BalderBalder- Known as Balder the Good, a Healer and Savior of - Known as Balder the Good, a Healer and Savior of MenMen- His mother is human- His mother is human- His father Odin, is the greatest of the gods- His father Odin, is the greatest of the gods

Look Familiar?

Dionysus preceded Jesus by Centuries

So what makes this different?So what makes this different?

The need for apologeticsThe need for apologetics

The difference:The difference: In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. –Luke 2

During Jehoiakim's reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But then he changed his mind and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. -2nd Kings 24

The bible is full of facts which can be verified

““We pass from a Balder or an Osiris We pass from a Balder or an Osiris dying nobody knows where to a dying nobody knows where to a historical person crucified (it is all historical person crucified (it is all in order) in order) under Pontius Pilateunder Pontius Pilate” C.S. ” C.S. LewisLewis

But why the similarities?But why the similarities?

And what does mean to us here?And what does mean to us here?

““We must not be nervous about ‘parallels’ We must not be nervous about ‘parallels’ and ‘Pagan Christs’: They and ‘Pagan Christs’: They ought ought to be there to be there

– it would be a stumbling block if they – it would be a stumbling block if they weren’t. We must not, in false spirituality, weren’t. We must not, in false spirituality, withold our imaginative welcome. If God withold our imaginative welcome. If God

chooses to be mythopoeic - and is not the chooses to be mythopoeic - and is not the sky itself a myth – shall we refuse to be sky itself a myth – shall we refuse to be mythopathic? For this is the marriage of mythopathic? For this is the marriage of

heaven and earth: Perfect Myth and Perfect heaven and earth: Perfect Myth and Perfect fact: claiming not only our love and our fact: claiming not only our love and our

obedience, but also our wonder an delight, obedience, but also our wonder an delight, addressed to the savage, the child, the addressed to the savage, the child, the poet in each one of us no less than the poet in each one of us no less than the

moralist, the scholar and the philosopher -moralist, the scholar and the philosopher -C.S. LewisC.S. Lewis

Why it matters

- Because Myths are at the heart of man, a glimpse into the spiritual world

- Because Christianity is the greatest myth ever

- Because Christianity is the myth that really happened

- Because through this myth, lives can be changed