Jesus of Nazareth: Fact or Fiction Part 3

References:

(1) According to the Qur’an, the holy book for Islam, “they SLEW Him NOT nor CRUCIFIED Him, but it APPEARED so unto them.”

(2) Michael Baigent claims Mark uses the Greek word soma for body which he believes means a “living body,” and NOT a CORPSE. Furthermore, Baigent concludes “Jesus’ SURVIVAL is revealed right there in the Gospel account” of Mark’s gospel.

(3) Michael Baigent is simply MISTAKEN regarding the word soma; it can refer to either a LIVING BODY or to a CORPSE (for example, that is how soma is used in Luke 17:37; Acts 9:40; Rom. 8:10).

(4) In the Handbook of Christian Apologetics,the authors Peter Kreeft and Ronal K. Tacelli say, “There is probably NO WORD that causes more confusion in biblical studies than the word myth.”

(5) According to G. B. Caird in his book “The Language and Imagery of the Bible,”myth is used in 9 distinct senses.

(6) Four Christian doctrines: the DEITY of Jesus Christ, the reliability of the BIBLE, the possibility of MIRACLES, and the verity of the RESURRECTION all stand or fall together.

(7) Anti-Christian SKEPTICS are particularly opposed to all four topics.

(8) The key STICKING POINT for them is the question of the SUPERNATURAL, something ABOVE and BEYOND the laws of nature.

(9) Carl Sagan, originator of the TV program Cosmos,says, “The universe is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.”

(10) My challenge to those opponents to the resurrection is this: If it can be EVIDENTIALLY VERIFIED that Jesus really DID rise from the dead, are they willing to renounce their opposition and become Jesus’ disciples? For if He really did rise from the dead, that VALIDATES His claim to be divine, for resurrection from death is certainly BEYOND mere human CAPABILITY; and His divinity validates EVERYTHING ELSE He said, for God cannot lie. Jesus affirmed the truth of the OT, and His disciples or close associates of the disciples who wrote the NT. So the truth of the resurrection is absolutely CRUCIAL for the truth of the Bible.

(11) Charles Stanley, the former pastor of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia. Stanley writes in the book “More Stories of the Heart,” a story of a farmer who is selling puppies and a young boy who wants a puppy.

This is episode 163.