Stone of Contention

This week an archeological discovery came to light that some say throws the resurrection of Christ into question. Several news outlets ran stories on the “mysterious tablet” of stone that appears to date to the years just before the birth of Jesus. But the most fascinating part of the ink-on-stone document is its inscription that allegedly announced the raising of a messiah after three days in the grave. Some say the finding shows that the resurrection of Christ was not a unique idea, and therefore undermines the event’s historicity.

But a few problems immediately come to mind. First, the translation of the stone is far from settled. The crucial section of the inscription—which is said to announce a risen messiah—is smudged, making the meaning of the lines difficult to determine.

Time magazine concludes that the “contentious reading of the 87-line tablet depends on a creative interpretation of a smudged passage, making it the latest entry in the woulda/coulda/shoulda category of possible New Testament artifacts.”

Second, even if the controversial translation holds up under scrutiny, I still don’t see this discovery as a threat to the resurrection. We’ve long known that Christ’s resurrection has antecedents and echoes in other religions. Far from shaking Christian faith such examples were a boon of belief to thinkers like C.S. Lewis who contended that God had placed the story of Jesus in the hearts and cultures of many people. For Lewis the resurrection was “true myth.”

Third, I find it incredibly unlikely that the disciples would have been exposed to the stone document or its ideas. Scholars are placing the tablet with the Dead Sea scrolls, which were produced by a group of ascetic Jews called the Essenes. This cave-dwelling tribe of highly devout Jews was completely detached from mainstream Judaism of the day. They viewed even the strict Pharisees as sell-outs for having any dealings with Rome. Fearing corruption of their religion, the Essenes retreated to the caves at Qumran where they lived like monks, waited for the messiah, copied the Hebrew Bible and wrote other religious documents. I doubt the disciples—who were uneducated tradesmen—would have even been aware of the esoteric documents this reclusive group produced.

Fourth, there’s the possibility that the tablet’s inscription is prescient. Though the Israeli scholar who translated the inscription believes it refers to a military messiah who defied Rome, why couldn’t it be a sort of soft prophecy of Jesus' resurrection? Why has no one discussed that possibility? The Essenes wrote other beautiful passages about messiah such as “He shall heal the badly wounded and make the dead live.” Could it be that God revealed future events to this zealous band of worshipers?

Perhaps only time and more study will tell the true impact of this archeological discovery. But whatever the outcome—as with many other “discoveries” of recent years, biblical truth will stand the test. Some Christians are threatened by any sort of scholarly or archeological inquiry into the origins of Christianity. But I take the opposite tack. We have a historically contingent faith and overwhelming documentation of our faith’s central events. What do we have to hide? Bring on the scrutiny!

Is Christianity Dying?

Ah, the arrogance of the west. When we spot a trend in our culture, we tend to think the whole world will follow suit. Nowhere is this ethnocentricity more evident than when it comes to the topic of religion.

In his book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Philip Jenkins highlights the tendency of western commentators to make grave intonations about the plight of Christendom. He cites a popular article from The New York Times.

“Visit a church at random next Sunday and you will probably encounter a few dozen people sprinkled thinly over a sanctuary that was built to accommodate hundreds or even thousands. The empty pews and white-haired congregants lend credence to those who argue that traditional religious worship is dying out.”

Many voices echo this refrain. Popular writer John Shelby Spong, who wrote the best-seller Why Christianity must Change or Die, travels widely delivering his grandiose ultimatum to the faithful. Spong declares that unless Christians abandon such beliefs as Jesus' resurrection or the idea of a personal God, Christianity "will soon take its place alongside other ancient religions in the museum."

Scholar Arthur Peacock agrees, insisting that the church drop what he calls "incomprehensible and unbelievable" teachings of supernaturalism in order to be credible to the world.

Jenkins writes that these statements reveal several misperceptions. Contrary to the gloomy forecasts, statistics show that the percentage of Christians, even in the U.S., is holding steady or even rising slightly. Critics tend to focus on declining numbers in high church traditions while ignoring the massive nondenominational congregations springing up across the country. They also overlook something else: the majority of earth's population. Jenkins writes:

“Viewed from Cambridge or Amsterdam, such pleas make excellent sense, but in the context of global Christianity, this kind of liberalism looks distinctly dated. It would not be easy to convince a congregation in Seoul or Nairobi that Christianity is dying, when their main concern is building a worship facility big enough for the 10,000 or 20,000 members they have gained over the past few years. And these new converts are mostly teenagers and young adults, very few with white hair. Nor can these churches be easily told that, in order to reach a mass audience, they must bring their message more into accord with western secular orthodoxies.”

A brief survey of second and third world countries (or as some say the "majority world") reveals an explosion of Christian vitality not seen since the earliest days of the faith. Just look at the statistics.

· In 1900 less than 10 percent of Africans were Christians. Today the number has surged to over 47 percent.

· In 1949 China had only 4 million Christians. Today the number stands at about 82 million. That's over a 20x increase, even factoring in the country's total population growth. Former Beijing bureau chief for Time magazine David Aikman projects that within a few decades 1 in 3 Chinese could be Christian.

· Christian faith is also on the rise in South America. Many South American countries report a catholic majority and a charismatic form of Protestantism is growing most quickly, sweeping whole cities with revival.

· The spread of the faith in Korea has been just as astounding. Forget Saddleback. Seoul is now home to the world's largest church. And Korean Christians are not content with mere domestic growth. Christianity Today reports that now "Korea sends more missionaries than any country but the U.S. And it won't be long before it is number one."

Even with this veritable florescence of Christianity, right now somewhere in America a professor is sketching out the soon-ending "Christian Era" before a class of credulous freshmen. On some radio show there's an "expert" opining about the decline of Christendom.

And meanwhile thousands are hearing the gospel for the first time and responding in faith.

Of course we Christians aren't surprised. We remember that someone else made a prediction long ago. Standing before his disciples with fire in his eyes Jesus promised to build his church. The gates of hell couldn't stop it, he told them. Nothing could. Nearly 2,000 years later 2 billion people the world over claim to follow the Carpenter from Nazareth. I guess He wasn't kidding.