Jesus as a historic figure – debate with Pastor Stéphane Chauvette
For as long as Pastor Chauvette preached, shared his views within the walls of the church he presided over, it didn’t matter much to those outside his congregation what he said. But since he started publishing his sermons and lectures on the Internet, on YouTube, he has become the object of public interest and may also become the object of criticism from people from all walks of life. That’s why I’m surprised how he’s not ashamed to utter such nonsense, knowing that it reaches a mass of recipients.
At the beginning of this lecture, he says, “I love to dig into history,” and then he says things that are completely out of line with history. No historian would say, for example, that “six million Jews were cremated in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi camps.” During the Second World War, about 6 million Jews were said to have died, at least that is the number given by Jewish publicists, although according to some non-Jewish historians, this figure is greatly exaggerated. But even Jewish historians do not say that so many of them were cremated in German camps. I do not know the exact number of those cremated, but as far as I remember, it is estimated that it was no more than one and a half million. The remaining 4.5 million were shot or tortured, starved to death, in camps or ghettos.
Pastor Chauvette glorifies the Bible and Jesus Christ to the point of absurdity, he says things that I have never heard from any other Protestant pastor.
According to him, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is:
• the central figure of history.
• the central character in the story of humanity.
• the most important figure of history.
• the most compelling character in history, there is no one like him.
• a focal point of creation. No other persona has been more influential.
And he also says:
“In only 3 years this humble Jewish carpenter was able to change this world permanently, turn it upside down”
Yes, indeed, he turned it upside down. Christianity today is divided into 45,000 denominations.
“All the historians have to admit that achievements of Jesus Christ remain unmatched, his parables transcend the work of humanity’s greatest minds.”
I have not heard of historians who go so far as to make such statements. Some believe that Socrates or Buddha, for example, deserve more recognition and respect than Jesus. And as for his parables, some of them are not wise at all, like the Parable of the Talents, for example.
So I’ll ask Mr. Chauvette – if Jesus Christ is the central figure of history, how come the historians and chroniclers of his time are so silent about him. Why is there no mention of Christ as a divine or human being in the secular literature of the first century? I discussed this topic in the article: “Jesus in non-biblical sources” available here
The pastor goes on to praise the Bible as a source of knowledge. He says:
“Without question the Bible is the most influential work in history.”
I could agree with this thesis.
“The Bible is the cornerstone of western knowledge. It is the primary source of law and morality… From the Bible we discover that the earth is the sphere, and not flat.”
But Western Christian culture is the most barbaric of all. Historian Michael Wood showed it well in the TV series “Legacy”.
And as to “the cornerstone of western knowledge”, let me remind you what I once wrote about it.
“Simple biblical cosmology is an invention of primitive, nomadic-pastoral Semitic peoples, as are the stories of Adam and Eve, the talking serpent in Paradise, Noah’s ark and the Flood, Samson, and many others of the like. And yet it left a strong mark on people, even though telescopes have long shown something completely different. Many Christians living on this planet still believe, more or less consciously, that there is heaven above, where God and angels live, below us is hell, where Satan and his servants dwell, and the Earth is suspended somewhere in the middle. It is hard to resist such an impression, since we read in the Bible how Jacob, engrossed in sleep, sees the angels descending from heaven to Earth and ascending to it by an ordinary ladder, how Moses curses the rebels in the desert, under whom the earth is bursting at the seams and they fall alive into hell, and the primitive peoples of the Earth build a tower which, according to their plan, was to reach heaven.
Aren’t these fairy tales good for savages or kindergarten children? The ancient Israelites may have believed this because they were unaware of the complexity of the cosmos. But why do people living in the 21st century still believe in them, and apparently intelligent people at that.”
No, it is impossible to argue with such a lecture. What Pastor Chauvette says is an insult to human intelligence. Only a historic ignorant or a Christian with little knowledge of the Bible would agree with his theses.
Jerzy Sędziak, June 2023
© Copyright by Jerzy Sędziak