Skeptics Respond To The Evidence For The Resurrection of Jesus

not just evidence for the resurrection of Jesus but I want to talk about how skeptics react and respond to that evidence specifically how they dodge that evidence so I'm Mike winger and welcome to the Tuesday livestream this is a weekly live stream every Tuesday almost oh there we go almost every Tuesday almost every Tuesday in fact next week we won't be doing it but where we deal with issues of theology and apologetics and we tackle those issues and we try to think our way through them and we sort of plod through them and basically we're building up the Christian worldview where we're asking ourselves to love God with all of our minds and so here's the setup as I explain cuz I always like to start my videos by just telling you exactly what we're gonna do before we do it so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna give you a very brief summarized version of the case or the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus some of the evidence not all of it then we're gonna jump right into how skeptics respond to that evidence how skeptics react to that evidence because it's it's in hearing their responses that you start to realize how good the evidence actually is and I'm gonna talk about specific skeptics so we're gonna do with like Matt Dillahunty David Hume Sam Harris Dan Barker let's see we'll do with Richard carrier and Bart Ehrman as well so bunch of guys will talk about specific skeptics all those guys that I just mentioned are atheists or atheist leaning and here's why I'm doing this I'm every year and I mean every year we get junk on TV and on social media and in news newspapers and articles and all this that is based on horrible pathetic laughable scholarship that's meant to attack the resurrection of Christ every year there's like a new movie or something that comes out that's meant to just basically defame or attack basically using the resurrection creating controversy trying to make some money but the scholarship behind it is laughable remember the lost tomb of Jesus remember that that was such a joke or just recently the whole movie with Joaquin Phoenix with Mary Magdalene and I really saw the trailer so forgive me if the trailer misrepresented the movie but if it represented it accurately the trailer for this film shows Mary as being the secret disciple of Jesus who has like more importance than all the other disciples and it kind of hints at some special relationship between the two of them and all that and the hints behind it are that it's going back to like The Da Vinci Code which is one of the worst examples of fabrication the name of history that the modern times have seen so every year this kind of stuff just comes up and crops up and casually pokes at the resurrection but every year also there are Christians who are going out there making the well researched historical case evidence based case for the resurrection of Christ not based on Dan Brown's imagination right not not based on the law sticking with Jesus stuff but based upon actual historical documents that go back to the first century based upon the things that historians agree on and they're saying based on on what historians agree on we have good reason to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ this is the evidence-based case not a believe it because we say so because it's religiously important case that's not what it is so today we're gonna we're gonna look at that evidence-based case we're gonna look at how skeptics respond to it and that is where I think the gold is so hopefully you'll stick with me all the way to the end because if you've heard this case before just know I'm only gonna give a summary of it what you really want to get to is how they react because that's where oh man spend most of my time today so that's what we're doing let me let me just get the little slideshow ready because I have it I have it up and I want to share with you guys because in this case you really need the visual it helps it stick more in your head for sure so alright here's my little here's my little slideshow for you very high-tech I'm gonna give you five points that are historically accepted these are not things I'm making up on the spot they're not things that are that are just totally conjecture historians generally agree they generally agree that's an important point I'm making about these five facts okay and and different guys like Gary Habermas William Lane Craig other guys have made the same case and and better than I will but but here's me putting it all in a a cleverly packaged acronym to make it easier to remember so the first piece of evidence is that historically speaking based on first century documentation based upon evidence we have going back to the time we believed that there really was a death by crucifixion Jesus really did die the second piece of evidence is that ladies found the tomb empty that it was women disciples now pause right here because already I'm losing some skeptics I'm not saying we believe this please hear me I'm not saying believe this because it's in the Bible no I'm saying here's what people who don't believe the Bible who are historians generally agree on when they talk about what happened in the first century so ladies women actually went to the tomb and found it empty this has to do with things like the criterion of embarrassment and I won't I won't get into all that because that's not what this live stream is all about because guess what I don't feel like I have to make a case for all these things my whole point is that historians already have made the case the whole point here is these are the agreed on facts so we're trying to argue from agreed on facts to this question about the resurrection so the second one is ladies find the tomb empty the third is that there were independent appearances of Jesus alive after death the vast majority of historians do believe this they say yeah there were independent it like that's like not one person but separate different accounts where people said I saw Jesus alive after his death they believed this they actually saw something now the historians many of them won't answer the question of what did they actually see was it Jesus physically alive or not they'll just back off that and they'll go we're just saying the evidence says they saw something that was quote an appearance of Jesus apparently and then number four we have the violence endure by the Apostles that this has to do with after the resurrection right before the resurrection they were cowering they were hiding they had forsaken abandon Christ and then they had a flip and they were now preaching Jesus to the point of themselves being persecuted tortured and many of them even killed for this message that Jesus had Jesus had risen from the dead so that's another historical factor to saying this actually happened and then five the enemies of Christ converted the enemies of Christ converted specifically the two that really come up the most in the debate about the resurrection is James and Paul see James the