apologetics, kreeft chapter 9: the resurrection of jesus christ

8/3/2019 Apologetics, Kreeft Chapter 9: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

1/56


2/56

Every sermon preached by Christiansin the NT centres on the resurrection.

Kreeft says, The Gospel or goodnews means essentially the news ofChrists resurrection. he goes on tosay that the news that set the ancient

world on fire was not that of loveyour neighbour but of theresurrection of Jesus Christ, whoclaimed to be the Son of God andSaviour of the world.The resurrection is of crucialimportance because it completes our

salvation - Rom 6:23


3/56

Abraham, Buddha,

Muhammed, Confucius and

Lao Tzu all still lie dead in theirgraves - the tomb of Jesus is

empty.

In life changing terms we see

the difference in the disciples

before and after the

resurrection - before hidden

behind closed doors, afterconfident world changing

missionaries and ready to face

martyrdom if necessary.


4/56

It is important to see that the

resurrection is not in the past,

Christ rose, - but in thepresent, Christ is risen

He is living - Lk 24:5

Do you keep Christ mummifiedin words like apologetics and

history - or do you allow him to

live and set lives alight now ashe did millennia ago?

For that is what the

resurrection did - and still does.


5/56

The strategy of the argument forthe resurrection - 5 theories

The resurrection can beproved and believed with as

much historical credibility asany other well documentedevent in ancient history. The

two basic assumptions forsuch a belief are simple andare based on empirical data

which is no disputed:


6/56

The strategy of the argument forthe resurrection - 5 theories

The existence of the NT

texts as we have them,and the existence (but notnecessarily the truth) of

the Christian religion aswe find it today.


7/56

The question to ask is this:Which theory about whathappened in Jerusalemon that first EasterSunday can account forthe data?The following five

diagrams represent thepossible theories.


8/56

Jesus Died Jesus Rose 1. Christianity

5 Theories about the resurrection


9/56


2. HallucinationJesus

didnt rise

The apostleswere deceived



10/56


2. Hallucination

3. Myth

Jesusdidnt rise


The apostles weremyth-makers



11/56


4. Conspiracy

2. Hallucination

3. Myth

Jesusdidnt rise



The apostleswere deceivers



12/56

Jesus Died

Jesusdidnt die

Jesus Rose 1. Christianity

5. Swoon

4. Conspiracy

2. Hallucination

3. Myth

Jesusdidnt rise



The apostleswere deceivers



13/56

Could it be that Christ in factsurvived the crucifixion, he didnot die but just swooned?Here are 9 arguments inresponse to the swoon theory:1. Jesus could not have

survived crucifixion. Romanprocedures were very careful toeliminate that possibility. Romanlaw even laid the death penaltyon any soldier who let a capital

prisoner escape in any way,including bungling a crucifixion.

It was never done.


14/56

2. The fact thatthe Romansoldier did not break Jesus'legs, as he did to the other twocrucified criminals (Jn

19:31-33), means that thesoldier was sure Jesus wasdead. Breaking the legshastened the death so that thecorpse could be taken downbefore the sabbath.


15/56

3. John, an eyewitness,certified that he saw blood

and water come fromJesus' pierced heart (Jn19:34-35). This shows thatJesus' lungs had collapsedand he had died ofasphyxiation. Any medicalexpert can vouch for this.

4. The body was totallyencased in winding sheetsand entombed (Jn19:38-42).


16/56

5. The post-resurrectionappearances convinced the

disciples, even doubting Thomas,that Jesus was alive (Jn20:19-29). It is psychologicallyimpossible for the disciples to have

been so transformed and confidentif Jesus had merely struggled outof a swoon, badly in need of adoctor. A half-dead, staggeringsick man who has just had anarrow escape is not worshipedfearlessly as divine lord and

conquerer of death.


17/56

6. How were the Roman guards at thetomb overpowered by a swooningcorpse? Or by unarmed disciples? And

if the disciples did it, they knowinglylied when they wrote the Gospels, and

we are into the conspiracy theory.


