I would probably not respond to this mail  but for your suggestion that we
should CAST FAITH ASIDE and talk about the HISTORICAL JESUS  When you talked
about history, I am assuming that you meant HISTORICAL PROOF that Jesus
Christ was the Messiah or that he even existed.  In both cases my dear
brother, you can not separate the HISTORICAL JESUS  FROM THE RELIGIOUS
JESUS. This is so because Jesus Christ is a religious ICON and not a
historical one. His activities was in the religious sphere.
If you are looking for HISTORICAL evidence that the Jew called Jesus Christ
actually lived on this earth, I will suggest you read the following periods
of Roman History-BC 31 to AD 70.(about 100 years)  That covers the battle of
Actium between Mark Anthony/Cleopatra of Egypt and Octavius Caesar who
became known as August Caesar and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Many references to the Christians and Christ abound in most of the books.
You may also have to read some books on Islam  where christians are referred
to as the "People of the Books".
And whether you like it or not, read the Holy Bible-The New Testament and
books on Church History.

But if you are looking for a place where history predicted the coming of
Jesus Christ--that you will never find because HISTORY IS NOT CONCERNED WITH
PROPHESY. History is concerned with what happened yesterday, today and not
what may happen TOMORROW.  Religion belong to the realm of prophesy.   That
is why Christians quote a lot from the old Testament to prove that the
coming of Jesus christ had been foretold by many prophets of OLD.

THE ISSUE OF OTHER FAITHS:
There is one thing common to all religious faith:MY FAITH IS THE WAY.
You have this type of statement in many places in the Holy Bible, The Holy
Koran, the Buddhist Texts etc.. You have it in the unwritten African
Religious beliefs.  There is no faith what its salt, that would accept THAT
any other faith as leading to salvation.  That is why we have RELIGIOUS WARS
AND DISTURBANCES,
Judaism and its followers will never accept Jesus Christ as the MESSIAH.
There are many reasons for that, which I do not want to go into here.
Christians will not accept Islam as leading to salvation. The list goes on
and on
Just imagine these statements:
"I  am the way. Nobody gets to the father except through me"
" If you have seen me , you have seen the father."
" i and my father are one"
" I am in my father and the father is in me."
These are all statements credited to Jesus Christ in the New Testament.  As
I have said before, Jesus Christ did not leave a single document behind.
These are what the followers said HE SAID.  And that is what they taught
people.  And that is what the Christian faith is teaching today.  You either
accept it or you do not.
I hope this help in your search for the HISTORICAL JESUS CHRIST.

Iyi Eweka








At 06:27 PM 12/29/98 -0600, you wrote:
>I am revisiting this subject, if I may. To achieve 2 goals:
>1- Acknowledge the excellent (in my view) presentation contributed by
>Ademola Iyi-Eweka who demonstrates a remarkably advanced knowledge of the
>historical facts surrounding the early years of christianity.
>2- To draw another contributor's attention to the fact that the authors of
>the review of the roman empire that spurred my questions did not set out to
>prove anything, and were not defending a Ph.D. thesis. They are Ph.D.
>historians, teaching scholars with some experience, who simply reviewed the
>roman empire, not the christian religion. The question on Jesus Christ is
>mine, not theirs.
>
>It is remarkable that all responses so far have dwelled on Faith as an
>essential ingredient in assessing Jesus Christ. Casting faith aside, the
>question remains: was Jesus Christ an impostor, as the accusation by his own
>kinship that earned him the death penalty alledged? How can we answer this
>question from known historical facts and the benefit of 2000 years of
>hindsight?
>If you care to take up the subject, please put forth arguments for or
>against with as little reference to faith as possible, the reason being that
>by the jewish faith, he was definitely an impostor. And by some other
>faiths, he simply does not exist. And by my faith, he is the son of God. So
>which one was he?
>
>If the question is too unsettling, just ignore it.
>
>+AD0APQA9AD0-
>KMF
>