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Debunking
the Arguments of Christian Fundamentalists and Evangelists
Argument # 7: The
Resurrection of Jesus Christ argument.
Jesus’ Resurrection is one of
the most feel-good statements of faith that Christians use to try to separate
their religion from the rest. This is especially true on Easter Sunday,
which commemorates the Resurrection. The argument goes like this:
“Jesus
was crucified and killed on Friday. But he rose from the dead Sunday
morning and appeared to his disciples. This proved that he was who he
claimed to be – the Savior of the world, God in flesh, and that his claim that
your eternal destiny depends on him to be true. No other religious leader
or messiah has done this. Mohammed, Buddha and Confucius are still in the
grave, but Jesus’ tomb is empty. That’s what sets him apart from the
rest. This proves that Jesus is the real messiah and that he is the only
true way to God. Only God could have performed such a feat.”
To try to back this up, the
Christians have a set of circular arguments to try to prove that the
Resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact and it is the only conclusion one
can draw from the events in the Gospels. We will get into that in the
next few sections after this one.
But first, let’s look at the
straight facts here. There are more problems, discrepancies, and lack of
evidence regarding this alleged event, than the devout Christians can
imagine!
First of all, what the church doesn't ever tell you,
is that outside of the New Testament, there are NO
historical documents from the era that say that Jesus rose from the dead, not
even one! That is a fact, plain and simple. Even the most
knowledgeable Christian apologist or scholar will reluctantly admit this.
In addition, even more damaging is the fact that outside of the New Testament,
none of the historians of the time during the period Jesus supposedly lived
(approximately 0 AD – 33 AD) ever even mention the existence of a Jesus of
Nazareth! It’s not in any of their writings, accounts, or reports!
That is a tremendous blow to the Christian religion! Christian apologists
though, try to cite historians of a later era such as Josephus or
Tacitus. However, those historians lived long after Jesus’ time, never
met Jesus, and were only reporting on rumours and stories they had heard.
Besides, some scholars think that the writings of Josephus referring to Jesus
are an interpolation because of many reasons, which you can read at: Did
Jesus Christ Really Live?
Second, believers will tell you that the apostle Paul
claimed in 1 Corinthians 15:16 that there were five hundred people who
witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. However, there is a difference
between one person claiming that there were five hundred witnesses and five
hundred witnesses themselves claiming that they saw the resurrection. Not
one of these five hundred witnesses has ever been identified in any way.
Third, it’s very suspicious that after Jesus rose from
the dead, he only appeared to his followers, and not to any of the
non-believers, Romans, the Jewish leaders, or people who had no interest
invested in his ministry. Now think about this for a moment. If the
resurrection actually happened, and five hundred people saw it, it would have
drawn such monumental attention that Pilate and the other Roman officials would
have noted it, along with the Roman historians at the time! And almost
everyone around would have been converted! However, we DON'T even have
ONE historical document other than the New Testament, which itself was
completed almost a century after Christ's existence, that validates the
Resurrection!
Fourth, the Resurrection event that was described in
the four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were not even written until
decades after Jesus’ supposed crucifixion. Scholars and historians have
different estimates of when the Gospels were written (with Christian scholars
estimating the dates much closer to Jesus’ lifetime of course) but the earliest
texts of those Gospels are nevertheless dated long after Jesus’ supposed life
on Earth. In fact, those four Gospels weren't even mentioned by the
Church Fathers until the Second Century A.D.!
For more in-depth reading on
the validity of the Resurrection event, see The Historicity of Jesus’ Resurrection: The Debate between Christians and
Skeptics by Jeffery Jay Lowder at http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/jesus_resurrection/index.shtml
and Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story by Richard Carrier at http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/index.shtml
Also, for a balanced view of
this issue from both sides, you can read these transcripts of debates between
well versed apologists and skeptics on the historicity of the
Resurrection. In them, the best arguments from both sides are presented.
The
Barker-Horner Debate: Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead? (1996)
The Geisler-Till Debate (1994)
Horner-Till
Debate (1995)
The arguments for the
historicity of the Resurrection
Now, Christian apologists and
evangelists have a series of circular arguments to try to prove that the
Resurrection of Jesus happened and is a historical fact. Christian author
Josh McDowell for instance, is well known among Christians for these kind of arguments he elaborates on in his books such as
“Evidence That Demands A Verdict” and “More Than A Carpenter”. Other
authors such as C.S. Lewis (author of the Chronicles of Narnia series) and many
others use the same line of arguments in their books and literature.
Let’s look at some of them.
The empty tomb argument
This Christian argument states
that since Jesus’ tomb was empty on Sunday morning as described in the Gospels,
we must therefore consider all the explanations for it being empty. The
possible explanations are 1) Jesus didn’t die on
the cross. Having survived, he escaped from the tomb, 2) Thieves stole
Jesus’ body, 3) Jesus’ disciplines came and stole his body, 4) Jesus rose from
the dead, moved the stone, made the guard go to sleep, etc. as the Gospels
describe.
Christians argue that the 1st
explanation is ruled out because a) medically speaking, the wounds Jesus was
inflicted with were too brutal for anyone with a human body to have survived,
b) Jesus was pierced in the side by a spear from a Roman guard, which would
have caused too much damage and loss of blood for him to have survived, c) Even
if Jesus was still alive after the crucifixion, he would have been too weak to
have moved the huge stone that covered the entrance to his tomb, nevertheless
get past the Roman guard on post to protect the tomb from robbers.
