A recent article at First Things points out that:

This Lent we have seen the Discovery Channel airing a documentary about the “Lost Tomb of Jesus,” a New York confectioner making a life-sized Jesus out of chocolate, Newsweek boldly asking “Is God Real?,” and the New York Times discussing both theism as the outgrowth of brain architecture and the myth of the Exodus. The History Channel graced Easter Sunday night with “Banned from the Bible,” two hours about all that nifty stuff that was “deemed unfit to grace the pages of the sacred scriptures for Jews and Christians . . . heresy or hidden truth?”

The author then reflects on the “many-branched assault on the fabric of Christendom” but it got me thinking in a different vein. With every attack on Christianity this “olde tyme religion” answers her critics often soundly defeating them. The Da Vinci Code got whomped and so did Jesus’ tomb. Along the way the reality of the person of Jesus and the reality of his resurrection gains more credibility. The historicity of the “Christ event” ¹An academic term for the events recorded in the gospels. I really don’t like it because Jesus is a person not an event but it is useful shorthand for the entire story. is shown over and over to be a trustworthy thing.

And yet the media feeds on these pseudo-scholarly attacks on Christianity. They believe it will sell and so they go for it. I’m not convinced that they have an axe to grind with Christianity, I don’t really think the folks who run our media: a) care, b) understand, or c) have a conviction stronger than their bottom line. But their greed really does a service to the cause of Christ. By airing this trollop, they also provide an opportunity for Christian scholars to refute the errors and offer support for our truth claims. ²Another scholarly word that I’m not keen on. If it is truth it isn’t a claim. But that isn’t what it means and I need to chill out. :)

This is what happened in the early centuries of the church. Critics would write horribly misguided critiques of Christian beliefs and men like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Jerome got to write lengthy and detailed refutations and statements of what the true faith is. But their letters were not made as public as our responses are. We get to use a media that beams the answer around the globe. We have electronic media that can duplicate those responses instantly instead of having to wait for monks to transcribe the work.

In the end I am glad to see the attacks on the faith. May God grant the church more powerful apologists like those in the past to stand up and defend her.

[HT: Herr Luther]