WEBVTT

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 I actually only met Greg on Friday. I've seen him on Skype type thing for about a year and a half.

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 He looks different in person than he does in a huge television screen with a camera angled up from his chin.

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 You look better in life, real life, by the way. That's just so you know.

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 Greg was for many years on the staff of Navigators out in the Halifax area.

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 Now he's with Logos Bible Software, which is both the leading and cutting-edge Bible software provider, I think, in the English-speaking world, maybe in other languages as well.

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 And he's also finishing his PhD at the University of Bristol in the New Testament.

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 And his PhD dissertation is going to be on the burial of Jesus. Do I have that right?

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 And so he was one of the speakers at the Apologetics Conference that we just had on Friday and Saturday.

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 And he's going to speak now. But just before he speaks, I'm just going to ask for the anointing of God's Holy Spirit upon him.

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 Let's pray.

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 Father, thank you for Greg.

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 Thank you, Father, for the mind you've given him, for his willingness, Father, to develop the mind by study.

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 We ask, Father, that you help him to speak clearly to us today.

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 Father, we thank you that Jesus really did die upon the cross, that he really did rise from the dead.

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 We thank you, Father, that this is true, that it's not a myth, it's not a fable, but it's true.

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 And we ask, Father, that at this time that your Holy Spirit would move through Greg and into us

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 so that we might grow in a humble, trusting confidence in the truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

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 And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

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 Amen.

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 Well, it is really, really good to be here.

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 And as George said, I am from Halifax.

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 Did you say I was from Halifax?

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 Well, I'm from Halifax.

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 And, yeah, look at this.

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 That's right.

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 Represent.

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 And first off, I just want to welcome my cousin, Kelty, who came to hear me preach this morning.

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 She's sitting right over there.

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 She's the good-looking blonde.

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 She's already married.

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 So, guys, sorry.

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 But, yeah.

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 So, I grew up in Halifax.

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 But my parents are both from Ottawa originally.

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 And so I have a lot of family.

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 In fact, I've been staying with family the past few days in Ottawa.

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 And one of the main reasons why I'm a Christian is because of the impact of my life of my grandfather, our grandfather, that he played.

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 And it was actually an Anglican church where he gave his life to Christ a long, long time ago.

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 He died, must have been what?

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 It has been 12 years.

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 12 years.

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 And it's my grandfather.

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 His name is Victor Minyon.

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 And he led a lot of people to Christ.

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 And his favorite verse, I just want to read it before I get started because it impacts the whole story of this.

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 His favorite verse was in 2 Corinthians 5.17.

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 It was, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they become a new creation.

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 The old has gone.

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 The new has come.

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 And that's what this whole event is all about.

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 If Jesus of Nazareth really did rise from the dead, then it does give us hope that there is an afterlife and that Jesus' ministry was vindicated by God.

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 And Jesus actually is who he said he was, God's son who brought the kingdom of God into this world.

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 If the resurrection didn't happen, then it's wrong.

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 Then we are actually wasting our time this morning sitting here.

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 It really is that simple.

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 If Jesus rose from the dead, Christianity is true.

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 At least Jesus is true.

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 And if he did not rise from the dead, it's all gone.

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 It's done.

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 And my grandfather, he put his trust in Jesus that Jesus was raised from the dead.

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 And he shared his faith with a lot of people.

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 And he shared it with me.

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 And the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that I pass on to you what I in turn had received.

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 And what I'm passing on to you this morning is what I received from my grandfather.

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 And if Jesus rose from the dead, I have hope that I will see my grandfather someday.

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 And if he did not, I don't know where that hope goes.

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 It's gone.

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 So let's get started.

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 This morning I want to look at the topic of did Jesus rise from the dead?

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 Because I consider there to be no more important question to the Christian faith than this one.

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 When I was in university, I almost lost my faith.

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 I took religious studies classes thinking they'd be easy grades.

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 And they turned out to be the hardest courses that I ever took.

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 Because I remember taking intern in New Testament and Old Testament and life of Jesus.

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 And I took them from a secular perspective at a university in Halifax.

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 And it was reading through the textbook written by an agnostic who is a New Testament scholar that I came to really struggle.

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 I had a lot of doubts.

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 And a lot of my questions started to come up.

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 And until that point, I had never taken the time to ask the hard questions relating to my faith.

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 And pretty much any hard question was like a wave knocking me over in the ocean.

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 It was really difficult.

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 But it was my mentor at the time with the navigators.

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 That's why I ended up working with the navigators.

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 His name was Ron.

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 And Ron's actually from the area here.

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 Some of his family lives here.

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 And Ron came alongside me and gave me a challenge that I don't recommend giving to many people or any university.

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 He said, Greg, I encourage you to do one thing.

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 You need to read ten books written by the leading Christian scholars arguing that Jesus rose from the dead.

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 And then you need to read the ten leading books by atheists and skeptics that argue that he didn't.

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 And then you need to figure it out for yourself whether Jesus rose from the dead.

