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tv   The Five  FOX News  April 8, 2012 5:00am-6:00am EDT

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>> the cruellest... crucifixion, one is revered for his life and death and christians believe, his resurrection but for 2 years years he has been the source of comfort and conflict, peace and war. walk in his steps, in jerusalem. follow his apostles to rome. who is jesus? a focus special is next... >> live from america's news headquarters, i'm anita vogel. the fbi, u.s. marshall and more than two dozen police officers investigating a series of shootings in oklahoma, that appear to target african-americans, the attacker allegedly shot five people, friday all african-americans as they emerged from homes and local businesses in tulsa, three victims died and investigators believe the shootings are linked because they happened around the same time within a three mile radius and the police chief
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promised to catch the person responsible. >> i want to tell our community that we'll do whatever it takes to bring the shooter to justice. i also want to say to the perpetrator, and anybody who would attempt to aid or abet him, we are coming for you. >> reporter: investigators say they are looking for a white man, seen driving a white pickup truck. g.o.p. presidential hopeful rick santorum taking a break from the campaign trail to spend time with his family. this, after three-year-old bella santorum was hospitalized, again, on friday. she suffers from a rare genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra chromosome, earlier she had pneumonia. and, alaska breaking the snowfall record with a spring storm, three-and-a-half inches fell saturday bringing the total to season to 133.6 inches.
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that is just one inch more than the record set nearly 60 years ago. and, pope benedict xvi celebrating easter mass in rome. tens of thousands of catholics flocking to st. peter's square to remember christ's crucifixion and resurrection, after mass, he'll give the traditional easter blessing, from the central loggia, inside st. peter's basilica. i'm anita vogel. now, back to "who is jesus." ♪ >> his story has been told in art... in music. ♪ >> and in words... but, still,
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we search to discover, who is jesus? ♪ >> reporter: she's called the son of god, the lord of lords, the messiah and called himself the son of man, the prince of peace, the good shepard. from a humble beginning in a manger in bethlehem, to his crucifixion in the holy city of jerusalem, jesus changed the world. i'm jon scott. welcome to our special program. on this program, you will visit sites where jesus lived, preached, and died. you'll follow the paths of his apostles, to rome, you'll meet a former atheist who had a life changing experience and meet a priest and a rabbi, best friends, who call themselves the god squad. >> both paths invite us to forget about our differences and learn more about how we have similarities to each other.
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>> reporter: bethlehem where the gospels state jesus was born, more than three centuries later the roman emperor, constantine, converted to christianity. he built the original church on the site, above a cave, once a cattle stall where tradition held that mary placed her newborn baby in a manger. but, do we know this spot, now wrapped with marble and smelling over incense is the actual place of jesus' birth? >> we have no artifacts associated with jesus himself. >> reporter: classical archaeologist jody magnus from the university of north carolina at chapel hill. >> many events described in the new testament are impossible to verify because they are events. but, the types of people who are described, the sites that are mentioned, are in fact sites and people who we go both from archaeology and historical sources. ♪
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>> reporter: nazareth this is town where jesus grew up, called his hidden life, because, only one story is told about jesus' youth. his encounter at age 12 with learned men at the temp in jerusalem. jesus' public life began when he was 30 years old with baptism by john at the jordan river. ♪ >> reporter: this is the sea of galilee, the area around the fresh water lake was settled for centuries before the time of christ. it is here, along these shores, that jesus began his ministry, called his disciples and performed many of his miracles. ♪ >> reporter: capernium is jesus' small town, though archaeologists cannot verify
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that. a fishing village, the sin nothing dates long after the time of jesus but it was built on an older structure. archaeologists cannot prove it but it is possible the joyce of jesus preaching once echoed off of these stones. >> it is possible that we have excavated something archeological that jesus is associated with but how would you know? the only way that you could identify him in the archeological record would be by finding an authentic, ancient inscription that has his name, that says, this is the cup that jesus owned and drank out of. this is the bed that jesus slept in. >> reporter: it becomes a matter of faith with all the sites relating to the life of jesus, from bethlehem where he was born to jerusalem where he died and every place in between. over the last 2,000 years, millions and probably billions of believers have followed jesus, even without knowing
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exactly where he walked. ♪ >> reporter: from the sea of galilee we travel to the center of the holy land, jerusalem, the ancient city sacred to jews, christians and muslims, where he preached and prayed, put on trial and crucified. coming up you'll walk with jennifer griffin where jesus walked. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you're at the age where you don't get thrown by curveballs. ♪ this is the age of knowing how to get things done. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way?
