The Mythological Jesus (Part 2 of "Can We Dismiss The Gospels as Fairy Tale?")

You may have been told that, from a study of comparative mythologies around the world, a very common theme appears of a God being born, dying, and then rising from the dead. Nearly every ancient culture would appear to have one such story.The thing is, though, that this motif does not actually exist categorically. No matter how many times one hears the old line "Jesus was just another 'born-dying-raised' god," the fact is that he is the only one! Some Gods were killed and stayed dead, some died and rose up in one or more totally different forms. They were never reported as doing so within the frame of recorded history.
   There is the Norse myth of Odin hanging himself from Yggdrasil in an effort to attain greater wisdom and power. He sacrifices himself to himself in order to do this, but he does not die. Baldur, Odin's son, is said to have been killed by a dart made of mistletoe, leading to the binding of Loki. So, there is a vague parallel here. One of the "All-Father" sacrificing himself on a tree, and the other of a god of light and beauty having his fate sealed to die. These, however, are the only similarities found in the Norse myths. Some major differences between these and the account of Jesus were that Odin did what he did because of a thirst for knowledge and wisdom, and self preservation, not out of any plan for redemption for creation; Baldur did not rise again. His body was placed on a pyre, and was launched out to sea on the Ringhorn (a large ship).
  One other myth that people will often site (you may have seen the cartoon making its rounds on Facebook) is the Horus myth of ancient Egypt. In fact, none of the parallels seem to have their backing in the sources we actually have from Egyptian mythology. What we do have are fragments of different Egyptian traditions which have been "translated" to bear a striking resemblance to the account of the Gospels. A huge stretch of the imagination, not to mention downright fabrication, is the only way one could actually draw these two together in any meaningful way. I also feel it is extremely important to note that Christianity is the only account of God giving His Son in order to redeem humankind. In fact it is the only account where a God sacrifices anything on account of human beings.
  There are a lot of people out there who wish to propagate this myth of myths: the story of Christ was not a new one, and was in fact just "borrowed" from other ancient cultures in order to appeal to a pagan audience. To further this cause, many changes were made to the original accounts of the life of Jesus.  In order to confirm this, though, I think perhaps a demonstrable motive would have to be given. The people who first spread the word of Jesus' life and teaching had no reason to do so if it were not true. They would have been better off keeping quiet about the whole thing. The persecution of the early church was a horrible thing indeed, and they did not gain the right to worship under Roman rule until the fourth century, which was long after even the most liberal scholars' estimates for when the Bible was written.
   I think CS Lewis put it best when he said, "All the myths of mankind's primitive religions were expressions of a deep yearning — the deepest yearning — in mankind's consciousness, namely that the mysterious transcendent God would come into intimate contact with mankind, and do so in such a way that He would repair the damages made by mankind's sinfulness, and would grant to mankind a safety that would last forever...  Christianity, rather than being one myth alongside many others, is thus the fulfillment of all previous mythological religions. It is a myth, like the others, but this time a myth that is also a fact."
  Next time I will address the nature of legend, as well as textual criticism for the New Testament. As always, thanks for reading!