Bishop Barron on “The Case for Christ”
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- The new film “The Case for Christ” is interesting for any number of reasons, but I think it is particularly compelling for its subtle portrayal of the psychological, spiritual, and intellectual dynamics of evangelization. Visit www.WordOnFire.org to learn more!
I really needed this...I have been skeptical about Christianity lately but this helped me a lot. Thank you Bishop Barron! God bless!
I tried very hard to convert my wife to Protestantism years ago. I went on a journey to debunk every Catholic doctrine I thought was heresy. I couldn’t find fault, and slowly, reluctantly converted to Roman Catholicism. This is true with many converts.
Really?? Defend the deification of Mary
@just Wright When did laughter became a way to answer? Before trying to make those claims, you should at least get informed. In that case, getting well informed is both difficult and tedious, because Christian faith has been interpreted throughout history. But, that claim, about made up, it is a total lack of understanding about the historical process and the amount of evidences available. It is treated on the video, so you might have not seen it at all... You can do it better, seriously.
Collins Agyeman Mary is not a God, she is only a creature, albeit the most glorious and beautiful of all creatures. And she gets her beauty and her glory not from herself, but from God. Like the moon reflecting the light of the sun.
@just Wright I knew right away you are unable to dialogue in a meaningful way, however Bishop Barron sparked your interest so that is why you are here, which tells me, you are searching I hope you find it; because life is short and no one can guarantee tomorrow.
@@mvwil can you back that up with scripture?
Bishop Barron, your description of conversion as a series of strong probabilistic arguments that gradually wear down the skeptic's defenses resonates powerfully with me. One of your videos, in which you laid out the argument from causality, and another, in which you put the violence of the Old Testament into perspective, deeply rattled my own hostility toward Christianity and brought me closer toward a right understanding of the faith. Two years later, I am a recently confirmed member of the Catholic Church. I have no doubt many skeptics besides myself have been brought to Jesus through your lucid and provocative commentaries. Thank you for the work you do.
erikvan8 welcome home and God bless you!
Congratulations erikvan8! May the Good Lord be with you each and every day of you life.! Peace love and Blessings form the Land of The Holy Spirit.
you can tell this priest knows his job very well...:)
"Christianity is just a nice moral philosophy"
Bishop Barron: That ain't it chief
@@mike62mcmanus What are you even on about?
@@mike62mcmanus Okay, I'm aware of this stuff, but none of it has to do with the initial comment you responded to.
May God bless you Father Barron. I always Love to hear your gospel. Thank you so much 💖
A wonderful story of God's love and patience with us
Excellent, wonderful movie! Based on real events, no words, just watching!
I'm not Catholic but really enjoyed your examination of this movie. It was a slow B movie but your commentary reminded me of the tremendous value of the themes addressed which many of us struggled with in wading through our biases against organized Christianity.
Awesome video! I can't wait to see "The Case for Christ."
Thank you Bishop Barron. I love your videos. God Bless. Best, Vincent
One thing that the Bishop missed in his review was that Strobel said after he had come to belief in the resurection he still needed something more to have faith. He needed to recieve Christ. He had believed with his mind but his heart was empty until he asked for Jesus to forgive him. Lee talks about that in a video I saw. Maybe it was that idea about love that compelled Strobel to ask for Jesus's forgiveness. Anyway, the minute he asked for it, he was flooded with love. Another powerful message in the film is how the witness brought his wife to the faith and his wife brought him and then because Lee changed his daughter and his son came to Christ. We need to share with others how Jesus has changed our lives. That's the most important part of this story.
RE: John Henry Newman (1801-1890): ~"In matters religious, we rarely come to a sense because of one clinching argument. Rather, it is by a whole series of probable arguments, hunches, intuitions, experiences, witness of others...they come together to a common point and it is in that process under the guidance of what Newman called the illative sense that the mind comes to assent. It says "Yes".
RE: The Lee Strobel character: "Gradually, these arguments, these probabilities are accumulating in such a way that they are wearing down his resistance."
For ever we'll be a case from God i think cause nothing exist without him😇😇😇👼
beautifully summarised Bishop Barron
Awesome review Bishop 👍🏽
I once watched a program by Michael Woods, who set out to demonstrate that in the time of Christ and before was very reliable, as the written word was only for the high and mighty. In the program he went to the outer parts of Turkey, where we witness a man who had never learned to read or write, but could without missing a word, recite Hommer's The Iliad. so being told that early Christians learned to recite the Gospels at the feet of disciples is quite realistic and believable
Its amazing how simple Bishop Barron makes the case for Christ. God loves us so much that he gives us the free will to not believe in him. That’s how you know there is a God cause he gives you the free will to deny him. Then the free will to accept him into your mind, then the free will to to let him into your heart and then the free will to let him love you, then the free will to give him thanks and tell him you love him!
Thank you. I love when you do video's like this. God Bless
I loved the book and film The Case for Christ 😊
Hearing Lee Strobel's life has helped us in evangelizing to Atheists by learning the arguments and emphasizing the love of Christ for us. I wonder what Bishop Barron would think of TV Series like "The Chosen" and how effective it is to converting Atheists by showing the love of Christ for humanity.
Sorry I’m not sure I’m watching these videos in the particular right order, but i think maybe I needed to see this one and I’ll give the movie a shot! Thank you so much!
Great video as always! I find it a real shame that so many people discount Christianity without giving it as much as a minutes thought. I wonder how many people could be saved by just researching the resurrection and the life of Christ? Even if it's just for a few weeks of their lives.
Schism704 they all believe when they are dying or someone close to them is dying
Schism704 don't think people "discount Christianity without giving it much thought". Most of the atheists I know were once Christians (I was a catholic) and have give this topic far more thought than most Christians. In fact my atheism is a direct product of having read and studied the bible and it's origins.
Ronnie Bordelon not true. Deathbed conversions are very rare but most theist would like to think them commonplace, there not!
@@myopenmind527 explain the NDE of blind people that describes thinks they saw during the time they were clinicaly dead,there are some studies about these,and those kind of things are not possible to explain if we say that the human being experience is just matter moving and doing their stuff.
@@exequielassad5773 that’s a bit vague. Can you be specific?
Blind from what cause?