brother of Jesus who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah while he was alive but after his death saw him alive according to an account that goes to within five years of the resurrection again I'm just summarizing this if you want to hear the whole case you can see it on my my youtube channel evidence for the resurrection or you can go to even here a better case go to like Gary Habermas calm or watch William Lane Craig in his debates or their presentations it's all out there it's great stuff so James who he went after the death he still didn't believe but after the resurrection seeing Jesus alive that's the claim right he suddenly converted Paul the Apostle who had every inclination to be against the church says that he saw the living Christ and that was why he became a Christian so these are the these like the five points and if you catch the underlines that's just spells out the word alive a li ve so a death by crucifixion ladies find the tomb empty independent appearances of Jesus alive after death violence and Dhirubhai the Apostles the enemies of Christ converted now I I would normally spend a long time unpacking each of those but the bottom line is this I pretty much want to know oh and I should mention if you're watching live you can put your questions in the comments and my friend Kirk is monitoring the comments he will send those questions to me I will answer those questions at the very end of the livestream I do ask that you offer questions that are specific that are clear so that people know when I read the question really what you're asking and if you if you disagree with me that's even better I like those questions the best okay so why don't what are the alternate explanations like if I'm gonna take these five facts and say let's just say that these generally agreed upon facts that these are all true what explains all these facts well obviously the resurrection does the resurrection explains the not only the death because you have to have a dead Jesus before you have a live Jesus right so it also explains the empty tomb it explains the independent appearances of Jesus the violence and dirt by the Apostles and the enemies of Christ converted it explains all those things what else does though that's the question so here's the altar theories the alternate theories for Jesus not not Jesus but somebody else some other explanation is the swoon theory I'm gonna give you seven of them the screwing theories that Jesus didn't really die he only looked like he was dead he was like if you if you're a fan of The Princess Bride which i think is fantastic movie I should probably go watch it again he was mostly dead right he was only mostly dead he wasn't entirely dead and and so then the resurrection wasn't really resurrection he just kind of you know got a little better then there's the twin theory the twin theory would be that um that there was that gee I'm not kidding that Jesus actually had a twin and that the twin was crucified or the twin is the one who came back one of the other so one of them to ideal that one came back and this of course yeah the twin theory okay so then we have the mass hallucination theory I'll respond to these in a second first I'll just lay them out this is actually the most popular theory even today amongst those who are willing to throw out a theory it's the mass is that they were just a lot of hallucinations and so we'll come back to that in a second then there's the spiritual resurrection theory some liberal scholars in particular believe that Jesus didn't rise bodily he just sort of had some sort of difficult to describe spiritual resurrection experience and there's a lot of things that come against that but we'll come back to it then there's the wrong tomb theory which is to say that they just got the wrong tomb you know that he was buried in one tomb but they went to a different tomb later and they opened it it was empty and that kind of triggered everything else oops just like a just like kind of like a GPS malfunction and then we have the missing body theory and the missing body theory is just that Jesus's body was was just missing like for some reason his body was gone his body was missing maybe it was never even put in the tomb in the first place it was thrown into a common grave and then his body was gone and so then it led to all these different things and then finally we have the conspiracy theory which is probably the oldest of the theories this conspiracy theory goes back to the first century we know because it's in the mouth of the enemies of the of the gospel when when when the Gospel writers are writing and they're saying yeah this that the disciples stole the body of Jesus that that didn't happen because such and such so they're actually combated this theory that that theory goes back to the first century the conspiracy theory it was it was it was it was a deliberate conspiracy the Apostles purposely lied you know Paul James these guys they just lied about it so those are independent there's separate theories explanations let's look at them one at a time so the swoon theory no no follow me here if anybody's maybe got a little lost in the mix here we're gonna now take the five facts and compare them to these alternate theories do any of these theories withstand the five accepted generally accepted facts of history meaning that they would explain away the resurrection the swoon theory well that's refuted by a couple different things number one its refuted by the death by crucifixion the reason why number one is up there is because the description of the crucifixion as well as the piercing and the specific details about it if we're only taking new Testament as as historians do not as religious people do right just historians take it then we say no that would be a death like you died but it's also refuted by the Ascension because an independent appearances of Jesus alive after his death and his going up into heaven and the type and manner of the description of those appearances don't describe a weak impotent barely alive almost killed like you were so badly hurt we thought you were dead you laid alone in an in a tomb for three days somehow you got out this doesn't inspire the faith of the disciples of the appearances of him alive after death don't match this and of course number four let what I just said is it's not inspiring the violence endure by the Apostles Dome it doesn't make sense if Jesus was just hurt really bad but not dead so the swoon theory isn't supported by hardly anybody for this reason then we have the twin theory the twin theory of course would be would be refuted by a couple things so we have the empty tomb number two if the if there was a twin that died there would be two bodies not one so the empty tomb doesn't make sense the independent independent appearances of Jesus alive after death are to not strangers that he appeared to some strangers or people didn't know him well but they're also too like those who were following with him every day for years for years every day in and out living with Jesus then we have his his family