The consider the 2nd
and 3rd explanations to also be ruled out, because a) the Roman
guard stationed at the tomb to protect it from robbers would not have fallen
asleep because in those days, they would be executed for such a failure, and b)
it would take too much force to move the large stone covering the tomb entrance
anyway.
Therefore, they conclude that
the 4th explanation is the only possible one, that Jesus rose from
the dead, used his divine powers to roll back the stone and cause the guard to
go to sleep, and appeared to his disciples. How convenient.
The problem with all this,
again, is that it assumes that the events described in the Gospels are
historical facts. Any unbiased historian will tell you that the Gospels
were written with an agenda to preach the good news to people in order
to convert the masses. Therefore, we have zero evidence that any of the
events surround the Resurrection even took place as described.
In fact, I could use the same
arguments above in a similar manner to attempt to prove certain things about
Superman as well.
Christian
Argument # 1:
Jesus
was born of a virgin. Therefore he must have been divine, because no
ordinary human could have been born of a virgin.
Likewise
Superman
Argument # 1:
As a
baby, Superman was sent to Earth in a meteor shaped rocket ship. Nothing
of this world could have designed a ship like that that could travel for so
many light years. Therefore, he must have truly been of extraterrestrial
origin!
Christian
Argument # 2:
During
Jesus' ministry, he performed supernatural miracles such as feeding the three
thousand, healing the sick, and walking over water. These miracles can
only be done by someone divine.
Likewise
Superman
Argument # 2:
During
Superman's life, he can go faster than a speeding bullet, is more powerful than
a locomotive, and leap over tall buildings in a single bound. These
superhuman feats can only be done by someone from out of this world!
Christian
Argument # 3:
The people
around Jesus were witnesses to all the miracles and supernatural feats he
did. There were also witnesses to his resurrection as well.
Likewise
Superman
Argument # 3:
When
Superman saves lives in Metropolis and around the world, there are usually
plenty of witnesses and reporters who witness and capture on film his amazing
rescues with his amazing powers.
For an in-depth analysis of the empty tomb argument, see Craig's Empty Tomb and Habermas on the Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus (Review of In Defense of Miracles) (1999) by Richard Carrier
The
“Apostles would not knowingly die for a lie” argument
Then they go on to say that
since the Apostles and disciples of Christ were so fervent in their faith and
ministry that they were even willing to die for it, and many of them eventually
did, that they must have personally witnessed the Resurrection themselves to be
preaching it in their ministry to the world that Jesus died for our sins and
rose from the grave. After all, they claim, no one would knowingly
die for something they know to be a lie. And the fact that they were
willing to die and become martyrs for the Gospel of Christ proves that the
Resurrection must have happened.
Again, this assumes that
everything described in the New Testament are true accounts. We simply
have no basis for assuming that, especially when the books of the NT were
written long after Jesus and his disciples supposedly lived. And neither
do we have any evidence either, that the disciples died for their faith and
became martyrs. There simply is no confirmation of that. I could
take any fictional story to draw conclusions in the same manner as these
apologists do.
For more analyses on this issue, see Why Did the Apostles Die? and How Did the Apostles Die? And for some short rants purporting that the Apostles were made up, http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/apostles.html
Furthermore, the popular
legend among Christians that the first century Christians were persecuted by
the
However, for some reason, the
Christians at the time wanted martyrdom, and went to great lengths to get
it. They even went so far as to insult the other pagan gods and religions
of the time by calling them demons and devils, and their followers “devil
worshippers”. They (the Christians) were the ones who were intolerant of
other beliefs, and actively offended many. In fact, they are recorded as
being eager to be sentenced by the law, although the Romans tried to use any
legal means to avoid it. Paul Tobin of The Skeptic’s Guide to
Christianity, writes:
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/xtianpersecute.html
“In
fact, more often than not, the Roman judges used every legal means at their
disposal to avoid punishing the Christians. But the Christians, in the morbid
need for the reward of martyrdom, more often than not insisted on being
sentenced. As an example, take the incident in
If
you return to your sense you can obtain pardon of our Lord the emperor ... We
too are a religious people, and our religion is a simple one: We swear by the
divine spirit of our lord the emperor and offer prayers to his health - as you
ought to do.
The
accused men were indignant and refused to do so. Saturninus, in a last ditch
effort, gave them thirty days to think things over. After that time, they still
refused to budge. The proconsul had no choice but to have them executed. Upon
receiving the death sentence some of them yelled out: "We thank
God!", "Today we are martyrs in heaven, thanks
be to God!" [11]
Not
only do these Christians zealously demanded execution upon trail, some of them,
hard put to find someone to accuse them, went to the tribunal of magistrates,
declared themselves Christians and demanded the sentence of the law. We have
testimony of earlier the church father Tertullian (c160-c225) of one such case
in a small Asiatic town. The whole Christian population of that town, seeking
death and martyrdom, went to the proconsul Antoninus to demand punishment.
Unable to comprehend such an attitude, Antoninus told the Christians:
"Unhappy men! Unhappy men! If you are thus weary of your lives, is it so
difficult for you to find ropes and precipices?" Of course, suicide
doesn't count for martyrdom, so the crowd insisted on punishment. Antoninus
relented, put a few to death and dismissed the others. [12]
Capital
punishment was not invariably applied in all cases. Some Roman judges used
other legal methods to avoid it. They contented themselves to sentencing the
Christians to prison, exile or slavery. This allowed the Christians some chance
of freedom as the emperor might, during a period of celebration, offer a
general pardon to the prisoners. [13]
11.ibid: p97-98
12.Knight, Honest to Man: p61
Gibbon, Decline And Fall of the
Robertson, History of Christianity: p81
13.Gibbon, Decline And Fall of the
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