History Main / NoSuchThingAsWizardJesus

* Addressed rather subtly in ''Literature/{{Worm}}''. [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividuals Parahumans]] only started emerging a few decades ago, around the time that [[PhysicalGod Scion]] appeared. For most of the story, the question of whether there were parahumans before that is left ambiguous, as is the more general question of ''why'' people are getting powers at all. (It's even implied that some people in-universe think that Scion is Jesus himself performing his SecondComing, which would suggest that the trope was being inverted into No Such Thing as Wizard Without Jesus.) In the final arcs, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Scion is an incredibly powerful - but non-divine - entity from a parallel universe who is giving parahumans their powers, but arrived too late to be responsible for Jesus, or indeed the founder of any other major religion.]] A remark from [[TheCuckoolanderWasRight Glaistig Uaine]] also proves that [[spoiler: no other entities have visited the Earth before, or Scion wouldn't have come;]] thus it would be impossible for Jesus to have been a normal parahuman.

* In ''TabletopGame/GURPSBanestorm'', most people believe that God's power is qualitatively different from magic. The Catholic Church is thus very careful when making saints, since they have to make a distinction between miracles and spells (even raising the dead just requires a skilled necromancer).

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' is very close to the line. Magic operates through "Idol Theory", where symbolising or embodying a powerful figure lets you wield their power. [[ReligionIsMagic Most religions use spells which invoke their own gods and their miracles]], and Saints are simply mages [[BornWinner born with bodies so similar to Jesus that they evoke his power automatically]]. Some level of ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve is implied, given that a number of spells explicitly rely on syncretism, and one mage is even capable of basing spells on ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'' simply because her imagery is widely known. But at the same time no one doubts that Jesus really was the Son of God, capable of miracles and truly divine in nature, due to the fact that AllMythsAreTrue and things like the Archangels and God are confirmed to exist. Except the Science Side, which is mostly made up of agnostics. Further {{Zigzagged|Trope}} when the AIM fields emitted by the Science Side's [[PsychicPowers espers]] are shown to crystallise into winged EnergyBeings in sufficient densities, suggesting that ancient naturally-ocurring espers may have [[GodOfHumanOrigin either created or transformed into gods]]... though it's [[AmbiguousSituation left ambiguous]] given that the process for artificially awakening esper powers was modelled on a SecretArt for permanently imbuing a mage with the power of an archangel.

** Since [[spoiler: each country has its own ''instance'' of every god ever worshiped there]], this isn't always the case. There is one anecdote of another character encountering Jesus [[spoiler: as a poor hitch-hiker in Afghanistan, where he has virtually no worshipers and is thus left in roughly the same boat as most of the more obscure American gods]].

*** The ''Franchise/FactionParadox'' spinoff has a technological afterlife [[spoiler: (the Doctor's former companion/TARDIS turns herself into a megacity at the end of the universe and resurrects every human who ever lived]]). And Jesus is definitely there, but he's not sitting on a ''Revelation''-style throne, he's just a carpenter and boatwright who tells the children stories and won't say whether he's the Son of God. And, even if he isn't, would a technologically-resurrected Jesus be the Son of God anyway, or just his human essence? That question leads to the Arian heresies and so on, so the author decided to leave it up to the reader.

* Mr Terrific, in conversation with a man whose suit is made out of corrupted souls, on a team that holds a bona fide angel, and another that had the embodiment of God's wrath, declares himself an atheist. Because in the DCU, you can only stand in so much awe from the everyday.

* One episode of ''Series/AgentsOfShield'' set after the events of ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' had the main characters talking about how the Norse gods turned out to be {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s and speculating if any other deity's, such as the Hindu gods, where also aliens.

* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' the Templar researcher speculates that [[spoiler:the Piece of Eden, along other artifacts like it,]] was the effector behind such miracles as the Parting of the Red Sea, the success of the Trojan Horse, the miracles surrounding 'the Christ-figure' and the plagues of Egypt, among other things. The [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII sequel]] reveals [[spoiler:that all gods in human mythologies were actually a {{Precursor|s}} race and were the creators of these artifacts]].

** Confusing things is the fact that if you access his DummiedOut job description, it says that [[spoiler:he is an "Agitator who misleads people with lies and masks. Don't underestimate him, although he cannot match the power of a genuine saint." Which implies that there ''are'' genuine saints, even though as far as we're shown the setting has a DevilButNoGod]].
** Ramza himself makes for an excellent Messiah, though, and can be a wizard.

* Played with when Brent chose what his novel for Nanowrimo would be about. He declared that Jesus's absence between his teenage and adult years was explained by Jesus going to Hogwarts.