his mom his brother like number five enemies of Christ converted that doesn't get explained now there's longer refutation of these I'm just giving you a couple couple points because I want to get into you know Hume and Barker and and all those guys in a second so that's the twin theory then we have the mass hallucination theory and and this is Richard carrier you he likes to borrow pieces from the mass elucidation theory but this is also going to be refuted by the number three independent accounts of Jesus alive after death not one time but multiple different people on multiple different occasions that doesn't fit mass hallucinations as well as several individuals at one location where they're all seeing the same thing at the same time the idea behind a hallucination is it only happens in here right so when we're all experiencing the same thing out here that is not a hallucination that's the only that's how you know it's not a hallucination hey do you see that - yes I do ok it's not a hallucination so that doesn't easily work first Corinthians 15 which goes back to within five years of the resurrection it talks about how over 500 at once saw Jesus so we're talking about quite a massive hallucinations being being claimed here so that that explanation doesn't seem to work very well then there's the wrong tomb theory the the wrong tomb theory actually the spiritual resurrection theory the spiritual resurrection theory which this is honestly this is what irritates me about how sometimes theological liberals will talk because they will on one hand say I'm a Christian and on the other hand then they deny core doctrines of Christianity but then they say no no it's never really been that important and then they talk in wishy-washy terms and they make it all into poetry and then they like I think they irritate everybody I mean I'm not emotionally mad at them I just it's just like how are you doing right at truth when you truth like it's like it's a contortionist so the spiritual resurrection theory is kind of like that like there was something of a resurrection but but this doesn't fit the empty tomb the body was raised the body of Christ was actually raised that doesn't fit the empty tomb the there was a violence in door by the Apostles that the reason why they endured divine the violence is because they believed in the physical resurrection and this gets into the very meaning of the word resurrection NT Wright has done a lot of study on the actual meaning of the word resurrection to first century people to the Jews in particular because this is a Jewish movement remember and there's no way that the word met a spiritual resurrection that's not what the word meant and so in T Wright's got a ton of work he's done on that and some people who used to say this now agree with him so the spiritual resurrection theory doesn't fit those those facts either then we have what's next we have the missing the wrong tomb wrong tomb theory is refuted by a description of the tomb given both in the before and the after the number three four and five independent appearance of Jesus alive after death that doesn't happen when you just got as you lost his body you don't endure violence because of those things and the enemies of Christ don't get converted because you can't find the body of Jesus they could have easily just brought the body back out at any point later and then we have the missing body theory and this again is refuted by three four and five independent appearances don't happen when the body of Jesus is just missing then we're back to just a hallucination theory which has its own issues the violence intro by the Apostles doesn't happen because of that the enemies of Christ aren't converted because of the body was missing and then the conspiracy theory which which is basically like wrong to missing body combined the problems with a conspiracy theory are all the same as the problems we've mentioned so far it just adds that the disciples knowingly intentionally did all this on purpose like right knowing it was a lie so they knowingly died I mean the mass hallucination theory has to do with them being deceived the conspiracy theory has to do with them purposely lying and deceiving people about it but it doesn't bear up they gained they gain nothing they lost everything and it was all because of the claim about resurrection and that they did so that that those are the historical facts compared to the alternate explanations this is all just the intro we're about to get to the good stuff so then we have the one rational explanation which in my mind is Jesus is alive I mean just Jesus being alive explained the crucifixion the empty tomb the appearances the violence and even the enemies of Christ being converted yeah yeah Jesus being alive explains all that okay so that's the quick rundown though put it fast and and of course I mean I I fully admit you guys I've lost some details in here there's there's a better case that can be made for and against the things I just am giving you a quick summary and the reason is because now I want to talk about specific skeptics and how they react to the evidence for the resurrection so David Hume David Hume is let me show you him right here there he is okay he's he's not moderate he's not his current right but he is used by all the modern guys and used by all the current guys and if you get into a debate on the resurrection this this guy this guy is gonna come up in that debate David Hume will pop up in their conversation David Hume lived in the 1700s and used a philosopher and he says about the resurrection that it didn't happen and here's his reason not because he has a better explanation but because any explanation is better in his mind let me explain in David Humes mind miracles are impossible period end of story and therefore no matter what the evidence is we deny the resurrection that is his position let me read to you one of the things he wrote he says the plain consequence is and it's a general maxim worthy of our attention that no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle that's his general maximum that's his position there is no such thing as enough evidence to say that Jesus rose you'd be surprised how many people today hold the same position so if you're the skeptic and you're watching I want you to notice the commonalities between Hugh Merriman carrier Barker all the guys I'm gonna talk about because it is a blind faith position of methodological naturalism I do not say that as an insult I say does an observation and tell me if you do not notice the same thing so uh David Hume goes on and he says the only time he'd accept a miracle is if there was two competing miracle claims and he would take the lesser of the two that's the only time he'd accept a miracle that's he wrote in an inquiry concerning human understanding so that was David Hume then we have bard Airman Bart Airmen is one of the look if you're an atheist you know who Barton airman is right if you're if you're in fact if you're acuity Airmen is because a lot of his stuff is geared towards attacking the Bible