Chapter 5 of "More Than A Carpenter" is titled "Who Would Die for a Lie?". Josh began this chapter telling that an often "overlooked" challenge to "Christianity is the transformation of Jesus' apostles." If you read the last chapters of the gospels, you will see that Jesus' disciples hid for fear in a locked room hiding from the authorities. The question of this chapter is: "What changed these fearful men into fearless preachers of the Gospel of Christ?"
Josh mentioned his definition of history as being: "A knowledge of the past based upon testimony." That is really the way we know anything about the past.(except maybe archaeology) With this definition we must know the testimony is true. In chapter 4 we proved the reliability of the Bible and that is where we find most, but not all of the witness.
Josh wrote, "I can trust the apostles' testimonies because, of these 12 men, 11 died martyrs' deaths on the basis of 2 things: the resurrection of Christ, and their belief in Him as the Son of God." He, then, gave a list of how they died:
1. Peter - crucified upside down.
2. Andrew - crucified.
3. Matthew - killed with a sword.
4. John - natural death after torture.
5. James, son of Alphaeus - crucified.
6. Philip - crucified.
7. Simon - crucified.
8. Thaddaeus - killed by arrows.
9. James, 1/2 brother of Jesus - stoned to death.
10. Thomas - thrust through with a spear.
11. Bartholomew - crucified.
12. James, son of Zebedee - killed with a sword.
Some would say, "A lot of people have died for a lie." But they didn't know it was a lie or didn't intend to die for it-i.e. criminals. Josh's response was, "Therefore these 11 men not only died for a lie - here is the catch - but they knew it was a lie. It would be hard to find 11 people in history who died for a lie, knowing it was a lie." Remember, the disciples were eyewitnesses of what happened.
In II Pet 1:16 Peter essentially said, we didn't make up this story, but were "eyewitnesses of His majesty". In I John, John, as an eyewitness, mentioned that they had seen, touched, heard, and handled Christ and seen His "eternal life" and that they fellowshipped with Christ and the Father(God).
In beginning the Gospel of Luke, the author told that he investigated the story and got eyewitness accounts so that he could tell the story as it happened. In Acts Luke wrote, "To these He also presented Himself alive, after his suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days...."
John wrote in Jn 20:30, "Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book." The apostles repeatedly testified about the resurrection of Christ.
Josh correctly pointed out that the disciples were skeptical at first. Remember Thomas who refused to believe unless he could put his finger into Christ's nail pierced hands and his hand into His side? After proof from Christ, he said, "My Lord and my God!"
Peter fearfully denied Christ 3 times and doubted His resurrection, but believed after Christ appeared to them after His resurrection. He preached fearlessly from then on.
Jesus' brothers didn't believe while Christ was teaching (Jn 7:3-5), yet, after His resurrection His brothers were waiting in the upper room with the disciples(Acts 1:13-14). It is believed that James, Jesus' 1/2 brother, was the leader of the church in Jerusalem and was martyred by the high priest. He, also, wrote the book of James.
Josh asked, "If the resurrection was a lie, the apostles knew it. Were they perpetuating a colossal hoax? That possibility is inconsistent with what we know about the moral quality of their lives."
He quoted Edward Gibbon from "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". "This was the one belief that separated the followers of Jesus from the Jews and turned them into the Community of the Resurrection. You could imprison them, flog them, kill them, but you could not make them deny their conviction that 'on the third day he rose again'."
Then Josh mentioned the bold actions of the disciples after the resurrection, but we'll wait and review that next time.
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Rick
Josh mentioned his definition of history as being: "A knowledge of the past based upon testimony." That is really the way we know anything about the past.(except maybe archaeology) With this definition we must know the testimony is true. In chapter 4 we proved the reliability of the Bible and that is where we find most, but not all of the witness.
Josh wrote, "I can trust the apostles' testimonies because, of these 12 men, 11 died martyrs' deaths on the basis of 2 things: the resurrection of Christ, and their belief in Him as the Son of God." He, then, gave a list of how they died:
1. Peter - crucified upside down.
2. Andrew - crucified.
3. Matthew - killed with a sword.
4. John - natural death after torture.
5. James, son of Alphaeus - crucified.
6. Philip - crucified.
7. Simon - crucified.
8. Thaddaeus - killed by arrows.
9. James, 1/2 brother of Jesus - stoned to death.
10. Thomas - thrust through with a spear.
11. Bartholomew - crucified.
12. James, son of Zebedee - killed with a sword.
Some would say, "A lot of people have died for a lie." But they didn't know it was a lie or didn't intend to die for it-i.e. criminals. Josh's response was, "Therefore these 11 men not only died for a lie - here is the catch - but they knew it was a lie. It would be hard to find 11 people in history who died for a lie, knowing it was a lie." Remember, the disciples were eyewitnesses of what happened.
In II Pet 1:16 Peter essentially said, we didn't make up this story, but were "eyewitnesses of His majesty". In I John, John, as an eyewitness, mentioned that they had seen, touched, heard, and handled Christ and seen His "eternal life" and that they fellowshipped with Christ and the Father(God).
In beginning the Gospel of Luke, the author told that he investigated the story and got eyewitness accounts so that he could tell the story as it happened. In Acts Luke wrote, "To these He also presented Himself alive, after his suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days...."
John wrote in Jn 20:30, "Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book." The apostles repeatedly testified about the resurrection of Christ.
Josh correctly pointed out that the disciples were skeptical at first. Remember Thomas who refused to believe unless he could put his finger into Christ's nail pierced hands and his hand into His side? After proof from Christ, he said, "My Lord and my God!"
Peter fearfully denied Christ 3 times and doubted His resurrection, but believed after Christ appeared to them after His resurrection. He preached fearlessly from then on.
Jesus' brothers didn't believe while Christ was teaching (Jn 7:3-5), yet, after His resurrection His brothers were waiting in the upper room with the disciples(Acts 1:13-14). It is believed that James, Jesus' 1/2 brother, was the leader of the church in Jerusalem and was martyred by the high priest. He, also, wrote the book of James.
Josh asked, "If the resurrection was a lie, the apostles knew it. Were they perpetuating a colossal hoax? That possibility is inconsistent with what we know about the moral quality of their lives."
He quoted Edward Gibbon from "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". "This was the one belief that separated the followers of Jesus from the Jews and turned them into the Community of the Resurrection. You could imprison them, flog them, kill them, but you could not make them deny their conviction that 'on the third day he rose again'."
Then Josh mentioned the bold actions of the disciples after the resurrection, but we'll wait and review that next time.
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Rick
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