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>> reporter: jerusalem, the old city and tem and temple mount a visible, i'm on the mount of olives where jesus taught his disciples and came to pray and he would have camped here during his pilgrim majors to tages, rel jews. jennifer griffin now with the story of jesus, as a jew. ♪ >> when jesus lived, there was not such a thing as a christian, the term christianity would not have been familiar to jesus and his disciples. >> she was not a catholic, not a protestant, he was a jew. >> reporter: he was born and lived and died as a jew and his disciples called him rabbi, or teacher. he was circumcised in the jewish
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tradition and when buried, wrapped in a simple white linen shroud just as jews are until this day. rabbi david rosen wants jews and christians to understand their roots. jesus was an observant jew fighting to purify his religion. >> he would have seen himself as a religious reformer and would have preached and taught to the masses, seeking to bring them back to what he believed to be the essential truth of his jewish heritage. >> they were observing jewish law. he said i did not come to destroy the law, and the prophets, i came to fulfill. and so he himself was an observant jew. the disciples were all observant jews and they were observant all the way up until the times of their death.
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>> reporter: she's a new testament scholar who lived in jerusalem 24 years, walking jesus' path and explaining his life. >> this is a model of the temple that would have stood there when jesus was preaching... >> this is the model... >> reporter: in jerusalem, much of his time was spent in or near the temple. jews called it the second temple. rebuilt on the spot where god spared abraham from sacrificing his son, isaac. today, jews, christians and muslims revere the site and the temple was destroyed by the romans in 70 ad and 600 years later, they built the dome over the rock where god tested abraham and now stands approximately where the temple would have been in the time of jesus, and muslims, unlike jews, regard jesus as a prophet. >> these are literally rocks, that -- steps, joesz walked on.
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-- jesus walked on. >> reporter: excavated in the late 1960s, next to the south wall of what is left of the entrance to the temple mount, around the corner from where jews pray for the semple imple -- temple to be rebuilt. at the wailing wall. >> he would have entered over there. and, out here, came out here, and down the stairs. but, now i'm walking -- you are walking on the original steps, right now. >> reporter: the words jesus spoke during his brief ministry were, in many cases lift directly from old testament prophesy. >> reporter: in the sermon on the mount he actually takes verses from what we call in hebrew the torah or the law and expands on it, blessed are those who are meek, for they shall inherit the earth. and, this we can connect to one
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of the greatest messianic prophesies in the old testament, isaiah, chapter 53. >> reporter: the mount of olives where jesus stayed when visiting jerusalem also fulfills a prophesy, the messiah is supposed to enter jerusalem from the mount of olives. >> there was an oral tradition that the messiah would come from the mount of olives and through the golden gate. >> reporter: many regard it as the place of the last judgment and many jews are buried on the mount of olives because they await the resurrection from the dead. at the time of that event in zachariah, chapter 14, they await the time when they will rise from the dead and will face judgment. there was a belief among jews of that time, that resurrection would occur. yes, absolutely. >> reporter: that is not a new concept. >> that is a jewish concept.
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>> reporter: baptism also has its roots in jewish tradition. >> when the temple was standing all people who went to the temple site would go through a purification process and immerse in ritual waters, a symbolic purification, not a physical -- they had to be clean before they went into the pool, a symbolic purification and that is where baptism comes from, the norm that would have been part of jesus' life. >> reporter: other jewish traditions that became symbols of christian believe, the last supper was a jewish seder dinner to mark passover. >> jesus and his disciples gathered as typical, normal jews to celebrate the passover meal. >> the bread is unleavened bread, because the bible records children of israel didn't have time for the dough to rise before they left egypt in haste. >> reporter: in the passover the wine refers to... the blood refers to the blood they smeared on the doorposts of the houses, because god passed over the
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houses. >> and, the part of the meal, the bread one would be eating would be thin wafers, that of course is how the principle or the practice of wafer and wine has come into communion in christian usage. as the church separated itself from the synagogue, so aspects of jewish observance were lost and all that remained was the communion of eating the bread and drinking the wine in remembrance of jesus' life. >> reporter: the word "christian" was not used until more than 30 years after jesus died and simply meanings those who believe jesus was christ, the jewish messiah. >> they forgot their origins and roots are in you. >> differently and forgot jesus was a jew and the followers were jews and saw themselves as loyal jesus and only in recent times has the church begun to rediscover its you jewish roots
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and its origin. >> reporter: there are other rediscoveries, as well, for instance the final steps jesus took to his crucifixion but did he actually pass this way? 20th century archaeology disputes that. we'll tell you more, after this. eat good fats. avoid bad. don't go over 2000... 1200 calories a day. carbs are bad. carbs are good.