and Islamic apologetics requires attacking the Bible so Bart Airmen he basically responds to this evidence by hand waving and he's done debates on it he's done debates and you can and I encourage you guys to check him out I loved watching the Bates personally but the trick is following the arguments like tracking with the actual arguments so if our airman he says that the biggest reason why we should not the singular reason the most important reason why we should not believe that this evidence says Jesus rose is because miracles shouldn't be believed even if they happened did you hear me I'm not making this up this is Bart Ehrman's position even if they really happen in history miracles should not be believed does that not sound like a religious position to you this is Bart Ehrman right even if it happened it shouldn't be believed he says he says this now in his he had a debate with with William Lane Craig where he granted all of the facts at William Lane Craig had the same facts as me pretty much he just phrased them differently I put them into an acronym so it's easy to remember alive and so Bart Ehrman actually granted all these facts but how did he respond to it he just said as a historian you're not allowed to postulate miracles it's just wrong like he just can't so there was no miracle so what's interesting is after that debate bar Aaron changed his position and now he no longer grants all the facts he now denies the burial he thinks that Jesus's body was thrown into a common grave and I think it's pretty clear at least it seems clear to me that the most likely reason why Bart Ehrman did this is because the evidence was so strongly pointing to the resurrection that he decided he couldn't grant all those facts it would push you towards the resurrection he had even taught previous students of his don't try to come up with an alternate theory because they will tear you apart right if you use the hallucination theory or the or the swoon theory he was don't do that they'll tear you apart with the evidence so so his way finally around it after I think being pinned to the wall by guys like William Lane Craig getting to the point where now bardera is just saying hey look I've got I've got a presupposition that Jesus didn't rise I mean so what's the point in a debate when you just start with a presupposition and then his way around that now is to say oh no the the empty tomb is not is not historical the there was no tomb which starts to get a little more complicated and a little bit at it's a little ad hoc if you ask me so he now denies the burial and I think for self-serving reasons so let's look at the next one Richard carrier I got to talk about Richard carrier it's not because he's so highly respected it's look I'm like you guys like I live in the world where I'm not just familiar with all the ancient German guys but but I also I'm online and I see the debates and I see the discussions and I encounter atheist for years now online and I see the people that they're looking up to and that they're quoting all the time a guy that's getting quoted more and more nowadays is this guy right here Richard carrier Richard carrier has multiple cases against the resurrection so his response to these facts of history is to deny all five facts he says he denies not only those five he denies a lot more Richard carrier says Jesus didn't exist at all that it's a myth he's what's called a myth assist he's one of the very small number of guys who who actually is credentialed who believes Jesus didn't exist a very very I mean minutely small number of guys in that particular position and they don't generally agree with each other either so you can't really glump them together like they have the same theories they're sort of all islands but in his in his denial what he has to do is he has to take the evidence that causes people to believe those five facts and he has to reinterpret it so how does Richard carrier deal with that evidence well he starts to come up with not one theory but an amalgam like a Frankenstein theory I got to do more stuff and Richard Carrey in the future but let me just give you a couple of things that he believes he teaches that Paul the Apostle in first Corinthians 15 that Paul's saying that Jesus did come and die and rise again but it all happened in outer space in outer space and he seriously means it he teaches that this stuff happened in outer space and that's why there was no physical Jesus for the physical death and resurrection it all happened in outer space he teaches that the but his theories are different for the Apostles and different for different people so the Apostles were basically the disciples were a large gathering of schizophrenic individuals they were schizophrenic who happened to congregate together and have mass hallucinations or something like a mass hallucination at least this is what I've heard from him and yeah then when it comes to like Luke or the or the the actual Gospels themselves Richard carrier has this really complex web of theories about how Luke must he he basically constructs the stories of Jesus pulling from every ancient piece of literature you can think of he must have had a big library to pull from so mids and stories he's pulling from all these and he's creating like an amalgam in Jesus so that way Richard could say Jesus did this thing and that is kind of like something that happened in this story over here and so Luke must have used this story to make up that it but it's ad hoc this is the problem it's it's ad hoc I'll do more stuff on on Richard carrier one day in the future I think it would be a good idea okay so let's look at the next one Dan Barker Dan Barker was a former Christian who is a former Christian who wrote music and stuff like that but now he's he's part of what's called a Freedom From Religion Foundation a Dan Barker goes around debating and teaching people on on basically why we shouldn't you know have religion or believe in Jesus journey that stuff he actually gives for reasons Dan Barker he gives for reasons why we should reject the resurrection of Christ and I'm going to name the and then we'll talk about them for a minute so first the problem of history second the the possible natural explanations third the internal contradictions in the Bible and then fourth the legendary growth of this story so briefly it would take forever to do all these in detail but briefly Dan Barker's case against the resurrection first he says the problem of history now this is where he does the same thing as Hume and Bart Ehrman and he says you have to assume miracles don't happen that's how history works and I quote him now he says if miracles do happen we still can't learn that from historical evidence okay that is that's just the blinders that are being put on you can't ask a question you're not allowed to answer and then pretend like you've answered it okay so this problem of history that's his first one the second one the problem of natural possible natural explanations damn Barker's a big advocate for alternate explanations but he won't pick one he just says