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Dear Friends,

We are continuing our journey through Part 4 of The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, by Gary Habermas and Mike Licona. Part 4 addresses additional objections to the Christian resurrection story.

Last time, I finished addressing claims that some Bible verses teach that Jesus rose again spiritually, but not bodily (my position in a nutshell: Zero Bible verses teach a spirit-only Resurrection of Christ).

Today, we return to naturalistic, rather than textual, arguments against the Resurrection. I say “return” because we already looked at numerous naturalistic arguments in Part 3 of this book (1). But they dug up a few more, so, here we go (God help me)!

More naturalistic arguments against the Resurrection

Today, I will try to address the first three items from the below list:

• “If atheism is true, then Jesus did not rise”
• “The Resurrection doesn’t prove God’s existence”
• “Jesus never died, so there was no resurrection”
• “Reports of Jesus’ appearances differ little from the reports of the angel’s appearance to Joseph Smith”
• “Reports of the Resurrection are no more believable than today’s reports of Elvis and alien sightings”
• “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”

“If atheism is true, then Jesus did not rise”

The authors offer worthwhile responses to this challenge, but I’ve already discussed atheism at great length on this blog.

Most recently, I addressed atheism in this same resurrection series of posts, because the authors already addressed a probabilistic challenge to God’s existence. You can read my comments by going to link (1) and then scrolling down to “There is a huge mountain of probability against an event ever being an act of God.”

I’ll just address one comment the authors make under the present heading, namely, that the most common argument against God’s existence is the Problem of Evil (how could an all-powerful loving being allow so much suffering?). If that topic resonates with you, please check out the related series of posts I did (2). In a nutshell, my response to the Problem of Evil is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Atheism is irrational, and Jesus did in fact rise.

“The Resurrection doesn’t prove God’s existence”

This seems like a last-ditch effort to avoid moral accountability. “OK, maybe Jesus rose again, but I can still do whatever I want because there still MIGHT not be a God.”

I just addressed atheism a couple paragraphs up, so I will respond only briefly to this particular challenge. The authors helpfully point out that Jesus was “….certainly in the best position to identify the cause of his resurrection.” So, what cause did Jesus identify? And the answer is, Himself:

[Jhn 2:19-21 KJV] 19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I WILL RAISE IT UP. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body.  

And what does that have to do with God, you ask? Well, Jesus (who, if He actually resurrected, seems like He should have some credibility on this topic) also said He was God (3).

Jesus said He was God, and said He would resurrect Himself, and then He backed it up. That’s good enough for me.

“Jesus never died, so there was no resurrection”

This is a claim promoted by Islam. The authors explain that, according to the Qur’an and The Gospel of Barnabas, someone else was actually crucified in Jesus’s place.

So, you have Islamic texts claiming that Jesus wasn’t crucified (which fits nicely with the Muslim belief that Jesus was not God), and almost all historians (atheist, non-Christian, and otherwise) claiming that He was. You should be identifying some red flags here.

The authors point out numerous credibility issues in The Gospel of Barnabas, but I’ll just refer you to wikipedia:

“The Gospel of Barnabas is dated to the 13th to 15th centuries, much too late to have been written by Barnabas (fl. 1st century CE).” (4)

As far as the Qur’an, the authors point out that it was written at least 500 years after all of the New Testament sources, as well as “our best secular references to Jesus’ death on the cross.” We’ve taken pains in this study to not appeal to the inspiration of the Bible as part of our historical case for the Resurrection; it does not seem like Muslims can make an equivalent historical case for their crucifixion account.

Yes, Jesus died by crucifixion. And rose again.

God bless, and thanks for reading!

Links:

(1) The opening salvo

(2) My thoughts on the Problem of Evil

(3) Jesus said He was God (scroll down to “The deity of Jesus Christ”)

(4) Gospel_of_Barnabas on wikipedia