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Jennifer,
C.S. Lewis wrote about this in Mere Christianity; pick up a copy if you can. You may find that these similarities actually reinforce your faith.
- Think about it this way: if we all descended from one set of original parents, wouldn't we all have some common history and experiences that are part of our memory?
- And wouldn't the telling of those experiences change a bit from place to place as the family divided and separated?
When history and myth mix and mingle, often common threads emerge that tell us transcendent truths, and there are some truths even in other religions, that often mirror our own beliefs. The way we sift it out is with an Unfailing Filter — Jesus Christ. The thing about Jesus Christ is that He is a Real Historical Person, not mythological, though some ignorant people try to shroud Him in myth because He is incomparable to all other religious figures in history.
Jesus made claims which can only be interpreted in three ways:
- He is truthful
- he is a liar, or
- he was mentally unstable.
A fourth assertion would be that he never made such claims that Christians say he did, but that assertion can be refuted easily by overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He did.
So, in weighing all this ancient history and mythology, do not be afraid that there was cross-pollination among ancient peoples. We don't need to figure out all 100% to know that the essentials of the faith are true, and that the fullness of truth came to us in Jesus Christ.
6 I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me. (John 14:6)
- Liar?
- Lunatic?, or
- Maybe a Nuclear Bomb of Divine Love given to the human race by which we can make sense of all we have ever heard and seen since the beginning of time?
I, along with billions of others, choose to believe Jesus was not crazy or lying, but a beacon of hope, grace and truth; a Lamb, a Light, a Sword, a Prince, a King, a Son, a Savior, a Brother, the Teacher, Healer, and Counselor.
Eternal Son of the Father and Son of a woman named Mary, who nursed Him at her breast and watched Him get strangled and beaten until he died in a public spectacle, where the greatest empire in the world, Rome, or the Jewish leaders of the temple, couldn't stop what happened on the third day: He rose from the dead.
Christianity would be over if he had just simply died, and we wouldn't be having this conversation but since the tomb is empty and those who killed him have been silent.
Jesus Christ is Lord of all ages. If you get confused by anything, don't worry. He is an Unfailing Anchor and He will never leave you in confusion.
Peace,
Bob Kirby
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