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 Because you're such a second-guesser.

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 You're such a skeptic.

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 You're such a doubter.

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 You're not going to take easy answers.

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 And unless you get a supernatural blast from God, there are no shortcuts.

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 This is going to be hard.

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 So get to work.

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 And that's what I did.

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 Because my faith was in the balance.

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 I was ready to give up.

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 So I took the time to study the topic of did Jesus rise from the dead.

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 And I can stand here this morning saying with utter confidence that not all of my doubts are gone.

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 But my doubts about Jesus' resurrection have been answered.

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 And I can be a Christian because of that.

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 And the beautiful thing about the resurrection of Jesus is this.

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 If the resurrection of Jesus happened, then we're allowed to have unanswered questions about a lot of other things relating to our faith as Christians.

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 That's the good news.

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 The Apostle Paul said there's only two things you need to believe in order to be made right with God.

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 You need to make Jesus your Lord.

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 You need to confess through the mouth that he's Lord and make him your master of your life.

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 And you need to believe that God raised him from the dead.

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 That's it.

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 It's not that complicated.

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 It's that it.

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 God doesn't require us to go get PhDs and master's degrees and go to seminary and understand everything about theology and the Bible.

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 He wants us to love and serve his son and understand that the resurrection really happened.

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 So let's get going.

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 I already said the Apostle Paul echoes the importance, the gravity of the resurrection, whether or not it happened.

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 He said in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 17, he says,

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 If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

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 That's pretty straightforward.

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 You know, if it didn't happen, the whole Jesus movement is done.

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 It's a waste of time.

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 So that's why it's so crucial to look into this.

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 Now, in this presentation, it's not really going to be a sermon, and I'm just going to apologize up front.

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 There's going to be a lot of historical quotes coming at you, a lot of information.

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 I don't expect you to retain all of it.

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 What I hope it will do is I hope it will encourage you to be able to have confidence in the resurrection.

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 And if you can remember a few key points, wonderful.

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 I'm happy to send my PowerPoint to anybody in PDF format.

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 I just want people to have confidence in the resurrection.

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 So if you need any help with this, email me, call me.

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 I'll be there for you.

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 But here's what this presentation is going to look like.

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 I'm going to break it up into five chunks.

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 Number one, we're going to look at five historical criteria that scholars use to examine past events.

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 So if you are sitting here this morning and you have doubts about whether the Bible is inspired by God or you're trying,

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 you know what?

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 I'm going to assume this morning that the Bible is not even, I'm going to assume it's not even inspired by God,

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 even though I believe it is.

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 I'm just going to treat the gospel text, the New Testament text,

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 as though they're historical, ancient historical documents, just like any scholar on the planet treats them like,

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 even the most skeptical scholars.

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 They study these ancient documents and they get information from them.

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 How do they do that?

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 How do we know anything about Jesus from the past?

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 Well, scholars use a certain set of criteria that they apply to ancient texts,

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 whether it's the New Testament, whether it's ancient writings like classical authors,

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 like Tacitus or Suetonius or Plutarch's biographies.

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 How do we get real information?

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 We apply criteria and I'm going to show you what some of these are.

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 We're going to apply these to the gospel to see what pops to the surface,

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 to see what historians can understand about the resurrection of Jesus historically.

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 Number two, we're going to discuss the five leading facts held by the vast majority of historians

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 pertaining to the resurrection of Jesus.

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 So once again, whether these, and these aren't just held by evangelical Christian scholars

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 that believe the Bible is the inspired word of God.

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 These are going to be facts held by agnostics,

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 even Jewish scholars, non-believing scholars, all across the board.

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 And so that's what we're going to look at this morning.

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 I believe we can build the case for the resurrection of Jesus

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 just with the five basic facts about the event in question

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 held by virtually every scholar on the planet who studied this topic.

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 Okay?

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 Number three, we're going to apply the historical criteria to these facts

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 to show why they're facts.

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 Great.

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 Number four, now it wouldn't be realistic for me to just build the case for the resurrection,

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 and not deal with the leading objections raised by skeptics.

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 Would it?

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 Of course not.

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 So what I'm going to do is we're going to look at the five leading objections

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 to the resurrection raised by those who criticized the event.

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 And I'm going to show you why they don't stand up.

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 And by the end, my hope is that you will see that the resurrection of Jesus

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 is historically reliable.

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 You ready?

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 Okay, rock and roll.

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 Let's get moving.

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 What are the five historical criteria that scholars use to examine past events?

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 Let's go quickly through these.

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 Number one is multiple attestation.

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 I have ten nephews and nieces.

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 If one of them says, she punched me, I say, are there any other eyewitnesses?

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 Did this really happen?

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 You know, we do this in life.

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 You know, like, if you're a parent, you know, I'm not yet, but if you're a parent,

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 you really want to know, was there another set of eyeballs in that event

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 to confirm what actually took place?

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 You know, it's not that kids don't make stuff up at all, you know,

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 and neither do adults from time to time.

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 Number two, friendly and hostile sources.

