APPENDIX: A SUMMARY OF THE CASE FOR CHRIST Here is a summary of the historical evidence fo r Jesus Christ from thirteen leading experts who were interviewed for my book The Case for Christ: CAN THE BIOGRAPHIES OF JESUS BE TRUSTED? I once thought that the gospels were merely religious propaganda, hopelessly tainted by overactive imaginations and evangelistic zeal. But Craig Blomberg of Denver Seminary, one of the countrys foremost authorities on the biographies of Jesus, bui lt a convincing case that they reflect eyewitness testimony and bear the unmistaka ble earmarks of accuracy. So early are these accounts of Jesus life that they cannot be explained away as le gendary inventions. Within the first two years after his death, Blomberg said, s ignificant numbers of Jesus followers seem to have formulated a doctrine of the atonement, were convinced that he had been raised from the dead in bodily form, associated Jesus with God, and believed they found support for all these convictions in the Old Testam ent. A study indicates that th ere was nowhere enough time for legend to have developed and wiped out a solid core of historical truth. DO JESUS BIOGRAPHIES STAND UP TO SCRUTINY? Blomberg argued persuasively that the gospel writ ers intended to preser ve reliable history, were able to do so, were honest and willing to include difficult-to-explain material, and didnt allow bias to unduly color their reporting. The harmony among the gospels on essential facts, coupled with divergence on some incidental detail s, lends historical credibility to the accounts. Whats more, the early church could not have ta ken root and flourished ri ght there in Jerusalem if it had been teaching facts a bout Jesus that his own contempor aries could have exposed as exaggerated or false. In shor t, the gospels were able to pass all eight evidential tests, demonstrating their basic trustwor thiness as historical records. WERE JESUS BIOGRAPHIES RELIABLY PRESERVED FOR US? World-class scholar Bruce Metz ger, professor emeritus at Pr inceton Theological Seminary, said that compared to other ancient documents, there is an unprecedented number of New Testament manuscripts and that they can be dated extremely close to the original writings. The modern New Testament is 99.5 percent free of te xtual discrepancies, with no major Christian doctrine in doubt. The criteria used by the early c hurch to determine which books should be considered authoritative have ensured that we possess the best records about Jesus. IS THERE CREDI BLE EVIDENCE FOR JESUS OUTSIDE HIS BIOGRAPHIES? We have better historical documentation for Je sus than for the founder of any other ancient religion, said Edwin Yamauchi of Miami Univ ersity, a leading expert on ancient history. Sources from outside the Bible corroborate that many people believed Jesus performed healings and was the Messiah, that he was crucified, and th at despite this shameful death, his followers, who believed he was still alive, worshiped him as God. One expert documented thirty-nine ancient sources that corroborate more than one hundred facts concerning Jesus life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrec tion. Seven secular sources and seve ral early Christian creeds concern the deity of Jesus, a doctrine definitely pres ent in the earliest church, according to Gary Habermas, the scholar who wrote The Historical Jesus. DOES ARCHAEOLOGY CONFIRM OR CONTRADICT JESUS BIOGRAPHIES? John McRay, a professor of archaeology for mo re than fifteen years and author of Archaeology and the New Testament, said theres no question that archaeo logical findings have enhanced the New Testaments credibility. No discovery has ever disproved a biblical reference. Further, archaeology has establis hed that Luke, who wrote about one- quarter of the New Testament, was an especially careful historian. Concluded one e xpert: If Luke was so painstakingly accurate in his historical reporting [of mi nor details], on what logical basis may we assume he was credulous or inaccurate in his reporting of matters that were far more important, not only to him but to others as well? Like, for instance, the resurrection of Jesus-the event that authenticated hi s claim to being the unique Son of God. IS THE JESUS OF HISTORY THE SAME AS THE JESUS OF FAITH? Gregory Boyd, a Yale- and Princeton-educated scholar who wrote the award-winning Cynic Sage or Son of God, offered a devastating critique of the Jesus Seminar, a gr oup that questions whether Jesus said or did most of whats attributed to him. He identified the Seminar as an extremely small number of radical-fringe schol ars who are on the far, far left wing of New Testament thinking. The Seminar ruled out the po ssibility of miracles at the outset, employed questionable criteria, and some participants have touted myth-riddled documents of extremely dubious quality. Further, the idea that stories about Jesus emerged from mythology fails to withstand scrutiny. Said Boyd: The evidence for Je sus being who the disciples said he was ... is just light years beyond my reas ons for thinking that the left-w ing scholarship of the Jesus Seminar is correct. In sum, the Jesus of faith is the same as the Jesus of history. WAS JESUS REALLY CONVINCED HE WAS THE SON OF GOD? By going back to the very earliest traditions, which were safe from legendary development, Ben Witherington III, author