So, the first case scenario where Jesus was Son of God goes against all the morals, the next case scenario where his disciples made him divine goes against common sense of how a human can behave in those circumstances. Then the next outcome is that Jesus seemed dead but he did not die. This makes sense, and goes along also with what Jesus declared himself to be. Jesus did not declare himself to be God or the Son of God in the meaning that he was special from the rest of men and deserved to be treated differently. His actions, his sayings and the fact that he was baptized by John the Baptist and even insisted on being baptized, shows clear that Jesus did not think of himself as God but that he had a special relationship with God. Why?
It makes sense to argue that Jesus believed that he had a job or a duty to fulfill and that's why he was special to God, and that's what makes him the messiah. Above all, Jesus himself told his disciples generally the same when they asked him how they would recognize the messiah. Jesus' answer was that the only sign that will be given is the sign of Jonah. What does this mean? As we know the story of Jonah, Jonah did not die. Jonah had a job given by God to deliver a message. For three days Jonah was thought dead but instead he came back out safe and sound from the belly of a wale to finally fulfill his mission.
Since the story of Jonah, as the only sign to recognize the Messiah, doesn't really go well with what Christians believe and yet it is part of the gospels then as Mr. Ehrman would say, it passes the dissimilarity criteria. Now let's look at this sign that disciples were to use to recognize their own messiah, from a human's perspective and let's use the common sense criteria to analyze it. For example if I tell you today that "I am the messiah and messiah is a woman," you might laugh in my face. Even if I were to be a very close friend of yours, you would not believe me. On the other hand, if I (your close friend for example) tell you "watch, I will be put to death and I still survive just like Jonah" what would you say? You, since you are my close friend would say "you don't have to go that far, just drop it" is that right? I continue, "I have no choice, they are coming to arrest me because I said so publicly."
You my close friend would say, "Well, they have to deal with me first." Wouldn't this be a normal and typical conversation between two friends? And it is known that this type of conversation went on between Jesus and his disciples before he was arrested. Peter told Jesus that he would not allow anyone to do harm to him (Jesus). Therefore the conclusion is that the story of Jonah could have been used in conversation among Jesus and his disciples to determine that he is the true messiah and he was right to declare so.
If the sign of Jonah is the only criteria that has to be used (according to Jesus) to determine the messiah then we must accept that Jesus showed up to his disciples three days later alive. Why? Because as the story of Jesus continues, it is after he showed up that his disciples believed him and followed his instructions to go on in the world and spread the news for the coming of Kingdom of God. At this point, I have my reservation about the fact that Jesus was preaching the end of this world. I would be opposing Mr. Ehrman opinion that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet just like Jewish prophets of his era. I base my opinion on the fact that I know the third secret of Jesus. This will be discussed in my third article of this series. All I can say for now is that Jesus was not preaching the end of time but the upcoming of the Kingdom of God as good news not as an apocalyptic prophet.
The final conclusion is that the sign of Jonah is not enough to make people two thousand years after the fact, to believe that Jesus was the messiah, however is good enough to prove the first secret that Jesus did not die on the cross. Therefore I join the crowd of many other thinkers who arrived the same conclusion that what Christians believe today is wrong. Salvation does not come from believing that Jesus was divine. Above all salvation does not come from what you believe in but comes from your actions.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