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 So what does this mean?

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 Well, if there are historical events described in both friendly and hostile sources,

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 it adds more weight to the plausibility of the event having actually happened.

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 So the hostile source is sometimes more likely to lack a bias.

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 So if you're like a propagandist and you're trying to be like, you know,

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 Caesar Augustus is amazing.

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 Well, what does Caesar's enemy say about Caesar?

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 Because if the enemy says the same thing as the person who loves Caesar,

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 then that raises the chance that that really did happen,

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 or that's really true about Caesar.

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 Same thing about Jesus of Nazareth.

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 Number three, embarrassment.

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 This one always surprises people.

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 Now, this is true.

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 Embarrassing material to the one recording the story

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 is usually thought to be more likely to be historical

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 as people don't tend to create fictional stories that make them look bad.

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 For instance, the Mormon Church just revealed last week,

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 they just admitted it, Joseph Smith had over 40 wives,

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 and a number of them were polyandry.

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 He married some of his best friend's wives.

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 The Mormon Church just finally admitted this.

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 They acknowledge it.

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 Go to Brigham Young University.

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 Go to the mormon.org website.

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 They've acknowledged this.

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 Criterion of embarrassment, I don't have any doubts at all

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 that Joseph Smith had numerous wives.

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 The Mormon Church has admitted it.

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 That's true.

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 It's a criterion of embarrassment.

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 Let's keep going.

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 Number four, eyewitness testimony.

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 This is pretty logical.

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 Would you rather, if you were studying a biography about Abraham Lincoln,

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 would you rather have sources written within, say,

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 20 to 30 years of his life to study,

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 or would you rather read sources that were written about 100 years after the fact?

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 Well, to ask the question is to answer it.

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 In most cases, you want to go with the earliest sources.

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 And were they composed by eyewitnesses or people that knew eyewitnesses

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 that could get this information from them?

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 So it's the same way with history.

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 And by the way, with the New Testament,

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 pretty much all of it is connected to eyewitnesses in some way.

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 Number five, closest to the event.

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 It's sort of like eyewitness testimony,

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 but it's slightly different because sometimes we don't have documents composed by eyewitnesses,

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 but we have documents that are written earlier, closer to the event, than later ones.

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 And we like those ones better.

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 Because oftentimes, the longer,

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 the further away you get from an event having actually happened,

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 we see this throughout history.

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 It's like a snowball going down a hill.

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 It picks up a bunch of loose tradition,

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 and some of it is exaggerated and embellished,

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 and it just turns into something really crazy after a long time.

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 That doesn't mean it doesn't contain historical information.

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 But the further away you get from an event,

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 the more wild the tales about the event tend to be.

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 So, let's get moving.

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 What are the five historical facts held by virtually every scholar on the planet

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 who has studied the resurrection of Jesus?

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 Well, let's take a look at the first one.

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 Jesus of Nazareth died by crucifixion.

00:13:02.279 --> 00:13:03.379
 Now, you're probably thinking to yourself,

00:13:03.579 --> 00:13:05.699
 well, come on, of course he died by crucifixion.

00:13:05.699 --> 00:13:06.839
 Who would make that up?

00:13:06.939 --> 00:13:08.120
 I agree with you exactly.

00:13:08.439 --> 00:13:09.719
 Why do we have to look at this?

00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:13.160
 Well, because some people don't believe that Jesus was crucified.

00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:15.779
 Muslims don't believe that Jesus was crucified.

00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:17.840
 The Koran says, if we're going to look at the passage,

00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:19.639
 says that Jesus never died.

00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:21.180
 So, it's important for us to deal with this.

00:13:21.259 --> 00:13:23.639
 Because if Islam is true and Jesus never died,

00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:24.740
 it was just assumed into heaven,

00:13:25.100 --> 00:13:27.220
 well, that sort of dismantles Christianity, doesn't it?

00:13:27.220 --> 00:13:28.639
 There's no atoning death on the cross,

00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:30.620
 and Jesus didn't subsequently raise from the dead,

00:13:31.180 --> 00:13:33.620
 beating death, the great enemy.

00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:35.480
 So, we've got to look at this.

00:13:35.860 --> 00:13:37.519
 Also, a handful of biblical scholars

00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:38.960
 who don't even think Jesus existed.

00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:41.160
 I'm not even going to deal with that this morning.

00:13:41.259 --> 00:13:42.360
 That is just totally bizarre.

00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:46.820
 So, if there's no crucifixion and death of Jesus,

00:13:47.340 --> 00:13:49.160
 there can be no historical resurrection either.

00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:52.060
 So, let's take a look at the case for the crucifixion of Jesus.

00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:55.259
 Well, first off, crucifixion was a common form of Roman execution.

00:13:55.820 --> 00:13:56.800
 I've studied the topic.

00:13:56.940 --> 00:13:59.220
 I went and visited the leading crucifixion expert.

00:13:59.400 --> 00:14:00.300
 That sounds really funny.