of The Christology of Jesus, was able to show that Jesus had a supreme and transcendent self- understanding. Based on the eviden ce, Witherington said: Did Jesus believe he was the Son of God, the anointed one of God? The answer is yes. Did he see himself as the Son of Man? The answer is yes. Did he see himself as the final Messiah? Yes, thats the way he viewed himself. Did he be lieve that anybody less th an God could save the world? No, I dont believe he did. Scholars said th at Jesus repeated reference to himself as the Son of Man was not a claim of humanity, but a re ference to Daniel 7:13-14, in which the Son of Man is seen as having universal authority and everlasting dominion and who receives the worship of all nations. Said one scholar: Thus, the claim to be the Son of Man would be in effect a claim to divinity. WAS JESUS CRAZY WHEN HE CLAIMED TO BE THE SON OF GOD? Gary Collins, a professor of psychology for twen ty years and author of forty-five books on psychology-related topics, said Je sus exhibited no inappropriate emotions, was in contact with reality, was brilliant and had amazing insights in to human nature, and enjoyed deep and abiding relationships. I just dont see signs that Jesu s was suffering from any known mental illness, he concluded. In addition, Jesus backed up his clai m to being God through miraculous feats of healing, astounding demonstrations of powe r over nature, unrivaled teaching, divine understanding of people, and with his own resurrection, which was the ultimate evidence of his deity. DID JESUS FULFILL THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD? While the incarnation-God becoming man, the infinite becoming finite-stretches our imaginations, prominent theologian D. A. Carson pointed out that theres lots of evidence that Jesus exhibited the characteristics of deity. Ba sed on Philippians 2, many theologians believe Jesus voluntarily emptied himself of the independen t use of his divine attributes as he pursued his mission of human redemption. Even so, the Ne w Testament specifically confirms that Jesus ultimately possessed every qualification of de ity, including omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, eternality, and immutability. DID JESUS-AND JESUS ALONE MATCH THE IDENTITY OF THE MESSIAH? Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, proph ets foretold the coming of the Messiah, or the Anointed One, who would redeem Gods peopl e. In effect, dozens of these Old Testament prophecies created a fingerprint th at only the true Messiah could f it. This gave Israel a way to rule out imposters and validate the credentials of the authentic Messiah. Against astronomical odds-by one estimate, one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trilli on, trillion, trillion-Jesus, and only Jesus throughout history, matched this prophetic fingerprint. This confirms Jesus identity to an incredible degree of certainty. The expert I interviewed on this topi c, Louis Lapides, is an example of someone raised in a conservative Jewish home and who came to believe Jesus is the Messiah after a systematic study of the prophecies. Today, hes a pastor of a church in California and former president of a national network of fifteen messianic congregations. WAS JESUS DEATH A SHAM, AND HIS RESURRECTION A HOAX? By analyzing the medical and historical data, Dr. Alexander Metherell, a physician who also holds a doctorate in engineering, concluded Jesus could not have survived the gruesome rigors of crucifixion, much less the gaping wound that pierced his lung and heart. In fact, even before the crucifixion he was in serious to critical condition and suffering from hypovolemic shock as the result of a horrific flogging. The idea that he swooned on the cross and pretended to be dead lacks any evidential basis. Roman executioners were grimly efficient, knowing that they themselves would face death if any of their vic tims were to come down from the cross alive. Even if Jesus had somehow lived through the torture, his ghastly condition could never have inspired a worldwide movement based on the prem ise that he had gloriously triumphed over the grave. WAS JESUS BODY REALLY ABSENT FROM HIS TOMB? William Lane Craig, who has earned two doctorates and written several books on the Resurrection, presented striking evidence that the enduring symbol of Easter -the vacant tomb of Jesus-was a historical re ality. The empty grave is reported or implied in extremely early sources- Marks Gospel and a creed in 1 Corinthians 15whic h date so closely to th e event that they could not possibly have been products of legend. Th e fact that the Gospels report that women discovered the empty tomb bolsters the storys authenticity, because womens testimony lacked credibility in the first century and thus there would have been no motive to report they found the empty tomb if it werent true. The site of Je sus tomb was known to Christians, Jews, and Romans, so it could have been checked by skeptics. In fact, nobody-not even the Roman authorities or Jewish leaders-ev er claimed that the tomb still contained Jesus body. Instead, they were forced to invent the absurd story that th e disciples, despite having no motive or opportunity, had stolen the body-a theory that not even the most skeptical cr itic believes today.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 22:03:53 +0000