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♪ >> reporter: this is the garden of gesthemane. this is where jesus' path to his
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crucifixion began, what happened from here? jennifer griffin with the evidence and the schmitz that have sprung up since the time of christ. >> reporter: it is one of the most famous walks in the world. pilgrims followed it for centuries, the path jesus took into the walled city of jerusalem, after his arrest on the mount of olives, the beginning of the passion, the judgment that led to his crucifixion. the via de la rosa, for centuries pilgrims prayed at the stations of the cross, following jesus' final footsteps. according to the path the pilgrims follow to this day the judgment of jesus was here in what is now an arab boys school, the first station of the cross where pontias pilate judged jesus and condemned him to death. the faithful stop at 14 stations along the way.
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however, this is a path of faith, not fact, according to historians and archaeologists, even the number of stations increased from 8 to 14 during the middle ages and the real via de la rosa follows a different path. father murphy o'conner says the true beginning starts at the opposite side of the city. jesus was sentenced in front of pontias pilate's residential which father murray o'connor says at the time would have been here in what was a palace used by the romans. >> if you were a general and had a colonel, would you live in the palace or the barracks? pilate was at the other side of town where the traditional site, he's be living in the barracks and his number 2 would have the palace. >> reporter: this should be the first station of the cross. >> this should be the first
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station of the cross, the steps we go up. it leads to a little platform and you can see that we're above the level of the traffic today, but you can imagine pilate sitting in his seat here, a small crowd out there, and, he offers them a choice between jesus or barabbas. >> reporter: after that he likely would have been led down this path. >> a street like this, through the old city and it would have been difficult because he wasn't carrying the cross as we are used to in paintings. >> reporter: he would not have been carrying a cross like this, he would have been strapped to the bar. >> it was divided into two, one is set up vertical at the place of execution and the other accompanied the prisoner who had it strapped to his arms. ♪ >> reporter: you picture him going down a very busy street. >> he had to shuffle sideways.
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>> reporter: hence all the falls. >> exactly. ♪ >> reporter: pilgrims mark where jesus fell for the first time that's third station of the cross. at the fourth station pilgrims believe he exchanged a look with his mother, mary. at the next station, the events are mentioned in luke 23:26, as they led him away that he laid upon him a... on him they laid the cross that he might bear after jesus. >> reporter: the bible mentioned three stations before the crucifixion and the rest from oral history. like the next station, the 6th. where a woman reportedly wipes his face and the image of jesus is left on the cloth. the woman is called veronica which means true image but there
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is no reference to this in the new testament. the one thing historians, archaeologists and pilgrims agree on is this is the likely site of the crucifixion, gogitha, the place of the skull, in greek. we know he was crucified in an abandoned quarry and one of the walls looked like a skull and the church of the holy sepulcher was built in 326 ad after the skull-shaped rock. >> this is the rock of golgitha, which is like a spire, sticking up from the floor. >> reporter: the father says when pilgrims play at the last four stations inside the holy sepulcher church they are in the right place. >> reporter: this is where he would have been derobed and nailed to the cross. the cross would have then been raised, jesus would have been on the cross, this is where he died. his body was taken off of the cross, and then buried.
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>> reporter: the final station is inside the tomb, or sepulcher, where he was placed in an empty jewish tomb, the spot from which he was resurrected. archaeology can never say for sure if he was here but father murray o'conner said the he was crucified in the tiny chapel. >> here is one of the important bits of evidence, the smallest chapel, but for archaeologists have the most important bit of evidence. that is, they have half a jewish tomb which was certainly in existence in april of the year 30. we know the nature of the tomb, the date of the tomb, is in april, the year 30, this was an area where the conditions described in the gospels are
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fulfilled. >> reporter: even if the path leading to the tomb is not exactly where jesus walked, centuries of pilgrims following it have established it as his way of sorrows. as we know it today, it isn't based on archaeology or scientific proof. it is more a walk of faith. >> reporter: from jerusalem we take you next to rome. for the story of how christianity spread, and how christians suffered terribly for their faith. ♪ ah, welcome to hotels.com. if you're looking for a place to get together, you came to the right place. because here at hotels.com, we're only about hotels. finding you the perfect place is all we do. welcome to hotels.com.
