When I first watched this video clip, I thought "ah, here we go, another person trying to disprove, and knock down Jesus". I mean after all it's becoming so common these days you see it, or hear it almost daily.

Then I watched it again, and I paid a little closer attention to some of the things Reza says and I began to think. (and we all know where that leads..............).

First off we must consider that the Romans didn't actually condemn Jesus to crucifixion. The Jewish people, or more specifically the RELIGIOUS leaders of the Jewish people condemned Jesus to crucifixion. At the time they were under Roman rule, so they had to have the Romans perform the crucifixion, but even Pilate is quoted in the bible as stating "I find no fault in this man". (John 19:6).

Next let's consider that it is believed by most that Mathew actually wrote Mathew. John wrote John, along with I John, II John, and Revelations. Mathew was a tax collector, I highly doubt he was illiterate. As for Mark and Luke I'm haven't done the full research on that, so I won't question the statements on those two books. We also know that Peter wrote I Peter, and II Peter, and Peter was with Jesus during his life. Peter was the "rock" that Jesus said he would build his church upon.  I don't mind facts being thrown at me to question my beliefs, I welcome the challenges of my belief, however please give me facts that are true, and not opinion.

Now let's consider Reza's statement about Jesus being an American icon. Whoa.............I've been saying this for a very long time. The Americanization of the Christian religion is probably the number one reason that people don't believe in Jesus or God. In American we equate "righteousness" with church attendance, we equate "holiness" with the good deeds we do or don't do, we equate the growth of our religion by the numbers in our offering plates or butts in our pews. This isn't what Jesus was about at any point in any scripture. It is unfortunate that many conform to "Christianity" and forget about the Christ along the way. Why do some people do what we call "backslide"? Well maybe they never "forward slide" in the first place. Having a personal relationship with God, and following his Son is totally different from finding "religion". In America we don't always teach this, in America this is something that is very unclear. In America this leads to people falling away and writing books like Reza's. In America this is a tragedy, and one that I hope we soon learn from. Our religion is failing us daily, the things we call sin are creeping into society more and more every day even though us religious people are calling it evil. In America I would hope that missionaries from lands far away come to teach us what it is really about to die to ourselves, surrender our lives, money, and actions to follow Jesus.

When Reza mentions that he doesn't care about the people he upsets in writing his book, I sense a bit of arrogance. Arrogance is not a Christian trait, however when we have searched for answers from Man, we tend to be arrogant about what we learn. In comparison, when we search for answers from God we tend to be humble.

I also enjoyed the bible not being literal portion of the interview. This is what most people say when they are arguing about the bible and it's meaning, or truth.  I just saw on TV a scientist talking about King David not being a real person, then on Monday I see a news article from Israel that states archaeologists have found one of King David's palaces. The bible is literal, but there are also other levels to the bible that aren't quite as literal, it's really what makes the bible the most unique and compelling book ever written. It's been studied for thousands of years, and yet it can't all be understood, but it can be understood on some level at the same time. The Pharisees and priests of the Jesus' day tried to trip him up with literal translations of the bible, so yes they read the bible literally.

His late comment on interfaith relationships is quite intriguing as well. To me I would hope that faith based relationships would end all together. Our divorce rate is well over 50 percent, so obviously that doesn't work. As for interfaith, I think what he's saying there is inter-religious, or even non religious. If you take all the religion out of your life, follow God, and marry the woman/man of your dreams that is a good path to a great life. My point being, religion always fails. Always.

You see religion is man's attempt at being good, at establishing guidelines as to how to live a good (by our own standards) life, and to get to God. Jesus (salvation, the Gospel, the good word) is God's way of getting to man. It's easy to be perfect when you establish your own definition of perfect, it's not so easy when you are trying to compare yourself to a sovereign God. No worries there though, God knows we aren't perfect, that's why he died for us, so he could have the relationship with us that he desires, and hopefully that we desire.

It amuses me that these things hit the media, when there are just as many intelligent men and women, some of them scientists even that can prove the theories of Jesus, God, creation, etc. However those people and those arguments never seem to make main stream media. I guess it's just not as shocking, or not as popular. When you do stop and consider that the God of all creation cares about you enough to want to have a relationship with you, well I think that's pretty shocking and amazing.

So if you listened to the video, and read this post you probably have ideas and opinions of your own. I would hope so anyways. Feel free to leave comments even. I would also hope that you would understand the difference between religion and relationship, between science and belief, between knowing and thinking you know, and mostly between Jesus as the man that walked the earth, and Jesus as the Son of God. My answer to the video in 3 and a half minutes would be the video posted below.