“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an
answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear (I Peter 3:15):”
Definition: “Apologetics” means “a
reasonable defense of the Christian faith.”
QUESTON: Did Christ really die on the cross, and, if
he really died on the cross, did He rise from the dead? Is there any evidence to prove the reality
of the cross or the truth of the empty tomb?
Resurrection occurred c. 30-33 AD
I.
Eyewitness
accounts
a. The Four Gospels are biographies of
the life of Christ
b.
The
Gospel of Matthew (circa 40 AD, no later than 50 AD)
i.
Supporters
of Matthew as author
1.Irenaeus and Origin (c. 130 AD)
2.Apollinaris of Hieapolis (C. 175 AD)
3.Eusebius (c. 260-c. 340 AD)
c. The Gospel of Mark (circa 40-50 AD)
i.
Supporters
of John Mark as author
1.Irenaeus (c. 130-c. 202 AD)
2.Clement of Alexandria (c. 140-c. 215
AD)
3.Tertullian (c. 160-c. 220 AD)
4.Origin (c. 185-c. 254 AD)
5.Jerome (c. 347-c. 420 AD)
d.
The
Gospel of Luke
i.
Supporters
of Luke as author
1.Marcion (c. 100-165 AD)
2.Irenaeus (c. 130-202 AD)
3.Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215 AD)
4.Tertullian (c. 160-220 AD)
5.Origin (c. 185-254 AD)
6.The Muratorian Canon (c. 170 AD)
e.The Gospel of John (c. 85-95 AD)
i.
Supporters
of John as author
1.Irenaeus (c. 130-202 AD)
2.Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215
AD)
3.Tertullian (c. 160-c. 220 AD)
4.Origen (c. 185-c. 254 AD)
5.Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260-c. 340
AD)
6.Jerome (c. 347-c. 420 AD)
f. Matthew and John were present at the
crucifixion of Christ.
g. Luke probably received his account of
the life of Christ by Paul.
h.
Mark
probably received his information concerning the life of Christ from Peter (I
Peter 5:13) and/or Paul (Acts 12:25).
II.
Eyewitnesses
of the Resurrected Christ
a. Eyewitness accounts came very early—Buddha’s
“resurrection” was reported hundreds of years later after his birth.
b.
It
was first proclaimed in Jerusalem. If
this had been a hoax, Jerusalem should have been the last place that they would
want to go to pronounce the resurrection because eyewitnesses were all around.
c. The first witnesses were women. During this time in history, women were not
permitted to be a witness in a court of law because they believed that all
women could do is lie.
d.
Non-Christians
admitted that the tomb was empty. Thus,
the claim that the disciples stole the body.
These non-Christians were trying to account for the empty tomb.
e.Mary Magdalene (John 20:11)
f. The “other” women (Matthew 28:9-10)
g. Peter (Luke 24:34)
h.
Two
disciples on road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32)
i. Ten apostles (Luke 24:33-39)
j. Thomas and the other apostles (John
20:26-30)
k. Seven apostles (John 21)
l. All the apostles (Acts 1:4-9)
m.
Peter
saw Jesus alive, then the disciples together saw Jesus alive (1 Cor. 15:5)
n.
Five
hundred brethren (I Corinthians 15:6)
o.
James
(I Corinthians 15:6)
p.
Paul
(I Corinthians 15:7)
q.
Even
though Jesus informed them many times that He was going to die and raised from
the dead many times, His disciples apparently did not believe Him. The women went to the tomb with spices to
embalm the body (Luke 24:1). The women
thought that someone stole Jesus’ body (John 20:2). The disciples were surprised to find the
tomb empty (John 20:3-9). Thomas needed
extra persuasion to believe that Jesus stood before (John 20:25-29). Many people also were eyewitnesses that
Christ raised from the dead.
III.
Prophecy
a. Psalm 22
i.
David wrote this psalm over 400
years before crucifixion was invented
b.Christ
fulfilled at least 48 prophecies in His death and resurrection
c. Professor Peter W. Stoner who authored “Science Speaks” stated
that the probability of just eight particular prophecies being fulfilled in one
person is 1 in 1017, i.e. 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000). The
eight prophecies used in the calculation were:
d.1. Messiah
is to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; fulfilled in Matt. 2:1-7; John 7:42;
Luke 2:47).
e. 2. Messiah is to be preceded by a Messenger (Isaiah
40:3; Malachi 3:1; fulfilled in Matthew 3:1-3; 11:10; John 1:23; Luke 1:17).
f.
