Apologetics: The Basics
Session 8 – Jesus Proved He Is God
The Four Points
- Truth is knowable
- God exists
- The New Testament is historically reliable
- Jesus proved he is God
Two traditional lines of evidence
- Fulfilled Prophecies
- Resurrection
What did Jesus think of Himself?
- I AM
- Son of Man
- Forgiver of Sins
- Fulfilling prophecies
- Accepted worship
- Woman at the well
- Crucified for ‘blasphemy’
- Accepted reference as God
- Superseded Scripture
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish things that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing that we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would rather be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell.” – C.S. Lewis
Fulfilled Prophecies
Others have claimed to be God but NONE have fulfilled many prophecies made hundreds of years before their lifetime
Over 100 prophecies fulfilled…among them…
- Would be despised and rejected by men
- Would suffer because of our evil
- His suffering would bring us peace
- His suffering would bring us healing
- Would suffer in silence
- Would die because of our evil and be buried with the wicked
- Would do no violence
- Would not lie
- Would be an intercessor for our sins
- Born in Bethlehem
- Born of a virgin
- Tribe of Judah
- Descendant of Jesse
- Miracle worker
- His betrayal
- Manner of death
- Time of his death
- Bones would not be broken
- Resurrection
“Even though the Jewish Talmud refers to Jesus in derogatory ways, it never once makes the claim that the fulfillment of prophecies was falsified. Not one time.” – Louis Lapides
The odds of fulfilling just 8 of these prophecies in one person were calculated at 1 chance in 100 million billion.
“Probability is the sole ground on which finite human beings can make any (rational) decisions.” – Josh McDowell
Evidences for the Resurrection
- Historically reliable New Testament says so
- Rise of Christianity
- Tomb was empty
- Commitment of the apostles
- Conversion of Saul and James
- Post-Resurrection appearances
The following evidence is based on Biblical and extra-Biblical sources…
Bible Says So
- Would be circular reasoning except we already demonstrated the historical reliability of the New Testament text.
- Biblical consistency
- Joseph of Arimathea
- Empty tomb
- Discovered by women
Rise of Christianity
- Began in Jerusalem in the shadow of the tomb
- What the Jewish converts gave up
- Lifetime of passionate belief in a military and political Messiah
- Sabbath, Monotheism, animal sacrifice, temple worship, etc.
- Risking eternal damnation
- To follow a Galilean carpenter who had died a disgraceful death
- What the Jewish converts gained
- Ostracism, persecution and martyrdom
How can this possibly be explained except by the historicity of the Resurrection?
Tomb Was Empty
- History is inexplicable otherwise
- Roman and Jewish leaders KNEW where the tomb was
- Just a few hundred yards from downtown Jerusalem
- Argument was always ‘what happened to the body?’, never whether it was still there
- Paul, Peter, never argued for it
“The empty tomb, then, forms a veritable rock on which all rationalistic theories of the Resurrection dash themselves in vain.” – Sir Norman Anderson
Commitment of the Apostles
- Their view of the Messiah was political and military, his death was DEVATASTING to them
- Went from hiding in fear to a life of courage and commitment
- Peter went from a broken, weak-willed man to a pillar of the church
- According to tradition…ALL, except one, died violent deaths proclaiming the good news
- Much of eyewitness testimony was of the risen Jesus
Conversion of Saul and James
- Saul was a leader of the Pharisees
- Had committed to stamping out Christianity due to his respect and commitment to Jewish law
- Was hostile and violent, overnight became peaceful and loving
- James was one of the skeptical brothers
- What could have caused these changes?
Post-Resurrection Appearances
- Specific names given
- Apostles, Paul, James, Cleopas, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary
- The passage about the 500 witnesses is one of the earliest passages in the NT
- many of those 500 who were still available to be checked out
- Would he have given these references if he wasn’t sure of his information?
“Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the Resurrection of Christ.” – English Scholar Brooke Westcott
Alternate Theories to the Resurrection
- Wrong tomb
- Swoon theory
- Disciples stole the body
- Hypnotic trance
- etc.
All have been abandoned in the face of the evidence.
