it changed this 2% does in fact match their statement, but the amount of change totally negates their hypothesis. The Bible is the most unchanged theological document in history and the shear amount of copies that are thousands to hundreds of years old far outweigh any other historical documents in all of history. Yet still only changed 2%. This makes the professors out to be preachers of a false doctrine to entice and enslave the young and open minds of the uneducated and yet they make them think they are educated by the time they leave their seminaries that are called universities.
One of the keys that will tell you that you are dealing with a zealot is that they will deal in absolutes. No true scientist ever deals in absolutes, for there can always be evidence that can appear at any time to challenge the original finding. The Grand Canyon episode for example, or as I pointed out to the religious fanatic that it is impossible to state that the earth is without question four million years old. I will say this, neither is it five or six thousand year old, there is too much evidence that states otherwise to both of these statements.
You have to understand this important fact about the earth’s age. It is based upon carbon dating for the scientist. They take a fossil from one level and any other fossils that are found in the same level will have the same amount of carbon in them. However if you take an identical fossil from a higher or lower layer in the earth the carbon within it will be different. The key element of establishing the age of an item is where in the layers of the earth it is found and correspond to other fossils at the same layer. The deeper the layer the further back in time. The problem with this though is that at one point they establish that a certain amount of inches in the layers equals some number of thousands of years.
Here is the kicker though and why it is a problem. When they fully determined that an asteroid hit the Yucatan Peninsula it caused at least one to two feet debris to cause one layer in just one to two years after it hit globally. I don’t remember the exact measurements that science uses so this is a hypothetical statement I am about to say. Say one foot equals one thousand years, yet in one to two years one to two feet were added to the layers of the earth. This throws the age of the earth off by one to two thousand years. So it cannot ever be call a definite fact and as I said before no true scientist would ever say that it is.
A true scientist would look at the evidence now in hand and ask new questions. For example:
What other global events have taken place?
How can we prove that there were or were no other global events to cause this same type of anomaly?
These are just two examples, but any true scientist would start to ask themselves these very question if not many more and seek to pursue these answers.
How the zealot answered was that I should provide prove and evidence. As I responded to him that is not my job but his since he is the “scientist.”
This was the finally stake in the heart of this person’s desire to attack, demean and diminish. This was all I needed to hear to know that this person was simply a Pharisee. A pseudo-scientist who had been brainwashed into believing a lie. He completely sealed it when I stated that he had lost the debate, which as I have just documented here, he had. His response was classic for the fanatic and zealot, which I will include for you to see here:
“Lol! I will NEVER lose to a Christian and anybody who has a brain cell in their head would totally agree. Your opinion means nothing because it is absolutely uneducated and simply stupid. Why the hell would I ever rethink my beliefs? I analysed religion and wasn’t stupid enough to believe it. It is for the small minded…. And it works for them. And the millions and millions of accurate scientific discoveries we’ve made over the millennia all have EVIDENCE to back it up and PROOF. Your ‘God’ has absolutely none. Zero. Solely reliant on faith! You will never ever be right and it’s a shame you’ve wasted your life in these ancient fairytales.”
“Why the hell would I ever rethink my beliefs?”
Here is the evidence I did provide in our debate that have documented foundation, just so you know:
You are aware that there is documentation not written by any within the Bible that confirms Jesus truly lived.
You are aware that more than 500 people saw Jesus alive after He was crucified at one time.
Confirmation outside the Bible that Jesus existed:
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared. – Flavius Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews Book, 18.3.3 ~63
And now Caesar, upon hearing the death of Festus, sent Albinus into Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Joseph of the high priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that dignity on the son of Ananus, who was also himself called Ananus. Now the report goes that this eldest Ananus proved a most fortunate man; for he had five sons who had all performed the office of a high priest to God, and who had himself enjoyed that dignity a long time formerly, which had never happened to any other of our high priests. But this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the king, desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justified; nay, some of them went also to meet Albinus, as he was upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed him that it was not lawful for Ananus to assemble a sanhedrin without his consent. Whereupon Albinus complied with what they said, and wrote in anger to Ananus, and threatened that he would bring him to punishment for what he had done; on which king Agrippa took the high priesthood from him, when he had ruled but three months, and made Jesus, the son of Damneus, high priest. – Flavius Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews Book 20.9. 1
The five hundred witnesses:
1 Corinthians 15: 1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
The core of these verses is what is called the “creed.”
“And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostle”
Cephas is actually Peter, or Simon Peter if you prefer.
Then he was seen “of the twelve.”
Then the five hundred at one time, “of whom the greater part remain unto this present.” This is an invitation to go and speak to them and ask them if what he says is true.
James is the brother of Jesus that had denied he was the Christ until this moment and as you saw above, was stoned for his belief in his brother after this.
Here is what is important about this creed. Paul wrote the letter that is now called “1 Corinthians” approximately between 55 A.D. and 57 A.D. This says this creed is in use around 20 years after the crucifixion and resurrection. But there is other evidences that points to the creed being in use within two to eight years.
In this time frame any that were said to have seen the resurrected Jesus could be found, talked to and either confirm or deny the facts stated in the letter.
NONE disputed it.