Dear Readers and Writers,
I have read through the whole thread in its entirety for the first time this evening, and while there is this whiff of clean start/fresh air, I might take up discussing the topic again, that asks if the resurrection of Jesus Christ was an historical event.
Perhaps I should explain how my thinking on both Jesus' birth and His resurrection developed, since it followed completely different routes with totally different outcomes: the one I accept completely, and the other I have come to reject.
Throughout my life, I had always simply accepted the story of the virgin birth, or rather, perhaps as a man,
dared not go there---such a sacred space; such a sacred event---so I did not even consider it, or question it: almost like a neutral acceptance. But then, quite unexpectedly, the very first thread I came upon when entering the Christianity Today forum (early this year) was on this very topic. Reading the posts there by a man called Bella Lantos just pushed me into a place where I had no choice but to reject the "virgin" birth as an "embellishment." (The only post I ever placed on that forum stated my new persuasion, and pondered the dilemma of maintaining integrity as a Christian if you keep on discarding what others still cling to. Mr. Lantos kindly contacted me privately and encouraged me, explaining his own lonely path in search for truth.)
Now, as for the resurrection,
that I thought about a lot. Throughout the years, though I accepted it "by faith," there was always a lingering uncertainty, that I dared not admit to myself as doubt. There was room for "fantasy" and like everybody else, I looked at the texts narrating the resurrection, the discrepancies, the interpretations, etc. and could never quite rest with a certainty about it. I longed to understand it better.
I say this now in retrospect, for I did not realize how great my doubt was until the day I received the revelation that made it forever sure in my mind that it took place, as testified of by many witnesses. A number of years ago I was reading a book---and unfortunately cannot recall the name of the author---written by someone who apparently had a similar battle with accepting the resurrection as truth. But his struggle eventually brought him an answer, and when I read it, the proof, or evidence, for an actual resurrection became as clear as daylight.
Please bear in mind that people hearing the first reports of the resurrection did not have the mindset to immediately demand scientific proof of the possibility of such an event, nor did they have dubious "Scriptural" texts to consider to be the "Word," and if the "Word" says so, it must be so. No, they only had the sincere reports of witnesses. (They were not on trail, so don't project 20th Century Fox stuff unto them.)
However, it is not their verbal accounts that is the final evidence.
One would have to ask, "What made a despondent bunch of losers, who had just lost everything by having their leader killed; men who actually went back to where they came from; who returned to their fishing business---what made them
again leave everything to go, (without Him enchanting them with his physical presence, power, and charisma), and face persecution and death unflinchingly, uncompromisingly?
Something changed them!
Was it his death? No. Was it a sudden, widespread conviction that he died on a cross for everybody's sin that lifted their spirits and had them charge out with the good news? Of course not.
No. It was his resurrection. And,
changed lives is the evidence. It is the undeniable evidence---something powerful was at work that drove these men, a conviction so strong that they would die for it, such was the certainty that they had. And it was this resurrected Christ, who identified himself to Saul as Jesus, who radically changed a persecutor into an apostle of the Lord.
Of course, you are free to believe that they were all a bunch of liars, but of
such integrity, that they would rather die than lose face..
Respectfully,
Learner.