Do we have the complete story of Jesus Christ's life and death? For
centuries alternative ideas have circulated as to whether Christ was who the
Gospels say He was. Did the early Church suppress more than 80 alternative
gospel accounts of Christ's life? Now a best-selling book popularizes
one of these stories. What is the truth? Can we be sure we have the rest of
the story?
by Darris McNeely
For a Christian, there is no more central tenet of faith than the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. On that point hangs the
hope of eternal life in the Kingdom of God through the resurrection from the
dead. That He would rise from the dead, thus signifying that He was the Son
of God, was the one sign He gave to a skeptical generation. The four Gospels
testify with convincing evidence that He did rise from the dead and that He
was the divine Son of God, the Messiah promised through the prophets.
Almost from the beginning of the Church, this central fact was attacked
as a falsehood. The Church carefully gathered eyewitness accounts. The apostles
wrote of what they saw. Paul went into considerable detail on the matter when
he wrote to the Corinthian church about the resurrection and its vital importance
to the Christian faith.
And yet the attacks continued. For some, Christ was no more than a good moral
teacher, a rabbi who broke out of the pack. They believe His frustrated followers
did nothing more than fabricate a fantastic tale of an empty tomb and new
faith.
The attempt to deny Christ's resurrection continues into modern times.
The 1967 book The Passover Plot offered purported "rational"
and "logical" alternative explanations to the biblical account.
The book's title sums up a view that many still hold—that the
story told in the New Testament is at best incomplete and at worst a complete
fraud.
Plotted into a Code
The latest popular theory is told in a book that has been on the best-seller
list for the better part of a year and will appear in 2005 as a Hollywood
motion picture. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a work of fiction
that uses actual events, characters and places to draw readers into off-beat
speculations about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
