lpetrich

Deacon Duncan at Evangelical Realism had decided to take on a different sort of Christian apologist, the first ever, Justin Martyr (~ 100-165 E) DD reviewed JM's First Apology, a letter to Caesar about how to treat Xians. Apologist meaning Defender of the Faith here.

And now for something completely different, What is a god?, Justin’s Jesus, justice, and judgment, Idle worship, Saved by works, Before he was a god, Proof of life after death, Justin’s proof, Claiming the high ground, Proof at last!, The Free Association Game, The “virgin birth” prophecy, The pattern of prophetic fulfillment, Justin and the Ring of Secrets, Bad lib sync, Predestination and salvation by works, Fast forward, Pagan roots, Last rites

He argued that Xians aren't Evil People and don't deserve to be persecuted. About the Greek gods, he stated that they exist but that they are really demons. He complained about he and his fellow Xians being called atheists because they don't believe in the divinity of the Olympians, but he then went on to describe how he was an atheist with respect to all gods but the Xian God.

He then slammed the idea of making statues and pictures of gods, claiming that their raw materials are undignified source materials. He then claimed that God does not need physical offerings, and that God formed the Universe out of formless matter, IMO a more reasonable interpretation of Genesis 1 than creation out of nothing.

The Trinity he stated was a hierarchy, God > Jesus Christ > the Holy Spirit, not three coequal entities.

About getting political power, he encouraged Xians to hide their Xianity. He also seemed to believe in salvation by works. About moral issues, he claimed that some Xians had succeeded in never lusting after anyone. He also noted some others of JC's teachings, like love your enemies, give to poor people, and pay your taxes. He also stated that you should worship only God, and not even JC.

About life after death, his arguments are:

• How terrible it would be if wicked people escaped punishment by becoming nonexistent.
• The ability of necromancers (spiritualist mediums, channelers) to contact dead people.
• "How do you know it can't happen?", making an analogy from a drop of semen growing into an adult human being.

He then describes how Jesus Christ being the Son of God is just like Zeus having lots of children: Hercules, Hermes, Asclepius, Dionysus, the Dioscuri, Perseus, ... Bellerophon riding Pegasus up to heaven.

However, JM slammed Zeus as a parricide (parent-killer) whose father was also a parricide, and a shameless lecher who lusted not only after lots of women, but also the young man Ganymede. He claimed that pagan deities were really demons pretending to be deities, and that they created ripoffs of Xianity because they knew that it was coming and because they wanted to keep people away from it.

After complaining that the authorities persecute Xians for not worshipping their gods, he noted that pagans don't even agree on what gods to worship. He then made the argument that Xians used to believe in paganism, but that they now know better. He also complained about how the early theologian Marcion got away with his heresies, like how God didn't really create the Universe.

JM then asked if Xians commit indiscriminate sex and cannibalism, likely responding to what some pagans had charged about them. He had a "you too" sort of response, claiming that pagans collect "exposed" babies and raised them to become sex slaves - both sexes of them. They included female ones, "hermaphrodite" ones, and those that do things that JM found too horrible to mention (same-sex sex acts?). His solution: "exterminate" them. Does he mean kill them all or banish them?

He claimed that Xians don't have that unwanted-baby problem because they don't fornicate, that they only practice sex to produce children in authorized marriages. He even described how one of his number requested that he be made a eunuch. Castrated. Neutered. Gelded. As recommended by Jesus Christ himself in Matthew 5:30: remove parts of one's body that make one commit sins. In Matthew 19:12, he stated that there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, and that you ought to consider joining them. Like the early theologian Origen.

JM then argued that Jesus Christ fulfulled lots of Old-Testament prophecies, including the virgin-birth one, sometimes using a lot of imagination in his interpretations. He argued that the Jews did not accept those prophecies because they did not understand their own scriptures, and that they even edited out one of the prophecies of JC.

JM also argued that pagans had been ripping off Jews and Xians, and even that some pagans had been inspired by God. Also, baptism is the literal washing off of sins.

DD found that JM repeated himself a lot, and skipped over parts of JM's arguments.

JM ended with
Nice sentiments, but look what would have happened to him when his coreligionists got into power. They would have burned him at the stake for holding wrong opinions about the Trinity.

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Richard Carrier also addressed Justin Martyr's beliefs in Would the Facts Be Checked? in Introduction: Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False?

RC notes that JM's main arguments are thumping on Old Testament prophecies. One of JM's works are is the Dialogue of Justin and Trypho the Jew, because Jews also recognize the OT, and that goes farther back than any pagan prophetic works. JM's idea of empirical evidence is exorcism of demons and other such miracle-working. RC describes the seeking that led him to Xianity:
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Then vs. now is interesting. Many Xian apologists continue to like the OT prophecy fulfillments, however dubious or erroneous they might be. However, many of them go to great lengths to try to argue away similarities with pagan beliefs and practices.