Killing Jesus

Genesis 2:16-17 (NASB)

“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’”

Genesis 3:1-3 (NASB)

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”

What did the devil do here?

Did He really say that???

Misquoted the commandment.

Lied about the outcome

Created doubt in the Lord and the commandment

That doubt still exists

The New York Times reported a study about the diminishing belief in the devil among Americans. Two-thirds of Americans do not believe in the devil as a living entity. In a randomly selected survey of over 1,000 Americans, pollsters asked whether they agreed that Satan is “not a living being, but a symbol of evil.” 43% percent agreed with the statement. That means over 135 million Americans believe that Satan has no influence but that Satan is just a symbol of evil.

Why would we believe that?

Who in the Bible had actual encounters with satan?

Adam, Eve, Jesus, Michael the Arch Angel

The devil misquoted Scripture with Adam and Eve

The devil took Scripture out of context with Jesus

Who is this? (photo of Bill O’reilly)

What book did He just write? (photo of Killing Jesus)

I have not read the book. I have listened to interviews with BO himself regarding the book.

In this morning’s message I am just using BO’s book Killing Jesus as an example. There are multitudes of books that could be used.

I am not ganging up on BO. It is just that since it is a newly released book and a hot topic in the Christian community it is a good reference.

Here are some of the things BO said about the differences between his book and the Bible.

(What the Bible says)

Matthew 2:13-14

“When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and His mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.’”

“So he got up, took the Child and His mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’”

(What BO says)

BO said in his interview that Joseph and Mary did not flee to Egypt with the infant Jesus. Instead they fled toward Egypt. He states that it would have been impossible for them to travel that far.

(What the Bible says)

In Luke 23:33-34a

“When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals - one on His right, the other on His left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’”

(What BO says)

BO says that it would be impossible for Jesus to say that from the cross and be heard because of the suffocation factor and the spectators were kept a distance from the cross.

By the way, BO says that Matthew and Luke embellished quite a bit in order to convince people that Jesus was the Messiah.

Embellish - to enhance (a statement or narrative) with fictitious additions.

So, the parts of the Bible which are unexplainable or which we doubt are fictitious elements added into the story for the purpose of enhancement.

BO did not specify all of the parts which he believes are embellishments and which were truth so we’ll just have to figure it out on our own …

Now, BO says that Killing Jesus is NOT a religious book, but, it has the very effect of meddling in the Christian faith because claiming that certain parts were fictitious and added for effect casts the Bible as a work of man and not of God.

Why? Doubt. Creating doubt in the Holy Scriptures.

BO says, “If you want to take the Bible literally that’s your right to do that.”

What is implied in that statement?

I’ve done all of this research and I do not take the Bible literally.

Doubt.

Objective - we need to have discernment.