Isaiah 31-35 | Jesus among other religions, part 8
#ForTheHope daily audio Bible
English - April 25, 2019 13:13 - 28 minutes - 26.5 MB - ★★★★★ - 13 ratingsChristianity Religion & Spirituality Society & Culture Philosophy christianity daily audio bible bible apologetics culture read the bible in a year #forthehope Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Muhammad, Old Testament prophets, and Krishna…deity? Stay tuned.
Bible segment: Reading along with The Bible Project
Today’s personal prayer reading: Psalm 116
Translation: CSB (Christian Standard Bible)
Our reading: Isaiah 30:26-35
Apologetics segment: Gary Habermas and Jesus’ uniqueness
I’m wondering if it’d be interesting to call this a “news you can use” or “words you can use” section.
• In modernity, a common objection is “science is real” and “religion is opinion.”
• While we should test everything, including miracles, there are six places to test to see if Jesus’ claims were unmatched by founders of other major religions (it’s a beautiful thing about Christianity – it’s testable).
• #1: Jesus claimed to be deity.
o Buddha didn’t, and whatever spiritism or divinity is part of some Buddhist practices in China didn’t really develop until 700 years later.
o Like Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism began more reservedly, and they later evolved into “more phenomenal, mystical, and occultic versions.” (p16) Some historians speculate that this happened, in part, due to competition for followers – they got more sensationalistic to attract attention.
o Conclusion – in terms of self-claim to deity, these “naturalistic ethical, social, and political thinkers” (p16) are not rivals to Jesus.
o What about other “prophets?”
Zoroaster, chief prophet of the Persian religion never claimed to be deity.
Muhammad, is certainly not elevated to deity – in fact, a core tenet of Islam is that a human elevating themselves to equality with God is unforgivable blasphemy (you can see why they then have to purport a historically-distorted Jesus!).
And the Old Testament – the Hebrew scriptures of Judaism? Their prophets certainly are not deified either.
Gary Habermas, “The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ Among the Major World Religions” (Lynchburg, VA: GaryHabermas.com, 2016). http://www.garyhabermas.com/Evidence2/Habermas-Uniqueness-of-Jesus-Christ-2016.pdf. Accessed April 17, 2019.