maybe one of those but he knows if he picks one then it pigeonholes him and now he has a case that he has to defend and none of them stand up to the evidence then he gets into what he calls are his two real reasons to reject the resurrection and this is really interesting Dan Barker I mean look he is like an inspiring atheist to many people right and an intellectual even to many he says one that there are internal contradictions and two that there's a legendary growth of the story first off we don't in this case where we're saying that Jesus rose from the dead based upon the accepted facts of history we don't need the Bible to not contradict what I'm saying is I don't think the Bible contradicts but even if Dan was to prove the Bible contradicted it wouldn't change these five facts so this is what we call a red herring this is just a distraction and he considers that one of his best reasons not to believe the resurrection and then for the legendary growth of the story and here's where he'll pick like the order in which he thinks the gospel was were written starting with Mark you know ending with John and he'll show how there was like the story got crazier and more miraculous as these different Gospels were written except that he's cherry-picking if you really take the Gospels in you'll see sometimes mark has a more miraculous moment sometimes John does sometimes luke does it's an abuse of the of the stuff and this matters because if that's if your best stuff is assumptions and red herrings and misrepresentation of the text so that's Dan Barker and then we have Matt Dillahunty Matt Dillahunty host of the atheist experience well-known atheist he's a tough one Matt Dillahunty because it's hard to nail him down Matt Dillahunty won't take a position if he doesn't have to because he's more about like attacking other people's positions and he tries to not have a position a lot of the time I've listened to his discussions his debates he tries to not actually have a position and so that's part of his strategy he'll do it over and over again watch his debates and you'll see it you'll realize he's not even taking positions he's just throwing rocks at the others he says he's not convinced of the facts themselves though so he leans it seems he leans toward the myth assist position and in a long to our discussion with junta a Christian apologist I came home his first name right now Matt jente Dale Jim - something I forget his name money you might know it he it's like an hour and a half in and then finally the Christian gets Matt to admit that he basically disagrees with the vast majority of historians and thinks that he's not even convinced Jesus existed or that those facts are real then he was asked okay but if the if the facts are real how would you explain those Matt and this guy is a really smart guy right he should be able to explain that he says I'll take any other explanation okay that's a nice sweeping statement but which what explanation works for you and he won't answer Matt won't answer he refuses to pick an explanation to to explain those five facts because he knows they're indefensible then he moves into what I think is Matt's default position for when he really gets cornered in theist discussions he says I don't know and me not knowing is an elite position that is wonderful and now I'm gonna mock Christians for saying that they do know and that's kind of the direction he goes he goes I don't know I don't know what it was and I don't have to know and that's the elite position you're silly for trying to know then Matt was asked in the same debate what evidence would convince you and this is again where I think hard-nosed blind faith skepticism is represented as a position he says what evidence will convince you and Matt says I can't think of any evidence that would convince me but surely if there's a God then God knows what evidence would convince me and since he hasn't given me that evidence he either doesn't want me to know or he doesn't care or there just is no God you see even him refusing to believe is somehow evidence against God did I mean does that honestly like if you're a skeptic and you're hearing me here does that sound reasonable to you like I mean I know it it flies as far as sarcasm and mocking and criticism goes but is it reasonable to say here's the evidence and you say let's follow Matt's logic here's these evidence historians agree I deny the historians but what if they're right okay even if they're right I think any other explanation is good but which explanation I have no idea but you know what the fact that I don't know is noble and I'm more elite than you because I don't know okay well I have the evidence I have one working explanation you have you offer no alternative and I think the evidence is explained by this and so your conclusion is that what what what more do you want I don't know but the fact that God hasn't given given it to me proves that I'm right like this is this is nutty so this is this is these guys I there's one more Sam Harris sam Harris says that no evidence is good enough this last atheist Sam Harris a very smart guy really really intelligent guy well-spoken he talks very slowly let me read a quote from you from him to you Sam Harris said even if we had multiple contemporaneous eyewitness accounts of the miracles of Jesus this still wouldn't prove sufficient basis to believe that these event Vince actually occurred even if we have even if we had more more evidence even whatever the evidence it doesn't matter evidence doesn't matter you shouldn't believe it that's the thing I see through every single atheist and skeptic now is we don't care about the evidence we don't believe it you shouldn't believe it you're a fool for believing it and we're justified for not and that's our position so there's um there's a rundown of skeptics modern-day skeptics who come against the evidence for the resurrection of Christ and I do encourage you to check out their their videos and the things that they say and ask yourself this when are they just making an assumption that it didn't happen when are they offering real evidence when are they changing this subject to a red herring like let's talk about Bible contradictions when you're like okay but the whole point of my case was that I was taking accepted historical facts not coming to you telling you that you have to use the Bible as inspired so I'm gonna take a few other things and then I'm gonna get to your guys questions because I want to hear from you what you have to say maybe a challenge that you have to present to me it should mean something to you though that lead atheists model atheists atheists that represent other atheists in their thinking by a theist that atheists learn from that they have such seemingly foolish unreasonable blind faith responses to the evidence for the resurrection of Christ and there is more evidence this is only five facts there's other facts we could add in there too there's other lines of reasoning we can use as well this is just one case through a series of evidence so here's other answers they might