* In the CouchGag for the ''WesternAnimation/SolarOpposites'' episode, ''[[Recap/SolarOppositesS1E5TheLavaticReactor The Lavatic Reactor]]'', Korvo complains that people on Earth get annoyed when he points out that Christ was an alien.

*** Averted in ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', which has [[Characters/MarvelComicsExodus Exodus]] unambiguously talk about "the Nazarene Mutant” and how he inspired a church among humans by "raising a couple from the dead." Contrary to how that might sound, Exodus is actually a devout Christian and still thinks Jesus was a messiah, he just thinks he was a ''mutant'' messiah. Most other characters think Exodus is a dangerously deluded fanatic, especially Nightcrawler who is ''also'' Christian but doesn't subscribe to that idea at all.

* Averted in the manga version of ''Manga/ShamanKing''- Jesus, Muhammad and Gautama Buddha are all listed as previous holders of the title "Shaman King". However, given that the Shaman King is actually a spirit-medium who communes directly with [[{{God}} The Great]] [[NotUsingTheZWord Spirit]], he's far from being "just" a wizard. For those (Muslims and others) willing to accept that Jesus was merely ''communing with'' God, this could be a case of [[CallARabbitASmeerp calling a prophet a shaman]].
* Averted in the first anime of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', in which it's strongly implied the discovery of alchemy pretty much killed off Christianity when anyone who studied for long enough could pull off miracles. Bumpkins in the sticks (for instance, in the first episode of the anime, or the first chapter of the manga) still mistake alchemy for miracles, though.
** In the manga setting nothing has indicated Christianity has ever existed, though there's still local religious milieu with monotheistic beliefs. Alchemy may be related to the generally secular tone of Amestrian society. Fuehrer King Bradley is something of a militant atheist, which given his...family background...is understandable.\\

* Averted in ''Anime/MetalFightBeyblade''; at one point a character is describing how beyblades have been used to change history, and one of the sequence of visuals accompanying this unmistakably shows ''Moses parting the Red Sea''... using a beyblade.

* Averted by a controversial ''Comicbook/SwampThing'' story by Rick Veitch... so controversial that Creator/DCComics refused to publish it. The story would have shown Jesus as a white magician. They ''did'' go so far as to publish a ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'' story which implied that [[spoiler: Jesus was fathered by the archangel Gabriel through an act of rape]], however. Despite this being an even ''more'' offensive concept from a Christian perspective.

* Averted in passing in ''Literature/AmericanGods''; Jesus is apparently subject to the same rules as all the other {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s, but he has enough believers that he doesn't need to get involved in the events of the plot. Gaiman toyed with the idea of introducing him as a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Creator/StevenSpielberg living in a gigantic mansion in Hollywood, though.

* Averted in ''Literature/YoungWizards'': While Jesus is never directly mentioned, God definitely exists (though they call It "the One") and it's been established that the Powers That Be are capable both of breeding with and incarnating themselves as mortals (something that seems to work out to a cross between the avatars of Hindu mythology and SharingABody). One of the recurring characters, in fact, is the avatar of the One's Champion, and the [[spoiler:TeamPet]] is revealed to be an avatar of the One. Even though it's never stated directly, it seems likely that Jesus was an avatar of some Power or other, and possibly even the One Itself. It certainly fits the facts of both canons.

* Averted by Creator/PiersAnthony in his ''Tarot'' novel, which posits that Jesus may have been, in the words of one character, "ComicBook/{{Shazam}}ed into Franchise/{{Superman}}" by {{Precursor|s}} technology.

* Averted in ''FutureEden'' in which Jesus is explicitly stated to be an alien, and not even a particularly impressive one.

* Averted in the Paragons setting of ''TabletopGame/MutantsAndMasterminds'', where the Church of Jesus Christ, Paragon holds that Jesus of Nazareth was an early [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual paragon]], and that many of the Saints followed in his footsteps.

* Averted (vaguely) in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics,'' though that's a CrystalDragonJesus. [[spoiler: The historical St. Ajora was an agent provocateur who made an alliance with the Lucavi demons.]]

* Averted in ''VideoGame/CultistSimulator''. The Crucifiction was the last step in a ritual that gave Jesus Christ immortality as a [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Long]]. The implication is that Christianity started out as the same sort of cult that the player runs. .

* Averted in ''Bizarre Uprising''. Vampires claim to trace their blood line back to Jesus, and their dependency on blood is caused by Jesus's perfect being DNA not working so well with Mary Magdalene's human DNA.

