The Lost Tomb of Jesus Documentary Controversies

Many Christians describe the possibility of having found the remains of Jesus Christ in an ossuary in Jerusalem as outrageous, even blasphemous. Several bring up the argument that scientists are attempting to challenge our faith, and that it is an impossibility that Jesus' remains could have been found at all, as Jesus ascended into Heaven after having risen from His tomb on the third day subsequent to His crucifixion.

But how much of our faith is based on the contents of our Holy Bible, and how much is based on the fact that we blindly follow the teachings of our religious leaders, trusting them to impart to us all of the knowledge of our religion. I put these questions to Christians: How much do you really know about our Holy book, about its history? How many of you have ever read the Bible cover to cover? And another very interesting question: How many Christians out there were aware that Jesus had four brothers, James, Simon, Joses, and Judas, as well as two sisters? Those that were unaware should read the Gospel of Matthew closely. Until I watched the Tomb of Christ documentary, I had no clue that Jesus had any siblings whatsoever. I had never been taught, in any church service in my twenty-three years of life, that Jesus was not an only child, that he was not the one and only offspring of Mother Mary.

Another intriguing fact that many Christians either do not know, or that they choose not to believe, is the fact that the books of what we now know as the Holy Bible are not, in fact, the only religious texts regarding Christianity ever written. No. The books that are in our familiar Bibles, in our King James version for example, were those that were agreed upon years after the death of our Lord on the cross. The books of the Bible were picked out from the others, chosen because they fit the story that the religious leaders of the time wanted to tell. The other books were discarded, only to resurface during our generation, and are now titled the Gnostic Gospels, because they are the ones that were not accepted into the Bible. One of these Gospels includes the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, which would certainly never have been accepted into the canonical Gospels during the time in which the Bible was compiled, simply because it portrayed Mary as a strong religious leader. During this time in history women were not thought to be suitable religious leaders, which is a subject that is still taboo even today.

In light of these, I'll call them omissions, by our trusted religious leaders, how then are we to be expected to not have other questions? I do not doubt that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, nor that He was born to the Virgin Mary, nor that He died on the cross so that we might have everlasting life. I do not even question the fact that He arose on the third day, overcoming death, Hell, and the grave, and that He ascended into Heaven. However, the fact that He ascended into Heaven does not have to make the discovery of an ossuary bearing the title "Jesus, son of Joseph" blasphemous. There is not one account in the Bible that says that Jesus' actual physical, earthly body arose from the earth and ascended into Heaven. Further, only the Gospels of Mark and Luke give the account that Jesus ascended into Heaven at all. Could not, then, it have been Jesus' spirit, the Holy Ghost (since the Holy Trinity are all one and the same), that Mary Magdalene and the eleven remaining disciples beheld and talked to, and that ascended into Heaven?

The Bible also declares in Matthew that Joseph placed Jesus into a tomb that he had newly hewn out of the rock himself. This is the tomb that would have been empty, and from which the stone had been rolled away upon Jesus' resurrection. But if Jesus had the power to rise from the dead, and to roll away the stone covering the tomb's entrance, how then, is it such a stretch for us to believe that Jesus' physical remains could have been found and that His spirit could have still ascended into Heaven to take His rightful place at the right hand of God? Can our Lord not do anything, perhaps making the finding of His, as well as his family's, worldly remains part of His divine plan, to disprove atheists who maintain that there is no evidence to support our religion whatsoever? Who are we to follow religious leaders unquestioningly, with closed minds and naive hearts, when they have conveniently left out bits and pieces of the story of our Lord so that the story would fit their conception of what it should be? Perhaps, just perhaps, we as Christians could wrap our minds around the possibility that this finding, of what has initially been perceived as the tomb of Jesus and His family (if it could ever be properly substantiated, which will likely never happen), may just be our Lord's way of proving to the unfaithful the error of their ways and beliefs, rather than scientists attempting to disprove the faithful. Faith cannot be disproved, only tested. But errors can certainly be corrected.