This is from the upcoming DVD presentation, The Real Jesus: Exposing the Christological Heresies of Pop Culture, which is actually part 3 of the series. The script of part 2 deals extensively with The Da Vinci Code, which thankfully doesn’t yet need another full-length DVD to expose the nonsense. Most likely the material will be rearranged and I will combine the best parts of 2 and 3 into one video.

I just showed the above video to someone who didn’t quite get the point. Think for a moment about the Ten Commandments controversy and the arguments used by the ACLU and other liberal groups who oppose the display of the Christian worldview in the public square. It’s much the same argument used by Celsus in the second century. Today’s humanists argue for “pluralism” and yet prohibit Christian expression, just as the pagans of the Roman Empire argued for polytheism and yet persecuted Christians for refusing to worship the state-sanctioned gods.

The lesson here is that there is no neutrality and pluralism is a myth. The dominant worldview in a culture is always intolerant to some degree to the worldviews that oppose it. Christians in our day would do well to realize that when we argue from the weak position of begging for a “seat at the table,” it is much more likely that we will end up being lion fodder.

Rather than me explaining it all here, go to the main blog entry and let’s start a discussion.

This satire is based on true events. The various accusations against Christians in “The Roman Report” are recorded in Justin Martyr’s First Apology. Celsus was a pagan critic of Christianity who also appeared around the same time. The accusations of Celsus in the video are taken almost verbatim from his attacks on Christians. Here’s where you can learn about the argument of Celsus from Origen’s writings. Or if you don’t want to go that in depth, just read the Wikipedia entry.

Here’s the full text of the sketch. (You’ll just need to scroll down below the ad for the DVD.) And here is the article in The Christian Statesman I wrote several years ago, which became the inspiration for this satire.

On a final note, my thanks to Warren French for his part as the Roman news anchor “Maximus Minimus.” J.P. Holding did a great job at portraying the arrogant condescension of Celsus. I told him to think of a commentator from MSNBC criticizing the statements of Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell. Christian apologists don’t need to win the argument, we simply need to keep pressing the antithesis and exposing the impossible foundation of all anti-Christian philosophies.