00:14:00.299 --> 00:14:05.079
 The leading crucifixion expert at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel.

00:14:05.819 --> 00:14:07.339
 And this is going to sound really gruesome.

00:14:07.439 --> 00:14:09.019
 If you have a weak stomach, plug your ears.

00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:11.279
 But they actually crucified cadavers,

00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:13.039
 so we actually know how they did it now.

00:14:13.179 --> 00:14:15.079
 And we know that where the sweet spots were in the ankles,

00:14:15.179 --> 00:14:16.120
 so it didn't rip through the foot.

00:14:16.500 --> 00:14:17.299
 Okay, we'll keep going.

00:14:18.500 --> 00:14:22.519
 Crucifixion involved flogging and nailing a person to a cross.

00:14:22.620 --> 00:14:24.579
 Hardly ever did it involve tying.

00:14:24.580 --> 00:14:28.540
 We have only one quote that says the person was tied.

00:14:28.620 --> 00:14:33.460
 It was way outside, way far away from Israel in some part of the Roman Empire.

00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:35.700
 So, nailing was the preferred method.

00:14:36.160 --> 00:14:38.759
 And we actually have archaeological evidence for crucifixion.

00:14:39.420 --> 00:14:43.020
 Scholars discovered a few decades ago the heel bone of a man who was crucified.

00:14:43.400 --> 00:14:44.940
 The nail was still lodged in it.

00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:47.920
 His name was Yehohanan because of the bone box,

00:14:48.040 --> 00:14:51.120
 the ossuary that the heel bone was found inside.

00:14:51.300 --> 00:14:53.020
 And it was carved on the side of the box.

00:14:53.019 --> 00:14:54.899
 I've seen the box, taken pictures of it.

00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:57.500
 And I've actually seen this heel bone.

00:14:57.679 --> 00:14:59.559
 This is at Tel Aviv University.

00:15:00.659 --> 00:15:03.679
 And the reason why we have it is because when the nail went in,

00:15:03.980 --> 00:15:05.720
 it hooked into the wood, hit it not in the wood,

00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:08.639
 and they couldn't get the nail out of the wood because the Romans were green.

00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:10.699
 They liked to reduce, reuse, recycle nails.

00:15:11.059 --> 00:15:13.079
 They would use them again for the next crucifixion victim.

00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:15.819
 And they weren't worried about sanitary practices,

00:15:15.980 --> 00:15:18.620
 so they just extract those suckers and pound them in the next victim.

00:15:19.299 --> 00:15:22.299
 And so they couldn't get this one out.

00:15:22.299 --> 00:15:25.099
 So they decided, let's just chop the guy's leg off and fire it in the box.

00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:25.879
 That's what they did.

00:15:25.939 --> 00:15:28.319
 And that's why we have the nail stuck in the bone.

00:15:29.179 --> 00:15:30.139
 So that's crucifixion.

00:15:30.219 --> 00:15:32.500
 Now, what does the Quran say about Jesus' crucifixion?

00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:33.639
 Well, it says it didn't happen.

00:15:34.099 --> 00:15:37.679
 Surah 4, 157, 158 says this,

00:15:37.679 --> 00:15:41.759
 that they said and boast, we killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.

00:15:41.879 --> 00:15:43.819
 But they killed him not, nor crucified him.

00:15:44.259 --> 00:15:46.039
 But so it was made to appear to be so.

00:15:46.179 --> 00:15:50.859
 Now, Muslims don't believe Jesus died, but rather he ascended to heaven and only appeared to die.

00:15:51.459 --> 00:15:56.879
 But it's important to keep in mind that the Quran was composed six centuries after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

00:15:56.879 --> 00:15:59.559
 There's no eyewitness testimony.

00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:03.899
 It's not based on, there's not a thread of evidence to support what the Quran says here.

00:16:04.419 --> 00:16:09.139
 In fact, every historical source that we have, inside and outside the Bible, says Jesus was crucified.

00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:10.340
 Let's take a look at them.

00:16:10.340 --> 00:16:15.000
 First off, all four New Testament Gospels record that Jesus was crucified.

00:16:15.560 --> 00:16:18.019
 The Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus was crucified.

00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:23.620
 And historians prefer the first century Gospels over the seventh century Quran, no contest.

00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:29.000
 But what about sources, what about non-Christian hostile sources that are not friends of Christianity?

00:16:29.560 --> 00:16:30.180
 Well, let's take a look.

00:16:30.259 --> 00:16:36.320
 The first century Jewish historian Josephus says that when Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us,

00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:39.580
 had condemned him, that is Jesus, to be crucified.

00:16:39.580 --> 00:16:40.840
 Thank you, Josephus.

00:16:41.280 --> 00:16:45.400
 The next quote is from Tacitus, a Roman historian who did not like Christianity at all.

00:16:45.860 --> 00:16:55.000
 He tells us that Jesus experienced the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of the procurators, Pontius Pilatus.

00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:58.000
 And the extreme penalty was Roman crucifixion.