Congenital or acquired blindness?
good job Bishop
will definitely watch this 😀
Thank you, Bishop, for all your amazing videos! They have been integral in my return to the Catholic Church. In regards to the "Case for Christ," I have been sharing the older documentary by the same name with my friends and family. The historical and academic approach helped cement my belief that Jesus was not a myth and that Christianity is THE truth, not A truth. It gave me a way to have conversations with my friends who subscribe to relativism and believe all religions are equal. Overall it's great, but there is at least one section of the documentary that I always feel the need to clarify the Catholic position on. I'd love to hear your perspective on what areas, if any, the Church disagree with. I would love love love to see you create a follow-up video on this older documentary too! On a personal tangent... it's amazing to me is that Lee Stroebel never made the next leap to Catholicism... it seems to me to be the logical conclusion if you are approaching the topic academically. th-cam.com/video/XqgQ9g2MV_8/w-d-xo.html
I really need to see this movie
Thank you Bishop Barron, I love your comments, but one thing struck me though while watching your video, which is this, that the ultimate bases of Christianity rests not only on the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, but rather on his birth, for there are many who deny that a person Jesus was even born a human being
Thank you so great preview Fr
I was an atheist for about 5 years. During that time, I got really into textual criticism. I have to say that attestation lends strong support for a document having some degree of reliability. But the sense in which it is reliable depends on the document and what it is purported to be reliable for. It's not really fair to compare the gospels to the Iliad and the Odyssey. No one's really claiming those to be true accounts of history. And even if they are to some degree, no one is claiming them to be infallible history. Such a high claim requires a high degree of evidence. Attestation and early documents help, but don't stand as proof of reliability as perfectly accurate history on their own.
However....before anyone jumps on me... What even the most serious, skeptical biblical scholars will agree to is that belief in the bodily resurrection is absolutely original to Christianity. Even from a secular, critical point of view, there is strong reason to believe that something happened to convince the disciples, at least a few of them, that Jesus rose again. Of course, a hyper skeptic will rationalize it away. And properly speaking, history can never empirically settle the question of a miracle, almost by definition, since history is a probabilistic discipline (to borrow from Bart Ehrman).
That little detail is what eventually lead me back to belief in the resurrection. Not that it was original to Christianity. That by itself isn't convincing. But when combined with other facts, it is very compelling! When I was an atheist, people used to argue for the resurrection by saying the disciples went to their deaths defending it. Well, that isn't convincing by itself either. Islamic terrorists run planes into buildings because they sincerely believe something. That doesn't make the belief true. However... This is what does convince me. The disciples believed it unto death when they otherwise had every reason not to. If we assume that Jesus died and nothing happened after, then we can imagine that maybe the disciples made it up so they could continue to make a living preaching. Maybe they had no other prospects having left all they had before to follow Jesus. But if they made it up for personal gain, surely they wouldn't die for it! So that doesn't work. They had to have had sincerely believed it. If we assume that the resurrection was a hallucination, it would have only been so by one or two of them, but not all of them. They aren't all going to be convinced by one's hallucination enough to die for it unflinchingly. Maybe. As I said, some die today for false beliefs. But far less likely in the apostles' case because they actually saw Jesus die. They knew it was over. A dead messiah is NOT a messiah in any Jewish conception of the idea. It should have ended there. Since they saw him die and a dead messiah is not a messiah, something must have happened that was more convincing than his death that they all experienced. And the claim that can reliably be shown to go back to as early as a couple of decades after Jesus' death is that they saw him alive after his death with their own eyes and touched him with their hands.
All of these data points together are very compelling to me!
What about Jones town? Many went to their deaths willingly because they believe in JIM Jones with 0 evidence of his claims?
I'm moving away from christianity but i appreciate this Bishop and his videos a whole lot!
Jonathan Thomas Why, brother?
Don't mind me asking but why is that?
Best wishes,
~Jeremiah
Great video. :) Maybe you can make one about near death experience and Catholic Faith, or Catholic Faith and Psychology in general? Would be a very interesting topic.
The Shroud of Turin captures you and makes you believe automatically in Jesus Christ as well as the tilma of our lady of Guadalupe. In my opinion those images strength my faith.
The Shroud of Turin has been proven to be a complete fake.
@@johnbrowne3950 Could u show how plz
@@dgags4548 "The Jews require a sign." (1Corinthians 1:22). The just (justified) shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17).
My faith is in Jesus, not his burial clothes.
@@johnbrowne3950 good response…. guess I misinterpreted what u meant in ur original statement
Excellent Video
Good video Revd Baron :)
One of my favorite movies too.
Just watched it on Netflix. Not your typical cheesy bad acting Christian movie at all. It was a really good movie.
Barron's done a video on Satan, has he done a video on Satanists? Might be an interesting topic, unless there isn't really such a group that the name applies to. If so, then maybe a wider video on the New Age?
That would be awesome.
@@robertlight5227 Of course not, if you believe that there is nothing more to life than the material
@@robertlight5227 I think most would agree it's an impossibility that something can come from nothing, and that all material, empirical, observable things in this life have a cause, and that an infinite regress of causes is improbable, so existence must have come about from some non-material cause, and I don't know of any more likely non-material cause than a spiritual one (at the moment I can't think of any other non-material cause at all). So at the very least, I think this is good reason to think that there is *a* meaning to life, which might sound a bit thin, but it's an important step from the nihilistic belief of materialists that there is no meaning to life and nothing after death.
@@robertlight5227 Why would the very reason for - and sustainer of - *existence itself* have a cause?
love your explanations
Dear Father Barron it's this character (the journalist) similar in certain way to the life of a very good catholic Italian author named Vittorio Messori?, That was start making a research about Christ and finish with one of the most wonderful books (in my humble opinion) "Ipotesi su Gesu" , May God bless you Father for all the excellent work to proclaim the Catholic Faith.
I'm probably more attracted to Bible-based movies (though many of them fall short), than Christian testimony movies. Many such scripts are badly written, poorly directed, overacted, and in general make me cringe. So, I wasn't very excited by Strobel's movie, based on my own feeling that it would be one more embarrassment to Christians, so my expectations were low. I couldn't have been more wrong! I was so pleasantly impressed with how it was handled, I'll probably see it a second time. I've seen it on the list on firestick, so I might pop my own corn, curl up on my couch, and give it a second viewing, if not for a couple of months. I really enjoyed this one.
Great movie.
Excellent review....and he did not do with Hollywood hype!
Really worth reading the books (Case for Faith, Case for God, Case for Jesus). Some very worthwhile investigations.
Great video
great review...you have cured my skepticism...I firmly assumed this movie would stink; I now will go see it.
Please do a video on Peter Enns, on How The Bible Works and on The Bible Tells Me So :)
4:33 "Most of the early Christian witnesses went to their death defending this claim [the resurrection]. I mean would someone do that for a pious legend that they made up?" If this is considered a reasonable argument, then consider all the human beings who have died to defend the other claims, beliefs and causes: Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, the Branch Davidians, Order of the Solar Temple, Adam's House, suicide bombings that kill innocent mean, women and children, not to mention wars willingly fought for ideologies we consider odious. Dying for a cause or a claim is evidence that the dead believed the claim. It isn't evidence for the truth of the claim itself.
