45 Reasons Why They Haven't Found The Tomb of Jesus

(Compiled By Todd Friel)

1. Explain to me why a poor family from Bethlehem would be buried in a middle class grave in Jerusalem.
2. Mary, Jesus and Joseph were the most popular names in Israel at this time. That is why the Jewish archaeologists who first discovered these caskets in 1980 NEVER claimed these belonged to the family of Jesus. The odds are too preposterous.
3. Israeli archaeologist Joel Rosenberg believes this new film is nonsense.
4. So does Jewish archaeologist Amos Kloner.
5. There is no credible evidence that Jesus was ever married. The only possible reference to Jesus being married is in a 14th century manuscript (Acts of Phillip) that nobody deems credible.
6. There is no evidence that Jesus had children.
7. They claim they have proof that Jesus had a baby. We can’t even determine the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby. (Jay Leno)
8. As there is no credible evidence that Jesus was married with children, this discovery does not prove that Jesus was married; it proves that these caskets don’t belong to Jesus. If Jesus was not married to Mary, this whole theory collapses.
9. If Jesus had a wife and children, wouldn’t Jesus have told John to only take care of His mother when He was on the cross?
10. Jesus son of Joseph is hardly legible.
11. Professor Stephen Pfann in Jerusalem believes the name “Jesus” should actually be interpreted “Hanun.”
12. For such an esteemed Rabbi, the family sure did a sloppy job of inscribing His name on the casket.
13. Jesus is never referred to as “The son of Joseph” in early Christian witness. That is the inscription on the casket.
14. If you were going to hide a casket, would you put it in Jerusalem and label it “Jesus”?
15. Why did they only test the DNA of the Jesus and Miriamne casket and not the caskets of the others? Because if they discovered that the DNA didn’t match, their story would crumble.
16. The scientist who did the limited DNA testing said, “Don’t be deceived by the media. This type of DNA testing cannot test every relationship.”
17. There is no DNA baseline available to prove this was the burial box of Jesus.
18. Miriamne e Mara is not legible, they are speculating.
19. Miriamne e Mara is almost certainly interpreted wrong. “Mara” is probably a contraction of Martha and is probably a second name.
20. Miriamne is NOT Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene is not written on the casket.
21. Is the Yose (Joseph) married to Maria? Who knows?
22. Is Jesus married to Miriamne? Who knows?
23. The name Miriamne is not found in any credible text. Not one. The only time that we can find the name Miriamne is in reference to Herod’s wife, Miriamne.
24. Matya (they claim that is Matthew) is found on one of the caskets. If this is Matthew, why would Jesus’ disciple be buried with him?
25. There is no evidence that Jesus had a brother named Matthew.
26. Defenders claim that if Joseph and Mary had more children than what the Bible lists, “The name Matthew is consistent with the type of name that Mary and Joseph might have named one of their children.” That is not a credible argument.
27. They simply left Matthew out of the picture to make the statistical analysis look better.
28. They are doing their statistics backwards. They start with the presupposition that this is Jesus tomb and then try to determine the odds. You can’t do that.
29. If we found a gravesite today with the names John and David, John’s son (the equivalent to Jesus and Joseph) could we conclude which John this was? How many John’s have had a wife named Mary and a child name David in the last two centuries? Then if you knew that David was unmarried and from Los Angeles, but the tomb was found in New York, would you feel confident you had identified the right David?
30. Joseph’s tomb is missing. Why?
31. Jesus’ half-brother Jude is missing. Why?
32. Jesus’ half brother Simon is missing. Why?
33. Jesus sisters may be missing. Why?
34. If Jesus was buried and didn’t rise from the dead, why did Jesus’ half brother, James, die preaching that Jesus rose from the dead?
35. Ditto for Jude.
36. How could the family have kept this a secret from the early church?
37. Wouldn’t the Romans been able to find this casket and end the dispute?
38. Wouldn’t the Jews happily dug up this casket to put an end to this new Jewish cult named Christianity?
39. Trying to resolve whose caskets these are is like trying to figure who put the first dagger in Julius Caesar.
40. While science and CSI techniques can be helpful, we don’t have a time machine to take us back to the first century.
41. Eisegesis is when you form a conclusion and then go find the evidence for your theory. That is what they have done here.
42. There are a thousand scenarios to explain this. To assign ownership to Jesus is simply not reasonable.
43. We have films and eyewitnesses of the JFK assassination and we still can’t figure out who killed him.
44. If this were a civil case, it would be laughed out of court.
45. Wow! You trust this film more than the Bible? Now that’s faith. The Bible is a more reliable source of information than this circus of evidence.