00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:02.780
 It was the word, by the way, the word that we get excruciating in English, do you know what that word means?

00:17:03.379 --> 00:17:06.660
 Out of the cross, excrucio, out excruciating.

00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:08.559
 That's excruciating pain.

00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:11.059
 It means it's the equivalent of crucifixion.

00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:11.960
 That's what it means.

00:17:12.299 --> 00:17:14.319
 So next time you say that, think of crucifixion.

00:17:15.579 --> 00:17:23.379
 Lucian of Samasata, who's in the mid-second century, said the Christians, you know, worshipped a man to this day who was crucified.

00:17:23.700 --> 00:17:24.639
 I highlighted the word.

00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:25.659
 Now, he's not a Christian.

00:17:26.460 --> 00:17:30.579
 Marbar Serapion, who most likely wrote in the first century, he said,

00:17:30.579 --> 00:17:34.319
 or what advantage came to the Jews by the murder of their wise king?

00:17:34.399 --> 00:17:36.059
 So referring to the death of Jesus.

00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:40.439
 So we have numerous sources, even the Jewish Talmud, not written by Christians.

00:17:40.619 --> 00:17:43.859
 These are Orthodox, these are rabbinic Jews.

00:17:44.399 --> 00:17:52.500
 He said on the eve of Passover, Yeshu, the Hebrew for Jesus, was hanged, which is interchangeable for crucifixion, a death by suspension of some sort.

00:17:52.500 --> 00:17:57.339
 So we have all these sources inside and outside the Bible that tell us that Jesus was crucified.

00:17:58.279 --> 00:17:59.400
 And it makes sense.

00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:04.779
 So when we apply the historical criteria, all four Gospels and the Apostle Paul report that crucifixion,

00:18:04.859 --> 00:18:08.559
 as well as a number of non-Christian sources that have no dog in the fight.

00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:10.200
 In fact, they want to stop with the Jesus movement.

00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:12.940
 And we have friendly and hostile sources.

00:18:13.099 --> 00:18:13.640
 And embarrassment.

00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:18.720
 It is extremely unlikely that the early church would have created a fictional story about the Messiah,

00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:22.280
 who does not actually beat the Romans, but he gets killed by them.

00:18:23.620 --> 00:18:25.120
 Why would you make that up?

00:18:26.140 --> 00:18:33.300
 The first century Jewish belief in the Messiah was that he was going to rise up, conquer the Romans, take back Israel, and rule.

00:18:34.100 --> 00:18:36.780
 And the Romans wouldn't be ruling over them anymore.

00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:38.420
 They would not have made this up at all.

00:18:38.420 --> 00:18:43.320
 So much so that even the most skeptical New Testament scholar, Professor John Dominic Crossan,

00:18:43.620 --> 00:18:45.580
 one of the founders of the famous Jesus Seminar,

00:18:45.779 --> 00:18:51.080
 who the group voted that only 18% of the sayings and deeds of Jesus in the Bible actually go back to Jesus.

00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:53.180
 The other 82% are totally fictional.

00:18:53.820 --> 00:18:59.140
 He says this, that Jesus was crucified as sure as anything historical can ever be.

00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:00.500
 Thank you.

00:19:01.420 --> 00:19:02.880
 The next fact is this.

00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:04.039
 Let's go to fact number two.

00:19:04.180 --> 00:19:06.860
 So first off, we've nailed down the crucifixion of Jesus.

00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:08.279
 Pardon the pun.

00:19:08.420 --> 00:19:12.539
 I did that on purpose.

00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:13.180
 Yeah.

00:19:14.380 --> 00:19:18.320
 I'm not smart enough to come up with puns on the spot, so I've got to think about them ahead of time.

00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:24.340
 Fact number two, Jesus' disciples believed that he rose from the dead and appeared to them.

00:19:24.519 --> 00:19:26.440
 This is held by virtually every scholar on the planet.

00:19:27.160 --> 00:19:28.740
 And why is this a big deal?

00:19:28.740 --> 00:19:34.100
 Well, because this doesn't prove that they saw him alive, but that they genuinely believed it.

00:19:34.320 --> 00:19:34.460
 Okay?

00:19:34.460 --> 00:19:39.259
 First off, let's take a look once again at 1 Corinthians 15, 3-8.

00:19:39.740 --> 00:19:42.420
 This is, now Paul in this first line, he says this,

00:19:42.660 --> 00:19:46.180
 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.

00:19:46.259 --> 00:19:51.840
 So just like I told you this morning, the reason why I'm a Christian is because it was passed on to me by my grandfather.

00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:55.799
 What I know today is not stuff that I came up with on my own.

00:19:56.459 --> 00:20:00.319
 I've pillaged books and articles and spoken with people.

00:20:00.699 --> 00:20:03.919
 Paul's saying here that what I'm passing on to you, I received.

00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:04.259
 Okay?

00:20:04.259 --> 00:20:09.960
 And Paul, we know from Galatians, that he knew Peter, James, and John, the disciples of Jesus.

