Discussing the Resurrection
This morning I took ABC News and their program 20/20 to task for their program concerning the resurrection of Christ. I read an article and several quotes from the ABC News page and promised to post the link so you could read it yourself. So, here it is:
abcnews.go.com/2020/Resurrection/
On that page you'll find links to several related pages. The article I read from is called "The Resurrection: Searching for Answers." My favorite quote from the article, or at least the most absurd bit of conjecture, is a bit I did not have time to read verbatim this morning. It says, "Scholars also say that dreams to people in the first century were no less real than waking reality. 'In the ancient world, dreams were real. If you had a dream at night, the assumption was that it was real,' said Arthur Dewey of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio."
In their desperate attempt to explain Christianity in strictly physical/natural terms, these supposed "scholars" are reduced to claiming that 2,000 years ago people were too foolish to know if they were asleep or not. Today, apparently, mankind is much smarter than way back then.
Look --- if Christianity can be explained by the delusions of people who only believed in a risen Lord because they were confused between dreams and reality, then the whole system is bankrupt and Christians are among the stupidest, most gullible people on Earth. That's why I felt a response to the assumptions of these "scholars" was absolutely necessary.
Also, the quotes from the individual people in the program that I read this morning can be found under the ABC News link entitled: "Scholars' Perspectives."
Take the time to click through those names and read their comments. It's very enlightening to read what the opposition considers important and quotable. I responded to these quotes this morning. Some are thought-provoking; many are ludicrous.
Christianity stands on a firm foundation of factual history and credible evidence that leads any honest investigator to conclude that there is simply no other explanation that can fully account for all (not just some!) of the details contained in Scripture and in secular history than that Jesus actually, physically, tangibly arose from the dead. This is a bedrock tenet of Christianity and it has been under attack from critics and cynics for 2,000 years. Yet, not a single person has ever been able to prove, given the great weight of evidence and historic fact, that Christianity is a sham or that Jesus did not actually accomplish everything written about Him in the Bible.
And honestly, it's absurd to think that we, some 2,000 years later, have some greater insight into the details and events of the resurrection than the original witnesses had. There is not a single, solitary historic source with the same credibility as Scripture that successfully undermines the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our faith is built on a solid rock.
The critics' best arguments fall flat, as the ABC News report clearly demonstrates.