“To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. As a lawyer I accept the Gospel evidence unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts that they were able to substantiate.” – British High Court judge Sir Edward Clarke
“I say unequivocally that the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.” – Sir Lionel Luckhoo
If Jesus died for you and rose again on the third day, then…
- The Creator of 10(22) stars, and you and me, knows us and loves us and blesses us every day
- We have rebelled against his holiness
- Our rebellion must be punished
- Jesus took our punishment
- Jesus offers us forgiveness, if we will take it
- Physical death is not the end
- Jesus is coming back for us
And so…If Jesus died for you, and rose again on the third day, what difference should that make in your life?
The Minimal Facts Argument
Presented courtesy of Gary Habermas (garyhabermas.com)
The idea: There is much historical information in dispute, what facts related to the resurrection actually have overwhelming acceptance, including even the skeptical community?
So this is a bottom up approach rather than the traditional top-down that starts with Scripture
Minimal fact: data that is 1. Strongly evidenced and 2. Accepted by virtually all scholars (>90% of PhD or equivalent level experts in the field, including skeptical ones)
Gary Habermas: “how do I know the level of acceptance? I counted.”
Minimal Fact #1: Jesus died by crucifixion
Minimal Fact #2: Jesus disciples believed that he rose and appeared to them
Minimal Fact #3: disciples lives were transformed (willing to die)
Minimal Fact #4: Paul had a sudden life transformation
Minimal Fact #5: James, the brother of Jesus, had a sudden life transformation
Minimal Fact #6: resurrection belief was within 2 years or less
Limited* Minimal Fact #7: the tomb was empty
Granted by only 75% of scholars
1970s less than 20% of scholars granted
What’s behind this level of support from the knowledgeable skeptic community?
2 principles, 1. The best explanation is the one that best explains all the evidence, 2. Probability is the sole ground on which finite human beings can make any (rational) decisions.
Quality/Quantity of the information:
1. multiple, independent sources:
GH: cataloged 15+ independent evidences FOR EACH Minimal Fact
2. enemy attestation
3. embarrassing details
4. eyewitness reports
5. early testimony
The Time Line
For various reasons, the critics love Paul; self-identified + educated + honest + early +…
7 of Paul’s 13 books are widely accepted as authentic even by those who question the authorship of the gospels
1Corinthians believed to be written 54 to 55 AD
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. 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. –1Corinthians 15:3-8
…I passed on to you…AD 51…
Acts 18:12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment.
…what I received…
Paul’s Conversion… +1 to +3…assume +2
Galatians 1:18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas[b] and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.
“what I received” = +5
Galatians 2:1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas… +19
Galatians 2:6 they added nothing to me
Galatians 2:9 James, Cephas[c] and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship
Assuming a crucifixion in AD30, AD32 Paul is converted, AD35 Paul meets with Peter and James in Jerusalem,…Paul preaches for 14 years… AD 49 Paul returns to Jerusalem, meets with Peter, James and John…you’re preaching the same message we are preaching… what is that message? AD51 Paul goes to Corinth, AD55 Paul writes 1Corinthian
About that AD35 event…what I received I passed on to you…Jesus died for our sins and was buried, he rose on the third day, he appeared to Peter, the apostles, the 500, to James, the apostles, to me…
We are now FIVE YEARS from the crucifixion with the Resurrection already being taught…but Peter and James had it before Paul had it…and it is a Creedal passage…a tradition…with a cadence for ease of memory…which takes time to develop
AD30 – Crucifixion
AD32 – Paul’s Conversion
AD35 – Paul visits Peter and James
AD49 – Paul and Barnabas visit Peter, James and John
AD51 – Paul visits Corinth
AD55 – Paul writes 1Corinthians
Even skeptics are granting that the resurrection was being preached no later than 1 to 2 years after the crucifixion…
James DG Dunn…premier NT scholar believes the evidence tells us it is 6 months or less!!!
Minimal Fact #1: Jesus died by crucifixion
Minimal Fact #2: Jesus disciples believed that he rose and appeared to them
Minimal Fact #3: disciples lives were transformed (willing to die)
Minimal Fact #4: Paul had a sudden life transformation
Minimal Fact #5: James, the brother of Jesus, had a sudden life transformation
Minimal Fact #6: resurrection belief was within 2 years or less
“The best explanation is the one that best explains all the evidence”
“Probability is the sole ground on which finite human beings can make (rational) decisions.”
Garyhabermas.com
Know what you believe
Know why you believe it