18/56

7. How could a swooning half-dead man have moved the great

stone at the door of the tomb?Who moved the stone if not anangel? No one has everanswered that question. Neither

the Jews nor the Romans wouldmove it, for it was in both theirinterests to keep the tomb sealed,

the Jews had the stone put therein the first place, and the Romanguards would be killed if they let

the body "escape."


19/56

The story the Jewishauthorities spread, that the

guards fell asleep and thedisciples stole the body (Mt28:11-15), is unbelievable.Roman guards would not

fall asleep on a job like that;if they did, they would lose

their lives. If they did fallasleep, the crowd and theeffort and the noise it wouldhave taken to move anenormous boulder would

have wakened them.


20/56

8. If Jesus awoke from aswoon, where did he go?

Think this through: you havea living body to deal withnow, not a dead one. Why didit disappear? There is

absolutely no data, not evenany false, fantastic, imagineddata, about Jesus' life afterhis crucifixion, in anysources, friend or foe, at any

time, early or late. A man likethat, with a past like that,

would have left traces.


21/56

9. Most simply, theswoon theory necessarilyturns into the conspiracytheory or the

hallucination theory, forthe disciples testified thatJesus did not swoon butreally died and reallyrose.


22/56

Refutation of the ConspiracyTheory: Seven Arguments

Why couldn't the discipleshave made up the wholestory?

1. Blaise Pascal gives a simple,psychologically sound prooffor why this is unthinkable:

"The apostles were eitherdeceived or deceivers. Eithersupposition is difficult, for it isnot possible to imagine that a

man has risen from the dead...


23/56

Refutation of the ConspiracyTheory: Seven Arguments


24/56

The hypothesis that the Apostles were dishonestis quite absurd. Follow it out to the end, andimagine these twelve men meeting after Jesus'death and conspiring to say that he has risenfrom the dead. This means attacking all the

powers that be. The human heart is susceptibleto fickleness, to change, to promises, to bribery.One of them had only to deny his story under

these inducements, or still more because of

possible imprisonment, tortures and death, andthey would all have been lost. Follow that out."Pascal, Pensees 322, 310


25/56

The "cruncher" in this argument is the historicalfact that no one, weak or strong, saint or sinner,

Christian or heretic, ever confessed, freely orunder pressure, bribe or even torture, that the

whole story of the resurrection was a fake a lie,a deliberate deception. Even when people brokeunder torture, denied Christ and worshipedCaesar, they never let that cat out of the bag,never revealed that the resurrection was their

conspiracy. For that cat was never in that bag.No Christians believed the resurrection was aconspiracy; if they had, they wouldn't havebecome Christians.


26/56

2. If they made up the

story, they were the mostcreative, clever, intelligentfantasists in history, farsurpassing Shakespeare,or Dante or Tolkien.Fisherman's "fish stories"are never that elaborate,

that convincing, that life-changing, and thatenduring.


27/56

3. The disciples' characterargues strongly against such aconspiracy on the part of all of

them, with no dissenters. Theywere simple, honest, commonpeasants, not cunning,

conniving liars. Their sincerityis proved by their words anddeeds. They preached aresurrected Christ and they

lived a resurrected Christ.They willingly died for their"conspiracy." Nothing proves

sincerity like martyrdom.


28/56

They change in their livesfrom fear to faith, despair toconfidence, confusion tocertitude, runaway cowardice

to steadfast boldness underthreat and persecution, not

only proves their sincerity buttestifies to some powerfulcause of it. Can a lie causesuch a transformation? Are

truth and goodness suchenemies that the greatest goodin history -- sanctity -- has

come from the greatest lie?


29/56

4. There could be nopossible motive for such a

lie. Lies are always told forsome selfish advantage. Whatadvantage did the"conspirators" derive from

their "lie" ? They were hated,scorned, persecuted,excommunicated, imprisoned,

tortured, exiled, crucified,boiled alive, roasted,beheaded, disemboweled andfed to lions - hardly a catalog

of perks!


30/56

5. If the resurrection was a lie, theJews would have produced thecorpse. All they had to do was go

to the tomb and get it. TheRoman soldiers and their leaders

were on their side. If the Jews

couldn't get the body because thedisciples stole it, how did they do

that? The arguments against theswoon theory hold here too:

unarmed peasants could not haveoverpowered Roman soldiers orrolled away a great stone while

they slept on duty.


