Ten Facts Which Challenge the Rationality of the Atheistic Claim Part III

Contrary to popular opinion, the claims of the New Testament concerning Jesus Christ cannot be dismissed as untrustworthy legend or myth, invented a long time after the facts they describe.  There are two firm sets of historical events which support dating virtually the entire New Testament canon to within 30 to 35 years of Jesus’ public ministry (around 33 A.D).  First of all, the destruction of (Herod’s) temple is securely dated at 70 AD.  The silence of both the Gospels and the New Testament Letters regarding this major catastrophe in Israel’s history is extremely difficult to explain if they were written after that fateful event since the claim of Christianity was that Jesus came in order to fulfill (John 1:29) the very Temple sacrificial system that came to a complete end in 70 AD.  Second, the Book of Acts makes no mention of the martyrdom of the Apostles Paul and Peter who died publically in Rome in AD 65.  Last we hear of Paul in Acts is that he was preaching the Gospel openly and unhindered (28:30,31).  Since Acts is the 2^nd volume of a two-part work, then the first volume (Gospel of Luke) was obviously completed prior to that date.  For these reasons, we may reasonably conclude that the New Testament documents were all composed while multitudes of eye-witnesses (both sympathetic and hostile) to the relevant events they describe were still living, reflecting, engaging and investigating.

Neither can the claim of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead be dismissed as myth or legend.  New Testament scholar Dr. Gary Habermas has drawn together 12 historical details which surrounded Jesus’ death and resurrection which are affirmed as historically secure by a “vast” majority of New Testament scholars (see http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/garyhabermas.htm).  Habermas does not claim that every scholar personally believes that Jesus literally rose from the dead.  His point is instead that they affirm as historically true a long list of relevant events, including that Jesus died by crucifixion and was buried in a tomb, the disciples despaired over his death, the tomb was discovered to be empty right at Jerusalem just a few days later, the disciples were convinced they had then met the risen Jesus, they were transformed from doubters into bold proclaimers who were willing to die for Jesus’ message, the resurrection became central to their message, and that James, Jesus’ skeptical brother, and Paul, a former enemy  of the Jesus movement, were both martyred for their faith.  The important question is where do all these facts logically lead?  Skeptics have offered a host of alternative hypotheses each of which are employed to attempt to explain away Jesus’ resurrection (e.g. they went to the wrong tomb, Jesus wasn’t actually dead, either the disciples or the guards stole the body, there were mass hallucinations, etc.)  But none of these proposals are capable of effectively explaining even the majority of the historically agreed-upon facts.  On the other hand, New Testament scholar Craig Hazen concludes that there is but one hypothesis which successfully unites every single one of the above facts.  His conclusion is that they all point inescapably to Jesus’ historical resurrection from the dead.

For a fuller treatment of the themes treated in these past three postings, including endnotes, see my paper “The Prints Are Everywhere,” which you will find at www.christianityontheoffense.com