Something interesting!!

[Khasilooluv]

I read in an article yesterday that if all 500 witnesses of Jesus' resurrection were to have been put on the stand for 6 minutes to testify, there would be 50 hours of eyewitness testimony?!

Wow!!

How amazing

 

[parsley]

Ha! That's quite a convicting thought.

We get so worried about what people will think, and then they still criticize no matter what we do. Might as well go for it and make a difference.

 

[Khasilooluv]

So true Parsley!
And sometimes all we have are one or two writings or ruins of buildings, but Jesus has an abundance of evidence and some still choose to critize..

 

[Harry3142]

The argument that many who refuse to accept Jesus have used is the lack of secular writings concerning him, with the exceptions of those that were written decades later, and which were flagrant attacks on Christianity. However, what these same people either fail to realize, or hope that their hearers will not know, is that there was no freedom of speech at that time. Any writer who didn't 'toe the party line' could quite literally find himself as one of the attractions in the colosseum.

And the party line was that everyone was to worship the emperor himself as a god. This deifying of the emperors began with Augustus Caesar, although he didn't enforce it on his subjects. However, with Caligula the deification of the emperors became a mania. He himself ordered that his statue be placed inside the temple at Jerusalem, there to be worshiped as a god above even Yahweh. His advisors warned him that it would start a revolt, and delayed the order. Fortunately, it was canceled altogether after Caligula's assassination.

This is why the charge under which Christians were martyred was atheism. Since they refused to offer sacrifices to whatever emperor was ruling at that time, they were considered heretical via their being nonbelievers.

 

[asiyreh]

William Lane Craig does a good lecture on the secular references to Christ.

What I wanted to talk about however was "reverse analysis."

See think about the apostles as apologists for a second. Their literature is often a response to the claims the non believers are making. It's what their not arguing about that's often most revealing. There not for example responding to claims Jesus body was found for example. Their not responding to claims; like some of the fanciful ideas of these modern heretics, that maybe Jesus didn't even exist.

See when we make a argument we always bring certain presuppositions to the table.

Consider for example the statement, this forum is white.
Now you could say no it isn't it's blue and grey and white, or hey maybe yours is black and mint green... well whatever you're into yourself.

However notice how we come to the table with the presupposition that the forum has colour. We both agree that the forum exists and has colour. there's no need for an argument.

Tis the power of deductive reasoning and much truth can be gained from it. So next time you read the gospels, "read them in the mirror." Or does that sound a little weird?