* Averted in ''Webcomic/PlanescapeSurvivalGuide'', [[spoiler:when [[TheGrimReaper Jergal/The Nothing]] reveals to [[HaveYouSeenMyGod Aoskar/The Eldest]] that when he foresaw his death at the blades of The Lady of Pain, he attempted to preserve his existence by hiding a portion of his essence in a [[PhysicalGod physical avatar]] on the Firstworld, Earth, 2000 years ago. Said avatar was killed by the people of the Firstworld out of fear, but belief and reverence of him postmortem preserved Aoskar through [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve the power of Belief that keeps the Multiverse running as we know it]]. Making Jesus Aoskar's avatar - his powers coming from being the physical incarnation of a multi-planar Overgod - and [[{{God}} Jehovah God]] Aoskar himself]].

* Averted in one of the Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses [[http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/merry-zodmas/28922-merry-zodmas-jesus Merry Zodmas]] specials where Zod speculates that Jesus was probably just another Kryptonian powered by the yellow sun of "Planet Houston".

* Averted by the real-life faith [[http://www.rael.org/ the Raelians]], who believe that Jesus and all other prophets were in fact human emissaries of the highly advanced race of aliens, the 'Elohim', who created humanity.

Nope, Jesus was never a wizard. This will '''''never''''' be brought up. You might get some talk about how, oh, the [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greek Gods]] were [[AncientAstronauts really aliens]] or something, but if a character ever brings up a modern faith that people still practice widely--Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, or Islam -- nobody will ever go, "Say, these people we're fighting can resurrect themselves. I wonder if that means Jesus was..." While [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Beethoven may have been an alien spy]], Jesus never was.

And despite the trope name, this refers to all religious figures and prophets, e.g. Krishna, Moses, and Mohammed. This trope is for when half of the reason you're part of a religion is because of records of miracles performed by gods, prophets, or messiahs--a world where everyone is running around with superpowers and constantly coming back from death should dilute that, or at least be addressed in some way.

* ''Film/{{Bright}}'' takes place in a world where magic and other fantastical beings have co-existed with mankind since the dawn of time. There is even a [[CrystalDragonJesus separate quasi-Christian religion]] practiced by orcs that states their MessianicArchetype was the first Bright to have united the free races against the UltimateEvil. Yet, nobody discusses the possibility of Jesus Christ being a Bright himself despite him being acknowledged to exist in this universe (several characters exclaim "Jesus!" and the story takes place in Los Angeles, a city historically founded by Catholic missionaries). It can come across as weird since certain historical figures that preceded him like Sargon of Akkad were {{Benevolent Mage Ruler}}s.

* The [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian]] fantasy novel ''The Forever King'' has a DoubleSubversion: The plot revolves around the history of the Grail, which traditionally gained its magical powers from an encounter with Jesus, but in this telling existed and had its powers -- including the power to defeat death -- long before he appeared on the scene. Late in the book, there's a flashback to the events surrounding Jesus' death and resurrection, from the point of view of a character who knows about the Grail; he initially assumes (rather smugly) that Jesus was just an ordinary man brought back to life by the Grail, but then is surprised and disturbed by the discovery that it couldn't have been the Grail, and so therefore must have been something else he doesn't understand, possibly even a genuine act of God.

* As [[Wiki/TVTropes This Very Wiki]] will tell you, Jesus was ''obviously'' a JustForFun/TimeLord. But then, so is everyone...

* Addressed in ''Film/TheAvengers2012'', where ComicBook/MariaHill warns ComicBook/CaptainAmerica not to go after [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor]] and ComicBook/{{Loki}} on his own because they're superhuman, legendary creatures who are basically gods, and unlike ComicBook/IronMan, he doesn't have a suit of PoweredArmor. Cap replies that there's only one God, and he's pretty sure that He doesn't dress like that.

* This trope is very prevalent in SuperHero comic books. [[DeathIsCheap Everybody and their mother has died and come back]] in these universes and wields far more power than most religious prophets or even gods in some cases.
** In many FantasyKitchenSink comics verses, {{Physical God}}s ''are'' superheroes and nobody says boo. The closest they come is having these supergods occasionally inspire (small, fringe) worshippers.

*** Averted in ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', which has [[Characters/MarvelComicsExodus Exodus]] unambiguously talk about "the Nazarene Mutant” and how he inspired a church among humans by "raising a couple from the dead." He still thinks Jesus was a messiah, he just thinks he was a ''mutant'' messiah. Most other characters think Exodus is a dangerously deluded fanatic.
** Only adding to the confusion is the existence of any number of demons who claim to be ''THE'' Satan, with Mephisto being particularly prominent, but none of them really having much to back their claim up, and all of them being notorious liars.
** ComicBook/TheEternals only make things more complicated. Having been created by the Celestials at the dawn of humanity as a separate race rather than anything divine, they were worshiped as gods, and their names reflect this - Makkari (Mercury) and Thena (Athena) are examples, and at least one has been worshipped by the Incans as well. Except that there is ALSO a pantheon of Greek gods, who ''are'' divine. This all led to some confusion when Hercules was claimed to be one of the Eternals with false memories of the actual Hercules (turns out to have been a mistranslation on the part of an Eternal conversing with a Celestial).
** Comicbook/GhostRider and some [[Comicbook/TheMightyThor Thor]] stories have somewhat addressed this. A Ghost Rider story confirmed Lucifer, angels, heaven, the Antichrist, and God were all real. However, in story they come off as no different than other pantheons of gods with maybe some different labels. Of course, God spoke, but was never seen on panel and Jesus was not mentioned. Several Thor stories have implied Asgard is aware of the Monotheistic God, but have issues with the claim to be the only god.

