TGIF - Thank God I'm Forgiven!!
For the last week or so, thoughts of Apologetics have been running through my head continuously. One argument in particular seemed to recur in my mind more often than any other: the argument of Jesus and His disciples. Defending my faith is something I'm very interested in, and I felt like this might help some people, whether Atheist, Jew, Muslim, or even Christians wanting help arguing for the plausibility of Christianity.
I would just like to make it clear that most of this is paraphrased from different books I've read, although I have thought the arguments through and reasoned that they are believable; however, I am not looking at the books as I type this, so the thought processes are my own (with God's help), which just happen to agree with what I remember from what I read.
Anyway, here we go.
Let's start by assuming Jesus existed. The story of His life happened exactly how it's read in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John: He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem, He grew up in Nazareth, He preached salvation to the Jews through the Son of God, He healed the sick and disabled and raised the dead to life, He lived a sinless life and was crucified unjustly, and He rose from the grave on the third day and ascended into heaven after spending forty days with His disciples.
But let's say someone believes that Jesus was not the Son of God and that He was, in fact, a normal sinful human being. My favorite response to this is the "Lord, Liar, or Lunatic" argument. There are only three types of person Jesus could have been. He could be Lord, the Son of God and God Himself, exactly the person He said He was. If He wasn't God, then He would either have to be a liar or a lunatic. But how could He be a liar? Why would someone who knew He was not telling the truth die for something He preached but didn't even follow? That seems pretty dumb to me. And if He was a liar, then He even had His disciples, who followed Him around everywhere He went, deceived. And how could He be a lunatic? How could someone come up with such amazing teachings like serving and loving one another if they weren't in their right mind? His teachings were (and are) so relevant to human living that there is no way He could have been insane. So with the options of liar and lunatic ruled out, that leaves Lord as the only possibility for who Jesus was (and is).
Some people argue that Jesus could have just been a "great moral teacher." But again, if He was only a great moral teacher, that would make Him a liar because He told His disciples and even the Pharisees and Sadducees that He was the Son of God. And if He was a liar, then He would have been a hypocrite because He constantly referred to the Scriptures, which teach that lying is a sin that separates humans from God. And if He were a hypocrite, He would have died knowing that. And He didn't even try to get out of bearing the punishment of being hung on a cross. So much for that argument.
So clearly, if Jesus existed, then there is no option other than the fact that He was and is and always will be God and the Son of God, Lord of all Creation.
But what if He didn't exist? That's where the disciples come in.
If Jesus didn't exist, I'm still convinced that His disciples did (even though they wouldn't really have been His disciples). Now why would twelve fishermen and tax collectors band together with a common belief that completely went against the religious teachings of the time and go out and tell the world about it, angering many? That seems more than a little masochistic to me. And in case you don't know the history of the eleven disciples (leaving out Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus, although that wouldn't be important if Jesus never lived), ten of them died a martyr's death. That means that ten of the eleven died for what they believed. Only one died of natural causes. So why would eleven of the world's average fishermen and hated tax collectors go out into the world teaching of an imaginary Person who would bring salvation to anyone who believed in Him? And why would they be willing to die for something they knew was false? That would just be ridiculous!
Now let's backtrack again and assume Jesus did, in fact, exist, and that He lived and died exactly how the Bible tells. But that's where the story ends: He died. He never rose from the dead. Instead, the disciples deceived the world by stealing His body from the grave. First off, one of the twelve disciples betrayed Jesus, and the other eleven abandoned Him when He was arrested, including John the Beloved and Peter, His two closest friends. When He was hung on the cross, only John and Mary, Jesus' mother, were there to see Him as He died. If the disciples weren't there for Him when He was dying, why would they be there for Him when He was already dead? Plus, Jesus' grave was sealed by a boulder that required (I think) twelve Roman soldiers to move it, as well as the Roman seal, which was kind of like special glue that marked the grave as Roman property. The disciples fled from the Roman guard when they arrested Jesus. If they were to steal Jesus' body from His tomb, they would have to face the Roman guard, overpower them all, break the Roman seal, and roll the boulder away, not to mention that the boulder was stuck in a ditch in front of the tomb entrance that locked it in place. Eleven fishermen and tax collectors against twelve highly trained Roman soldiers... The odds in favor of the disciples don't sound too good to me. And how did they plan on breaking the Roman seal and rolling the stone out of the ditch if they did manage to get past the guard? If it took twelve strong soldiers to roll the stone into the ditch, how could twelve fishermen and tax collectors roll it out of it?
The Bible also says that the soldiers on duty at the tomb were left alive. They only fell unconscious. If the disciples were trying to steal Jesus' body secretly, shouldn't they have killed the soldiers rather than let them live to report the event to Pontius Pilate, Caesar's governor in the area? But no, the soldiers remained alive, and they reported to Pilate only that Jesus' body was missing. They mentioned nothing about the disciples stealing the body.
The soldiers also experienced a massive earthquake while they were standing guard. Even the two Marys, who were on their way to visit the grave, felt it while they were on their way there. Something like that could not have been caused by the disciples, especially with the technology of the time.
The only explanation I can find is that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah of Jewish prophecy, the King of kings and Lord of lords, God of all Creation. He lived, died, and rose again for the sins of the world so that we humans can have a relationship with our heavenly Father and live with Him forever in heaven. He saved us from hell, the punishment for our sins, which separated us from our Creator. And He gave us His word, the Bible, through over forty different authors over a period of just under 2000 years so that we could know Him and the good news of salvation by the cross.
All because He loves us.
That sounds like some pretty good news to me.
Until next time, God bless!
Michael
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"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." ~ 1 Timothy 2:8
"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to live is Christ and to die is gain." ~ Philippians 1:20-21
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