already be in your mind you might be like Mike but you're using the Bible you can't use look at this you can't you can't use the Bible you can't use the Bible that's one book that's one source okay that that betrays an ignorance about the Scriptures the Bible is actually multiple there's 66 different documents in the scriptures written over hundreds and hundreds of years of time the Bible itself even just the New Testament is multiple documents through multiple authors and we are treating them as simply historical documents in fact they're the first century documents we have about Christ are primarily now carried in the Bible so you can you do take these in sceptics who are historians they use the Bible this is a normal thing for them to do not well-known but you can't simply be like that's the Bible so throw it out because all that is a blind faith position against the Bible you should take the Bible if nothing else at least as a historical document in this discussion some people like Richard carrier he likes to say that people who believe that Jesus really existed or believed in the resurrection they're Christians and this is like that's all it takes in some people's minds to discount everything that they say oh yeah of course of course William Lane Craig after doing all his historical research he believes Jesus rose from the dead but he's a Christian except that the problem here is that now because if you believe Jesus rose from the dead like you're obviously you are a Christian that's like a central doctrinal distinctive of Christianity so you're a Christian but now by disqualifying all of them I'm assuming my conclusion that Jesus didn't rise that's why what we did here was we didn't say people who believe believe even people who don't don't we said here's the facts that lead us to believe now let's draw reasonable conclusions from those facts it's difficult to get sometimes skeptics to actually respond to the evidence and not just attack ad hominem Christians so some would say Mike aren't you just hijacking history for apologetic reasons this this I get sometimes from my friend Doug the atheist who is the YouTube channel Pine Creek we've done a couple different discussions online and debates and and he likes to say apologist like it's a dirty word like apologists you know like the and it kind of grosses them out and so apologists were just hijacking history for those reasons but but here's the thing is as a as an apologist a Christian who's who does apologetics I'm not creating five historical facts using apologetics to the news no no I'm going to the historians I'm saying what facts do you have about the res about the time period of the death and resurrection of Jesus and then I'm saying huh look at what they said look this does lead us to believe in the resurrection it is actually the skeptics I think that butcher the history historical disciplines and prop up guys like Richard carrier and the other handful of handful of guys Robert price and stuff a handful of guys who just throughout history and that's why Christians often point out if you're gonna deny the evidence for Jesus you're gonna end up denying the evidence for a lot of historical events because we arrived at belief in in the evidence for Jesus for the same reasons as we believe in those other historical events so another person would say I'm just gonna compare Jesus to other miracle claims and I'll say well don't you believe you don't believe that like the Guru majouk Ibuka over in the middle of you know it was the mountain range wherever you don't believe that he really walked on water yesterday do you and I go won't know I don't and they go see you know you only believe your own miracle claims but again this this it's it's almost like we're talking past each other now because what we've done is we've said okay just Mugu pas booba or whatever i said does this guy have the same evidence for his miracle claims as we do for the resurrection does he have the same kind of evidence and the answer is always no all the comparisons always fall flat once you actually hold them up and compare them evidence-wise not just claim for miracle claim for miracle if you believe one you have to believe them all.i one a theist told me that I had to believe Harry Potter if I believe to the Bible that I too think Harry Potter was rumors with real and all I can say is like you're you're so far gone that you can't even think clearly about the subject that you you're mocking Christians but you're the caricature not them and it's really unfortunate okay so I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take your guys questions and I hope that this has been interesting to you what I've done is something that it generally doesn't get done I've covered the atheists objections to the evidence for Jesus not just the evidence for Jesus so um I'm gonna take those questions now let me load them up real quick if you have something to say you can put it in the comments section oh I see I'm seeing the comments there there's Doug right now he says he has a hundred questions well you can ask one okay Jeffrey McDowell says could you please ask Mike when he's going to followup with the video addressing Flat Earth claims straight strictly from a biblical perspective he said he was going to do this over week yes I'm definitely gonna do it so here's the update on the Flat Earth video I got a I mean like a ton a landslide of content given to me that relates to the whole flat earth stuff from the Bible and I want to patiently look through at all my schedule is not allowed me to do this very well yet so once I get through it all and do the fair hearing thing then it'll be something that's really worth listening to right I won't be just giving you off-the-cuff off the top my head interpretations of passages I'll really give you something that I think will be usable and reliable and ironclad something you could you could have for years to come to look back on because this debates not going to go away anytime soon so I am gonna do it but it's gonna be at minimum say 2 or 3 weeks out at most like 2 or 3 months I'm sorry I will give you an update when I have one on that okay so from JD Wolfe double-oh-seven says can you please ask Mike how dangerous easy believe ism is my stepmother is falling for it okay so there's a phrase I've heard easy believe ISM and I have to be honest I'm not a hundred percent sure what's meant by it I feel like some people say easy believe ISM and what they mean is mere intellectual is sent to the to the doctrines of Christianity means you're saved which is not true right other people say easy believe ISM and what they mean to do is smuggle works into the gospel and I I don't so I don't use the phrase because I'm too much because I'm afraid that it'll be misused so yeah anybody who believes that they can be saved by mere intellectual assent but without a real faith commitment that results in actions in their lives I encourage them to read the book of James that's what it is now the Holy Spirit's obviously gonna push you away from that sort of thing and someone