My opinion Tony Snow: Anomic dismissal of Easter's ultimate Truth lays an egg

Arizona Daily Star ^ | April 15, 2006 | Tony Snow

[Ozone34]

The Standard of London, in a fit of perversity, has asked key public figures in England whether they believe Jesus literally rose from the dead. This produced answers that ranged from lyrical to disgusting to hilarious. A couple of well-known prelates dodged the question, for instance, and the press office at No. 10 Downing St. informed the paper that Prime Minister Tony Blair, a serial avower of his faith, would not answer such questions. Such is the challenge of faith in a roiled world. Easter is the most extraordinary of religious holidays because it dares believers to step up and embrace the impossible: the declaration that Jesus of Nazareth died, was buried and rose on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

[Ozone34]

I believe Tony mistakenly attributes the reference to Jesus as "liar, lunatic or Lord" to GK Chesterton. I'm pretty sure it was CS Lewis.

[kjo]

Truly, He is Risen.

[Echo Talon]

I'd like to get some of the evo's answer to the question.

[AnAmericanMother]

Correct. It's in his Mere Christianity:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic ‑on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg‑ or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman or something worse.

You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

[BigSkyFreeper]

"Liar, Lunatic or Lord" or 'trilemma' was coined by Josh McDowell in his book Evidence Which Demands a Verdict.

[Phsstpok]

PING

I like your piece on the Standard of London article. A thread has been posted with an extract and a link. You know there's already at least one correction waiting there on the thread for you ;^>

IT WASN'T ME!!!!!

[Echo Talon]

I believe Tony mistakenly attributes the reference to Jesus as "liar, lunatic or Lord" to GK Chesterton. I'm pretty sure it was CS Lewis.

I did a search this is all I could find..

An alternate form of the argument lays out all the alternatives to the Christian view of Jesus as God and then shows that they must be rejected. The simplest form of this process-of-elimination argument is known as the Trilemma, and presents three possibilities—Jesus really was God (or Lord), Jesus knew he wasn’t God (a liar), or Jesus mistakenly thought he was God (a lunatic). Apologists need say almost nothing in refutation of the second and third views, since nearly everyone recognizes Jesus to have been at the very least a person of great wisdom and moral courage. This leaves as the only possibility, though, that Jesus really was God.

The term trilemma apparently originated with Josh McDowell in his extremely popular apologetic book Evidence that Demands a Verdict (San Bernardino, Calif.: Campus Crusade for Christ, 1972).

link

[Bahbah]

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

And Amen.

[Echo Talon]

Do you also believe this? here

[Bahbah]

What I believe is what is in the post above.

[Echo Talon]

You will not say that you believe the word of God?

[Duffboy]

The early Christian church kept common folk in ignorance....they repeated endlessly the same litany you just wrote.
Brain washing is alive and well.....yippeee!

[75thOVI]

He is Risen, Indeed!

[Bahbah]

Brain washing is alive and well

You are completely uninformed about the many years of thought and study that brought me to my peace with and love of the Church. I may be one of the least brainwashed persons that you don't know. I wish the best for you, my friend, and have no desire to argue theology with you or anyone else on an internet site...so I won't.

[lastchance]

Credo.

[Duffboy]

Jesus was a Jew. His followers were Jews. The multitudes were Jews. He spoke in a Hebrew dialect ( aramaic) to Jews.
He celebrated all Jewish holy days.
The " Last Supper' that Christians conveniently changed from " Passover-Seder" is a Jewish observance.
It was Paul who trashed Jewish traditions and thus began a new movement-consisting entirely of, guess what, Jews!

[dinasour]

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[Duffboy]

I spent many years in the study of religion , my friend.
Your post was one of mime. You repeat exactly what you have been taught.
You did not reach your conclusions through research or study, admit it.
Besides, Harry Potter is under attack by " enlightened Christians for "Wizardry'.
But, Harry did not feed multitudes with a few fish nor walk on water. Was Jesus a wizard?
'

[William Terrell]

Thanks for the quote. I had never seen the "liar, lunatic or Lord" in context.

[defconw]

"You will not say that you believe the word of God?"

Would you care to elaborate?