Did the resurrection take place?
Some people who leave the message (or another Christian cult) move on to reject any concept of God. They are opposed to the very concept of Christianity as a result of their prior bad experiences and become atheists or agnostics. This is quite understandable given the deception, lies and spiritual abuse they experienced while in the message.
The purpose of this series of articles is to present a reasoned response to some of the questions relating to Christianity and God that former ex-message followers have presented to us. We certainly understand their pain and how this has led them to doubt the existence of God and the good news that Jesus Christ brought to the world.
Click on the link below to go to the specific topic. You are currently in the article that is in bold.
Questions raised:
- Science is the only way to gain knowledge of reality
- Is Christianity based on myth?
- Christianity represents a God who is unfair
- Did the resurrection take place?
- Is Christianity based on blind faith?
Jesus died by crucifixion
The crucifixion of Jesus should be considered historical fact based on the criterion of embarrassment. If Jesus’ actions, sayings or crucifiexion would have embarrassed or caused difficulty for the early church, then why include these if you’re inventing them? Why depect a shamed, humiliated, crucified Messiah — unless it actually happened? The discrepancy between the shameful death of a Jewish state criminal and the confession that depicts this executed man as the preexistent divine figure who becomes man and humbles himself to a slave’s death is without comparison in the ancient world.[1] Christians would not have invented the painful death of their leader.
The crucifixion of Jesus should be considered historical fact based on the criterion of multiple attestation - confirmation by more than one source - because of the agreement of all sources on the fact that Jesus died by Roman execution on a cross. Death by crucifixion also meets the criterion of rejection - it is not disputed by any ancient sources. It is also firmly established that there is non-Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of Jesus – referring to the mentions by Josephus and Tacitus.
Most scholars, both Christian and non-Christian, consider the crucifixion indisputable.
As a result, we can conclude that Jesus died by crucifixion.
Appearances of Jesus post-crucifixion were documented
- Appearances of Jesus were documented - Gospels, Paul - some died for this belief - Gert Ludeman
- Sceptics converted - Paul and James
- Empty tomb - Knew where the tomb was - Joseph of Arimethea. Women’s testimony worthless.
Footnotes
- ↑ Paul Copan, “True for You but Not for Me” (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2009), 159–160