MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘Easter’

Is There Non-Biblical Evidence – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on May 13, 2021

By Bill Sardi

July 20, 2018

Is there any evidence outside of the Bible that the Resurrection of Jesus was a real historical event rather than a myth or an allegory?

Unfortunately, there is no time machine to go back in history and confirm this event that is memorialized in the way the western world divides modern from ancient history, B.C and A.D.

However there is, surprisingly, evidence revealed from celestial, geophysical and historical accounts outside of the Bible that confirm this event.

According to Wikipedia, Easter (aka Resurrection Sunday) is a remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (~30 A.D.) as described in the New Testament.  Jesus was crucified, that is, hung on a wooden cross, nailed through his hands and feet and hung on a wooden cross.  The historical leaders in place at the time, Pontius Pilate the prefect (governor) of Judea at the time, and King Herod the Roman king, are established historical figures in the same time period and place as the Bible describes.  They were responsible for assigning and delivering punishment to Jesus for blasphemy (claims He was God’s Son).

In the Biblical account of the crucifixion, an earthquake and a darkness came over the land between 12 noon and 3 PM that coincided with Jesus’ crucifixion as explained in the Gospel of Matthew.  (Matthew 27: 45-54)

Historian Eusebius of Caesarea cites Phlegon who wrote that in the year 32-33 AD: “A great eclipse occurred at the sixth hour that excelled every other before it, turning the day into such darkness of night that the stars could be seen in heaven and the earth moved, toppling many buildings.”

There is also another independent historical account:

“Dionysius, a pagan philosopher at the time, was present in Heliopolis (modern Cairo), Egypt, when the catastrophe occurred, in the company of a philosopher friend, Apollophanes. His account reads as follows: ‘We [Apollophanes and himself] were both present, standing together in Heliopolis, when we saw the moon falling into alignment with the sun in an abnormal way. For it was not the right time for a conjunction. Then again, we saw it [the moon] from the ninth hour [around 3 pm] till sundown, restored naturally to its place [in the sky] opposite the sun’.”

By the way, Dionysius was converted to Christianity during the Apostle Paul’s Areopagus sermon in Athens.  Dionysius heard the Apostle Paul talk about the earthquake and eclipse of the sun that occurred during Jesus’ crucifixion.  He personally knew the scriptures were accurate on that account.

Of additional interest, it was 800 years prior that the prophetic Book of Isaiah (chapter 13) foretold when “the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine (an eclipse).”  What are the odds that would happen?

Did Jesus die on the cross?  Or was His death faked?  Because Roman soldiers in this instance departed from their practice of breaking a criminal’s legs on the cross to ensure He was dead, probably not wanting to enrage his mother, brothers and other followers who were in attendance to the point of a riot, a Roman centurion thrust a spear in Jesus’ side to confirm He was dead, and the Bible account says water the blood came out.  (John 19:34) This meant blood circulation had ceased and the clear blood serum had separated from the heavier red blood cells.  Jesus was certainly dead.

There is another Biblical account of an event that surrounded the crucifixion.  This story is from the 5th chapter of the book of Mark and the 8th chapter of the book of Luke.

Jesus Himself was the fulfillment of over 300 prophecies, which included His place of birth (Bethlehem), His birth order (firstborn), His family line (from the line of David), the method of His death (crucifixion), even the amount of money he would be betrayed for (30 pieces of silver).

It says in the 27th chapter of the book of Matthew that in remorse, Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus, returned those 30 pieces of silver to the priests and elders who had accused Jesus of blasphemy.  They refused his offer to return the silver coins so it says Judas threw the money into the temple and left.

As the Bible account goes, the chief priests considered it blood money and used it to purchase a field as a burial place for foreigners.  It was called the FIELD OF BLOOD.  In the Aramaic language that Jesus spoke, that field, called the Akeldama (HAKL-ED-DAMM), today is a large square sepulcher.  The land was used as a burial place for non-Jews into the 19th century.  The Christian Crusaders buried their dead there.  This part of the crucifixion story is also partly confirmed.

Some skeptics say Jesus never existed.  The story of His life and death were fables.

Is there any astronomical evidence for the Christmas star in the east the Magi followed to find the baby Jesus and bring Him gold, frankincense and myrrh?

