The Unapologetic Apologia

Dying To Lie
Even though we all are cynical when it comes to other people, one has to remember one thing when hearing this accusation. Liars make poor martyrs. Yes there are people who die for what they believe in all the time, Islam being a prime example for over 1400 years. But they do believe that Islams truth claims are true. Not one Ghazi commits to Jihad while KNOWING that what he is about to murder and die for, is false. On average people will not die for what they know to be a lie.
Now it’s possible 1, at best 3, but all of the disciples? Including Paul who hated the Church was originally a severe prosecutor of the Christians Dying for a lie. James, the brother of Jesus didn’t even believe that his brother was the Messiah (Savior). Why would they go through the stoning, the spitting, the threat of beatings, the threat of imprisonment, the threat of executions, the humiliation, the out casting in an honor/shame based society, and of course their eventual executions, for something they KNEW to be a lie? They wouldn’t and it means the early Christians truly believed what they saw to be a physical resurrected Jesus appearing to them.
So a conspiracy or lie amongst the disciples that Amen claiming to be the messiah resurrected after his death wouldn’t work. A dying and rising messiah WAS NOT a part of second temple Judaism, no one expected, or thought to be true that one could rise from the dead let alone the Jews thinking their Messiah would die. This fact is compounded with James the brother of Jesus, disbelief in his brothers claims to be the messiah. Why would someone who disbelieved in not only Jesus’s divinity but also disbelieved in the dead coming back to life, do this? Why would he then switch so drastically, to then proclaim his brother as the messiah, especially after mocking him prior (in John 7
1-9). What would make him switch so drastically to a faith that again, would -and did- get him out casted, persecuted and eventually executed?
Mike Licona scholar, says “[James and his brothers] would have regarded their dead brother as a heretic rather than rush to Jerusalem and be caught up in such group ecstasy… it seems more likely that Jesus’ execution as a criminal and a blasphemer would have supported their continued unbelief rather than their conversion…”.
But also the conspiracy theory doesn’t work because it’s recorded that the risen Jesus appeared to 500, a majority of both secular and non secular New Testament scholars agree that 500 indeed claim that they saw the resurrected Jesus. But also a conspiracy becomes more and more susceptible to exposure the more people you have, 500 would be next to impossible in terms of a secret conspiracy to make up the resurrection. Again the 12 disciples couldn’t even keep one of their own from betraying them, Judas Iscariot. Saying that his resurrection was a made up legend does not have legs to stand. All the historical evidence points to one outcome. This is not just a Christian claim atheistic. Scholars have interesting admissions to the claim of the resurrection.
Gerd Lüdemann: “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter- and the disciples had experiences after Jesus death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.”
Bart Ehrman: “We can say with complete certainty that some of his disciples at some later time insisted that … he soon appeared to them, convincing them that he had been raised from the dead.” He also said “It is a historical fact that some of Jesus’ followers came to believe that he had been raised from the dead soon after his execution.
And finally Paula Fredriksen: “I know in their own terms what they saw was the raised Jesus…. I’m not saying that they really did see the raised Jesus. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what they saw. But I do know … as a historian that they must have seen something.”.
After Jesus’ death, his disciples went From town to town region to region preaching to gentiles (pagans) to worship a man who was just shamefully executed on a cross. Not only that but a man who was a Jewish carpenter, two things that were vehemently detested and looked down upon by the Romans.
Another thing that was preached by the Apostles to those who didn’t believe, the Gentiles, was physical resurrection. During that time , the pagan thought for the purpose of death was to escape The physical evils of the world. So the idea of a dead man coming to life would have previously been absurd to them and not something hoped for by the pagans. Adding on top of that, Christian’s preached a morality that was foreign to pagan thought of the day. No prostitution in the temples or having more than one woman. This to say the pagans wouldn’t have simply agreed to such terms or worshipped such a man without reason.
The Jews also thought this message to be foolish and embarrassing. A man claiming to be the messiah who is to free the Jewish people from the oppression of the Romans and overthrow them, a conqueror. But this supposed Messiah was executed in the most public and humiliated way by the people he was supposed to overthrow. To believe and have faith in this man, would be giving up on the Jewish belief of a conquering messiah and a restored Israel. A man whose family was not known nor was respected, from a region that was also looked down upon by the Jews)
I can go on, but the point is the odds of such a faith spreading as it did because of a conspiracy, are completely stacked against it. If you want to make up a conspiracy, you have to have something that’s appealing, the resurrection was not. So this was not something that the early Christians were fooled into believing or believing by faith alone. People of that time are believed to be of lesser intelligence by our current standards, but this is far from the case. So there had to be good evidence for such a claim.

Next: Pt4