3. Messiah is to enter
Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9; fulfilled in Luke 35-37; Matthew
21:6-11).
g. 4. Messiah is to be betrayed by a friend (Psalms 41:9;
55:12-14; fulfilled in Matthew 10:4; 26:49-50; John 13:21).
h. 5. Messiah is to be sold for 30 pieces of silver
(Zechariah 11:12; fulfilled in Matthew 26:15; 27:3).
i.
6. The money for which Messiah
is sold is to be thrown “to the potter” in God’s house (Zechariah 11:13;
fulfilled in Matthew 27:5-7).
j.
7. Messiah is to be silent
before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7; fulfilled in Matthew 27:12).
k.8. Messiah
is to be executed by crucifixion as a thief (Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10;
Isaiah 53:5,12; fulfilled in Luke 23:33; John 20:25; Matthew 27:38; Mark
15:27,28).
l.
This statement was validated by the
American Scientific Affiliation. This number has been illustrated as
follows:
m.
If we take 1 X 1017 silver
dollars and lay them on the face of Texas, they'll cover all of the state two
feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass
thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel
as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is
the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one?
n.
Professor Stoner went on to consider
48 prophecies and says, “… We find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48
prophecies to be 1 in 10157.
o.
p.“This is a really large number and it represents an
extremely small chance. Let us try to visualize it. The silver dollar, which we
have been using, is entirely too large. We must select a smaller object. The
electron is about as small an object as we know of. It is so small that it will
take 2.5 times 1015 of them laid side by side to make a line, single
file, one inch long. If we were going to count the electrons in this line one
inch long, and counted 250 each minute, and if we counted day and night, it
would take us 19,000,000 years to count just the one-inch line of electrons. If
we had a cubic inch of these electrons and we tried to count them it would take
us, counting steadily 250 each minute, 19,000,000 times 19,000,000 times 19,000,000
[nineteen million times nineteen million times nineteen million] or 6.9 times
1021 years.
q.
r.
This is approximately the total
number of electrons in all the mass of the known universe. In other
words the probability of Jesus Christ fulfilling 48 prophecies is the same as
one person being able to pick out one electron out of the entire mass of our
universe.
s.
Such is the chance of any one man
fulfilling any 48 prophecies. Yet Jesus Christ fulfilled not just 48
prophecies, not just 61 prophecies, but more than 324 individual prophecies
that the Prophets wrote concerning the Messiah. I haven’t been able to
find the statistical projection representing the possibility of Jesus Christ
fulfilling 324 prophecies but I really don’t think it matters given the illustrations
set forth above.
IV. History
a. Josephus wrote of Christ, “Now there was about this
time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of
wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He
drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the
Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had
condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake
him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets
had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And
the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.
Jewish
Antiquities 18.3.3”
b.Circa AD 52, Thallus wrote a history of the Eastern
Mediterranean. Most of his works are lost, but he was quoted by Julius
Africanus around AD 221:
c. On the whole worlds there pressed a most fearful
darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea
and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book
of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun.
d.Jerome wrote –
Jesus Christ, according to the prophecies which had been foretold about him beforehand, came to his passion in the eighteenth year of Tiberius, at which time also we find these things written verbatim in other commentaries of the gentiles, that an eclipse of the sun happened, Bithynia was shaken by earthquake, and in the city of Nicaea many buildings collapsed, all of which agree with what occurred in the passion of the savior. Indeed Phlegon, who is an excellent calculator of olympiads, also writes about these things, writing thus in his thirteenth book:
Jesus Christ, according to the prophecies which had been foretold about him beforehand, came to his passion in the eighteenth year of Tiberius, at which time also we find these things written verbatim in other commentaries of the gentiles, that an eclipse of the sun happened, Bithynia was shaken by earthquake, and in the city of Nicaea many buildings collapsed, all of which agree with what occurred in the passion of the savior. Indeed Phlegon, who is an excellent calculator of olympiads, also writes about these things, writing thus in his thirteenth book:
e. (Phlegon) – “In the fourth year, however, of olympiad
202,* an eclipse of the sun happened, greater and more excellent than any that
had happened before it; at the sixth hour, day turned into dark night, so that
the stars were seen in the sky, and an earthquake in Bithynia toppled many
buildings of the city of Nicaea. These things [are according to] the
aforementioned man.”