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>> reporter: live from america's news headquarters, i'm anita vogel. syria's government refusing to withdraw troops without a written guarantee opposition force will also lay down their weapons, despite an agreed-upon cease-fire, set to take effect on tuesday. the foreign ministry saying that international envoy, kofi annan, has not provided them with guarantees from rebels that they will also stop the violence. activists say government forces continue to shell neighborhoods, and killed more than 100 people on saturday. to pakistan now, where rescue efforts had entered a second day, to find more than 130 soldiers buried in an avalanche, hundreds of troops and sniffer dogs searching for any sign of life in the glacier area. 124 pakistani soldiers and 11 civilians reported missing. so far, no survivors have been found. up to 80 feet of snow engulfed the pakistani military complex
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close to the indian border, saturday morning. part of the los angeles freeway shut down, following a massive tanker fire. aerial footage showing an 86,000 gallon tanker and a car fully engulfed in flames along the 134 freeway saturday night, scorching the overpass above the scene where firefighters used a special foam to put the fire out. traffic there was snarled for miles. no word on any injuries or what caused the accident. and, an important snack food recall, kraft foods recalling about 3 percent cases of plantar's cocktail peanuts that may have been exposed to water not intended for today production, no one has gotten sick and the recall is out of an abundance of caution and the affected nuts were produced in var and sold in 12 ounce cans bearing a january 9, 2014 expiration date, i'm anita vogel, now back to "who is jesus."
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>> reporter: this would have been the main street of jerusalem in jesus' day, a street built by the romans, the roman empire extended its reach and influenced both before and after the time of christ. and it was to rome, that jesus' apostles, peter and paul went, as they crisscrossed the known world, spreading his message. greg burke takes us on a walking tour of the eternal city. ♪ >> reporter: all roads lead to rome? perhaps not, but this one certainly does, just as it has for more than 2,000 years. the apian way was built three centuries before the birth of christ. st. peter and the first followers of christ would have taken this road, as they brought the new faith to the center of the roman empire. no other road in rome is as closely linked to the life of
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the early christians. peter, whose life was changed by his encounter with christ, stepped on these stones and saw these tablets, columns and capitals, as he entered rome, the center of the world. jesus told the prince of the apostles, you are peter, and upon this rock, i will build my church. paul was persecuting the first christians when jesus appeared to him. blinding him with his light. paul was on his way to damascus when he had his vision. after years of preaching the gospel, and suffering much persecution, paul joined peter, in the eternal city. author of the book "in the footsteps of popes" explains how paul ended up in rome after his arrest in jerusalem. >> you cannot kill me here. i am a roman citizen, and he went to home and the emperor was
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nero and he was a killer, but in the roman way. the roman cannot be crucified, the romans must be beheaded. >> reporter: the first church here, the constantine basilica was built over peter's tomb, 17 centuries ago, after constantine's conversion. the great roman general, whose victories are evident in the glorious arch near the coliseum had a vision of christ's cross at the battle. his conversion changed the course of history. st. peter was crucified on the vatican hill, not far om the obelisk currently found in st. peter's square. the professor who teaches at the university, recounts the history of that obelisk. >> the story begins in egypt where the obelisk was originally made, it was brought to rome the first century by the emperor and he put it in a stadium next to where the present-day st. peter's basilica stands.
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the stadium was then named the stadium of nero, his successor, and that was where the apostle peter was martyred. >> reporter: the professor of the gregorian university in rome says peter and paul came to the heart of the empire for different reasons. >> rome is the scene of peter and paul, where the two columns of the ancient church offered their final witness to christ. in shedding their blood here. paul, who was beheaded on the via, and peter who was crucified at vatican hill. it is their testimony, their witness in this city, which establishes rome as the firm foundation of the church. peter would have come here, eventually, because it was the center of the empire. he would have been drawn to proclaim the gospel to the christian community that was present. paul, on the other hand,
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appealed to the roman emperor during his trial in jerusalem and, therefore, was brought here as a prisoner. ♪ >> reporter: millions of visitors come to rome, many for artistic reasons to see the splendor of the city and others for spiritual reasons. today the pope lives in rome and the city is the spiritual home of bishops, cardinals and more than 1 billion catholics, worldwide. it is all because the fisherman from galilee came here nearly 2,000 years ago, the first big step in the spread of christianity. in the roman empire, christian faith was paid in thousands of lives, coming up, greg burke will take us inside the catacombs where it is believed christians hid to escape the executioner. [ male announcer ] a car is either luxury or it isn't.
