SE051814
HOW I MET MY SAVIOR
4. Jesus: Fact or Fiction?
(SLIDE) INTRO:
We’ve been building a Christian worldview from scratch this month, and here’s what that looks like from the GROUND UP:
- (SLIDE) First, we have to believe Truth exists.
- (SLIDE) Second, we looked at the competing Truth claims of different worldviews.
- (SLIDE) Third, we looked at the case for Theism.
So, it looks quite reasonable to have a THEISTIC worldview, but we know there’s multiple THEISTIC worldviews to choose from:
- Jews, Christians and Muslims ALL believe in God.
Now, where the Christian worldview differs in belief about God centers on how we view Jesus differently: we think he WAS God. The others don’t.
- (SLIDE) So today we need to look at the evidence for the Christian view of Jesus.
THE TEST OF FALSIFIABILITY.
Now, that view all hangs on one key thing. And this thing makes Christianity uniquely TESTABLE because it makes it “FALSIFIABLE.” What does that mean? Think about it like this: no amount of positive observations can ever PROVE something is true. But it only takes one observation to prove something is false.
(SLIDE) For example, I can say, ALL SWANS ARE WHITE. Can you prove that’s true? What if every swan we ever see is white, does that PROVE it? No, because no matter how many white swans we see, there might be some we don’t see of a different color.
(SLIDE) SO we can never prove something like “ALL SWANS ARE WHITE” to be true, not with a million, million white swans!
Ah, but we COULD prove it to be false! That’s easy! How could we do it? Simply find ONE swan that’s not white! That’s how you can FALSIFY the claim.
(SLIDE) And in fact, in 1790, Europeans laid their eyes on BLACK swans in Australia for the first time, which falsified the widely accepted idea that all swans are white.
No matter how much evidence we present for a religion, you can never prove it true. But only Christianity goes on record and says, “here’s how you could prove it false.” Christianity is the only world religion that provides its own falsifiability test. It’s own black swan test. Here it is from Paul:
(SLIDE) 1 Cor 15:13-15: If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
So the test is simple. Prove the resurrection of Jesus didn’t happen, Christianity is false. You can never prove Christianity is true, not with a million changed lives, not with a thousand visions, or miracles or healings. But Paul says you could prove it false just by doing one thing.
- Disprove the resurrection.
- The whole thing, so says Paul, hangs on the thread of a single notion, which if proved false collapses the whole system.
So today, we need to investigate that thread. Now, we’re investigating a miracle, so you might think you can snip it with just a snap of your fingers. “All dead men stay dead.” But that too can be falsified – all it takes is proof that one man was raised from the dead!
So today I want to show you 7 lines of evidence that suggest that the resurrection happened – which shows Jesus is our black swan. I got this outline idea from Frank Turek and it’s easy to remember, because they all start with “E”. How do we know Jesus rose from the dead,
- which would prove he’s God,
o which would validate Christian THEISM?
1. EARLY TESTIMONY
To start, let’s not put the Bible in a special category and assume it to be God’s Word. To start, let’s just ask what the evidence from manuscripts tells us. First thing we learn is that the New Testament:
- was written very early,
o and early means closer to the time of writing
and closer to the time of writing means less chance for legends to corrupt the text
• and less corruption, means more reliable.
Just look at this chart to get a sense of how EARLY the New Testament record is, compared to other ancient literature. You can see in each case,
- the date of writing,
o followed by the oldest copy we have in existence today,
followed by the time span between time of writing,
• followed by the number of copies:
(SLIDE) AUTHOR Date Written Earliest Copy Time Span # of Copies
(SLIDE) Plato 427 BC 900 AD 1200 years 7
(SLIDE) Caesar 100 BC 900 AD 1000 years 10
(SLIDE) Aristotle 450 BC 1100 AD 1400 years 5
(SLIDE) N.T. 50-100 AD 125 25 years 5,735
The evidence here explodes two things which are popular to say in mildly educated company these days. People say:
- Don’t you know the bible has been translated so many times, and it’s been corrupted and changed, you can’t trust a thing it says.
- Don’t you know that the books of the Bible were edited and handpicked in the 4th century by bishops wanting to control people.
That stuff comes from believing Dan Brown novels are great scholarship. No one who actually studies could think that the Bible was written in the 4th century. The earliest copy of the New Testament is a fragment of the gospel of John dating from around 125! Since this is a copy of a copy it pushes the date of writing into the 1st century! Which puts the other gospels even earlier.
