Question:

I read a recent article about an ancient Roman document written by a Roman historian who says he witnessed Jesus performing the miracle of bringing a still born infant to life.  Have you heard about this?  Is this story credible?

Answer:

Sorry but this is a bogus claim put up by a satirical anti-Christian web site which is intending to show how gullible Christians are.  Please do not help their cause by passing this one along.  It is, as they say, fake news.  I ask you and anyone reading this article to not even go to the web site with this claim.  The more believers spend time looking at this manipulative anti-Christian lie the more ammunition we will give to these folks who are trying to demonstrate that Christians are gullible and willing to believe in almost anything.  The more pageviews, the better as far as they are concerned.  I do not think that their long term goal is to get people to believe that this fake news is true, but to make believers look gullible.

As believers we need to learn to be skeptical regarding claims of evidence which supports our belief in the scriptures.  We need to learn to ask questions such as the quality of the source of such claims., What is the scholarly consensus?   What do our opponents say about the evidence?  Is there a conflict of interest on the part of the one making the claim?  The claim you mention does not stand up well to these questions!  We need to not be too easily persuaded due to our wishful thinking to have evidence to convince non-believers.  The solid evidence which will hold up to skeptical inquiry is more than enough to support Christian faith.  We should not give ammunition to those who oppose our faith by being gullible and falling for bogus claims.  There are many of these out there, such as claims of finding Noah’s ark, the James Ossuary, claims to have discovered remains of the wandering in the wilderness and many more.

John Oakes