Matthew 2:10 (ESV) — 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly
with great joy.
Matthew 2:16 (ESV) — 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by
the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in
Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to
the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.
NOTE:
Two different reactions to the birth of Jesus, and it is still true today:
great joy and furious anger. Does any person in history generate such emotional
responses? Some might in the short term, like politicians and the sort. Some
generate one type of emotion, like hate in the case of Hitler. But no
historical religious figure generates such controversial emotions as Jesus.
Actually, most people don't like what Jesus propelled forward, they back off
when pushed to identify what they don't like about Jesus. Also, those people
have accepted a distorted version of Jesus where miracles are myth, exclusive
statements are distorted, and worlds where Jesus does not claim equality of
God. Although a simple reading of scripture shows that the Jews did not
interpret his statements the way we want to interpret them today. But then, the
scoffers simply dismiss this by saying the statements in the bible are
distorted and have been changed, with quite literally no scientific proof
(since the evidence is quite the opposite). In fact, when it comes right down
to it, even the miracles can't be denied because every book in the NT was
written in a time when eyewitnesses still lived. And the diaspora guaranteed
that these eyewitnesses were all over the known world with required trips to
Jerusalem once every three years. No, the scoffers really have no good evidence
that what was written is not absolutely true. But ignoring the evidence
protects them from having to deal with the awful truths of Jesus' statements.
What do we do with the real Jesus?
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