Are You Willing to Die for a Lie? Another Piece of Jesus' Resurrection Jigsaw


 

"The only conclusion one can make is that this by no means can be considered as legend. Indeed this creed is an eyewitness account of the death and resurrection of Jesus. This eye witness creed dates back to with a couple of years of Jesus' resurrection!"

The above is how I concluded  my last post.  Having shown beyond reasonable doubt that Jesus' Apostles clearly taught that Jesus had died on the cross and risen from the dead, the only lingering doubt is whether they were telling the truth.

Clearly the Apostles knew the truth about whether Jesus did in fact die and rise again - they should have known - they were there!

The Apostles were teaching about the resurrection of Jesus only a few days after he had died.  All of a sudden Peter (who was so frightened of the authorities that he three times denied he knew Jesus) was preaching with authority (and indeed to the authorities!) that he was risen!

But what if he was lying?  Well the same authorities that put Jesus to death were still very much around to try to do the same to Peter.  Indeed history records that both Peter and James (Jesus' brother) and many others who knew the truth about Jesus' resurrection did pay the ultimate price of death for their belief in a resurrected Jesus:
"Ananus who took the High Priesthood ... assembled the Sanhedren of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus (who was called the Christ), whose name was James, and some of his companions; and when he had formed an accusation against them, he delivered them to be stoned" (The Jewish Historian Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1)
As I have already stated the likes of Peter and James (who are shown in my last post to be the most likely authors of the earliest creed about Jesus' death and resurrection) KNEW THE TRUTH! They KNEW if Jesus was dead they KNEW if Jesus had risen! If the latter is true, then they died for the truth. If the former is true then they had died for a blatant lie.

This leaves us with a fundamental question:

It is true to say that many people will die for something they believe to be true. But I have not met any sane person who would die for what they know to be a lie.

DO YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO WOULD DIE FOR A LIE?

WOULD YOU DIE FOR A LIE?

It seems to me that the witnesses of Jesus' death were also witnesses of His resurrection! Yet another piece of my 1,000 + piece  jigsaw in place!

Comments

Question of Identity said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
June 2, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where does the ability to love come from?

Perhaps a silly and too basic a question, but I wonder if you have sat and thought about the question: "Where does the ability to love come from?" There is a new film out about Charles Darwin's life and of course his theory of evolution. The theory (and that is all it is!) describes a dog eat dog existence - where only the fittest survive. In all this the theory fails to address the existence of love. I'm thinking about the type of sacrifical love that we see clearly in the life of Jesus Christ. The type of love that on a good day we might manage to emulate. The Bible of course is absolutely clear about the source of love. Dear friends (says John) let us love one another, for love comes from God. And more clearly goes on to say: God is love! In the New Testament there are 3 words for love: Philia (family loyalty) Eros: (physical intimate love) And Agape: (sacrificial, life transforming, Christ like love) All these are gift from God but it is the th
Read more

Hedonist in the Making

Image
The other day I saw a young girl (about 6 yrs old) wearing a t-shirt that proclaimed: "It's all about me ME ME!" This young girl is a hedonist in the making. Little does she know of the prison she is building for herself. Little does she know of Satan and his cohorts who are all too willing to help her. The basic idea behind hedonistic thought is that pleasure is the only thing that is good for a person. Hedonism can be conjoined with psychological egoism - where people are motivated only by their self interest. Isaiah observed this attitude in Israel: "Let us eat drink (and be merry)" you say, "for tomorrow we die!" How sad that there is a real potential for this child to finish up like this:- All this only reinforces the importance (and high calling!) of children's outreach in the church. It was Bill Wilson of Metro Ministries and founder of Kidz Klub that said: "It iseasier to build boys and girls then to repair men and women" . How
Read more

A Bible Believing Repentance Seeking Evangelising Arch-Bishop

Image
John Sentamu is a Bible believing Arch-Bishop with tremendous gifts in evangelism. From past experience I know that he preaches the need for repentance and I was pleased to read that last week hundreds of people committed their lives to Jesus Christ following an invitation by the Archbishop of York at the Church Without Walls National Gathering in Scotland. John Sentamu said, "The National Gathering was a tremendous event. I was thrilled and excited to see so many people come forward and commit their lives to Jesus Christ." We need to pray for him and his work. When John came into office a couple of years ago now, he said that his mission was to give the church the confidence back to evangelize this nation. He is doing a good job!
Read more