The Lost Tomb of Jesus is a Sham! by Stephen Yulish PhD

February 27, 2007

James Cameron's new documentary film, The Lost Tomb of Jesus is trying to delegitimize Christianity. Every year of late around the Easter Season, it seems that someone tries to undermine the foundations of the Christian faith. Last year it was The DaVinci Code and The Jesus Papers and this year it is The Lost Tomb of Jesus. All of these machinations will of course prove to be false. One reason that the Christian faith has survived and flourished for 2000 years is because there were eyewitnesses to the crucifixion and to the resurrection.

Eyewitnesses who went to their deaths smiling because they knew they they too would be raised in death to be with the Lord. And they were not suicide bombers who killed others in the name of God. In Christianity, God sent His son to die for us while in Islam, fathers send their sons to die for Allah. There is a big difference.

The stone coffins in a Jerusalem suburb which they allege to be the actual family burial crypt of Jesus of Nazareth along with his wife Mary Magdelene and son Judah were actually discovered 27 years ago.

The BBC did a documentary on them ten years ago which has been discredited. This is not a new discovery or one which has not undergone a thorough scientific investigation and come up lacking. They claim to have the names on the coffins and they claim to have the bones and the DNA to prove their case. I am not going to waste my time trying to refute these specious claims but there are thousands of people with those names buried in Jerusalem and as to the DNA that is just plain stupid! Even prominent Jerusalem archaeologist, Amos Kloner, calls these claims "impossible and nonsense!

So what is the point of this film other than to boost the sagging career of James Cameron of Titanic fame? It is to try and show that Jesus was not crucified and did not rise from the grave on the third day. The basis of Christianity is that His grave is empty. Moses is still in his grave as is Muhammad and Buddha and all other religious figures. What makes Christianity unique is that Jesus' grave is empty. If indeed these bones prove to be those of Jesus and there was no resurrection, than as the Apostle Paul wrote, Christianity is vain, worthless, and we believers are to be pitied. It means that we all are still in our sins and we should all eat and drink because tomorrow we die (1Corinthians 15:14, 17, 19, 32).

If Jesus was indeed not resurrected and his bones are indeed in that coffin, then we are all lost and perishing and our Savior is no more. But we know by faith and the true, eternal word of God that Cameron is wrong and Jesus came to this earth sent by the Father to die for our sins and that He was risen on the third day and sits at the right hand of the Father. Because Jesus did this, all of us who believe in Him shall not perish but will have eternal life (John 3:16).

If Jesus was not crucified, buried, resurrected and instead survived and married Mary Magdelene and had children and died and is in that coffin, then we all are dead in our trespasses with no hope for forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. I would not want to bet my eternal soul on that, would you?

Stephen Yulish PhD
February 27, 2007