Astronomer Ernest L. Martin, as explained in his text THE START THAT ASTONISHED THE WORLD, ran computer simulations of the stars that shone in the sky over Palestine in 3 B. C.  From his initial work astronomers came up with the date of September 11, 3 BC as the date for Jesus’ birth that correlates with astronomical alignments explained in the 12th chapter of the Book of Revelation.

Martin explains that Christmas star was the planet Jupiter aligned in conjunction with Venus and other stars to produce an ultra-bright star that would have appeared in the east. Martin’s explanation of the Star of Bethlehem is now the accepted explanation by modern astronomers.

Regarding the veracity of the Biblical resurrection story, some of the most implausible facts (an earthquake and solar eclipse) and other medical facts confirm the Biblical account.

We don’t have a time machine.  There is no way of knowing conclusively the crucifixion and resurrection occurred.  The Apostle Paul said we “only know in part,” not the whole. (I Corinthians 13: 12)

Jesus said: “…all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” (Luke 24:44)

This article was first published on March 28, 2018.

Be seeing you

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My Corner by Boyd Cathey

Posted by M. C. on April 5, 2021

Mercer argues rightly that the United States, considering the terrible and epochal culture war we are in, should be allied with such countries as Putin’s Russia and Viktor Orban’s Hungary—both nations which uphold the traditions and heritage of historic Christian civilization. 

http://boydcatheyreviewofbooks.blogspot.com/

by Boyd Cathey

American Foreign Policy Advances the Globalist Revolution

And My Prayers and Good Wishes for Easter

Friends,

On this site, on occasion, I have shared essays and columns by other writers, items by friends that I believe should be more widely read and pondered. These essays address important issues that are not always that well focused or discussed by the so-called “conservative media,” essays that seem to pinpoint with specificity issues and questions that affect us. In the past I have passed on essays and columns by Pat Buchanan, Paul Gottfried, “The Dissident Mama,” Jack Kerwick, Clyde Wilson, Philip Leigh, Paul Craig Roberts, Brion McClanahan, and others.

Many of my own columns and essays are printed at The Abbeville Institute and Dr. Wilson’s Reckonin.com; many others show up at LewRockwell.com, and in the past at Chronicles magazine and The New English Review. But there are other, excellent pieces featured on those sites and by those journals as well that deserve wider distribution.

One writer who is also a dear friend is Ilana Mercer. Ilana writes a regular column that is printed in various venues. A former citizen of South Africa, she has seen quite personally how the ravages of Marxist and Communist revolution can destroy a civilized country and its social structures. And she has recounted that experience—and warning to the West—in detail in her necessary volume, Into The Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa. It’s a book that more Americans should know and pay heed to, for there are certain parallels with the insane post- or neo-Marxist “woke” anti-racist and anti-white revolution now occurring almost unopposed here in the United States. Indeed, what is now happening here makes the revolution in and transformation of South Africa seem mild in comparison. 

In a recent column, Mercer offers a broad survey which examines the tragically obtuse and wrongheaded policies of the United States around the globe: for decades, whether under Democratic or Republican presidents—it seems to make little difference—American policy has been to impose on other countries by whatever method was convenient or available an egalitarian leftist-liberal “democratism,” a uniform global model as part of a universal zeal to remake the world. Older traditions, inherited religious belief, valued customs, and forms of government and statecraft which do not hew the “democratic” line and do not celebrate “equality” (as our government apparatchiks define it successively to suit their globalism) become pariah states. And soon, with the influence of US government-supported and financed NGOs (non-government organizations), “opposition” groups pop up in those non-juring countries. With American funding and the enthusiastic participation of almost the entirety of the US media, including most so-called “conservative media” (e.g. Fox News, National Review, The Wall Street Journal, etc.), new paper “heroes of democracy” are created and showcased.

Thus, currently, we have an Alexei Navalny in Russia, heralded and praised for his opposition to that evil dictator (no doubt the reincarnation of Joseph Stalin), President Vladimir Putin. Yet, Navalny and his pitiful opposition to Putin and the vast majority of Russian citizens would not even be a passing blip on the international scene were it not for American funding and support. Like what our State Department and CIA have done in Ukraine, in Georgia in the Caucasus, and elsewhere, such insignificant figures become larger than life when the American foreign policy permanent institutional class gets involved with its unlimited largesse and media voices. And that history of devious involvement goes far back into the earlier years of the Cold War—in Vietnam, for example (with the American coup against President Diem) and in other countries where the native leadership did not suit the globalists who have essentially controlled our foreign policy and its real effects internally on recalcitrant nations since the end of World War II.

