Josh wrote next about "The Swoon Theory". He easily proved it untrue. A man whipped and crucified and a spear thrust into His side as was done to Christ could in no way present himself as risen from the dead and inspired his followers to courageously and enthusiastically preach that he was resurrected! It would never happen.
The next theory Josh mentioned was "The Body Was Stolen". He wrote that the disciples who were hiding "for fear of the Jews" would not have been brave enough to challenge the Roman guards to take the body from the tomb; let alone to preach fearlessly that He was alive from the dead!
Josh also dealt with the thought that the authorities moved the body. If they'd moved it they would have shown where it was! He wrote, "Why didn't they recover the corpse, put it on a cart, and wheel it through the center of Jerusalem? Such an action would certainly have destroyed Christianity."
The last topic Josh covered in this chapter is "Evidence for the Resurrection". He quoted several history professors about the overwhelming evidence there is to prove the resurrection of Christ. Professor Thomas Arnold was quoted, "I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead." He also quoted English scholar Brooke Foss Westcott who said, "Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it."
He quoted another lawyer, Frank Morrison, who "set out to refute the evidence for the resurrection. He thought that the life of Jesus was one of the most beautiful lives ever lived, but when it came to the resurrection he thought someone had come along and tacked a myth onto the story of Jesus. He planned to write an account of the last few days of Jesus. He would of course disregard the resurrection. He figured that an intelligent, rational apprroach to Jesus would completely discount His resurrection. However, upon approaching the facts with his legal background and training, he had to change his mind. He eventually wrote a best-seller, "Who Moved the Stone?". The first chapter was titled, "The Book That Refused to Be Written." and the rest of the chapters deal decisively with the evidence for Christ's resurrection."
Josh closed the chapter with this paragraph. "What is your evaluation and decision? What do you think of the empty tomb? After examining the evidence from a judicial perspective, Lord Darling, former Chief justice of England, concluded that 'There exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true.'"
Sincerely,
Rick
The next theory Josh mentioned was "The Body Was Stolen". He wrote that the disciples who were hiding "for fear of the Jews" would not have been brave enough to challenge the Roman guards to take the body from the tomb; let alone to preach fearlessly that He was alive from the dead!
Josh also dealt with the thought that the authorities moved the body. If they'd moved it they would have shown where it was! He wrote, "Why didn't they recover the corpse, put it on a cart, and wheel it through the center of Jerusalem? Such an action would certainly have destroyed Christianity."
The last topic Josh covered in this chapter is "Evidence for the Resurrection". He quoted several history professors about the overwhelming evidence there is to prove the resurrection of Christ. Professor Thomas Arnold was quoted, "I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead." He also quoted English scholar Brooke Foss Westcott who said, "Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it."
He quoted another lawyer, Frank Morrison, who "set out to refute the evidence for the resurrection. He thought that the life of Jesus was one of the most beautiful lives ever lived, but when it came to the resurrection he thought someone had come along and tacked a myth onto the story of Jesus. He planned to write an account of the last few days of Jesus. He would of course disregard the resurrection. He figured that an intelligent, rational apprroach to Jesus would completely discount His resurrection. However, upon approaching the facts with his legal background and training, he had to change his mind. He eventually wrote a best-seller, "Who Moved the Stone?". The first chapter was titled, "The Book That Refused to Be Written." and the rest of the chapters deal decisively with the evidence for Christ's resurrection."
Josh closed the chapter with this paragraph. "What is your evaluation and decision? What do you think of the empty tomb? After examining the evidence from a judicial perspective, Lord Darling, former Chief justice of England, concluded that 'There exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true.'"
Sincerely,
Rick
0 comments:
Post a Comment