is obviously laboring under self-deception if they think that they can merely intellectually agree with the gospel and that results in salvation that's not that's not a placing of my trust in the person of God and the person of Christ and it doesn't result in transformation which means that's evidence that that isn't really happening George cook says which apostles in the Bible didn't meet Jesus in person what's the earliest record in Scripture of the resurrection the all of the a pot okay there's the word apostle's used in a couple different ways in scripture so there's two questions here all of the Apostles obviously that walked with Jesus travel with him also Paul the Apostle he met Jesus in person that's his claim and then the the it's possible I think let's see Luke I think is referred to as an apostle maybe Timothy I'm trying to remember the top of my head and we don't know if they met Jesus but they were not considered apostles in the same sense and so that that's where you get into the word being used in multiple ways sometimes it just means I'm sending you out I passed all oh I send out that's where the word comes from apostle someone who was sent out almost like a missionary type thing versus one who is carrying the gospel with a special calling like Paul to the Gentiles or Peter to the Jews that's the short answer to that question the second question is what's the earliest record in Scripture of the resurrection the vast and I mean vast vast vast majority like over well over 90% of the scholars will say its first Corinthians 15 and it is all I'll read it to you in a second here over over well over 90% they agree that this is I'm not kidding within five years of Jesus's crucifixion within five years five years and I can build the case for that here but but my point is I don't have to like this is where the scholars have already agreed on skeptics atheists alike so first Corinthians 15 it says this for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received within five years that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep then he appeared to James then to all the Apostles last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me that that addition verse eight is probably the addition the rest of it for in thien's 15 three through seven is the original within five years not enough time for some legendary development and it includes the death the burial the resurrection the appearances including over 500 brothers at once like if you want to say that's legendary development that's pretty quick legendary development over 500 and once let's see we got more questions a lot of questions from you guys today I thought it might be an interesting livestream twisted wrench 9 he says call me doubting Thomas my question as a 90% Christian is what are the physical signs that I can see this have happening happened today I have a hard time with believing in personal recollection of stories I'm not sure if I understand your question twisted wrench what are the physical okay so the physical signs today okay let me let me encourage you with this there's a book written by a guy named Mike like Kona and in the beginning of the book the first several hundred pages actually it well at least hundred pages or so is all about the historical method and how we come to historical knowledge in the first place and it's just meant to be a survey of different ways of learning history and what what you look for is a historian that kind of thing and it's I can't read the title of the book it's but look Mike like Kona it's something about the resurrection of Christ evidence for the resurrection or something and I recommend something like that for you at least to get you grounded on because here's the thing you're like why should I even trust those facts of history what what can I look at today okay well that's what I'd recommend for that I think there's probably a lot more that we could talk about but but that's all I can really get out of that little question you asked so George cook says Mike what's your take that unbelievers are blind God just hasn't revealed it to them yet believers are miracles considering they see the truth it's going to take a miracle for them to understand I don't like pigeon holing unbelievers I think that when you make general generic statements about everyone who disagrees with you then that is always prone to problems that that's why what I did with today was I showed you like five or six specific examples so that I could then generalize about those guys not about everybody so why are unbelievers blind I mean there's spiritual issues there's sin I mean some people can't they can't see the truth because of sin they have biases they have desires they have pride they have who knows what goes on in their hearts all things that I can't see so yeah thank God for opening eyes and showing us truth but I think he's laid us quite a quite a breadcrumb trail for truth I'm Phillip rushing says Mike have you heard that some churches namely the Episcopal Church believe that the resurrection was not a physical one it occurred in the hearts of the disciples yes yeah I've heard that that that would be that spiritual resurrection theory it doesn't withstand the meaning of the word resurrection that's what I was saying in t write wrote a whole bunch of stuff on was that the very concept of the resurrection the Jewish concept of resurrection it wasn't a flexible word right like we know what this meant if very clearly they thought Jesus bodily rose the the gospel records are clearly trying to proclaim a physical risen Lord how he eats with them he says touch me all the stuff that happens is meant to declare that he physically rose from the dead he got that regeneration before anybody else so my take is that that they're they're abandoning a central tenet of the gospel of Christ Joseph may says can you ask Mike what happened in first chronicles 20 30 or 20 verse 3 oh goodness okay I this is the kind of question because you're saying there's four translations for me to look at that would be really possibly really boring for all you guys but let me let me bring it up first chronicles 23 I might have to answer this in a message in the comment section afterwards because I I'd have to like look at four translations consider the differences maybe look at some of the original language to try to figure out why things are different you're pitting the New King James and ESV contradicting the in it in ASP tell you what Joseph me I will answer that in the comments section as soon as the livestream is over I will jump right to the comments I'll pin it to the top so you'll have any answer this question but I don't know I have to find the problem before I can find the answer and I don't want to necessarily do all that during a live stream cam Spears High Camp good to hear from you he says I have a question for Mike which gospel was written first and when was it written a good question I don't know but here's here's the thing one of the areas where I want to do more study is in the specific work of historicity and authorship