And all those 5000+ copies? They don’t all agree, but the vast number of them helps scholars weed out copying errors so that the amount of the New Testament today that is in doubt as to the original reading is less than 1%! That doesn’t make it true, what it means is
- One: that what you have in your hand is what was originally written,
- Two: it was written within a generation of the events!
Here’s the kicker – inside the New Testament, we have creeds which all scholars acknowledge were not original with the writer. In other words it’s from an even earlier source. So for example, 1 Corinthians 15 was written in about 55 AD. But it contains the following:
(SLIDE) 1 Cor 15:3-5 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
What Paul is saying is, “this next part, predates me.” (Extended) And you’ll notice, it contains the affirmation that Jesus rose from the dead. So that’s not a legend that creeps in over time, it’s in the story from the very start!
2. (SLIDE) Embarrassing
Scholars use this as a long standing tool to judge ancient scholarship. It says that if a testimony is embarrassing to the author it is presumed to be reliable, because the author would have no reason to invent an embarrassing account of himself. Let me give you some examples. In the gospels the disciples are portrayed as:
- Unbelieving
- Full of Doubt – they doubt the resurrection at first
- Inspired by Satan
- Denying Jesus
- Power hungry.
The star witnesses to the resurrection are the women, who weren’t even permitted to be witnesses in court. And the gospel show them boldly marching out to the tomb on Sunday while the men cower behind locked doors. Embarrassing! Why tell that part of the story, unless it’s true? There so much more, stuff about Jesus that’s embarrassing in light of the subsequent claim of his divinity.
- his flashes of anger,
- his strange sayings,
- his own seeming confusion and doubt in the garden.
This is too embarrassing to be made up.
3. Eyewitness
Several times in the Bible we are told that the account is being written by someone who was there, or who directly consulted who was there. Luke begins his gospel:
(SLIDE) Luke 1:1-3 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus
The same author puts himself into the story in Acts when he travels around with Paul and uses pronouns “we” and “us”. Luke was there.
In the passage I mentioned earlier, Paul quotes the creed, then he puts himself into the story when he says:
1 Cor 15:6-8 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
4. (SLIDE) Environmental
This is the evidence that comes from details in the story confirmed by archaeology or geography. Back to the testable idea, when the New Testament puts historical details into the story, it sets itself up to be falsified. Because those details can’t be studied, and if we find out the authors have no idea what they’re talking about on things we CAN test, then why would we trust them about things we can’t test?
Just take one author, Luke and notice how he relates his story to the wider context of world history over and over again. Just look at the list of names he drops of politicians, rulers, famous people:
- Pontius Pilate
- Herod the Great,
- Bernice
- Sergius Paulus
- Drusilla
- Felix
- Festus
- Gamaliel
Luke is asking for trouble if there are any historical inaccuracies in his record, because each one gives a critic another opportunity to testing his accuracy. But of course, the whole point of including the names is to INVITE testing! To lodge his account IN history. To say, this is not,
“once upon a time”!
So that’s just some the evidence that tells us that the Bible is at least a roughly reliable source of historical material. It’s contents are:
- Early, close to the events, show signs of
- Eyewitness testimony, contain loads of
- Embarrassing detail that one wouldn’t make up, and get the
- Environmental details right
But there’s more evidence when you look outside the New Testament.
5. EXCRUCIATING (SLIDE)
This is testimony that comes from torture, or death of the authors. It’s well documented in church history that the first apostles, all died telling the world that Jesus rose from the dead. They suffered pain, torture, execution rather than recant their story of resurrection.
Now the skeptic thinks this doesn’t help the reliability of the New Testament at all, because loads of people have died for lies and for terrible causes that they thought were right. They usually jump to 9/11 to show how willing people are to die for lies.
But to say this is to miss the argument. 9/11 bombers died for a lie believing it was the truth. How many people in history have died willingly for a story, or a cause that they knew was a lie?
6. EXTRA-BIBLICAL (SLIDE)
This is the evidence from writers and historians that corroborate the Bible’s story. Like, TACITUS: who wrote a in 112 CE about Nero.
" Hence, to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome..."
(SLIDE) Then SUETONIUS: He was the author of The Lives of the Caesars circa 120 CE. He wrote:
"Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, Claudius expelled them from Rome."
