Contrary to Popular Belief - (Resurrection Series Part 2)
Jesus of Nazareth Rose from The Dead
By Jeremiah Taylor
Many modern people today read the accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection with great incredulity. I assume, many of you who are reading this blog right now, would fit that bill! To many, Jesus’ resurrection is a ridiculous notion that shouldn’t be taken seriously because as we know, dead people do NOT rise from the dead. I have never seen anyone who was dead, wake up; you probably haven’t either! Nor do we know anyone who has seen such a thing and given testimony to it.
In other words, in all of our experience, we know that dead people, stay dead. Thus, when people read accounts of a dead man rising in ancient Palestine two-thousand years ago, many of them write this this off as a mere myth or legend because they believe this to be an impossibility.
But if this is you. If you consider the resurrection absurd. If you believe it is mere myth, then what this belief forces you to do… at least, forces you to do if you want to be a thoughtful and consistent thinker, is to try and explain: “how in the world did the Christian religion take off like it did without the resurrection of Jesus?” And “Why did so many people in the immediate proceeding years after Jesus died, believe that he rose?”
The usual explanation today, given by secular scholars and form critics, is that Jesus’ resurrection was a myth that was started by the disciples of Jesus so that they could keep whatever little power they had in their little movement. What happened next is that the fake news of Jesus’ resurrection spread; and then much like the child’s game of telephone, the stories of Jesus changed and became more elaborate over the course of 50, or 100 years, until these stories were finally written down in the form that we have today. For example, Bart Ehrman, a leading form critic today, takes this line of thought, when he writes:
Bart Ehrman: What do you suppose happened to the stories over the years, as they were told and retold, not as disinterested news stories reported by eyewitnesses, but as propaganda meant to convert people to faith, told by people who had themselves heard them fifth- or sixth- or nineteenth-hand? Did your kids every play the telephone game at a birthday party? (Jesus Interrupted, 146-47)
Form critics, like Dr. Ehrman pride themselves on being able to figure out what really happened in the gospels—to discern between the facts of what really happened and the fiction that was later created out of thin air.
But there are problems with this view. The Form critics know there are problems. Bart Ehrman knows there are problems. But instead of dealing with the problems seriously and producing adequate responses, many form critics minimize the problems, laugh at the absurdity of any other view than their own, and ignore substantial evidence that runs counter to their arguments. I am convinced that scholars like Ehrman, refuse to believe in the resurrection, not because the evidence does not point in that direction but because they, at the end of the day, cannot and will not acknowledge that Jesus was anything more than a mere man or that there is a supernatural being outside of our material existence.
You see, for an atheist to grant the resurrection of Jesus, would mean that she would have to give up her worldview, because a resurrection event defies a natural explanation. The only way to explain a dead man walking is either that a zombie apocalypse has happened or that something outside of our natural realm imposed its supernatural power upon us. One or the other. Which one is more likely?
So here are some of the problems for those who deny the resurrection. I’ll state them in question form.
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, how then did Christianity get started?
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, why would the disciples make up this story? Logically speaking, they could have made up any story, right? Why then insist on one they knew everyone would believe to be absurd?
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, why would so many of Jesus’ disciples die for a lie? In other words, if Jesus’ disciples knew that Jesus didn’t rise, but insisted on telling others that he did, why would they die for something that they made up?
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, why was there an empty tomb?
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, why did so many people claim to have seen the risen Jesus?
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, why did the disciples choose women to be the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection, knowing that a women’s testimony, at that time, was not considered credible?
These are massive problems that have to be dealt with before anyone dismisses the resurrection of Jesus as a possibility for no other reason than they don’t believe people can be raised from the dead. I have been taught in my studies to follow the evidence where it leads and not to take things on faith unless there are no other explanations to be had.
So, over the next few weeks, I am going to show you why I believe it takes much more “faith” to believe that the resurrection of Jesus was a myth or conspiracy made up by Jesus’ disciples, then to believe that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened. I’m going to show you why I believe there is more evidence for it, then against it.
Stay Tuned…