Richard lazaar Friend, I'm not saying it's the only justification! I'm saying that the witness of the first Christians is part of an impressive congeries of evidences for the truth of the resurrection. And do consider this: in practically all the cases you cite, we are dealing with people who are obviously troubled, even insane. This is hardly the case with the disciples of Jesus.
Richard I am afraid you have completely missed the point, and are presenting a perfect example of a logical fallacy.
Presenting to different situations as though they were the same.
Sure there are crazy people in the world, and there are zealots. There are men that gladly die to promote their opinions/religious views, but that wasn’t what took place with regards to the crucifixion. These men died for their testimony.
Say you’re a witness of a gang hit and you’re going to be testifying in court. Guys run you off the road and say get lost in Mexico or they will be coming back and make sure you get lost permanently you and your whole family. Well you might still be willing to take the stand. You might be willing to risk your life and the lives of your family but would you to support perjury, in other words if you were the kind of man that would testify to a lie would you be willing to die to do so?
Sure Muslim suicide bombers kill and die for their cause, but they are men with a belief, not a personal witness.
If you’re not willing to concede the possibility that Jesus rose to life after being crucified then you have to take the position that these men:
A: lied
B: were crazy
C: the information in the scriptures is false.
Those are the options you have. If you examine all of these closely and find that none of them could be true based on the evidence and logic what would you do? Would you consider that maybe it actually happened and maybe Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be? Probably not because your taking the time to comment on you tube, pressing your position that this is a baseless argument, but just how deeply have you considered it?
To understand religion, faith, truth, God, you have to first realize that all of these are separate things that have been all jumbled together in the minds of most people who don’t normally take the time to look critically at the question.
Radical Muslims are extremely religious, but I would make the claim that they lack truth, faith, and God.
Many Christians talk about faith, and don’t have the slightest clue of what faith actually is. I’m sure you are under the impression its belief in God, and so are most people that say they have it, but that isn’t faith.
Do you want to understand or do you just want to carry on with your life, work, vacations, Christmas presents, weekends at the beach, traffic Monday to Friday?
Lee Strobel was an investigator with a keen and critical mind the started out as an atheist with an agenda to bring this hoax called Christianity to an end and instead gave his life over to Jesus, are you sure your right, because I guaranty you Lee thought he was.
It’s your life do with what you will, but if you do decide to check out Jesus, I would advise you ask Christians, the problem being that so many people that self-identify as such really aren’t.
One guy that I am very sure is and a great thinker is Chris White Nowhere to run ministries, you know just in case you’re interested, I would defiantly not go catholic.
Bishop Barron, how did you feel about the recent "Star Wars" movies? I didn't think they lived up to the old classics (or even the George Lucas prequels) but still would love to hear your take on things. keep up the good work!
Strobel seems like a reasonable guy (I have enjoyed some of his debate videos where he brings different viewpoints together, though I'm a much bigger fan of Justin Briley's "unbelievable" podcast these days for that kind of thing), but at the end of the day he's a lay apologist. seekers looking for more hardcore theological or historical arguments are going to look elsewhere. I agree that this seems best for those who already have faith but just want it affirmed or strengthened. I read the book ages ago but never saw this movie, expecting it to be a documentary presenting the same information but then learned it was a dramatization. critical reviewers tended to say it was "better than average" for a "Christian movie" but still not great. though, since it is one man's experience, I'd give him credit for putting it out there in a more accessible form. probably rent it some day if I can find a copy...
It really is not open to reason. The movie "The case for Christ" only interviews people that already believe, and all the interviews were done many years later, and Strobel just throws a bunch of softball questions at the believers. He does no questing for truth from anyone that does not already have a compelling reason to believe.
And eyewitness testimony is terrible.
He says 500 people, but never gives any names or identities.
If you need any evidence that millions of people can be utterly convinced of fictional things, you need only look at how many millions are completely convinced that Biden stole the election. This only took a few months of a persistent lie being told for all those people to become completely delusional about the topic.
Jim Jones got 700 people to kill themselves for believing his lies. It is very, very easy to believe that a number of people could be convinced that Jesus was the son of god.
There is a tiny bit of evidence that Jesus was a real person, but someone existing is no proof of divinity. And saying that something is "the most attested" is zero proof of factual content.
Was Caesar fake? Was any historical figure just a figment? Strobel himself didn't believe, that's the point. There's an old tribe, "You can't see the light if you don't open your eyes." Just because your eyes are closed, it does not mean it does not exist. There is as much evidence that Jesus is as real as any other historical figure, mate. Just my 2 cents.
why cant i follow the spirit am i to far in to sin ...have a grudge ? im in a bad state, being tested.if you could reply i would be great full.
Tokyopistachios keep seeking the Father my friend. He'll guide your steps
Tokyopistachios praying for you
Tokyo pistachios Do research on the faith. I recommend Thomas Aquinas
enjoyed the review...but a little spoiler alert would have helped : )
We all are love case for God! He died first loving us and gift us his life for take it. As all Saints for take our crown of Glory in Apocalipsis 4 to read. Happy Day Saint Francisco Javier! 👋💖✌😂🎂🏊🐝🌳😁💍🎵👑🎊👼🎄🎉💎😇💫🎶
WE ourselves are supposed to be the case for Christ by how his light shines through us by his Spirit that dwells in us, if indeed the Spirit of Christ does dwell in you. Why do you not know this? Do you know not the Spirit of God?
Serious question: I can't find in the bible where most of the disciples went to their death defending the faith. Outside of tradition, where can I find this information so I can reference it later? Much appreciated!
Malo RK there is only later myths and fabrications. There is no evidence of the disciples being martyred, this bishop and lee strobel are being disingenuous.
You should di a commentary on Batman and Harley Quinn! Found it interesting that the person who is considered the villain actually talks about God!!
Someone recently shared their explanation as to why human have a disposition towards the yearning or connection with out Creator - below - can someone please offer me a rebuttal to this? Thank you, God BlessThere are many explanations and theories as to why humans have a disposition towards (as you put it) "yearning for connection with our Creator". One such theory I remember off of the top of my head is that humans evolved to always feel like there is somebody inexplicably watching / judging them so as to behave in a socially acceptable manner and thus not be cast out from their social groups / societies. I would recommend looking into some alternative, more well reasoned explanations for this yearning...
+Deborah Anne -- that's Joseph Campbell's theory, and it's countered by the fact that there are atheists. An agnostic pointed that out to me.
I disagree with the notion that "it all hinges on the resurrection" In my view the resurrection is the apex of Jesus's divinity. There is ample testament to his divine grace in the miracles describe in the gospels, Lazarus, feeding of the 5,000, giving sight to the blind, the curing of the lepers. I think the "house of cards" metaphor is supported by these actions as well as the resurrection. They support the idea of grace perfecting nature.
