The Case for a Creator (49 page)

“We have better historical documentation for Jesus than for the founder of any other ancient religion,” said Edwin Yamauchi of Miami University, a leading expert on ancient history. Sources from outside the Bible corroborate that many people believed Jesus performed healings and was the Messiah, that he was crucified, and that despite this shameful death, his followers, who believed he was still alive, worshiped him as God. One expert documented thirty-nine ancient sources that corroborate more than one hundred facts concerning Jesus’ life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection. Seven secular sources and several early Christian creeds concern the deity of Jesus, a doctrine “definitely present in the earliest church,” according to Gary Habermas, the scholar who wrote
The Historical Jesus.

DOES ARCHAEOLOGY CONFIRM OR CONTRADICT JESUS’ BIOGRAPHIES?

John McRay, a professor of archaeology for more than fifteen years and author of
Archaeology and the New Testament
, said there’s no question that archaeological findings have enhanced the New Testament’s credibility. No discovery has ever disproved a biblical reference. Further, archaeology has established that Luke, who wrote about one-quarter of the New Testament, was an especially careful historian. Concluded one expert: “If Luke was so painstakingly accurate in his historical reporting [of minor details], on what logical basis may we assume he was credulous or inaccurate in his reporting of matters that were far more important, not only to him but to others as well?” Like, for instance, the resurrection of Jesus—the event that authenticated his claim to being the unique Son of God.

IS THE JESUS OF HISTORY THE SAME AS THE JESUS OF FAITH?

Gregory Boyd, a Yale- and Princeton-educated scholar who wrote the award-winning
Cynic Sage or Son of God
, offered a devastating critique of the Jesus Seminar, a group that questions whether Jesus said or did most of what’s attributed to him. He identified the Seminar as “an extremely small number of radical-fringe scholars who are on the far, far left wing of New Testament thinking.” The Seminar ruled out the possibility of miracles at the outset, employed questionable criteria, and some participants have touted myth-riddled documents of extremely dubious quality. Further, the idea that stories about Jesus emerged from mythology fails to withstand scrutiny. Said Boyd: “The evidence for Jesus being who the disciples said he was . . . is just light years beyond my reasons for thinking that the left-wing scholarship of the Jesus Seminar is correct.” In sum, the Jesus of faith is the same as the Jesus of history.

WAS JESUS REALLY CONVINCED HE WAS THE SON OF GOD?

By going back to the very earliest traditions, which were safe from legendary development, Ben Witherington III, author of
The Christology of Jesus
, was able to show that Jesus had a supreme and transcendent self-understanding. Based on the evidence, Witherington said: “Did Jesus believe he was the Son of God, the anointed one of God? The answer is yes. Did he see himself as the Son of Man? The answer is yes. Did he see himself as the final Messiah? Yes, that’s the way he viewed himself. Did he believe that anybody less than God could save the world? No, I don’t believe he did.” Scholars said that Jesus’ repeated reference to himself as the Son of Man was not a claim of humanity, but a reference to Daniel 7:13–14, in which the Son of Man is seen as having universal authority and everlasting dominion and who receives the worship of all nations. Said one scholar: “Thus, the claim to be the Son of Man would be in effect a claim to divinity.”

WAS JESUS CRAZY WHEN HE CLAIMED TO BE THE SON OF GOD?

Gary Collins, a professor of psychology for twenty years and author of forty-five books on psychology-related topics, said Jesus exhibited no inappropriate emotions, was in contact with reality, was brilliant and had amazing insights into human nature, and enjoyed deep and abiding relationships. “I just don’t see signs that Jesus was suffering from any known mental illness,” he concluded. In addition, Jesus backed up his claim to being God through miraculous feats of healing, astounding demonstrations of power over nature, unrivaled teaching, divine understanding of people, and with his own resurrection, which was the ultimate evidence of his deity.

DID JESUS FULFILL THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD?

