Christianity is investigable. You can kick the tires, and ask those hard questions. The evidence shows that there was an extraordinary event. That’s undeniable. That’s how a small sect grew to 3.5 million Christians…against overwhelming odds…by the 4th century. And following the resurrection of Jesus, there was a new movement called the Way, and it was this ekklesia of Jesus that was eventually called the church. And as these things were happening, people who were actually involved in these events documented them for us all. And all of this happened in the first century before 70 AD when the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.
And when someone can predict their own death and resurrection…and pull it off…I’m gonna go with whatever that person says and teaches.
We are told there was a extraordinary event. We are told about it by various authors long after the described event was said to have happened.
The ancients tended to see signs and wonders, Simon Magus and other miracle workers, for instance, where we would be more sceptical and rigorous in our investigation.
Oh but some ancients were skeptical.....many early Christians did not trust the Magician Simon Magus. He was considered a representation of Satan, who came to earth to alter and mislead the true faith. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, a theologian of the early Church, wrote that he was "the first Dragon of evil" who was "cast into hell." For other contemporary high-ranking members of the clergymen, he was the symbol of unrest, sin, and falsehood and the one through whom "all heresies came."
The Apostles warned Simon Magus of his actions' wickedness and rejected him. He left Christianity and created a Simonite sect dedicated to the master of divine worship, and he played a religious role. His mystical concept became popular in some circles, and his believers considered him as God (or Father) in human form. He was even sometimes worshiped as the incarnation of the Greek god Zeus.
