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!

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Question of Identity said…
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June 2, 2012 at 11:00 AM
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