00:20:10.079 --> 00:20:11.319
 James, Jesus' own brother.

00:20:11.900 --> 00:20:19.319
 And about three years after Paul's conversion, which happened about 18 months, 24 months, a year and a half to two years after Jesus' death and resurrection,

00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:21.319
 Paul's conversion happened.

00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:25.720
 And then three years after that, he went to Jerusalem and he met with Peter, James, and John.

00:20:26.200 --> 00:20:29.740
 And Paul's saying is here, For I delivered to you what I also received.

00:20:29.740 --> 00:20:36.980
 So what we're about to read here is early tradition, most scholars' date was likely composed within six months to a year of the resurrection of Jesus.

00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:38.539
 Okay?

00:20:38.700 --> 00:20:40.120
 This is really, really early.

00:20:40.259 --> 00:20:42.759
 So when skeptics say, How can you trust the New Testament?

00:20:42.859 --> 00:20:44.460
 It was written so much longer after the fact.

00:20:44.779 --> 00:20:45.220
 Well, really?

00:20:45.319 --> 00:20:47.819
 Corinthians was written 20 years after the resurrection of Jesus?

00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:51.720
 And Paul received this information about five years after the resurrection of Jesus?

00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:52.900
 But he didn't make it up.

00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:59.299
 The tradition itself was composed by the early church within six months to a year after the fact, after the event in question.

00:20:59.740 --> 00:21:00.819
 That's pretty early tradition.

00:21:00.940 --> 00:21:05.159
 That's not a snowball going down a hill, picking up all this loose tradition piled on.

00:21:05.500 --> 00:21:11.419
 And I'll show you, when you read this right here, it is so tight and there's no, it's not elaborate at all.

00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:13.379
 It's like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:14.379
 It's like bullet notes.

00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:15.559
 And there's nothing else.

00:21:15.559 --> 00:21:21.759
 It's not like a gospel narrative in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where it's a long expanded version of what took place.

00:21:22.059 --> 00:21:25.819
 This is the earliest information we have about the death and resurrection of Jesus.

00:21:25.819 --> 00:21:26.839
 So Paul says,

00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:46.859
 Really straightforward.

00:21:46.859 --> 00:21:48.219
 Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:53.539
 The core of this information, if you remove Jesus appearing to Paul and I pass on you what I received,

00:21:53.639 --> 00:21:59.599
 the rest of it goes back to within six months to a year is when scholars date that this was likely composed by the early church.

00:21:59.939 --> 00:22:01.919
 So this is really, really early tradition.

00:22:02.359 --> 00:22:05.500
 So Paul is saying that Paul is an eyewitness of the risen Jesus.

00:22:05.959 --> 00:22:10.599
 And this tradition we're reading here is composed by eyewitnesses who knew Jesus and saw him alive.

00:22:10.599 --> 00:22:18.000
 I have a chart here presented that shows all the named people that Jesus appeared to after the resurrection,

00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:22.779
 where it took place, the time of day, and which sources it took place in.

00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:27.259
 Some of them, we have multiple independent sources tell us that this happened.

00:22:27.659 --> 00:22:28.459
 A number of them are independent.

00:22:28.639 --> 00:22:34.299
 But when we're dealing with the resurrection of Jesus, we're not dealing with like one story and only one text.

00:22:34.639 --> 00:22:36.959
 It's not like all we had was the gospel of John.

00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:38.860
 And it said Jesus was raised from the dead.

00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:42.120
 And when we look at Mark and Matthew and Luke, there's no resurrection account.

00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:43.740
 And Paul never talks about it.

00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:47.660
 If that happened, we would be very skeptical that the resurrection actually happened.

00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:50.779
 The resurrection is repeated throughout the entire New Testament.

00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:52.940
 It's repeated all throughout the gospel.

00:22:53.059 --> 00:22:57.240
 It's repeated in all four gospels, in Paul's writings, and in Acts numerous times.

00:22:57.500 --> 00:23:02.779
 All the preaching sermons that Peter and Paul do in Acts, it's this Jesus whom you crucified,

00:23:03.460 --> 00:23:06.160
 God raised him from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.

00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:09.360
 And these guys were willing to go to their deaths proclaiming Jesus was raised from the dead.

00:23:09.720 --> 00:23:12.340
 The resurrection is the thing that kick-started the Jesus movement.

00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:17.900
 And all these guys and women believed that Jesus rose from the dead, genuinely believed it.

00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:23.540
 So much so that they were willing to experience bodily harm and even death proclaiming that it took place.

00:23:23.940 --> 00:23:27.120
 Acts chapter 4 tells us that Peter and John were arrested and imprisoned.

00:23:27.600 --> 00:23:30.540
 Acts 5 tells us the apostles were arrested, imprisoned, and flogged.

00:23:30.920 --> 00:23:32.160
 These guys wouldn't shut up.

00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:35.120
 They kept saying, this Jesus Nazareth is raised from the dead.

00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:36.899
 They said, stop bowing the knee before Caesar.

