Jesus is Fun

While perhaps at first sounding plausible, many factors contradict such a notion.[2] To name a few:

The large number of witnesses (hundreds) (1 Corinthians 15:5-8)...

Covering the spectrum of personality types (e.g., John 20 -- Peter, Thomas, the two Marys, etc.), contradict the theory of hallucinations which, by definition, are not shared experiences.

There is no such thing as a vision appearing to a crowd. It's generally received only by one person at a time, and that person must be expecting the vision and be in a highly emotional state. As the Bible shows, none of Jesus' followers expected him to rise from the dead. Luke said that when Jesus appeared to the disciples, "They were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit" (Luke 24:37).

Mistaken identity can not be the explanation, either. Certainly the disciples would recognize the person they had been with every day for more than three years.

The substantial, permanent, and positive change in lifestyle of many of the converted overthrows any theory of hallucination. Jewish scholar Dr. Pinchas Lapide, has written,

“When this frightened band of apostles suddenly could be changed overnight into a confident mission society... Then no vision or hallucination is sufficient to explain such a revolutionary transformation.”[3]

Although Lapide is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who does not accept Jesus as the Messiah, he concedes the inescapable evidence that Jesus must have risen from the dead.

Originally posted by HairyPooper
Jews were the poorest of candidates for inventing a mythical Christ. No other culture has so opposed mythically confusing deity with humanity, as did the Jewish.[8]

Are you joking? The Jewish scriptures fortold the coming of a messiah.

There is no question that Jesus Christ's tomb was mysteriously empty. As Paul Althaus has said, the resurrection message "could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact..."[1] Dr. Craig observed that, "Conflicting traditions [to the empty tomb story] nowhere appear, even in Jewish polemic."[2]
At least one skeptic (Dr. John Dominic Crossan) has wrongly asserted that Roman law automatically forbade Jesus' burial, and that he must therefore have been thrown anonymously into a common pit. This is not sustainable. Raymond Brown has shown that Roman burial policy varied with circumstances and did allow the possibility of personal burial of some of the crucified.[3] This scenario would also contradict the consistent Jewish protests that the body had been removed.[4] Furthermore, the Gospels could not have successfully invented as owner of the tomb one so specific as a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin named Joseph of Arimathea (Mark 15:43). Had the Gospels been false on this matter they would not have been able to withstand the swift correction and ridicule from the Jews.

How have doubters of Christ's resurrection responded? Some skeptics have claimed that someone must have stolen Jesus' body from the tomb, and that this led to the stories of miraculous resurrection. Is this possible?

THE JEWS AND THE ROMANS

Neither the Jewish nor the Roman leaders, who guarded the tomb (Matthew 27:62f) would have taken the body. Rather, both had every motive to produce the body publicly in order to humiliate the disciples and nip their movement in the bud. And since the scene in question was right at Jerusalem, it was completely within their power to locate the corpse should it still have existed. Yet to their dismay, no such body was ever produced. If the Jews had the body, they would have wheeled it in at the day of Pentecost when all Jerusalem was in an uproar because of Peter's sermon on the Resurrection of Christ.

CHRIST'S FOLLOWERS

[Read the account from Matthew of what really happened]

Likewise, is highly unlikely that Jesus' followers could have removed the body with a Roman guard protecting the tomb, plus a large stone door. And it won't work to charge them with inventing the account of the sleeping guards in Matthew. 28:11f. That story would only have served as apologetic propaganda had the guards stayed awake.

Why would the disciples (or anyone else) want to risk their lives to steal Christ's body? The biblical record shows the disciples were scared, discouraged and disheartened. Their only motive could have been to deceive. But everything we read about these men indicates they were good and honest. How could they have gone out the rest of their lives and daily preached that Christ had risen from the dead when they knew all along it was a lie? Would they have sacrificed and suffered so greatly for something that they know was an outright deception?

It would have been foolish to hide the corpse and fake a resurrection. The consequences of their loyalty to Jesus included beatings, imprisonments, and even death. No sane person chooses these for what they know is false. Under such pressures, liars confess their deceptions and betray their cohorts.