Why people doubt about God isn't it our own spirit good enough to be a strong proof that God exists?
Jo Holly One of Christianity's 'best' arguments is how can all of this come from nothing?
But if everything has a point origin than how could God come to be? Did he just appear out of nowhere?
(No hate intended btw)
Anti Left Because not everything has a point of origin.
If everything has a point of origin, then the causal effect is infinite - or, to make it easier to explain, then the past is infinite. If the past really is infinite, then there's no way "now" exists - the distance between them is supposed to be infinity, the past should never reach "now" if their distance is infinity. The fact that we are in the "now" means the past is not infinite. Hence, everything has a point of origin only up to a certain point. That point is God.
I only knew the documentary, didn't know they've done a cinematic too
"The swoon theory is rubbish." Apologists work sooooo, sooooo hard at that because the Gospels explain in great detail how Jesus survived the crucifixion. It was St. Paul who never knew Jesus and by his own account did not get his own gospel from the Apostles, saw "Christ" in visions and assumed that the Apostles's experience had been of that same kind-- what we would nowadays call a "mass hallucination".
In the end, Christianity bought Paul's newfangled theology and its previously unheard-of god "Jesus Christ", and rejected the credible Nazorean accounts. When Christianity became the Empire's official religion to the exclusion of all others, the Nazoreans were exterminated within the Empire. To the East beyond the reach of Roman power and where Paul had never set foot, the Nazoreans not only had much more influence on Christianity, the sect survived into the Muslim era. The Hebrew word for "Christians" is Notzrim because by the time Pauline Christianity gained great influence in Palestine and the Middle Eastern Jewish world, Jews already had a name for followers of the controversial historical Jew "Jesus the Nazorean" -- translated into English, "Nazoreans".
The Gospel of Mark is the earliest narrative Gospel and the one on which all others are based. Mark was a historical person who as a young man hung out with Nazoreans because they were meeting in his mother's house (i.e. "house church") in Jerusalem. Then Paul showed up and Mark went missioning with Paul as Paul's sidekick. So Mark knew Paul and his theology forwards and backwards. Then they broke up. And then Mark wrote his Gospel. It is a Nazorean narrative. Paul's supernatural Christ-god is entirely absent.
When Nazoreans in Alexandria got a copy of Mark's Gospel, they sent word to him to come to Alexandria because they'd just declared him to be their bishop. He went and served well. That's why to this day Africa is known as "The See of Mark".
The conflict runs throughout the New Testament. Paul was claiming in Asia Minor that he was a latecomer apostle of Jesus. An apostle of the same kind as the ones who had known Jesus personally. When the real Apostles found out, they denounced Paul as a fraud and sent emissaries to Paul's churches to get them straightened out. How do we know this? Paul himself tells us!
The Johannine corpus was produced by a mystical Nazorean Alexandrian-school sect in Ephesus, where they'd tried to join together with the Pauline church that got there first. Nice try, but it was like water and oil. In the end, Bishop John of the Nazoreans denounced the Paulines as "anti-Christs" for denying Jesus in the flesh. The Pauline bishop, also named John, wound up in Patmos where he wrote his Apocalypse the theology of which is orthodox Pauline lacking any Nazorean teaching, and in his "letters to the churches" he denounces the Nazorean faction in Ephesus as bad guys.
In researching how apologists think, I've discovered something that at first surprised me. The ones who've actually done their homework, read the Bible and know what's in it, no more believe the Christ of the Creed than does Richard Dawkins. There's apologists who really don't know their stuff, they just recite defenses they heard from others. Parrots, kinda hard to know what they actually "believe", not even they really know. But apologists who actually study the Bible for themselves, know that the Christian god "Jesus Christ" was invented by Paul and is entirely fictional. GOOD APOLOGISTS ARE ATHEIST CON MEN. Most atheists say they're atheists and can't imagine that an atheist would be masquerading as a "true believer". Because they don't even know how to imagine that, they fail to recognize that good apologists are just con men, it's all about bamboozling people with bullshit.
@James Ginn Huh? Perhpas you were intending to reply in a different thread where that was being discussed.
@James Ginn Same place Christian apologists do-- in the Bible.
The last thing left for me at least is. How could Jesus pull off all of the miracles such as the resurrection, walking on water, healing of the sick, the feeding of the thousands and so on? I guessing that while these miracles are important to his teachings, none of them except for the resurrection are within the centre of the faith. That's what I am guessing.
Interesting video and I will definitely watch the film when it is available via Netflix or Hulu just because I love religious documentaries. That said, I've read Strobel's book a few years ago and found it underwhelming. Why? Because his questions seemed so softball (just setting up talking points for the religious experts to answer in a way which confirms the faith), and, based on how easily Strobel accepted rather flimsy answers, I sincerely doubt that he was ever truly a skeptic, let alone an atheist.
For example, Bishop Barron mentions the argument of truth from martyrdom (why would someone die for something false?). There are many reasons why this fails to meet the criteria for objective Truth. First, the foremost "martyrs" we see today are Muslim, so does that mean that Mohammad was correct? Somehow I doubt that many Christians spend sleepless nights pondering whether they should convert based on 9/11 and 7/7. And what about the pagans who refused to convert to Christianity and were killed for their beliefs? Yes, they actually existed. Does that make their gods any more real?
Second, people will die for crazy beliefs that rational people know to be false (I'm not lumping Christianity into this; I'm simply stating why martyrdom doesn't equal a belief in the objective Truth). Look at Heaven's Gate, Jonestown, Waco, and that's just in recent years. No one wonders whether he should have put on his Nikes and joined Marshall Applewhite on the alien spaceship.
I could continue, but the bottom line is that dying for a belief doesn't add any evidence that said belief is true.
It isn't faith in an abstract sense for which they died, I don't think, but the historical reality of the resurrection---that's the power of the argument. It appears the above reply misinterprets the precise line of argumentation.
I haven't misinterpreted the line of argument. Yes, the Christian faith rests on a belief in the veracity of the resurrection, just as Islam rests on the belief that Mohammed really did ascend to heaven and read from the book which was the 1st Koran. You may scoff at the lack of physical evidence which Muslims have to support this claim, but realize that non Christians feel this same way about the claims of the resurrection. Honestly, there is no extra-Biblical evidence to support the supernatural claims of the Gospels like the miracles and resurrection, which is why it's called "faith" and not "fact."
Clearly, Jews who didn't convert did not find Christian "evidence" to be particularly compelling, and many died for their refusal to abandon their beliefs for Christianity. Does that prove Jesus was not the messiah? By Strobel's standards, it would appear to be so.