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>> reporter: tradition holds it was on that hillside, along the sea of galilee where christ delivered the sermon on the mountain. blessed are the meek, he said, for they shall inherit the earth. but when his apostles, peter and paul tried to spread the message of peace they were forced to pay the ultimate price. we return to greg burke and that story. >> reporter: what did peter and paul finds when they came to rome? christiane was brand new, in stark contrast with the beliefs of the romans, who worshipped the gods, some friendly and others vengeful. but the apostles also found something else here. a well established jewish community. as a teacher, explains. >> there has been a jewish presence in the city for 2200 years, 161 years before christ when the maccabbees came to rome
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to throw off tyranny. >> reporter: many think the early christians hid in the catacombs, a vast network of underground passages. actually, the catacombs were primarily burial places and there were jewish, pagan and christian catacombs. a lecturer at notre dame's rome campus walks us through the catacombs. >> 40% of infant mortality and that is why there are so many small niches on the walls for these children and we have particular kinds of niches, openings in front, that were for the martyrs in order to symbolize the important person. >> reporter: the roman forum was the center of political power in
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in a it shouldn't rome, a power that at times persecuted the christians. at one point, peter and paul were in prison across the street and he takes us to the prison. >> you see the prison is a very small place and the circle within the center of the floor is the aperture through which peter and palm and other prisoners were thrown into the dungeon below and the staircase is something made in the 13th century. and down below you can see the column to which peter and paul were chained and a small well which in christian legend miraculously sprung up so peter and paul could baptize many people who came to visit them, 30 yards from the prison we have the roman forum and you can see the hill and the road running from the hill into the center of the forum and it is plausible peter and paul used the road to come into the center of rome. >> reporter: according to legend, at one point, peter tried getting out of the state,
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when things got too hot for christians. >> that wonderful story of quo vadis when peter is in the midst of persecution, in the city, he flees the city, so as to spare his life and on the way out of the city, christ appears to him, and sees christ coming into the city of rome and peter asks the lord, quo vadis, where are you going, lord and the lord responds, i'm returning to rome to die again if your place. at which point peter turns around promptly, returns to the city of rome, and, then, is martyred, crucified upside-down. >> reporter: many christians followed the example of peter and paul, dying as martyrs in the eternal city. >> rome is a city of saints. it is difficult to walk into any church on any street and not find the tomb of a saint or a shrine of the saint.
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rome is a privileged place. for devotion to the martyrs, so many roman citizens themselves were early martyrs, like today, at st. cecilia, a noble roman woman who was martyred. >> reporter: the coliseum was built in the year 80 after the deaths of peter and paul and it seated more than 50,000, and its purpose was games, to keep the people entertained. its shape was slightly elliptical for better viewing. there is some debate about whether christians were sacrificed at the coliseum. though there was plenty of brutal stuff going on there. >> something like 27 were martyred... >> reporter: the father frequently shows pilgrims to rome around the coliseum. >> the persecutions were not very long, they lasted 250 years, but you must imagine it as 250 years of constant
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persecution, the first persecution started in 64. >> reporter: the example of men, women and children ready to suffer in the name of christ and, especially, those who gave their lives, as a witness to the faith, was exalted by the first christian writers. >> one of the earlyist said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of christians, meaning the bloodshed by the martyrs gave rise to new christians and the more christianity was persecuted the more it seemed to grow. it was like fertilized, the blood of the martyrs was fertilizer for the growth of christianity. >> reporter: tell ahead the story of a septembkeptical investigative reporter and the story of his life. he set out to prove jesus was a fraud. ♪ ♪ lord, you got no reason
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>> i'm on the banks of the jordan river. john the baptist used these waters to joint in baptisttism. a cleansing and faith of god. 2000 years later the message of jesus continues to aamaze his with modern day miracle. >> ♪ it's not the river jordan, but it is the way that this church baptistizes the newest members. >> we like this as turning irreligious people into fully devoted followers of jesus. >> and come to our doors because they're at a point of pain in their lives. >> the numbers alone tell the
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story. associate pastor of willow creek church in chicago, is successful at spreading the word of jesus. >> we have anywhere from 18 to 20,000 that will attend our services. the message of christianity hasn't changed in 2000 years, but putting it in a way that they can relate to it, we believe that there is compelling evidence that this person who died and rose from the dead, that's a compelling piece of evidence that people have to wrestle with. >> it's a struggle this former willow creek minister knows well. meet the investigative journalist the author of "the case of christ, the ultimate leap of faith". >> i didn't believe god existed. i thought if jesus existed he was a man.
