When explaining the resurrection of Jesus, it is important to keep to the “minimal facts approach” by looking at some important facts. The first fact is that Jesus died by crucifixion. This highly evidenced occurrence has kept with the minimal facts approach because it is so widely attested. Not only was the crucifixion recorded in the four gospel accounts as well as a “number of non-Christian sources” (Habermas & Licona, 2004, p. 49).Lucian of Samosata, Mara Bar-Serapion and the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, the Talmud, all illustrate the death of Jesus. A “highly critical scholar of the Jesus Seminar, John Dominic Crossan, writes, “That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be” (Habermas & Licona, 2004, p. 49). While the crucifixion of Jesus is the beginning of explain the minimal facts, the more important fact is that Jesus’ disciples believed that he rose and appeared to them.…
7. What does the Sanhedrin tell the guards to say happened to the body of Jesus when they…
- I think people these days are like Thomas if they do not have a real proof they will not believe. Intellectually they cannot comprehend how God can be three people at the same time. Where is the proof that he died on the cross and that He rose again. According to them this does not make any sense, does not have any logic or a reasonable explanation.…
In this chapter Pagels examines the history of Christ’s resurrection and how the Gnostic and orthodox versions differ. The orthodox Christians adopted the literature view of the resurrection, while the Gnostic texts revealed a more symbolic interpretation; say that those who experienced Christ’s resurrection did so as more of a spiritual manner than a physical one. Pagels notes, however, that the New Testament includes interpretations of the resurrection similar to the Gnostic view. She debates that one of Jesus’ followers, Paul, experienced the resurrection spiritually and describes the event as a mystery and the “transformation from physical to spiritual existence.” In conclusion, Pagels believes that the “doctrine of body resurrection serves an essential political function,” meaning that only those men who claimed to have witnessed Christ’s bodily resurrection “exercise exclusive leadership over the churches as the successors of the apostle Peter.” The reason I believe that this Gnostic text about Peter was left out of the Christian Bible is because the orthodox teaching on the resurrection gave minister authority to a limited group of men through whose leadership would emerge, limiting the routes and approaches to God.…
The Roman government was a blood thirsty band of power crazed imperialists. The Roman government however powerful reluctantly carried out the death of Jesus. The Roman government consented to Jesus’ death because the Jewish leadership effectively lodged a political charge against Jesus citing that the man Jesus was opposed to paying taxes to Caesar, and claimed to be Christ; a king. (Niswonger 1988 Pg. 172). Lodging this accusation against Jesus before the Roman authorities established false evidence of Jesus’ efforts to subvert the Roman…
Certain individuals merely do not believe that for them to be saved all that needs to be done is for them to believe in the death and resurrection of our savior. In order to believe consist of being accompanied by a changed mind and faith. Most individuals have h really hard time believing in something that they cannot see, hear or touch. When a person is use to doing something a certain way it is really hard for them to change their way of thanking etc.…
Simply put, salvation refers to the deliverance of suffering or danger. It can be said to correlate with the idea of self-preservation. The Bible makes mention of the term “salvation” in respect to physical deliverance from danger or suffering. I find myself thinking about Paul, and his deliverance from a prison (Philippians 1:19). At other times, the term “salvation” refers to spiritual deliverance. As in when Paul was witnessing to the jailer and explaining what he had to do in order to be saved from damnation (Acts 16:30-31). This is very different from physical deliverance.…
On a similar matter, can the existence of God be proven? This is a difficult question to answer. I am a devout Christian, but I have done extensive research on this topic and I keep coming back to the conclusion of no. I do not believe it is possible to prove the existence of God,…
A lot of people simply doubt that all you have to do in order to be saved is to believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and you will be saved. To believe is to be accompanied by faith and a changed mind. Most people have a problem believing in something that can’t be seen. The fear of change is always difficult when a person has been used to doing things a certain way. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God.” (1Co. 2:14, King James Bible,)…
Resurrection is a monist theory that there will be a post-mortem experience in a recreated, perfect physical human body. This is traditionally a Christian concept, and the eschatological belief entails that God will raise the dead back to life at the end of time on Judgement Day, where he will decide the fate of all individual humans – whether one should go to the eternal Kingdom of God from which sinners will be excluded - based on their morality during their earthly existence. Therefore, to Christians, the notion of an afterlife should be coherent as it is consistent with their beliefs. For example, St Paul argued that since Jesus was resurrected, Christians should also hope to go through the same experience; and that due to God having the role of creator, humans should believe that he is able to make human bodies perfect in the afterlife, as he has created many types of bodies in nature, within our current reality. It is also derived from Biblical passages, such as Ezekiel 37, where God shows Ezekiel a valley of dry bones and states that he will be able to ‘make these live again’. However, there are also other philosophers who find the idea of a bodily resurrection incoherent, as resurrection is a difficult idea to justify rationally and philosophically, and can be more easily claimed as an article of faith. For example, David Jenkins interpreted Jesus’ resurrection to have a deeper significance, rather than taking it literally at face value – “it is not a conjuring trick with bones”. It is also ambiguous what an resurrected body would look like due to the overwhelming amount of interpretations. Early Christians believed that…
Since the crucifixion of Jesus, opponents of Christianity have directly criticized the religion’s foundation, attempting to belie the historicity of Christ’s physical resurrection. Aiming to nullify Christianity and confute the prospect of supernatural intervention or divine involvement, skeptics and opponents of Christianity continually disseminate naturalistic alternatives, or conspiracy theories, to contradict the resurrection account. One popular notion reasons against the validity of witness accounts, postulating post-crucifixion appearances of Jesus were merely hallucinations, temporarily experienced by some of Jesus’ early disciples. This paper will examine this hallucination hypothesis, showing inconsistencies within the…
People may reject the Christian gospel, for intellectual reasons, because they cannot comprehend that Jesus Christ was God in human flesh. They cannot comprehend that Jesus Christ could die and then be resurrected, because, in their minds, this defies logic and reason.…
The article as well as the presentation of Dr. Towns is convincing on all arguments that the Bible is the word of God. I converted to be a Christian 22 years ago when I became a believer that Christ is God.…
Two men approach me and claim that Jesus Christ was a man, but denied his deity. If I were to show them the truth, I would have to explain the biblical basis of Jesus' humanity, deity, explain how he can be both man and God, and explain what this all means to me. First though, biblical explanation of Jesus' humanity is essential.…
The second fact is that Jesus’ disciples believed that He rose and appeared to them. What could transform a group of “fearful, cowering individuals who denied and abandoned Him [Jesus] at His arrest and execution into bold proclaimers of the gospel of the risen Lord” (Habermas & Licona, 2004, p. 50)? These men had nothing to gain from their claims. In fact, they remained consistent with their beliefs even in the face of beatings, torture, imprisonment, and their own martyrdom. Nine early and independent sources confirm that the disciples claimed the resurrection. These fall into three categories: the testimony of Paul about the disciples, the early church’s oral tradition, and the written works of the early church. Succinctly put, even when merely viewing the New Testament as an ancient collection of writings, there is strong evidence to assert…