This passage confirms exactly what Luke said in Acts 18:2 - that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome around 49AD. And it puts Christians in Rome within 15 years of Jesus death.
(SLIDE) Then PLINY: in questioning Christians brought to trial he discovered (120 CE?)...
"They affirmed, however, the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god."
This corroborates the idea that Jesus claimed to be divine, or something caused them to think he was God, since very early his followers worship him.
Jewish literature: The Talmud (from 2nd Century CE) affirms that Jesus lived.
These writings confirm his miraculous deeds but attribute them to demons.
And perhaps the crown piece of extra biblical evidence for Jesus comes from JOSEPHUS a Jewish historian writing for Rome in 90. (SLIDE) He writes:
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man. For he was a doer of startling deeds, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. And he gained a following both among many Jews and many of Greek origin. [He was called Messiah] And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
In the book, "Case for Christ" Dr Edwin Yamauchi summarizes what we can know about Christ even if there were NO New Testament:
- Jesus was a Jewish Teacher
- Many people believed he performed healings and exorcisms
- some people believed he was the Messiah
- he was rejected by the Jewish leaders
- he was crucified under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius
- despite his shameful death, his followers, who believed that he was still alive, spread in Rome
- all kinds of people from the cities and countryside - men and women, slave and free - worshiped him as God.
Now, all of this tells us that the New Testament is at least a reliable historical document that gives us real data about Jesus. It doesn’t tell us it’s the word of God. That’s something else that hangs on a final “E”:
7. EXPECTED (SLIDE)
SO many of the things Jesus did and said were expected by the centuries old prophetic utterances of the Jewish prophets. We can’t examine them all today, but suffice it to that if Jesus fulfilled a perfect thumb print of God’s long expected Messiah, this moves beyond reliable to inspired. Expected traits like:
- (SLIDE) Place of birth
- Kind of death
- Tribal and family ancestry
- Life events
- Death/burial and resurrection.
This evidence transcends reliable – we’re into uncanny territory reserved for REVELATION. Which is reason to believe we’re in possession of God’s Word.
(SLIDE) WHICH THEORY FITS THE FACTS
Now, let’s stack all this up. It points to several historical FACTS about Jesus death and resurrection – the thread the whole Christian worldview is hanging on.
- Jesus died by crucifixion and was buried in a rich man’s tomb
- Jesus body was found missing from his tomb 3 days later
- Jesus disciples believed he was raised from the dead and appeared to them alive after his crucifixion.
- Significant Jewish leaders were converted based on belief that Jesus rose from the dead.
Now friends these are facts. Not conjecture. Now what best explains them? You don’t have to go with the New Testament explanation of them. Many people have come up with other theories.
- There’s the theory that this is just a legend.
- There’s the theory that the women went to the wrong tomb.
- There’s the theory the disciples stole the body.
- There’s the theory that Jesus merely swooned.
- There’s the Jesus was an alien theory – and this finally fits all the facts. But the only reason to hold it is to avoid saying a miracle happened.
(SLIDE) No, friends, there’s really only one theory that fits all the facts,
- the changed disciples from disbelieving doubters to passionate world changers,
- the changed day of worship from Saturday to Sunday,
- the stunning worship of a man by these rugged Jewish monotheists,
- the written challenge to find hundreds of still living eye witnesses to confirm
- the early deification of Jesus as Incarnate Son…
- the radical conversions of Jesus disbelieving James, in Saul the Pharisee,
- the rapid spread and growth of the church.
o The explanation that fits the accepted facts is simply that Jesus rose from the dead.
Christianity says you can falsify it easily enough. All you have to do is cut the string of the resurrection, and it all falls down. But it turns out that string is made of some very sturdy stuff. And so it may be that repeated observation says that dead men stay dead – but doesn’t prove it. You could disprove it, however, if just ONE dead man didn’t stay dead. And it appears that’s what happened.
If it did, friend, this is seismic!
- This means that Jesus identity,
o his claim to be God,
o his claim to forgive sins,
all of them vindicated.
- This means that when Jesus put his stamp on the old and new testaments, that these now carry weight as God’s Word.
- This means that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is going to be the judge of the living and the dead someday.
- This means that what you do with Jesus is the most important thing you’ll ever do.
What SHOULD you do?:
- The risen Christ says, believe in me.
- The risen Christ says, be baptized into my name
- The risen Christ says, follow me.
Will you do those things? Truth is found in Jesus, our investigation has shown it. Now, will you receive it?