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i lived a self absorbed kind of a life. >> i remember once covering a trial where a woman's only daughter. 13-year-old child had been raped and murdered and she's pouring out her heart and inside, she is are great quotes, front page, i'm going to get the the bonus for this, that's the ugliest truth. and my wife was agnostic, no position for or against god. >> a christian woman befriended his wife. >> one day she came to me, i've decided to be a follower of jesus christ. >> i thought it was the end of our marriage, and he used his ininvestigation to see if jesus was a fraud. >> i started with the historical document that make up the new testament. the documents from the new testament are closer to the actual event than i
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anticipated, within 30 years of the life of jesus. we don't have some huge passage of time in which legend grew up and distorted the historical records. >> lee found corroborative evidence outside of the bible. >> there are about a hundred facts about the life of jesus that historian abernath has been able to elicit from ancient documents that corroborate the bible. >> but the resurrection, lee believes, is the linchpin of christianity. >> everybody in the first century admitted that the tomb of jesus was empty on the first easter. the new testament account was clear that women discovered the empty tomb of jesus christ on the first easter. >> the testimony of women was not considered to be reliable. they were not even allowed to testify in a court of law. so, if these writers of the new testament were going to try to make up history and convince people of something
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that didn't really happen they would never say that women discovered the tomb empty. i choose jesus because i believe that the evidence for the rest recognizan-- resurrection establish the claims he is the one and only son of god. >> his life changed for the better so much so his five-year-old daughter alison took notice. >> she went up to my wife, i want god to do for me what it's done for daddy. >> i turned from my life as an atheist ap committed myself to following jesus christ. >> through 2000 years of history, christians and jews have often been at odds with each other. up next, meet a rabbi and a priess who say they have the answer to all that divides us. tn tends to stay in motion.
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>> he jesus was and is one of the most controversial figures in history. so we asked a rabbi and a priest, good friends, for their thoughts on jesus. they call themselves the god squad. monsignor hartman and rabbi. >> jesus and god made man. the trinity of god is father, son and spirit that jesus came on earth to live and die for
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our sins so that he would open up the way to heaven. >> rabbi gellman for jews? >> for jews, jesus was a trer rifficly important leader, it doesn't help that god to be a person and secondly that he didn't evil in the world, didn't gather exiles and resurrect the dead. >> and for some jews, father hartman, christ is the messiah, because his first followers were all jewish. >> it's true his first followers were jewish. in today's world, they have to make a choice. if they are he' jewish, it means they believe in the bible, the community of judaism, but they believe as mark had indicated that jesus was a prophet, but not anything beyond that. if somebody wants to be a christian, they have to
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believe that jesus was divine, that he was god and so, those jews who say they have the sympathy for jesus are really saying, in my estimation, that they are admiring his prophesy, his teaching ability, but not actually making an act of faith in his divinity and therefore are not christian. >> for judaism we don't need somebody to atone for our sin, we don't believe in original sin, we believe that each individual person can and must atone to their sins directly to god. >> tom and i are best friends and we've been working together for to testify foe cuts on the ways we're the same and we can all agree whether the second coming is the second coming of jesus when the messiah comes, or the
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coming when the messiah who wasn't jesus, the differences are not going to be that great. we're going be going to be surprised and really happy. >> there's the differences-- >> upon a time we had a discussion in which said tom, you believe that jesus is the messiah, i don't. and when we die we'll find out. in the meantime, shouldn't we be sharing our thoughts, our food, our teachings? i want mark to be the best jew he can be. >> and that's what i want for you, too. >> to be the best jew. >> no, you know, he has a phone number, 1-800-be a jew. >> it's a marketing thing. >> how did you give up jesus. >> this is what we do know, we know that it is this friendship that can change everything, it's a friendship that believes that we are not just here to serve ourselves.
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the message of selflessness that i learned from the teaching of jesus and of course from my faith and that really is the bond that we take into this season. there are so many people who need our help that if we don't allow religion to join us together, and help out together, we're missing the boat. >> when the two of you pray, when you say your prayers as a jew, when you pray as a christian, are those prayers directed to the same god. >> yes. >> the absolutely same god and it's in hebrew, i don't understand it, but god does. >> and if it's in latin, neither of us understand it. (laughter) >> rabbi mark gellman, monsignor tom hartman, thank you. and thank you for watching this fox special "who is jesus", i'm jon scott.

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