*** Averted in ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', which has [[Characters/MarvelComicsExodus Exodus]] unambiguously talk about "the Nazarene Mutant” and how he inspired a church among humans by "raising a couple from the dead." He still thinks Jesus was a messiah, he just thinks he was a ''mutant'' messiah. Most other characters think he's a dangerously deluded fanatic.

*** Immortal X-Men #1 has [[Characters/MarvelComicsExodus Exodus]] unambiguously talk about how "the Nazarene Mutant inspired a church among humans by raising a couple from the dead."

** In ''TabletopGame/InNomineSatanisMagnaVeritas'' (the original French version of ''TabletopGame/InNomine''), Jesus Christ was the Archangel of God, but had no servant angels, and after his original mission on Earth, now mostly spends his time working as a barkeep at [[InnBetweenTheWorlds Chez Régis]].
** In the Steve Jackson Games version, the Game Master's Guide said that the game would never have Jesus appear or explain his nature. It also said that (a) The Archangel Gabriel prophesied his birth (b) Jesus performed miracles, similar to other prophets, and attracted some celestial attention (c) By the time he came to the attention of the Divine Inquisition he had already died (d) Most of the Archangels themselves don't know whether he was the Messiah or not (e) The Archangel Yves said he was important and encouraged other angels to support Christianity (f) Neither Gabriel nor Yves has said whether he was the Messiah or not.

*** ''TabletopGame/InNomine'' also addresses Islam, and it's acknowledged it is another attempt to introduce a monotheistic religion to humanity at a time Christianity and Judaism were weak, and the Archangel of Fire, Gabriel, literally appeared to dictate it to Muhammad. However, the version of the Koran that is in Heaven as 'the original' conflicts with the version of the Koran that appears on Earth written by Muhammad (exactly how is not said). Whether these changes were an accident, a manipulation by Muhammad, or deliberate changes made by the Archangel Gabriel (which would be grossly heretical) lead Dominic, the Archangel of Judgment, to put Gabriel on trial for potential heresy. The trial was inconclusive as Gabriel refused/could not tell what had happened and fled for her own domain. To attempt to bring Gabriel back would be civil war in heaven, so the trial was indefinitely postponed. Servitor angels of Fire and Judgment usually do ''not'' get along.

Hrm, weren't there some other historical people who performed miraculous feats? People who ended up being worshipped? If you have these wizards running around turning lead into gold, who is to say that in this universe, UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} wasn't just a cultist wizard conning people over by turning water into wine?

** Abrahamic religion very much gets this treatment; Eastern religion, however, not so much. We have Goa'uld for [[Myth/HinduMythology Nirrti]], [[Myth/HinduMythology Kali]], [[Myth/JapaneseMythology Amaterasu]], and [[Myth/ChineseMythology Yu]]. Moreover, Daniel Jackson outright says that Buddhism may be the result of Oma Desala helping humans to ascend when he first encounters her.

--> '''Mitchell''': Well there is one...
--> '''Teal'c''': [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]].
--> '''Vala''': [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure Really! How did that turn out?]]
--> '''Mitchell''': Actually, I was thinking of Myth/KingArthur.
--> '''Carter''': You ''were?''

* One episode of ''Series/AgentsOfShield'' set after the events of ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'' had the main characters talking about how the Norse gods turned out to be SufficientlyAdvancedAliens and speculating if any other deity's, such as the Hindu gods, where also aliens.

* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' is a CrossoverCosmology, and you literally have gods and goddesses in human form. And Hyoga, one of the reincarnated Athena's loyal saints, is catholic and completely unconflicted about it. No mention is ever made as to whether Christianity as a whole or Jesus in particular have had any impact in previous deific conflicts. It is averted though, in that the Virgo saint Shaka is the reincarnation of the Buddha... and also serves Athena (though it might be more of a PalsWithJesus type thing, where he's temping part time for her or something * shrug* ).

* The corpse parts in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun'' are heavily implied to be that of Jesus. Despite ''utilizing'' the existing supernatural elements of the series, part of the reason the corpse serves as the goal of the Part is that its power is still on a whole different level and [[WrongContextMagic breaks several established rules]].