00:23:37.059 --> 00:23:39.459
 Bow before the real Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth.

00:23:40.019 --> 00:23:40.859
 And they wouldn't stop.

00:23:41.099 --> 00:23:45.239
 So they kept firing them in jail, kept flogging them, kept beating them, stoning them.

00:23:45.539 --> 00:23:49.579
 And they were like, okay, tell us you're going to stop preaching about Jesus and we'll let you out of prison.

00:23:49.899 --> 00:23:50.699
 We're not going to stop.

00:23:50.779 --> 00:23:51.719
 Okay, we're going to let you out of prison.

00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:54.759
 But if we hear you do that, we're going to beat you again and throw you in prison again.

00:23:55.399 --> 00:23:55.759
 Okay.

00:23:56.059 --> 00:23:57.319
 They get right back in the street.

00:23:57.459 --> 00:23:59.739
 They do it again and get thrown right back into prison.

00:23:59.859 --> 00:24:00.699
 They wouldn't stop.

00:24:00.700 --> 00:24:05.460
 Acts 12, James, the brother of John, is killed and Peter is thrown in prison.

00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:10.080
 We have early church fathers that tell us about the deaths of Paul and Peter.

00:24:10.700 --> 00:24:16.180
 Tertullian wrote in 200 AD, tells us that Paul was beheaded and Peter was made fast to the cross.

00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:18.400
 Peter died by crucifixion, just like Jesus.

00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:27.860
 But we're told that from the church father origin that Peter was crucified upside down because he didn't feel that he was worthy to die in the same way as his Lord.

00:24:28.100 --> 00:24:30.120
 So we say, can you crucify me upside down?

00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:32.720
 Kind of an interesting request.

00:24:33.060 --> 00:24:34.680
 And they said, sure, why not?

00:24:35.140 --> 00:24:36.340
 You're going to get crucified anyways.

00:24:36.420 --> 00:24:38.840
 We'll give you one last nice thing, I guess.

00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:44.060
 We also know about the martyrdoms of Jesus' own brother, James, from numerous sources.

00:24:44.380 --> 00:24:46.540
 Not just Christian sources, but even non-Christian sources.

00:24:46.539 --> 00:24:49.879
 The first century historian Josephus tells us that James was put to death.

00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:57.339
 Also, the Christian sources, Hegesippus and Clement of Alexandria, both second century sources, tell us about the martyrdom of Jesus' brother, James.

00:24:57.720 --> 00:25:01.680
 They wouldn't stop saying Jesus was raised from the dead and they went to their deaths.

00:25:02.639 --> 00:25:10.440
 Early church tradition tells us that at least some of Jesus' disciples chose to die rather than recant that they saw him alive, resurrected.

00:25:10.440 --> 00:25:17.059
 Charles Coulson, Chuck Coulson, who was one of Richard Nixon's right-hand men.

00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:20.920
 He got in trouble and went to prison during the Watergate scandal.

00:25:21.640 --> 00:25:22.680
 Here's what he said.

00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:26.600
 He became a Christian while he was in prison.

00:25:27.360 --> 00:25:30.500
 And he says it was reading the resurrection narratives that did it.

00:25:30.539 --> 00:25:31.380
 And here's what he said.

00:25:31.380 --> 00:26:01.360
 He said,

00:26:01.380 --> 00:26:31.360
 He said,

00:26:31.359 --> 00:26:34.339
 Not just scripture, but even inside and outside.

00:26:34.539 --> 00:26:39.740
 With the martyrdom of Jesus' brother, James, and the apostle, Peter, this was multiply attested in the ancient literature.

00:26:40.359 --> 00:26:42.019
 We have eyewitness testimony.

00:26:42.219 --> 00:26:48.359
 We actually have a document for sure in the New Testament written by an eyewitness who saw Jesus alive.

00:26:49.039 --> 00:26:49.379
 Paul.

00:26:50.679 --> 00:26:53.619
 And the Gospels may have been composed by eyewitnesses.

00:26:53.779 --> 00:26:55.679
 We don't know for sure who wrote the Gospels.

00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:59.019
 But we're pretty sure that they contain eyewitness testimony.

00:27:00.060 --> 00:27:01.120
 So let's keep looking.

00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:02.160
 Gerard Ludmann.

00:27:02.299 --> 00:27:02.900
 He's an atheist.

00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:03.820
 He's one of the leading.

00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:04.320
 He's one of the.

00:27:04.380 --> 00:27:07.200
 I read his book when I was going through my doubts with the resurrection.

00:27:07.660 --> 00:27:09.720
 And this really jumped off the page at me.

00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:10.700
 He said,

00:27:10.700 --> 00:27:18.480
 It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus' death in which he appeared to them as the risen Christ.

00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:29.480
 Now, the reason why he, how he can hold to this and still be an atheist is he believes they all had a mass hallucination numerous different times in different places.

00:27:31.120 --> 00:27:33.039
 He has a lot more faith than I do.

00:27:35.299 --> 00:27:37.240
 So let's take a look at fact number three.