While the incarnation—God becoming man, the infinite becoming finite—stretches our imaginations, prominent theologian D. A. Carson pointed out that there’s lots of evidence that Jesus exhibited the characteristics of deity. Based on Philippians 2, many theologians believe Jesus voluntarily emptied himself of the independent use of his divine attributes as he pursued his mission of human redemption. Even so, the New Testament specifically confirms that Jesus ultimately possessed every qualification of deity, including omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, eternality, and immutability.

DID JESUS—AND JESUS ALONE—
MATCH THE IDENTITY OF THE MESSIAH?

Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah, or the Anointed One, who would redeem God’s people. In effect, dozens of these Old Testament prophecies created a fingerprint that only the true Messiah could fit. This gave Israel a way to rule out imposters and validate the credentials of the authentic Messiah. Against astronomical odds—by one estimate, one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion—Jesus, and only Jesus throughout history, matched this prophetic fingerprint. This confirms Jesus’ identity to an incredible degree of certainty. The expert I interviewed on this topic, Louis Lapides, is an example of someone raised in a conservative Jewish home and who came to believe Jesus is the Messiah after a systematic study of the prophecies. Today, he’s a pastor of a church in California and former president of a national network of fifteen messianic congregations.

WAS JESUS’ DEATH A SHAM, AND HIS RESURRECTION A HOAX?

By analyzing the medical and historical data, Dr. Alexander Metherell, a physician who also holds a doctorate in engineering, concluded Jesus could not have survived the gruesome rigors of crucifixion, much less the gaping wound that pierced his lung and heart. In fact, even before the crucifixion he was in serious to critical condition and suffering from hypovolemic shock as the result of a horrific flogging. The idea that he swooned on the cross and pretended to be dead lacks any evidential basis. Roman executioners were grimly efficient, knowing that they themselves would face death if any of their victims were to come down from the cross alive. Even if Jesus had somehow lived through the torture, his ghastly condition could never have inspired a worldwide movement based on the premise that he had gloriously triumphed over the grave.

WAS JESUS’ BODY REALLY ABSENT FROM HIS TOMB?

William Lane Craig, who has earned two doctorates and written several books on the Resurrection, presented striking evidence that the enduring symbol of Easter—the vacant tomb of Jesus—was a historical reality. The empty grave is reported or implied in extremely early sources—Mark’s Gospel and a creed in 1 Corinthians 15—which date so closely to the event that they could not possibly have been products of legend. The fact that the Gospels report that women discovered the empty tomb bolsters the story’s authenticity, because women’s testimony lacked credibility in the first century and thus there would have been no motive to report they found the empty tomb if it weren’t true. The site of Jesus’ tomb was known to Christians, Jews, and Romans, so it could have been checked by skeptics. In fact, nobody—not even the Roman authorities or Jewish leaders—ever claimed that the tomb still contained Jesus’ body. Instead, they were forced to invent the absurd story that the disciples, despite having no motive or opportunity, had stolen the body—a theory that not even the most skeptical critic believes today.

WAS JESUS SEEN ALIVE AFTER HIS DEATH ON THE CROSS?

The evidence for the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus didn’t develop gradually over the years as mythology distorted memories of his life. Rather, said renowned Resurrection expert Gary Habermas, his resurrection was “the central proclamation of the early church from the very beginning.” The ancient creed from 1 Corinthians 15 mentions specific individuals who encountered the risen Christ, and Paul, in effect, challenged first-century doubters to talk with these individuals personally to determine the truth of the matter for themselves. The Book of Acts is littered with extremely early affirmations of Jesus’ resurrection, while the Gospels describe numerous encounters in detail. Concluded British theologian Michael Green: “The appearances of Jesus are as well authenticated as anything in antiquity. . . . There can be no rational doubt that they occurred.”

ARE THERE ANY SUPPORTING FACTS THAT POINT TOWARD THE RESURRECTION?