I think you have missed the heart of my argument. Yes, early Christians who died for their faith most likely believed that Jesus rose from the dead. However, their belief provides absolutely no evidence that such an event took place, just as the Heaven's Gate followers' deaths did not confirm Marshall Applewhite's belief that a spaceship awaited his cult members once they shed their bodies. Willingness to die for one's beliefs simply means that the "martyr" most likely holds said beliefs to be true. It does not provide any independent evidence that said beliefs ARE objectively true.
There are many explanations for what could have happened to Jesus' body postmortem that would have led his followers to believe that he had risen without resorting to the resurrection. Perhaps the body was stolen and the story was spread that Jesus rose. I don't know, but, if you're honest with yourself, you don't either. Neither of us was there.
As for Paul, even his own writings show a very troubled man who desired power and control. Perhaps he reached the peak of achievement in the Jewish community and knew that the fledgling Christianity community offered an ambitious man the opportunity to rule. Do not underestimate the value of fame and influence, especially in a time in which it was incredibly difficult for anyone outside of the nobility to achieve either. Remember, some people sold themselves as gladiators in order to live and die as gods in the arena rather than to suffer as peasant freemen.
Who knows? But ultimately, we have no historical record outside of the Bible stating that Paul did all that he claimed. Even the Bible does not state that Paul was executed, just that he anticipated it, so there's no way to know. But once again, almost every belief system (including many you would deduce as heretical) has had its martyrs who went to their deaths utterly convinced that they died for they god(s) and that their beliefs were true. Surely, due to massive contradiction, not all can be true. Yet, by your standards, their deaths serve as evidence for the truth of their beliefs.
Cassandra the question is where else do we see people accepting martyrdom because of a physical event they claim to have witnessed. Does Islam claim that there were witnesses who physically saw Mohammed ascend into Heaven and come back with the Qu'ran? Did Heaven's Gate followers commit suicide because of a physical event they claimed to have seen?
Good points, but I ask you to consider one thing: the height of martyrdom occurred long after the death of anyone who could have witnessed the resurrection, roughly from AD 150 until 311 (factsanddetails.com/world/cat55/sub352/item1416.html).
Clearly, people living during that time knew of the resurrection only through writing and verbal teachings. Essentially, it was something taken on faith and not evidence, yet they sacrificed themselves in the thousands for something they could not have known personally whether it was true. A better case could be made using the traditional martyrdom of the disciples and Paul, although we have no extra-Biblical records that any of these men were executed in such a manner. So it must be taken on faith :(
As you are probably aware, Protestant Rationalism (a 19th movement which studied the Bible and tried to explain the events using science) offered the explanation that Jesus was never "resurrected" because He was never truly dead. They cite a passage of Josephus in which he claims to have witnessed three men brought down from their crosses pre-mortem. Two of the died shortly thereafter, but one survived. Given that evidence, the Protestant scholars surmised that Jesus may have been very close to death but was removed before dying, was given treatment in secret by his followers, and appeared to have returned from the dead when He appeared in public. Personally, I find the explanation interesting but was rather shocked that Protestants (who began their break from the Catholic Church with the cry of "Sola Scriptura!") would present a theory that, if true, would render not only the resurrection but also the sacrifice on the cross as an elaborate facade. I think Paul had the reasoning correct: " And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins" (1 Corinth 15:17).
Concerning whether other religions had eye witnesses to their "miracles": the Mormons attest that Joseph Smith healed several people of various physical conditions in the presence of witnesses (heart issues, stiff arms, cholera). I think the tales have no merit (and I'm pretty sure you would agree), but the Mormons believe whole-heartedly and think that non-Mormons simply refuse to accept the truth.
Mohammed had no witnesses to his ascent to heaven (which, I suppose, Muslims would counter with "Christians had no witnesses to Jesus' descent into hell"), but the Heaven's Gate comet Hale-Bopp was a physical presence (alas for them, no evidence of the supposed spaceship though).
To all the atheists listening: if you're ready to have your faith challenged, watch this movie then discuss it with a Christian who also saw it.
Why are people giving credit to rubbish like Dan Brown's work but not something as amazingly thrilling as one of many skeptics' journey to Christ? And the difference is Lee Strobel actually investigated history.
@4:40, "would someone [martyr] themselves for a pious legend?"
I'd have to say that yes, it is entirely possible, considering Branch Davidians, Jonesboro, etc...
Nick von Liphart True the Davidians did, BUT has faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ceased through the person of Jesus Christ, for the last 2000 yrs?
The difference is that the in the cases you state there was total belief but no factual evidence to the contrary. The first christians were actually the witnesses of the events. The KNEW first hand hand what happened and therefore it is highly unlikely they would be willing to die for what they knew to be a lie.
Great video, brother! Could you do a video on Emilio Estevez's The Way (2010)? Thank you.
I actually enjoyed this movie. I set my expectations low (since it is in the genre of apologetic, low budget evangelical movies that often tend to be simplistic, sappy, or contain bad theology... never mind low production values and often poor acting/casting). still I would agree with the reviewers that would say its a cut above. because it IS one man's personal recollections and experience, it doesn't have to have all the answers. skeptics will have plenty to find fault with, but it's still worth a look as a jumping off point for deeper discussion afterward.
But how do we know there were actually 500 people who witnessed this? There aren't 500 different accounts of it, only 1.
Jesus’ Mother and
Brothers
Matthew 12
46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. 47 Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
48 He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
JESUS CHRIST IS COMING BACK PEOPLE REPENT OF YOUR SINS AND ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR TODAY NOT TOMORROW PEOPLE
“Lots of people claimed they saw Jesus” We only have writings of one, the rest are hearsay. The story of the 500 was a second hand creed and not an attestation of 500 independent testimonies. We don’t know how many people actually had some sort of experience or what that experience may have been. The only one we do know about is Paul. The rest of the claims come from anonymous sources with most being written down decades later. Legends and stories can develop in weeks, giving decades allows for a lot of potential changes. Heck even a few months of a game of telephone can make significant changes. The fact that there may have been some people who genuinely believed they had an experience and this story spread is no significant fact. The same happens for countless other beliefs.
As for martyrdom, we don’t have good evidence for the deaths of all of these people. At most we have decent evidence for six (and these weren’t exclusively the 12 apostles) and the 3 best evidenced don’t even appear to have been killed for theological reasons but rather for political or personal reason. That’s right, the evidence for these deaths don’t even show martyrdom in the way it is implied here. We don’t know if they were killed because if their beliefs. We don’t have any reason to think they were given a chance to recant to save their lives. And we certainly don’t have good reason to think that they chose to die instead of recant. Additionally, even if we did have good evidence for martyrdom, this only demonstrates a degree of genuine belief not truth. People convinced of a false belief will act the same way as if it were true.
