Supposedly it has been a wonderful couple of weeks for Christianity. First, James Cameron (Director of Titanic) produces a documentary detailing the discovery of Jesus’ tomb. This is purported to be not only the final resting place of Christ, but of his wife and son as well! Hooray for Christians! Let there be dancing in the streets (sarcasm intended).
In a new story on ABC Primetime, we learn that Jesus has come again. Puerto Rico native Jose De Jesus, a former heroin addict and convicted felon, has claimed to be both Christ and the antichrist. Apparently scholars have been wrong in separating the two beings. After all, Revelation is a difficult book to understand. De Jesus’ followers, and he has a bunch, are tattooing 666 on their bodies to show their dedication to him. De Jesus resides with his wife in a suburb of Houston (poor Texas seems to be a nesting ground for Divine hopefuls).
This just goes to show the importance of studying the Bible for yourself so that you can identify laughable falsehoods for what they are. I have only glanced at the De Jesus story to see what he was about, but a glance was enough to detect theological issues. For example, he doesn’t believe in sin or Satan. Apparently he forgot that he was concerned with both of them when he first walked on the earth as Jesus. His beliefs contradict the Bible, yet he rests his authority on the Biblical Jesus and the promise of a second coming. It is extremely difficult to argue one without the other.
There have always been and always will be people that claim to be the Messiah. There will always be discoveries about something from the Bible. This year it is the tomb of Jesus. A few years ago, they discovered Noah’s Ark. Wouldn’t it be neat if the true Christian message would catch fire like these sensational stories? The truth is that it does. There are revivals popping up all over the place. It’s just rare that they make national news.
So the question is, how do we know whether or not De Jesus is really Jesus? It’s simple really… We take his DNA sample and compare it to the sample of Jesus’ remains from James Cameron. That should do it. Apart from that, we must study the Bible on our own and open up to the guidance of the Spirit for direction. I am left with only one question: How long will it be before someone tries to clone Jesus from James Cameron’s DNA sample? Ugh.