of the New Testament documents so I want to do more work on that on my own before I can stand up and make big proclamations that's why I'm speaking of consensus answers for the questions of the resurrection this isn't based on my work it's based on theirs so I don't know but I do I do know this that some of the arguments for say the Markin priority mark came first and that some of the Gospels use mark or there's arguments about QED that there was this other document that they all used or just it gets complicated and I have never waited through all that so yeah good question Kim I I don't know I don't know but I also know that sometimes it's like a house of cards so you build up a an organized way of thinking that it was this this this this this but then that whole order can shift and switch if you just change a couple assumptions or so I have been led to believe so that's something I haven't gotten into Pine Creek Doug asked me a question do you accept the scholarly consensus that six of Paul's letters are forgeries if not why no I do not accept that I don't know how much of a consensus it is I'm not saying it's not I just I don't know I haven't looked into it that's one of the things I definitely gotta look into when I have time currently I'm just trying to find time to sleep there for anybody who's watching who doesn't know this Doug always asked his baited questions but but that's what makes it fun there is a group of people who are scholars who do think that some of Paul's writings are forgeries in the New Testament I think everything was written by Paul except for Hebrews I don't have any reason to believe that Paul wrote it or or or to care about that I think all the other ones were written by Paul and you could say that my own personal position has been that I have so much evidence supporting the the the truth of Christianity that I can base that belief on the truth of Christianity and that Paul having written those works comports better with Christianity being true than him not having written those works but I don't know that I would go out and try to prove it you that way I think I would need to prove it to you probably in a different fashion which I haven't even tried to do so Rachel and Nova novo celac says even if Jesus was resurrected how do I know he wants to be my friend in my heart etc how do I know he has done anything after going up to heaven well I said I suppose um Rachel I suppose you might ask yourself what alternative are you are you proposing here that Jesus came fulfilled you know scripture fulfilled prophecy died on the cross said it was for you rose again said that whoever believes in him would have everlasting life but that there was all the deceit like that it was a trick because this is that if Jesus was resurrected like I mean if Jesus was resurrected then that puts the seal of approval on Christian truth so there's your evidence I think that the resurrection becomes the evidence that God loves you becomes the evidence that Jesus really did die for you that he really accomplished the the sacrifice for your sins on the cross I think it becomes the evidence and I think an alternative theory of well maybe he's just messing with me like I know the guys very likely thankfully okay so a couple more questions cam says is there any factual claim in the Gospels that you think probably didn't occur nope and [Music] Doug says do you do you lower your confidence on a historical claim if there's only one source for the claim yes generally and then cam says would your confidence in the ascension of Jesus be lowered if this was claimed by and believed about other ancient figures before Jesus no no it wouldn't so and the reason for that is this let's say let's say that that you have death and resurrection accounts of somebody before Jesus but they don't have the evidence to support them that the resurrection of Jesus has why would I believe that like it doesn't have the five things we mentioned today but it also doesn't have like the prophetic forerunner it doesn't have the transformation of your own life it doesn't have the rise of Christianity that gets explained through this it doesn't have those evidences plus more why would I believe it if the point is I believe it based on evidence more than just a claim then why would just a claim suddenly become all the evidence I need all right there it is now what I what I don't want for for cam and Doug I appreciate you guys being here what I don't want is for this to turn into an Essie interview where you guys try to ask me trick questions all day long so thank you guys so much for being here on the livestream I do appreciate the questions appreciate everybody coming alongside I hope you find it beneficial for you here's the bottom line I have I have two serious skeptics in the comment section right now I got kam and Doug guys I know who have not responded yet to the actual evidence for the resurrection of Jesus what they have done is offered questions meant to try to start to build a case for doubt which I understand especially Doug that's that's his direction but more than that here's the evidence what's your alternate explanation this is the thing it's difficult to get someone to do and saying anything else works that's not an explanation that's hand waving saying we a priori cannot believe in the resurrection is not an explanation that's a faith position and so I think that those things are are really good and if you guys and if I miss something that you put in the comments forgive me that was not on purpose all these comments are staying up the live chat will stay upon permanently and everyone's welcome to read that and consider the things you guys had to share so thank you guys here's my announcements for you real quick as we close I will not be doing a live stream next week I won't have a Monday video or even a Wednesday video I'm taking a week off I am just needing a little bit of a break Easter is gonna be a very very busy week this week and I will not be able to to do anything next week with the right heart and so let's take a little break so I'm yeah god bless you guys all hang out in the chat for just a moment I'll be watching the comp the it's down in the video below afterwards as well so god bless you and have a wonderful Easter the most important important holiday of the Christian faith it is it is the resurrection of Christ and it blesses blesses me every year to be part of it

Channel: Mike Winger

Views: 80,647

Rating: 4.6027088 out of 5

Keywords: evidence for the resurrection, resurrection of Jesus, evidence based case for the resurrection, skeptics respond to the evidence for the resurrection, what do skeptics say about the resurrection of Jesus, bart ehrman resurrection, dan barker resurrection, richard carrier resurrection, sam harris resurrection, atheists respond to the resurrection evidence, resurrection deniers, tuesday livestream, theology and apologetics, apologetics, Mike Winger, Matt Dillahunty resurrection

Id: wICHji-kh-s

Length: 55min 41sec (3341 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 27 2018