Once again the 500 people thing is a hearsay creed and not a historical fact to be explained. Hallucination theory does not need to explain things which aren’t established facts.
The texts being early does not mean the stories they tell are true and does not bolster this idea. 40 years of oral tradition is more than enough time for a legend to develop. The time between Mark and John shows how a story can develop through decades with johns gospel being by far the most deifying of the four with Mark being the least. Then you go to the non canonical gospels which take it a couple steps further with stuff like a talking cross. To me that’s a clear sign of legendary development and this happens while these stories were in WRITTEN form. But yet we are supposed to believe that this couldn’t/wouldn’t have happened in the decades prior to them being written down?
The swoon theory is nonsense and the only reason it’s still around today is because of the fact it’s the theory held in the Quran. However, it’s still more likely than a resurrection. Because, while practically impossible, at least the concepts of people recovering from injuries are known to be true. No aspect of a resurrection has ever been ever remotely demonstrated to even be possible.
Lee strobel is not a good source when it comes to this, just taking wild leaps of epistemology and just accepting surface level apologetics as fact. His story alone seems somewhat suspect and potentially influenced by a little exaggeration. But he’s not a historian and it shows. His presentation doesn’t hold up to scrutiny and doesn’t do a good job at justifying his conclusions.
My one qualm is on the
argumentum ad verecundiam
When this Bishop or anyone else can explain the “logic” that Jesus (as YHWH) came to earth to impregnate his own mother to bring Himself to life as a human to appease Himself for the sin of people that He, Himself created while knowing full well that humans were going to sin in the first place!!! If you explain that nonsense, I’ll believe in your silly god...
You are operating under one faith tradition, which teaches that the Trinity are one person. Not all Christians believe that and, indeed, the argument you made is very challenging to explain under the all-in-one Trinity. There are others who teach that God the Father, Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings. That being the case, God the Father could have conceived Christ with Mary. And it's precisely because God knew that humanity would sin that he provided for a sinless one to suffer for the sins of all. Ultimately, you have to exercise faith that this part of Christianity is true. I can't prove it to you any more than you can "prove" God is a fiction. But both the logical and spiritual witnesses I have received place the scale of evidence more strongly on the side of belief than hoax.
@@arec305videos8 Three persons ONE GODHEAD. Sorry, your “tradition” argument fails utterly….Your Trinity is illogical nonsense.
You know you are dealing with dishonest people when they have to invent an incredible definition of a common word “person”! Your person is now a ghost, a dead man who is now no longer a man but who “lives” and a god that specifically states that he is NOT a man! Special Pleading nonsense..,,,
How is it nobody knows what he looked liked? Despite being described in the Bible the image we of a Christ is a blue eyed European.
Coronavirus not people front this is a case from Jesús Christ!😇😇😇
Wow...
Fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom. don't fear what people or the whole world think of you, we are all sinners. Jesus Christ is your only Lord and Judge, we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. save your soul and the soul of millions. come out of this Pagan Religious System, that will be destroyed by Jesus Christ himself on the day of his second coming. Again, ask Jesus Christ to give you the Holy Spirit to empower you with courage and conviction. FEAR NOT BROTHER!.
Wat about SPOTLIGHT ??
👌
The swoon theory is very good tbh the amount of time it takes to die from crucifixion is 48 hours to die and it changes from gospel to gospel 3,6 and 9 hours to die
X i does that include lashing...getting your muscle tissue being ripped out of your body? And getting speared in the ribs?
Paul Cash yes as this was the standard practice and the times measured are relative with those measures and there’s a beautiful grave of Jesus
I like how bishop said for the birds 😂
But do we have 500 written accounts from those 500 people that Paul claims to have seen Jesus? Do we have at least 100 accounts? Did at least 50 of them write down this event? Do we have at least 25 different handwritings, from the year 33, that state they have witnessed Jesus' resurrection? No. We do not. We only have the 4 evangelists and Paul. That's five people, three of which lived a century after Jesus. Does Paul mention the names of those 500 people who allegedly saw Jesus? Anyone can claim anything, but if they don't bring any proof to support their claims, the claims are nothing more than mere claims.
Paul, an attorney, took 500 depositions. The first time I had sex with a woman I didn't write about it, I still haven't, and that was about 30 years ago. I still remember something from the experience as if it happened 10 seconds ago. While it is true that documental evidence is a type of admissible evidence it doesn't preclude experiential first person accounts.
Paul never gives any of the names of the people who, according to his claims, have seen Jesus resurrected. And surely, you can't compare having sex to seeing a man who was known for doing miracles be killed and live again several days later. If anyone would see such a thing, they would most likely not only write about it, but also inform the Jewish, Greek and Roman historians about it. Imagine being a Roman or Greek writer and having 500 people come at your house telling you that the guy who was crucified a few days ago has disappeared from His grave and is walking around among the living. Even if the writer didn't believe the people, wouldn't you at least mention the incident in his chronicles? Wouldn't he write down: "I was visited by a mob of people who tried to lie to me that... etc."?
The two experiences are not only comparable, they have the same material locus. They extend into space in the exact same way.
*Excited Utterance*
Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, an excited utterance is defined as a statement that concerns a startling event, made by the declarant when the declarant is still under stress from the startling event. An excited utterance is admissible under an exception to the hearsay rule.
Reading and writing was not as far reaching back then as it is today. Experiences are a different kind of historical evidence compared with documental. Did Abraham Lincoln exist? Anyone can impugn Lincoln's existence by saying, "Where is he now? Must not have ever existed." If Jesus doesn't exist now to deliver us from sin then live with that knowledge and profit by it.
A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand in hieratics, cuneiform or other scripts and may help keep track of records for priests and government. Later the profession developed into public servants, journalists, accountants, typists, and lawyers. - Wikipedia.
The 500 depositions is just one point of law in the case for Christ. A person who identifies with atheism simply sets them all aside along with experiential evidence, mental to physical causation. I accept you as you are, i'm not trying to win your soul to Jesus. I sin against God & people every day.
I'm not an atheist. I'm a believer who realizes that the so-called evidence we currently have about Jesus' existence doesn't hold ground from a scientific and rational perspective. I am not contesting the argument about the apostles giving their lives for their beliefs because reason tells us that a rational person would not willingly die for a doctrine they considered untrue. But that is the only argument in Strobel's book that does make sense to me.
We have manuscripts belonging to people who lived several centuries before Christ. Writing was pretty popular in ancient Greece. It is highly unlikely that none of the 500 men Paul speaks about knew how to write.
Well, this puts everything in a different light.
