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National Day of Prayer 2008
Millions United. 1 Day. 1 Voice.
The 57th Annual National Day of Prayer will take place Thursday, -May 1, 2008. The theme for this year is "Prayer! America's Strength and Shield" and is based on the verse from Psalm 28:7 which states: "The Lord is my strength and shield; my heart trusts in Him and I am helped."
Dr. Ravi Zacharias will help lead this nation in prayer as the 2008 Honorary Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force. Through the efforts of the Task Force, more than 35,000 prayer gatherings will be conducted by approximately 40,000 volunteers across the country. Several million people are expected to participate in this call to prayer for our nation, its leaders and citizens.
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Home  Book, Movie Reviews Television Reviews National Geographic Inflates Significance of "Gospel of Judas"
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National Geographic Inflates Significance of "Gospel of Judas" |
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Wednesday, 12 April 2006 |
Why is the National Geographic Society promoting The Gospel of Judas as the most sensational and important archaeological find in the last 60 years?” Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Fred M. Williams III asked.
“Obviously, National Geographic has a lot more to gain financially from all this than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John ever did,” he told BP News.
The National Geographic Channel is currently showing a 2-hour special about the modern discovery of The Gospel of Judas. In the television program they grossly inflate the importance of the manuscript.
Williams told BP News that "National Geographic’s promotion of their costly manuscript acquisition and television program, The Gospel of Judas, is one of the most deceptive and brazen attempts to profit from the general public’s unawareness of early church history since, well, The Da Vinci Code.
The existence of the manuscript is old news to many Christians. The only people who are excited about the National Geographic program are those who have no understanding of Church History. Unfortunately, that's a lot of people; even when Church History is taught in Universities, it is often revisionist history promulgated by anti-Christian professors.
Williams said, “Irenaeus [130-200 A.D] was aware of, and described the contents of, the Gospel of Judas just as it is being described by the National Geographic Society today. Irenaeus said that it was a product of a cult known as the Cainites who deliberately honored every wicked figure in the Bible so as to promote their own immoral lifestyle. The Cainites considered the God who created the world as evil and Satan as good."
Sadly, the National Geographic Society is adding legitimacy to what knowledgeable Christians have always considered to be fictional works written to support non-Christian beliefs. By doing so, they attempt to undermine legitimate scholarship. There are many other such documents in existence, one of the most well-known is, The Gospel of Thomas.
While the program is an interesting detective case, National Geographic spoils the plot with a lot of tabloid-style proclamations. They claim that their findings may "challenge our deepest beliefs," that "Jesus arranged his own crucifixion" and that "an act of betrayal becomes an act of obedience." This is all sideshow huckster talk.
With this kind of rhetoric, we expect that soon the National Geographic Society will try to tell us that Adolph Hitler was just a good boy gone wrong when he betrayed and murdered six million Jews.
There are a lot of moments when the National Geographic Society comes across more like E! than it does the yellow-edged institution we have come to respect. At one point they have the man who did the carbon dating of the papyrus proclaim, "It is real!" Of course we understand the papyrus is the Real McCoy, but the way it is staged, the implication is that the writing on the the papyrus is a true record of the events in the life of Jesus. Of course, that's false, and the National Geographic Society should know better than to present material in such a sensational and misleading way.
This kind of programming is the kiss of death for the National Geographic Society. Knowledgeable people realize that the Society is selling it's reputation for 30 pieces of silver. While it is an interesting story, the National Geographic Society sold out to sensationalism and thus cheated viewers of a more honest and scholarly presentation of the facts.
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Words To Live By
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - The Bible: Romans 8:35, 38-39
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