Carol Talk 2007
Put on alien mask.
Aliens and U.F.O.'s have produced many a film. 4 "Alien" films, E.T., War of the worlds, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the third kind, Cocoon, Independence Day, Men in Black, Evolution...
What evidence is there for aliens? Some think of crop circles as evidence. Others point to incidents such as :
July, 1947 at Roswell, U.S.A. - secret research balloon or crashed alien craft? Aliens or crash test dummies?
December 26 to December 29 1980 Rendlesham Forest
20 January 1996 Varginha, Brazil
Often claims, counter claims, conflicting evidence.
There is conclusive evidence for Jesus. God who came to earth.
Gospels
1. The interval of time between the events themselves and recording of them in the gospels is too short to have allowed the memory of what had or had not actually happened to be erased.
2. The gospels are not similar to folk tales or legends which rarely concern actual historical individuals and are thus not like the gospel narratives.
3. In Jesus' day there were no printing presses, computers, film and audio recording. In an oral culture like that of first century Palestine the ability to memorize and retain large tracts of oral tradition was a practiced skill. From the earliest age children in the home, elementary school, and the synagogue were taught to memorize faithfully sacred tradition. The disciples would have exercised similar care with the teachings of Jesus.
4. There were significant controls on the exaggeration of traditions about Jesus, such as the presence of eyewitnesses and the apostles' supervision. Since those who had seen and heard Jesus continued to live and the tradition about Jesus remained under the supervision of the apostles, these factors would act as a natural check on tendencies to elaborate the facts in a direction contrary to that preserved by those who had known Jesus.
5. The Gospel writers have a proven track record of historical reliability. E.g. Luke's historical perspective.
6. The interval between the writing of the gospels and the oldest examples we have of them is relatively small, so what we have is likely to be accurate copies of the gospels. The New Testament was written from about 40-100 A.D. The earliest copies we have date from 130 A.D. In historical terms that is a very short time and compares very favourably with other old historical documents that are never questioned. For example, Caesar's Gallic Wars were written in 58-50 B.C., yet the earliest copies are 950 years old.
Other Contemporary Historical Documents
A] Jewish historian - Flavius Josephus c37-100. Josephus wrote his major work, the Antiquities, around 90 AD and referred to the early church and Jesus.
B] The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus (55-120 AD) referred to Jesus when Emperor Nero blamed the Christians for the fire that had destroyed Rome in A.D. 64
C] Another important source of evidence about Jesus and early Christianity can be found in the letters of Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan , dated around A.D. 112. Pliny was the Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor.
D] Lucian of Samosata was a Greek satirist in the latter half of the second century (190 AD).
E] Gaius Suetonius Tranquillas. Suetonius was the chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian (AD 177-138) and had access to the imperial records.
Based on the quotes from the texts above we can be certain that:
Edwin Yamavchi, professor of history at Miami University states that the quantity and quality of the historical evidence of Jesus is superior to that of any other religious leader (Zoroaster, Buddha, or Mohammad).
It would be amazing if we had conclusive proof that there are aliens and that they had visited earth.
At Christmas we celebrate something that is amazing, mind blowing unbelievable. That God came to earth. That God came to earth as a baby. So that we can know what God is like and so we can be friends with Him.