31/56

6. The disciples could not havegotten away with proclaiming the

resurrection in Jerusalem - sametime, same place, full ofeyewitnesses - if it had been a lie.

William Lane Craig says,

"The fact that the disciples were able toroclaim the resurrection in Jerusalemin the face of their enemies a few weeks

after the crucifixion shows that whatthey proclaimed was true, for they could

never have proclaimed the resurrection(and been believed) under such

circumstances had it not occurred.


32/56

Refutation of the HallucinationTheory: Thirteen Arguments

If you thought you saw a

dead man walking andtalking, wouldn't you think itmore likely that you werehallucinating than that you

were seeing correctly? Whythen not think the same thingabout Christ's resurrection?


33/56

Refutation of the HallucinationTheory: Thirteen Arguments


34/56

1. There were too manywitnesses. Hallucinations areprivate, individual, subjective.Christ appeared to MaryMagdalene, to the disciples minusThomas, to the disciples including

Thomas, to the two disciples atEmmaus, to the fisherman on theshore, to James (his "brother" orcousin), and even to five hundred

people at once (1 Cor 15:3-8).Even three different witnesses areenough for a kind of psychological

trigonometry;


35/56

...over five hundred is about as public as you canwish. And Paul says in this passage (v. 6) thatmost of the five hundred are still alive, inviting

any reader to check the truth of the story byquestioning the eyewitnesses -- he could neverhave done this and gotten away with it, given

the power, resources and numbers of hisenemies, if it were not true.


36/56

2. The witnesses were qualified.They were simple, honest, moral

people who had firsthandknowledge of the facts.

3. The five hundred saw Christtogether, at the same time andplace.

4. Hallucinations usually last afew seconds or minutes; rarelyhours. This one hung around forforty days (Acts 1:3).


37/56


38/56


39/56

10. They also spoke withhim, and he spoke back.

Figments of yourimagination do not hold

profound, extendedconversations with you,unless you have the kind ofmental disorder thatisolates you. But this

"hallucination" conversedwith at least eleven peopleat once, for forty days(Acts 1:3).


40/56

11. The apostles could not have believed in the"hallucination" if Jesus' corpse had still been in

the tomb. This is very simple and telling point;for if it was a hallucination, where was thecorpse? They would have checked for it; if it

was there, they could not have believed.


41/56

12. If the apostles hadhallucinated and thenspread their hallucinogenicstory, the Jews would have

stopped it by producing thebody -- unless the discipleshad stolen it, in which case

we are back with the

conspiracy theory and allits difficulties.


42/56

13. A hallucination would

explain only the post-resurrection appearances;it would not explain theempty tomb, the rolled-away stone, or theinability to produce thecorpse. No theory can

explain all these dataexcept a realresurrection.

C S Le is sa s


43/56

C.S. Lewis says,

"Any theory of hallucination breaks down on the fact(and if it is invention [rather than fact], it is the oddest

invention that ever entered the mind of man) that onthree separate occasions this hallucination was notimmediately recognized as Jesus (Lk 24:13-31; Jn20:15; 21:4). Even granting that God sent a holyhallucination to teach truths already widely believedwithout it, and far more easily taught by other methods,and certain to be completely obscured by this, might we

not at least hope that he would get the face of thehallucination right? Is he who made all faces such abungler that he cannot even work up a recognizablelikeness of the Man who was himself?" (Miracles,

chapter 16)

R f i f h M h Th


44/56

Refutation of the Myth Theory:Six Arguments

1. The style of the Gospels isradically and clearly differentfrom the style of all the myths.

Any literary scholar who knowsand appreciates myths can verify

this. There are no overblown,spectacular, childishlyexaggerated events. Nothing isarbitrary. Everything fits in.Everything is meaningful. The

hand of a master is at work here.

