Jesus came in the flesh

In his 2004 book, The Pagan Christ, retired clergyman, Tom Harman, posits that the advent of Jesus of Nazareth is based on Egyptian mythology. He challenges the fact that Christ Jesus is the Son of God, Who came in the flesh and did the marvelous works recorded in the Bible. Harman claims that Biblical accounts about Jesus borrowed from the myth of the pagan god, Horus or Osiris. The theory calls into question the authenticity of the Messiah, and thus the very basis of Christianity.

Christians must be careful not to be taken in by false theories, which would attempt to sway them from the provable reality of Christ’s message of salvation and healing.

Some historical facts debunk Harman’s claim. Many modern scholars state that the Bible was written in Greek, by writers, who did not understand the Egyptian language. The birth of Jesus Christ was foretold by prophets Isaiah (and Micah,) 700 years before Jesus was born. King Herod ordered the killing of boys under two years old in a bid to get rid of the King of kings. Jesus was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate. Jesus had a half brother, James, leader of the Church in Jerusalem, who wrote the Biblical book of James. Moreover, respected scholars of the earliest centuries, like Tacitus and Josephus, associate ‘Jesus who was called the Christ’, with the beginning of the Christian movement.

Several instances in the Bible show incontrovertibly that Jesus appeared in the flesh. In Luke chapter 2, Simeon in the temple testified of Jesus’ Messiahship, when the baby Jesus was brought to be dedicated. John 4 records Jesus having a discussion with a Samaritan woman by a well. And, then there’s the widow near the Nain city gate [Luke 7], whose only son Jesus raised from the dead. She must have definitely been glad the incarnate Jesus was passing by right when she needed His help.

More important than historicity and archaeological evidence is practical proof in the 21st Century that Jesus came to the world to save sinners. Jesus said in Mark 16:17, just before He ascended, that healing signs would follow true believers. Anyone who has experienced Christ healing today knows indubitably that Jesus came so that man may have abundant life.

Christian healer and author of Science and health with key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, says that healing the sick and the sinner in the way Jesus healed, is an effective way to silence false theories about Christianity. There shall continue to be theories, which try to shake the Christian’s faith in God and denounce Jesus and Christianity, but Christians must continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and not be moved away from the hope of the gospel. (Colossians1: 23).

Moji Solanke m_asolanke@hotmail.com
Media representative of Christian Science Church in Nigeria