In the 80's after leaving the ministry I became a real estate developer/financier. I developed land for mobile homes. Part of the time I did all the work myself, started a construction company. If you've seen the show The Deed, those entrepreneurs hire sub-contractors to do the work. I had a crew that I worked along side of and taught.
The guy who drove the tractor (The big truck) for hauling the mobile homes was a hillbilly. He couldn't read or write. I had two friends from Mead Valley Ca. who couldn't read or write, both hillbillies. Nearly all god deniers are borderline illiterates. How atheism and naturalism slipped into universities is a mystery to most people.
Lee Strobel is an exception to a rule. Nearly all attorneys and the judiciary are Christian in America. When a murderer is sentenced to death, "May God have mercy on your soul," is oft heard.
Knowing what happened in the past is an extremely difficult science. when you can know what happened in the past then you can catch criminals. You win the two million dollar prize.
Well if the resurrection was the most important thing to prove Christ was the real deal then there are problems. When Christ was said to have risen from the dead, the bible claims there were also other dead people popping up like mushrooms from their graves. So either these people were Christ like or it was no big deal to come back from the dead in those days.
No! Resurrection and resuscitation are not the same thing. Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus returned to this life, only to die again. Jesus is transfigured and lives no more to die; death has no more power over him.
Actually I was referring to Matthew 27:52-53 in the bible where lots of people came out their graves and walked back into town.
There are other techniques used in writing besides literalism.
Was Matthew writing about metaphoric or pretend people that came out of their graves and walked into town?
On one of Tom Campbell's video uploads I read a comment of his when queried about the material component of spirits and he said, "A spirit can be as material or ethereal as it needs to be." I've experienced the Gift of Rapture. I saw with my physical eyes my spirit, myself, me existing outside of my body. Translucent sparklies, one big wisp with lots of little wisps. Wispy. My clinical therapist has an experience where his dad visited him from beyond the grave in a dream and was a young man, "His skin was taught." They *_could have_* come out of their graves as spirits.
Corny movies on Christianity don't work. Why isn't a movie made about Bishop Barron or Andrew Klavan, Edith Stein, Dr. Vera Schlemm, Tolkien etc.
sissy lou I am likewise averse to "corny" Christian movies, but I found this one surprisingly good. Made me cry a couple of times. :-)
sissy lou ...but yes, I agree that well-made movies on the saints and people like CS Lewis, etc. would be amazing.
sissy lou I hate corny Christian movies with cringes and this is not one of them I get that corny cringey things from my father who is an atheist and this doesn't do that to me at all
@4:40 why is not Christianity represented by an X rather than a cross? And if Christ (or any other person) was crucified on a cross there is a much greater chance that he survived.
it's represented by a cross because Christ died on a cross
Andrea Figueroa He gave up his spirit and died before the spear pierced his side.
Evidence shows it's more likely he was crucified on an X like most other people were. It's easier to raise and easier to keep the body secure. There's also ancient churches with the shape of an X at the entrance rather than a cross.
filthyswit The scriptures portray the cross, history shows that the cross was one of a number of torture methods (including an x), tradition of the church professes the cross and the shroud of turin is indicative exactly of cross based torture. The evidence heavily supports a cross rather than an X.
Early churches architecture portrayed cross varients also based on saint martydom. For example the seat of St. Peter for the pope has an upside down cross based on the martydom of Peter.
can you show some of this "evidence"? all of the biblical accounts tell us that Pilate hung a sign above Him...difficult to do on an X
CLEVER but not ACCURATE AS TO HOW WE ARE TO BEHAVE AND HOW WE ARE TO WORSHIP our GOD
Hello... I do know this 30 years about… AND… Very nice, that do appeared such video, like Your (do impress their number after 1000 the years.. “like somewhere…”), where I can to place a comment - review about (or - it is Yahoo group - “ancientaliens”… but still does not works this temporarily…) In evangelion of our Human’s World nr. 2 in Hercules (just started new year 1257’th …here it should be 1409) is one phrase, that do all the our World’s Evangelion into the cheaper… “God - to the disappointed Althus (such Christ’s name…) - But see… Their doorsteps are fully with the humans…”… He then do decided to be better and came to Sea Coast like to the his doorstep, where slowly came the young people of his sect… They do remounted the ships, supplied fishes and so like… Altus do not understood, that in this saying is about Him and “the human after”… And about Those Civilization’s the needs to get Christianity. It is a simple question principle… Do impress ancient hunter in his thinking… “Me before Bison and …bison - after me…” Does means unsuccess simple (formula of success You can to impress simple). Now do impress human, who ALREADY must to do something the do not usual within the long time… A project of good ship an example… Of course a “Society of Bison” will thing him “as the dumb kind simple”… So… Human before Christ - Human After… All Society is starting to behave for the long projects… In this, unfortunately, is a mathematic, that the other Civilizations are the Christians also… And we (due UFOs) must to impress, that it is the older Christianities, where already do exist the big equilibristic against us, like choices… Such Saying, an example… “If do You See YOUR TIME as the best Christ’s time - then Do Prove this There, Do Prove and do Prove… but do not say - we do this better, than the others already…”. - Pope Pius from the planet (locally year 3245…) by Star the Sirius… Pope - Jesuit and - graduated professor… Such One... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Nikulin
There are 500 million copies of Harry Potter, I conclude, it must be true
9:35
This is BEAUTIFUL!
"It Says Yes!!!' I love it! I'm gonna use that!
Awful apologetics validated only by confirmation bias.
Jesus is not the first one raised from the dead in the Bible:
1. Elijah raised the son of the Zarephath widow from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-22).
2. Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman from the dead (2 Kings 4:32-35).
3. A man was raised from the dead when his body touched Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:20, 21).
I wonder...are they still alive or did they die again later on?
Surprised at the Bishops ready acceptance of some of the arguments in this book/movie.
1. He treats Paul's 1 account of 500 witnesses as having actually 500 seperate accounts.
2. He thinks that because early believers died probably believing their claims of the miraculous is evidence of the resurrection. But this is exactly how cults work. Please compare this to the deaths of the Heavens Gate and other similar cults.
3. He forgets that other ancient works, like the Odyssey, aren't claiming to be the infallible Word of God. This claim necessarily invites a greater scrutiny.
As an atheist who enjoys listening to Father Barron, this is a bit discouraging hearing him so casually pandering to the fundamentalists. This does nothing to legitimize the intellectual nature of the church, but only further discredits the influence and sway that the church should have over modern culture.
Come on, this is an apologetic, propaganda piece! This has nothing in common with honest truth finding.