Professor J. P. Moreland presented circumstantial evidence that provided strong documentation for the Resurrection. First, the disciples were in a unique position to know whether the Resurrection happened, and they went to their deaths proclaiming it was true. Nobody knowingly and willingly dies for a lie. Second, apart from the Resurrection, there’s no good reason why such skeptics as Paul and James would have been converted and would have died for their faith. Third, within weeks of the Crucifixion, thousands of Jews became convinced Jesus was the Son of God and began following him, abandoning key social practices that had critical sociological and religious importance for centuries. They believed they risked damnation if they were wrong. Fourth, the early sacraments of Communion and Baptism affirmed Jesus’ resurrection and deity. And fifth, the miraculous emergence of the church in the face of brutal Roman persecution “rips a great hole in history, a hole the size and shape of Resurrection,” as C. F. D. Moule put it.

Taken together, I concluded that this expert testimony constitutes compelling evidence that Jesus Christ was who he claimed to be—the one and only Son of God. For details that support this summary, as well as other evidence, please refer to
The Case for Christ.

DELIBERATIONS:
QUESTIONS FOR
REFLECTION OR
GROUP STUDY

CHAPTER ONE: WHITE-COATED SCIENTISTS VERSUS BLACK-ROBED PREACHERS

1. Have you ever met someone who was as hostile toward Christianity as the author was? What are the various factors that might have been driving that person’s skepticism? Is there any part of the author’s attitude that you can personally relate to? How so?

2. What’s your current viewpoint concerning Christianity? How would you rank its credibility on a scale of one to ten, with one being “none” and ten being “absolute”? Specifically, what are your opinions based on? Have your attitudes changed over the years? If so, how? What prompted those changes?

3. Do you believe that Christianity is being eclipsed or enhanced by modern science? Why? On what do you base your assessment?

4. William Provine, professor of history and biological sciences at Cornell University, listed five implications if Darwinism is true: there’s no evidence for God; there’s no life after death; there’s no absolute foundation for right and wrong; there’s no ultimate meaning for life; and people don’t really have free will. Why do you think he’s right or wrong? Which one of these implications concerns you the most and why?

CHAPTER TWO: THE IMAGES OF EVOLUTION

1. Can you recall when you first were exposed to Darwin’s theory of evolution? What was the setting? What was your reaction at the time? Have your attitudes toward Darwinism changed since then? Why or why not? To what degree do you consider yourself to be open-minded on the issue?

2. Were any of the “images of evolution” described in the chapter instrumental in shaping your opinions? How so?

3. The author said that his belief in Darwinism was pivotal in his decision to become an atheist. In what way has your opinion about evolution affected your spiritual outlook?

4. How do you respond to Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin’s opinion that science should be seen as “the only begetter of truth”? Is that a scientific or a philosophical statement? How much confidence do you put in science? What do you believe are the limits of science? What ways are there to know about something apart from the scientific method?

5. What preconceptions or prejudices might inhibit your investigation of the scientific evidence for a Creator? What can you do to set them aside and keep an open mind? What do you hope this investigation of the case for a Creator will personally accomplish for you?

CHAPTER THREE: DOUBTS ABOUT DARWINISM

1. On a scale of one to ten, with one representing “total disbelief” and ten representing “complete agreement,” what was your personal opinion about Darwinism before you read the interview with Jonathan Wells? Why did you choose that number? Did the number change after reading Wells’s critique of evolutionary theory? How so?

2. Which one of biologist Jonathan Wells’s disclosures was the most surprising to you? Why?

3. Consider each of the various icons of evolution that Wells discussed. As you evaluate each one, discuss whether you now think it provides viable support for Darwinism. What makes you reach that conclusion? If you were a juror and the icons were presented to you as evidence for the truth of Darwinism, would you say you have a reasonable doubt? Why or why not?

4. In Wells’s opinion, the evidence for Darwinism “is not only grossly inadequate, it’s systematically distorted,” and that in twenty or thirty years “people will look back in amazement and say, ‘How could anyone have believed this?’ ” In your opinion, what would need to happen before most people would reach that conclusion? How likely do you believe it is that this will occur?