I.
Science
a. John 19:34 “But one of the soldiers
with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”
i.
The
“water” was actually body fluid.
ii.
The
spear passed through the left lung of Christ and pierced the fluid sack around
the heart and then proceeded into the heart
b.
Christ
was not pierced in the palm of the hand but He was pierced in the wrists
because if He would have been nailed through the hands, it could not have
supported Christ’s body weight and Christ would have fallen off of the cross.
c. You can die on the monkey bars if you
could hold on for long enough.
THE WRONG TOMB THEORY—The theory states that the women who reported the
empty tomb went to the wrong tomb. This
is not likely unless the disciples also went to the wrong tomb.
·
If they women
went to the wrong tomb, then the soldiers were guarding the wrong tomb
·
The disciples
went to the wrong tomb
·
The angels were
sitting at the wrong tomb
THE SWOON THEORY—This theory states that Christ never really died on
the cross, but was merely in a “swoon” state when He was taken down from the
cross. The testimony of the Roman
soldiers was enough to prove otherwise (Jn. 19:33-34). A Roman soldier knew when someone was dead.
·
This theory
completely ignores the evidences of His death and would require a greater
miracle than the resurrection. According to this theory:
·
This was the most
popular theory against the resurrection until 1885.
·
The Roman
centurions were experts on death and would have broken Jesus’ legs if He were
still alive.
·
Christ would have
had to sneak past the guards, get out of the grave clothes, roll the stone away
from inside the tomb, and appear to His disciples all covered in and dripping
in blood
·
In 1951, there
was a medical study done in Cologne, Germany, the doctor got male volunteers to
be tied to 2 by 4’s and he took x-rays of their chest cavities while they were
hanging. They passed out at a maximum of
12 minutes. They had nothing on their feet,
so that twas why they passed out so quickly.
o When you are hanging like that, you have to push up to
breathe
o That is why they broke the legs of the malefactors so
that they would die quickly.
o It is reasonable to assume that Jesus was hanging in a
low position for a long time and that is why they did not break His legs.
o Hanging in a low position for any period of time, you
are dead. You cannot fake it. It is like faking a drowning.
THE STOLEN BODY THEORY—This theory states that either the disciples, Joseph
of Arimathaea, or the Jewish officials stole the body of Jesus in the
night. The disciples conduct, and the
Roman garrison guard keeping watch make this an impossibility.
·
ALMOST NO
REFUTABLE SCHOLAR HAS TAKEN THE VIEW THAT THE DISCIPLES TOOK THE BODY FOR OVER
200 YEARS!
·
Roman officials
would have flaunted the body of Christ in streets if they had stolen it.
·
The disciples
clearly did not steal the body of Christ due to surprised expression (Lk.
24:12)
·
The women came
prepared to embalm the body of Christ (Lk. 24:1-8)
·
The disciples
would have never broken the Roman seal due to fear of consequences
·
The tomb was
guarded by four men and switched out after a few hours
·
The stone in
front of the tomb was huge and actually moved upward as if someone picked it up
and carried it upward
·
Grave clothes
were located within the tomb
The Hallucination Theory—This theory states that the grief-stricken women were
so distraught that they deceived themselves into believing that they saw the
empty tomb. Similarly the apostles,
remembering the teaching of Christ about His resurrection and hearing the
women’s false reports about the empty tomb, deceived themselves into believing
that Jesus appeared unto them.[1]
·
Hallucinations
occur when you believe something so strong that you invent the image.
·
The disciples did
not originally believe that Christ rose from the dead.
·
Groups of people
claimed to have seen the risen Jesus.
·
Skeptics, like
James the brother of Jesus and Paul became believers of the resurrection.
The Visions Theory—This Theory states that the appearances of Jesus were
God-produced rather than man produced.
It also states that the resurrection of Jesus was spiritual rather than
physical. God gave the grief-stricken
disciples visions of Jesus to dull the edge of their sorrow.[2]
·
THIS THEORY
IGNORES BIBLE FACTS!
·
Jesus ate with
the two men on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24:30)
·
Jesus Himself
indicated that His resurrection was physical (Lk. 24:39)
·
Jesus invited
Thomas to touch His body (Jn. 20:27)
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