They\u2019re all pious fiction. Somebody made it up. It\u2019s \u201cmythical\u201d. They added that stuff to make Jesus more special. They added that stuff to make it seem like he was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. They cooked up those stories to make him into the Son of God.<\/p>\n
Pshaw! It never happened! How gullible are you? C\u2019mon. Get real. He was just an ordinary country preacher who had a run of bad luck.<\/p>\n
What could be more supernatural than the experience of the Transfiguration? Jesus takes his friends up a mountain and hey! He starts to float off the ground and goes all radiant, and guess what , he conveniently fulfills the prophecy of Daniel who saw a radiant man in the sky who was the Son of God. Then Moses and Elijah appeared\u2013but how did they know they were Moses and Elijah\u2013did they wear labels?<\/p>\n
OK. Let\u2019s get down to earth a little and look closely at the story. There are five reasons why this story must have happened as it was written.<\/p>\n
Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John,
\nand led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
\nAnd he was transfigured before them,
\nand his clothes became dazzling white,
\nsuch as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
\nThen Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
\nand they were conversing with Jesus.
\nThen Peter said to Jesus in reply,
\n\u201cRabbi, it is good that we are here!
\nLet us make three tents:
\none for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.\u201d
\nHe hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
\nThen a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
\nfrom the cloud came a voice,
\n\u201cThis is my beloved Son. Listen to him.\u201d
\nSuddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
\nbut Jesus alone with them.<\/p>\n
As they were coming down from the mountain,
\nhe charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
\nexcept when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
\nSo they kept the matter to themselves,
\nquestioning what rising from the dead meant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The first reason this must have happened as reported is something New Testament scholars call the \u201ccriterion of embarrassment\u201d. Basically, if part of a story puts Jesus or the disciples in a bad light it is not likely to have been either invented or airbrushed. Let\u2019s face it, Peter looks like a dunce in this story. He doesn\u2019t really get what is going on, and puts his foot in his mouth with his comment about building tents for everyone.<\/p>\n
Furthermore this is from Mark\u2019s gospel and the tradition says that Mark\u2019s gospel was based on Peter\u2019s memoirs and sermons. Therefore the homely detail about Peter not knowing which end was up was likely to come from Peter himself. The same goes for the detail at the end that they didn\u2019t have a clue what Jesus was talking about concerning rising from the dead.<\/p>\n
The second reason why the story is likely to be true is the \u201ctents\u201d themselves. \u00a0Continue Reading<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You know the old schtick from the New Testament scholars: all those miracles stories and supernatural events? They\u2019re all pious fiction. Somebody made it up. It\u2019s \u201cmythical\u201d. They added that stuff to make Jesus more special. They added that stuff to make it seem like he was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. They cooked up those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":19777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"transfiguration2\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2015\/08\/transfiguration2.jpg\")
<\/a>You know the old schtick from the New Testament scholars: all those miracles stories and supernatural events?<\/p>\n