The explosive growth of the Church is strong evidence for Jesus' resurrection. Significantly, it wasn't the powerful, but commoners, burdened with every cultural strike against them (1 Corinthians 1:26f), whose Resurrection message peaceably transformed the Roman Empire. Who would ever have predicted such an "impossible" feat? Yet it actually did happen![5]

That Christianity originated in Judaism[6] is further evidence for his resurrection. Renowned archaeologist William F. Albright observed, "In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between the forties and the eighties of the first century A.D."[7] Jewish bias against the Jesus of the New Testament was massive. What else would have led Jews to accept a shamefully hung (Galatians 3:13) "criminal", as their promised Messiah when they had longed for a military deliverer? And what else would have moved Jews to break their monotheistic convictions[8] to worship Jesus as God the Son (John 1:18), or change their worship day from Saturday to Sunday (Acts 20:7)? A mere invented myth would have been powerless to overthrow such hopes and traditions.

"Jesus was so unlike what all Jews expected the Son of David to be that His own disciples found it almost impossible to connect the idea of the Messiah with Him."[9]
-Millar Burrows

It is, as the New Testament states, Jesus' resurrection that singly overcame that "impossibility" (Acts 2:24).

CONVERSION OF SAUL

In addition, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus points to a momentous miracle. Beginning as a violent enemy of the Church (Acts 8:3; 9:1, Galatians 1:13), he was utterly turned around into becoming Jesus' servant. Choosing suffering for Christ's sake (2 Corinthians 11:23f), Paul gave up all he had, endured persecution, and preached the Gospel in city after city all the way to Rome, where he died a martyr's death. He is credited with having had greater influence over the course of the Roman Empire than any other figure of the First Century apart from Christ.[10] Nothing short of Christ's resurrection has remotely explained his major transformation.

THE OTHER APOSTLES

The other Apostles too, overcame fear to brave suffering, imprisonment, and even death, as they proclaimed the good news of the risen Christ across their world. Is it thinkable that these people would die so willingly for a mere myth? "Each of the disciples, except John, died a martyr's death... because they tenaciously clung to their beliefs and statements," observes researcher Josh McDowell.[11]

In contrast to others who have died for an unverifiable hope beyond the grave (e.g., mystics seeking reincarnation or Moslem militants expecting reward from Allah), Jesus' disciples lived and died for the historically verifiable claim that the grave was empty and that he was seen alive again.

Legal scholar Dr. Simon Greenleaf, founder of the Harvard Law School, notes:

"Propagating this new faith, even in the most inoffensive and peaceful manner, [early Christians received] contempt, opposition... and cruel deaths. Yet this faith they zealously did propagate, and all these miseries they endured undismayed, nay rejoicing. As one after another was put to a miserable death, the survivors only [continued] their work with increased vigor and resolution... The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of like heroic constancy, patience, and unblenching courage... If it were morally possible for them to have been deceived in this matter, every human motive operated to lead them to discover and avow their error. From these [considerations] there is no escape but in the perfect conviction and admission that they were good men, testifying to that which they had carefully observed...and well knew to be true.[12]

Dr. Greenleaf is considered by many to have been one of the greatest legal minds we have had in the U.S. He was formerly an outspoken skeptic of Christianity and who set out to disprove the deity of Christ. In the end he concluded that the Resurrection was true "beyond any reasonable doubt." Greenleaf became a Christian after studying the evidence for himself. Many top legal minds agree with Greenleaf that if the case for Christ's death and resurrection were taken to a court of law, it would undoubtedly win. The claims are very well established and verified by independent and converging proofs.

The doctrine of the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is critical to the Christian faith. But is the evidence conclusive? Numerous alternative scenarios have been postulated over the years. Here are four -- with a correspondent response:

Postulate # 1
Jesus' body was moved to an undisclosed location.

Roman or Jewish authorities moved the body of Jesus to a location completely unknown and undiscovered by Christ's disciples. Perhaps the body was even thrown into a mass burial pit and devoured by dogs.