Mercer argues rightly that the United States, considering the terrible and epochal culture war we are in, should be allied with such countries as Putin’s Russia and Viktor Orban’s Hungary—both nations which uphold the traditions and heritage of historic Christian civilization. Yet, our country has ranged itself directly and aggressively on the side of the globalist barbarians who seek to pervert and destroy that civilization. Indeed, arguably it is the USA which is the very locus and heart of that assault…it makes no difference if a Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump gets elected…it makes little difference that there are 75 million “deplorables” out in the nation who at least intuitively recognize that America is and has been on the wrong course for decades. The managerial state and its interlocking and impenetrable bureaucracy can withstand all that—as we have painfully seen through its resilience and unbowed resistance to even the very minor changes advocated by Trump during his tenure.

That mammoth “deep state” apparatus has emerged now, more powerful and authoritative than before, and more intent on finishing the job of inverting and, practically, destroying what remains of Western Christian civilization.

Just recently I discovered a rather recent Spanish film (with English subtitles), “Mientras Dure la Guerra” (Blu-Ray DVD, 2019) (“While the War Lasts”), which chronicles the opening months of the Spanish Civil War, from July until October 1936. Of course, hardly any major film these days is going to treat the Spanish Nationalist anti-Leftist side in that conflict with genuine fairness; but this movie, with limitations, comes about as close as anything these days. Viewing the issues and beginning salvos of the contest through the eyes of the aged philosopher Miguel de Unamuno (Rector of the Pontifical University of Salamanca), it manages to express, if obliquely, the reasons why millions of Spaniards at that time welcomed the rising against the Socialist republic and its Soviet enablers. Through the voice of Unamuno we hear of the terrorism of the Marxists and anarchists inflicted on the Church, and the persecution, the rioting, and the subservience of the Socialist government under Manuel Azana.

Of course, there are the perfunctory condemnations of fascism and paeans to democracy, and Unamuno’s final disaccord (he had welcomed the coup initially). Yet, enough gets through. In one significant moment you see General Franco, when asked by his brother Nicolas what would be the overarching theme of the insurrection, he underlines a passage in a declaration by Unamuno—“the defense of Western Christian civilization.”

Today America is dying for lack of men of stature to raise once again that standard. The progressivist contagion controls most of our institutions domestically, and for decades has controlled our foreign policy.  As Pat Buchanan asked rhetorically several years ago when comparing Vladimir Putin’s defense of historic Christian civilization and its inheritance with what our nation does around the world: “On what side is God now on?”

It’s a question that Americans should ask, seriously and thoughtfully, as we observe the Easter Triduum, three days which for us all mean that we too can be Resurrected with the Risen Christ if we have faith, do our duty and have Hope.

My Easter good wishes and prayers for each of you.

*****

Now, here is Ilana Mercer’s column:

See the rest here

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Happy Easter

Posted by M. C. on April 4, 2021

Be seeing you

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The Happy in Happy Easter

Posted by M. C. on April 21, 2019

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A Poem for Good Friday… – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on April 19, 2019

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/04/no_author/a-belloc-poem-for-good-friday/

The Hilaire Belloc Blog

Our Lord and Our Lady

They warned Our Lady for the Child
That was Our Blessed Lord,
And She took Him into the desert wild,
Over the camel’s ford.

And a long song She sang to Him
And a short story told:
And she wrapped Him in a woollen cloak
To keep Him from the cold.

But when Our Lord was grown a man
The rich they dragged Him down,
And they crucified Him in Golgotha,
Out and beyond the town.

They crucified Him on Calvary,
Upon an April day;
And because He had been Her little Son
She followed Him all the way.

Our Lady stood beside the Cross,
A little space apart,
And when She heard Our Lord cry out
A sword went through her heart.

They laid Our Lord in a marble tomb,
Dead, in a winding sheet.
But Our Lady stands above the world
With the white moon at her feet.

“Our Lord and Our Lady”, from Verses, published 1910.

crucifixion

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Happy Easter!

Posted by M. C. on April 7, 2012

“I make things new again.”

Jesus of Nazareth from the film The Passion

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