Sources: Dr. Albert Mohler (www.albertmohler.com) Dr. James White (www.aomin.org ), Dennis Ingolfsland (www.reclinercommentaries.com)
Nathan Busenitz (http://faithandpractice.blogspot.com/)

Cost Equals Value

The other night I took my kids to a "dollar" cinema to see one of the latest offering of animated movies. The last time I took my kids to a movie it was at a "regular" theater. The first thing I noticed about the dollar theater was the large price difference - which was nice. The second thing I noticed got me thinking of things of a more eternal nature. When we got seated in the theater I noticed that it was not very full - which wasn't surprising as I've seldom ever been in a packed out discount theater. But what I wasn't counting on is the vast number of people that came in after the movie started. The number of late comers was at least equivalent to the number who were early. One family even came in at least forty-five minutes after the movie started (I know because they plopped down right next to me). It dawned on me that you never see that at a full priced theater and the reason why? It has to be price. When folks pay more for something, they value it more. When something costs you something, there is more emotional investment in making sure you're there on time and get your choice of seat.

Now fast forward to Sunday morning at your church. Notice how many people are late and how many of those are habitually so.

We value things that cost us something.

I'll let you do the math.


The Truth:

"Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” 2 Sam. 24:24.

"Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'" Luke 9:23.

Your Last Day

Millions of people worldwide were saddened yesterday at the passing of Steve Irwin, a man better known as "The crocodile hunter". The cause of death for this man who routinely handled deadly snakes and ravenous crocodiles was perhaps as shocking as anything. He died after being stung by a stingray while filming for his show off the coast of Australia. Expert's say that human deaths attributed to stingrays are extremely rare, and Steve died only because the barb just so happened to puncture his heart.

Often death comes as a surprise. I'm sure when Steve Irwin awoke yesterday morning and kissed his wife and kids he never dreamed it would be for the last time.

Sad events like this always remind me of the uncertainty of life. Even though in the very back of our minds we know that last day is coming for us, we do not know when and seldom will know how it will happen. James 4:14 says: "Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."

I believe planning for that day begins right now. I'm not suggesting that we live with this morbid thought floating around in our heads, in fact that would be wrong, but I am suggesting that we live our lives as one prepared for that finality. Here's my personal checklist for living a prepared life:

1. Make sure you tell your family you love them every single day. And don't just tell them, show them. Hug and kiss your children, speak encouraging, uplifting words to them every single day. Give affirmation to your spouse as often as you can. Compliment your loved ones - look for positive things to say. The world is full of negativity; don't let that come out of your mouth.

2. Make sure you live each day to the fullest for God's glory. The old saying goes, "One life on earth will soon be past - only what's done for God will last." Every day we have been given is a gift from the God who gave us our life, so go for God with all of your heart. Remember Jesus said we should love God with all of our "heart, soul, mind and strength."

3. Don't procrastinate. I once heard that "Tomorrow is a day found only on a fool's calendar". That truth has always stuck in my heart. You've no doubt heard the Latin phrase 'carpe diem' that literally means, "pluck the day", but is usually stated as "seize the day". Every day should be "plucked" and lived to the fullest.

4. Important things always come first. A Christian's priority list should look something like this: God, spouse, children, everything else. Don't allow the urgent to rule your life - make sure you rule it. Similarly, don' t allow your calendar to control you - you control it.

Seize the day!