Resurrection
“Did Jesus rise from the Dead?” – Mark Moore, professor of New Testament and Hermeneutics at Ozark Christian College
The essay revolves around Moore’s 4 points of historical probability:
- Jesus of Nazareth was executed by Pontius Pilate by crucifixion.
- The tomb was empty.
- The Apostles believed Jesus had appeared to them in a tangible body.
- The Christian church was founded.
Last Row 
The only evidence cited for the resurrection are 2000 year old writings by unknown authors. Such evidence would be laughed out of any court in the land. Not only is it merely hearsay, but from an unknown source, and presumably much altered from its original form
The only evidence cited for the resurrection is 2000 year old material. Such evidence would be laughed out of any court in the land. Not only is it merely hearsay, but from an unknown source, and presumably much altered from its original form
Thank you for posting twice Mr. Wotherspoon, I got it the first time, though your words are hardly more convincing the 2nd time around.
Mr. Wotherspoon, do you believe in miracles?
“The only evidence cited for the resurrection are 2000 year old writings by unknown authors. Such evidence would be laughed out of any court in the land. Not only is it merely hearsay, but from an unknown source, and presumably much altered from its original form”
The manuscript evidence would not be thrown out because manuscripts are the cornerstone of linguistic-historical proof. You’re an atheist and frankly a poor one. ALL events from the past are established the same way, through someone, in the past, writing things down. The biblical manuscripts are the most attested works in antiquity by ALL measures within the linguistic science. If you throw them out, you throw out all of ancient history, because the support for all other ancient writings pale in comparison.
For guys writing “hearsay” about Jesus’ resurrection they must have bought their own testimony. They died for it. You don’t die for something you know to be a lie.
Indeed, Andrew, indeed… The Apostle’s witness (in word and in deed) testifies at the very least that something transformative happened to them as a group.
Wow. How is it that you get so much more atheist traffic on your site than mine?
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I’m not sure Job though surely tagging certain posts certainly helps!
“The manuscript evidence would not be thrown out because manuscripts are the cornerstone of linguistic-historical proof. You’re an atheist and frankly a poor one. ALL events from the past are established the same way, through someone, in the past, writing things down. The biblical manuscripts are the most attested works in antiquity by ALL measures within the linguistic science. If you throw them out, you throw out all of ancient history, because the support for all other ancient writings pale in comparison.”
* But of course not all manuscripts are proof of something truly significant. As we are all fallible we make mistakes. And we do not agree. This forum is a clear example of various conflicting notions. And they are such: Notions. Belief is not proof. Not proof enough to abandon philosophy and accept a random notion then to follow that belief blind and content.
Surely there is a great weight to this history and this mythos. The world is almost certainly richer for the stories of Jesus Christ. But the stories of Jesus Christ are bound to be mystified by the ages and by the various human hands that set those stories down.
That we can suppose that the last days of Socrates played out as they do in Plato’s dialogues is no less credible a presumption than that the bible is a wholly, precise and faithful account of Jesus.
And there was and single author for Socrates – so the conflict over the exactitude of his observations was his alone, most probably… Perhaps the socratic dialogues have been adulterated too to a degree, but how many people compiled the bible? And how much successive editions and omissions by historic policies and human conviction?
It has been written by so many different hands and minds, it has also, alas, fallen under the sweeping corruption of countless popes and kings of antiquity.
To be even less generally aphoristic in conveying the point: We humans… we write books. We write down our beliefs. And in the past we constructed divine celestial beings. We wrote of these. But though truth, as elusive as it is, flits intermittently between the pages of these books, it is always tempered by a human mind. The writer. And Nietzsche believed! But was it truth he gave us? Was it the word of God? It was the word of humanity. A portion of humanity.
The bible cannot be truth for it was written by ordinary human beings. It was not written by Jesus, (who some would argue is the son of God, and divine). If the bible is truth, than surely those who wrote it must have been infallible, omniscient.
There is no proof of this. There can be no proof of this. Religion is merely bolstered by the beautiful soak of history and mythology, ceremony and routine, peace of mind and spirit.
But it is not truth. Else they were all truth, religions – everyone of them… And this is impossible.
I am not an atheist. I am a humanist. No… I am a existentialist. I care beyond the fate of humanity. But I do not care for faith. It is destructive and uncompassionate at its zenith and muffles wonder and intellectual development.
Tim W.
Thanks Tim for your reply, a question though. Did you read Moore’s essay?
Impressive and very well-written essay. Thank you for providing the link, Laz. The way the footnotes were set up (with returns to the essay) were most helpful.
Moore is an excellent writer, I encourage you to check out the lectures/sermons he has graciously posted on his site.
Of particular interest is the “Politics of Jesus” one.
Thanks for the comment.
The link to Moore’s Essay is broken
Thanks Mike, it’s fixed now.
Jesus is the Great Master. After death, he sent his angels to inspire the prophets, so it was really through man, that God spoke the word.
Actually Sal, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to inspire the Apostles. The Holy Spirit is not an angel, He is God.
just think of Jesus as an idea and proof or not – there are valuable lessons there.
Can’t really think of a person that actually existed as a “proof” though. That said, Jesus is called the Logos in the Gospel of John.
Logos of course, where we get the word “logic” from and roughly translates as “word”.