Answer
For starters, this and many other such scenarios completely contradict the testimony of the Gospel writers with regard to Jesus' resurrection and subsequent appearances. This is no small matter. The Biblical record carries considerable, weighty, self-supporting evidence, i.e. prophetic fulfillment, manuscript reliability, archaeological discovery, etc.

But even extra-Biblically this scenario fails, due largely to lack of a sound rationale. Both the Jewish leadership and the Roman government had every interest in laying to rest, not further perpetrating the controversy surrounding Jesus. By simply producing the body of Christ, all reports of His resurrection could have been quickly quashed. To deliberately and finally destroy such evidence would have forever eliminated that possibility, and served only the purposes of Jesus' followers and cause.

Know also that conjecture about crucifixion victims being disposed of in a common pit for the executed near Jerusalem suffered a deadly blow in June of 1968 with the discovery of the remains of Yohanan Ben Ha'galgal, a man who had been crucified, yet was then plainly buried in a family tomb.

Finally, in the event that such a thing did transpire, why wouldn't the authorities have owned up to it rather than accusing Jesus' disciples of stealing His body (Matthew 28:11-15)? Their acknowledgement of such an act would have served their purposes far more effectively than concocting a complex conspiracy theory that could not then be refuted.

Postulate # 2
Jesus' followers visited the wrong tomb.

Perhaps Mary Magdalene and the other women who were intending to anoint the body of Jesus following the Sabbath got mixed up in the predawn darkness (John 20:1), and arrived at the wrong site. After all, the entire area was full of rock tombs and they were emotionally distraught.

Answer
The Gospel account (John 20:15) indicates that it was light enough for the women to see the "gardener." i.e. Jesus. Furthermore, it was not just the women who visited the tomb where Jesus had been buried --- Peter and John also came to the same place (John 30:3-7) when it was light enough for them to notice even details like grave clothes and a head cloth inside the darkened recesses of the tomb. Neither does this postulate explain the angelic presence.

Postulate # 3
Tomb never even checked

Perhaps in their desire to continue to believe in Jesus, the disciples never even tried to examine the tomb. Could this have been a case of their minds being made up and their not wanting to face the facts?

Answer
Even if Jesus' disciples hadn't checked the tomb, Rome would have been fully aware of what had transpired there. Elite Roman Guards units, operating under penalty of death, must have scoured the area before reporting Jesus' body as missing.

So whether the disciples checked the tomb or not is irrelevant. If Rome could have produced Jesus' body, it certainly would have done so.

For God's sake, stop trying to use the Bible to prove the Bible! I know the resurection story is true because the Bible says so! How do I know that the Bible is accurate? It's very unlikely that Jesus' followers could have faked blahblahblah. How do I know they did that? The Bible says so!

Postulate # 4
Jesus' body was taken into custody by a third party.

The variations on this theme range from the bizarre to the ridiculous. One 5th century polemic invented by Toledot Yeshu suggests that a gardener named Juda robbed Jesus' body, tried to blackmail the disciples, and then dragged the corpse through the streets of Jerusalem. Another theory speculates that Joseph of Arimathea confiscated the body.

Answer
How could any of this have occurred given Rome's tight control of the case? And how likely is it that any such clandestine operation would have remained undisclosed for long? Yet, if a hoax had been revealed, how does one then explain the phenomenal growth of the Christian Church?

Oh man, Jesus just came down from the clouds and spoke to me. He said that HairyPooper is incapable of formulating his own arguments, that he doesn't even read other people's posts, and that trying to talk to someone like him is a waste of time. So I'm out of here.

Funny I had just tried to PM HP to warn him he might get banned.

Originally posted by HairyPooper
Im not done yet.

Oh yes you are. You're hereby ban for ignoring warnings and also for post spamming. You were told to use the "check message length" tool. You chose to ignore it. And thus we're done with you.

I think he has a personality disorder.....Originial-o-phobia-Biblelistic 😑

Whatever it is he just doesn't understand warnings very well. If you guys want to keep this topic going you're very welcome to it. However if there is nothing further to discuss we'll close it.

I'm fine with the topic, I would just like to get a word in sideways. 😄