Compare the Death and Resurrection of Jesus the Christ to Heavens Gate, or ANY cult, for that matter?? Are you joking, coanwilliams?? Such a "comparison is so asinine that it borders on a form of mental illness!! One of my favorite adages goes thus: " Sometimes we need to be freed from the bondage of our own opinions". Anyone with any familiarity of history would be suffering from a paucity of intellectual power to view the Christian Faith as it stands. The entirety of Western Civilization has its foundations in the history of Christianity .I thought atheists were much more intelligent than that!! 😄😄😄
Commentary is a captivating way for a Bishop to share his thoughts on various topics of theology. It is interesting that a post which was published upon April 20th of 2017 offers us such insight to the almanac of time and that Christianity itself is the heart of an enrichment circuit. Look to you supplants in the King James Version and see via the cardinal direction points that there is a NEON proverb. A light where there is no light. A light that allows the blind to see. Learn that adrenaline from the pituitary gland can stimulate bone growth and learn that a supplant of such a linguistic string is in fact the indexed word endbrain, the anterior division of the forebrain; the cerebrum and related parts of the hypothalamus. This seeding is in fact the water circuit of the Jesus well whereas many presentations of the sacred stations of the cross are surveyed. A survey of love international where the language of the bird angels themselves teach us that the Thai translation of the word love is expressed as two birds with their beaks facing viewer left with the letter expression Rak. This being a fact I often wonder what your personal path of the stations may appear as because you are entitled to a tile of respect and justice. On that not be informed that the namesake of Justin is the current ~ See of Canterbury whereas Richard was the overseer at the formation of the King James Hampton Conference. The namesake of Justin means 'upright', and the namesake of Richard means 'dominant ruler'. The basic math in this timeline spread indicated 413 years, certainly enough time for scribes to supplant a seed. I say this seed is the basic of the word 'Chi', the twenty-second letter of the Greek alphabet χ , a vital energy that is held to animate the body. In the index of modern day times and translation Chi is a 'mood' 0r life force breath. This essence is in fact the notion of the word Amen. So be sure to get your chickens in order as data is now sacred and the chicken that you may wish to raise is one known as the Buff Orpington. Why... well what would Jesus do? Suffer on the cross or fight back? But what do I know. The way things are going I am getting the impression tthat you enjoy being caged and in the dark.
He was never a true atheist
When Jesus was on the cross he told the man on the other cross that tonight you will be in heaven with me. So Jesus must have shot up to heaven that night and came back to pick up his body a few days later.
The Case For Christ is a biased, one-sided presentation by a Christian minister. Strobel only interviewed believing Christian experts; most were professors at seminaries and schools of theology and two were also pastors. It is not surprising they believe in the accuracy of the Gospels and the divinity of Jesus. He interviewed no scholars with opposing views like Sanders, Mack, or Fredriksen. Although Strobel raised issues and problems he readily accepted any explanation given. An analogy would be a court trial where only one attorney presents his case and calls only his expert witnesses to the stand. How could a jury reach a fair and truthful verdict under these circumstances? The common apologetic argument is presented that if the Gospels were not true someone would have objected at that time. Let's look at the situation. According to most NT scholars the Gospels were written by unknown authors decades after Jesus lived. They were also written in Greek outside of Palestine. Considering these facts and the short average lifetime, that few people could read, and that the common language was Aramaic, it is not surprising at all opposing words were not heard or recorded. Archaeology has not proven the accuracy of the NT. If certain towns or people mentioned in the Bible are found to have existed at that time, so what? A novel about the Civil War will include the names of actual places and historical characters, but it is still fiction. Paul admitted he never knew or met Jesus "in the flesh." He only had a "vision" of meeting Jesus. Paul also stated Jesus "appeared" to the disciples, to the 500, and then to Paul. It is probable that seeing Jesus after his death only meant having had a vision or dream. And if one disciple claimed to have seen Jesus wouldn't the others also do so inorder not to feel less special or blessed? There is no corroborating evidence outside the Bible for these appearances. For outside corroborating evidence Strobel quotes a number of pagans and church fathers. Let us take a closer look at this historical "evidence." Josephus' comments are universally acknowledged to have been altered or doctored by later Christians. He also wrote eighty years after Jesus lived. Tacitus and Pliny the Younger were Romans who wrote about the beliefs of early Christians. They also wrote eighty years later. If I wrote that Mormons believed Joseph Smith discovered ancient tablets from which he wrote the Book of Mormon would that be proof he had actually done so? Of course not. I would merely be writing about what others believed. This is all Tacitus and Pliny the Younger did. Thallus, whose works have been lost, apparently mentioned an eclipse in one of his books. Julius Africanus, a Christian Bishop writing 200 years after Jesus, said no, it was a supernatural event which took place the day Jesus died. This is hardly historical evidence supporting the validity of the Gospels . Iganatius, another Christian Bishop and therefore biased, is cited as confirming the crucifixion, but he died an estimated eighty years later so how could he be a witness? The Jesus Seminar is derisively dismissed as an "extremely small number of radical fringe scholars who are on the far, far left wing of NT thinking." The JS consists of 70 of the leading experts in the field like John Dominic Crossan, Robert Funk, and Marcus Borg. They hardly fit the author's description. On the contrary I would venture that the thinking of those in the book do not represent the majority mainstream thinking based upon the latest research. Every argument has two sides but Strobel has only presented one. His book is not a true investigation but merely propaganda. He fails to provide rational and convincing evidence.
Disclaimer: I am a former Roman Catholic but after doing my research, I became a nonreligious skeptic but I don't consider myself an atheist.
You need to know and be prepared for wat is coming. And the only one that can save you is Jesus Christ. No saint no mary no pope.
A guy walked on water and turn water into wine. He also turned mud into weed and a cow into a unicorn.
I was born a Catholic and attended catholic school but that "DARN REALITY" kept getting in the way of my faith...so I've been an Atheist for the last 30 years and the real truth is enlightening . No more nonsense to believe ..
Try internalizing atheism from now on, nobody cares about denial and projection, that's for your time with a psychiatrist.
you keep trusting in your jesus......and all will be fine........
Isn't the internet great, instead of having to face up to another human being like a man you can be a spineless worm and pretend to give others orders in complete cowardice.
Lets see now ?...I'm a cowardly spineless worm needing a psychiatrist.........yes...that is the response I would expect from a Christian .....have a lovely day....and that suggestion is from an atheist......
I can teach a parrot to be everything you are, I can teach a parrot to say, "I am an atheist" but that's how natural language statements work. As long as it makes sense in English in this case it's perfectly acceptable. "I'm a Glibglabberist, I deny the atheist claim, but I don't make any claims. We Glibglabberists are more intellectual than atheists, we donate more to charity and we are more moral because we are under represented in jails and prisons compared to atheists." It's utter nonsense. "Atheism is a lack of belief of gods" but gods are not a lack of belief in atheism so you're lying.
Jesus is clearly a fable. A child can figure that out.