R f i f h M h Th


45/56

Refutation of the Myth Theory:Six Arguments

h l l d h


46/56

Psychological depth is at a maximum. Inmyth it is at a minimum. In myth, suchspectacular external events happen that it

would be distracting to add much internaldepth of character. That is why it isordinary people like Alice who are the

protagonists of extra-ordinary adventureslike Wonderland. That character depthand development of everyone in theGospels -- especially, of course, Jesus

himself -- is remarkable.It is also done with an incredible economyof words. Myths are verbose; the Gospels

are laconic (concise).

h l ll l k f


47/56

There are also telltale marks of eyewitnessdescription, like the little detail of Jesus

writing in the sand when asked whetherto stone the adulteress or not (Jn 8:6). Noone knows why this is put in; nothingcomes of it. The only explanation is that

the writer saw it. If this detail and otherslike it throughout all four Gospels wereinvented, then a first-century tax collector(Matthew), a "young man" (Mark), a

doctor (Luke), and a fisherman (John) allindependently invented the new genre ofrealistic fantasy nineteen centuries before

it was reinvented in the twentieth.


48/56

2. A second problem is thatthere was not enough time for

myth to develop. The originaldemythologizers pinned theircase onto a late second-centurydate for the writing of the

Gospels; several generationshave to pass before the addedmythological elements can be

mistakenly believed to be facts.Eyewitnesses would be aroundbefore that to discredit the new,mythic versions.

I h h h d


49/56

In other cases where myths andlegends of miracles developed arounda religious founder, e.g. Buddha, Lao-

tzu and Muhammad. In each case,many generations passed before themyth surfaced.

Julius Muller challenged hisnineteenth-century contemporaries to

produce a single example anywherein history of a great myth or legend

arising around a historical figure andbeing generally believed within thirty

years after that figure's death. No one

has ever answered him.

3 Th h h h l Th


50/56

3. The myth theory has two layers. Thefirst layer is the historical Jesus, who wasnot divine, did not claim divinity,

performed no miracles, and did not risefrom the dead. The second, later,mythologized layer is the Gospels as we

have them, with a Jesus who claimed to bedivine, performed miracles and rose from

the dead. The problem with this theory issimply that there is not the slightest bit of

any real evidence whatever for theexistence of any such first layer. The two-layer cake theory has the first layer made

entirely of air -- and hot air at that.

4 A li l d il ld i d i


51/56

4. A little detail, seldom noticed, issignificant in distinguishing the Gospelsfrom myth: the first witnesses of theresurrection were women. In first-centuryJudaism, women had low social statusand no legal right to serve as witnesses. If

the empty tomb were an invented legend,its inventors surely wouldnot have had itdiscovered by women, whose testimony

was considered worthless. If, on the other

hand, the writers were simply reportingwhat they saw, they would have to tell thetruth, however socially and legally

inconvenient.

5 Th NT ld b h


52/56

5. The NT could not be mythmisinterpreted and confused

with fact because itspecifically distinguishes the

two and repudiates the mythicinterpretation (2 Peter 1:16).

Since it explicitly says it is notmyth, if it is myth it is adeliberate lie rather thanmyth. The dilemma still

stands. It is either truth or lie,whether deliberate(conspiracy) or non-

deliberate (hallucination).


53/56

There is no escape from

the horns of this dilemma.Once a child asks whetherSanta Claus is real, your

yes becomes a lie, not

myth, if he is not literallyreal. Once the NewTestament distinguishes

myth from fact, itbecomes a lie if theresurrection is not fact.

Ri h d P till i th


54/56

Richard Purtill summarizes thetextual case:"Many events which are regardedas firmly established historicallyhave (1) far less documentaryevidence than many biblical events;

(2) and the documents on whichhistorians rely for much secularhistory are written much longerafter the event than many records

of biblical events; (3) furthermore,we have many more copies ofbiblical narratives than of secular

histories;


55/56

(4) the surviving copies aremuch earlier than those on whichour evidence for secular historyis based. If the biblical narrativesdid not contain accounts of

miraculous events, biblicalhistory would probably beregarded as much more firmlyestablished than most of the

history of, say, classical Greeceand Rome."Thinking About Religion, p. 84-85


56/56

If the evidence provided istrue then we have to face adecision: will we followChrist?

Such a decision can be basedon the evidence providedbeing intellectually acceptable

- and the moral integrity toaccept and act upon it.

apologetics, kreeft chapter 9: the resurrection of jesus christ

Documents