If there is a God and He wants us to know Him, then He'd have to do something pretty drastic to show Himself. It would have to be an outrageous and clear proof that it was Him. Maybe, something like raising someone from the dead. Not, that He's ever done that or anything.
Has he? Do you have some evidence, perhaps some first-hand credible testimony about something like that?
ReplyDelete@Rich Yes He has. It’s located in the Gospel accounts.
ReplyDeleteRight on, Chris. And the reality of Christ's perceived threat to the religious leaders of the day is written in the Jewish accounts of His arrest order. It is also seen in the later Roman persecution of Christianity.
ReplyDeleteRich, do you really think that 10 (11 if you include Paul) would willingly go to their deaths for something that they had made up? Check out the odds against all ten in a conspiracy making it to the gallows without cracking. Please also consider giving the following book a try: "In the Fullness of Time" by Paul Maier. He does a fine job of looking at the historical reality of the resurrection. Peace.
For something they made up? Probably not. For being mistaken? For being fooled? Maybe.
ReplyDeleteAnd how do we know there weren't a hundred tried, and only those ten held the party line? The bible is awfully selective in its perspective and what is included. Look at all the supposed gospels and testaments that were discarded in the editorial process.
It's almost like the authors (of whom we know little or nothing) and editors (1000-1500 years +/- of catholic management) wanted to paint the picture juuuust right...
The gospels are not qualified as first-hand accounts. Mark was written some forty years by someone who in all likelihood did not know Jesus; Matthew and Luke were written ten years later, and John probably sixty years after Jesus' death. While it's possible these were merely transcriptions of oral tradition, there's no evidence to support that hypothesis (such as writing at the beginning "as told to Jim the scribe by his father Bubba the bard, who learned of it from Mark the apostle"). Besides, humans could write at the time; you would think something as important as the purported son of god would have merited some jotted-down note, especially if there were people following him around for two years.
Don't even bother to throw out Josephus or any of the other Roman-era scribes, none of whom lived even close to the time of Jesus and therefore could not have first-hand knowledge of his existence, much less his words or deeds.
I personally am happy that the accounts were not recorded by ignorant fisherman who probably didn't even speak Greek.
ReplyDeleteLook at the accounts, they line up, they say the say same thing, and they paint a realistic portrait of a real person who just happened to die and rise again.
Much love to you