00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:40.940
 Christian killer Paul becomes killer evangelist for Christ.

00:27:40.940 --> 00:27:47.900
 Once again, I'm not really a wordsmith.

00:27:48.100 --> 00:27:50.100
 So I do the best I can.

00:27:50.900 --> 00:27:53.600
 So Paul was known as Saul of Tarsus before his conversion.

00:27:53.740 --> 00:27:55.400
 That's probably his Jewish name, Shaul.

00:27:56.100 --> 00:27:58.880
 Back when he was in Jewish circles, he was probably still called Shaul.

00:27:58.940 --> 00:28:01.799
 And he hung out with Gentiles in a Greek setting.

00:28:01.900 --> 00:28:03.960
 They probably called him Paulos, which is Paul.

00:28:04.120 --> 00:28:05.620
 Sounds like Paul, Shaul.

00:28:05.740 --> 00:28:06.259
 Sounds pretty close.

00:28:06.580 --> 00:28:08.200
 He's a former persecutor of the Christian church.

00:28:08.200 --> 00:28:10.960
 He tells us this, and other texts tell us this.

00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:15.080
 And then we're told that Jesus appeared to Paul, and Paul became a believer in Jesus.

00:28:15.259 --> 00:28:17.180
 And the reason why is because Jesus appeared to Paul.

00:28:17.539 --> 00:28:22.460
 And Paul, Jesus was the last person on earth that Paul wanted to have appear to him alive.

00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:25.779
 Because Paul persecuted the Jesus movement, was trying to stamp it out.

00:28:26.120 --> 00:28:31.819
 And the Jewish world, religious leaders at the time, gave Paul the authority to go and do this.

00:28:32.039 --> 00:28:36.259
 To go and try to stop with the Jesus movement, which was causing havoc and leading people.

00:28:36.259 --> 00:28:37.920
 He was messing up synagogues.

00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:41.319
 And all these people were believing that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

00:28:42.039 --> 00:28:44.359
 And Paul wrote one-third of the New Testament.

00:28:44.500 --> 00:28:47.420
 So when you open up your New Testament, one-third of it was written by Paul.

00:28:47.960 --> 00:28:48.819
 The question is this.

00:28:48.900 --> 00:28:50.339
 This is a really fast one.

00:28:50.700 --> 00:28:54.440
 What would it have taken for Osama bin Laden to have changed his mind, become a Christian,

00:28:54.539 --> 00:28:56.359
 and then run a school for children, teaching girls?

00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:02.400
 Let's apply the historical criteria to this one.

00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:06.220
 I don't want to spend too much time on Paul, but multiple attestation.

00:29:06.340 --> 00:29:09.360
 Paul's conversion is described in Acts, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians.

00:29:09.840 --> 00:29:12.220
 He was also a hostile source.

00:29:12.380 --> 00:29:14.519
 He didn't like the Jesus movement, and he became one.

00:29:15.060 --> 00:29:16.420
 And he's also an eyewitness.

00:29:16.620 --> 00:29:21.220
 Paul claimed to have seen the risen Jesus himself, and Paul also consulted with other eyewitnesses.

00:29:21.280 --> 00:29:25.640
 So Paul is both a firsthand and a secondhand eyewitness in his documents.

00:29:25.640 --> 00:29:30.560
 Now, Acts, not written by Paul, written by Dr. Luke, confirms that Jesus appeared to Paul,

00:29:30.680 --> 00:29:32.720
 and Paul also knew the disciples.

00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:34.640
 So that helps confirm what Paul said.

00:29:35.080 --> 00:29:38.400
 Other Christian authors from the early first century said the same thing as Paul.

00:29:38.980 --> 00:29:42.340
 It was basically like giving the right hand of fellowship to Paul or the fist bump,

00:29:42.420 --> 00:29:43.280
 saying, good job, Paul.

00:29:43.380 --> 00:29:44.160
 Keep up the good work.

00:29:44.220 --> 00:29:45.360
 You're doing a great job.

00:29:46.340 --> 00:29:48.180
 So let's move on to the next fact.

00:29:48.220 --> 00:29:50.480
 And this one always surprises people because they're always like, what?

00:29:51.140 --> 00:29:55.240
 Well, yeah, Jesus' skeptical brother James became the head of the Jerusalem church.

00:29:55.240 --> 00:29:56.960
 What do you mean, his skeptical brother James?

00:29:57.259 --> 00:30:01.500
 Well, when you take a look at the New Testament, the New Testament evidence was that James was a skeptic,

00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:05.759
 and so were all of Jesus' siblings prior to Jesus' death and resurrection.

00:30:06.519 --> 00:30:07.859
 Now, this is weird.

00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:13.359
 You mean Jesus' brothers and sisters did not believe he was the Messiah during his ministry?

00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:15.640
 No, they thought he was nuts.

00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:18.299
 This is something that they would not create.

00:30:18.539 --> 00:30:20.400
 The church would not have made this up.

00:30:20.700 --> 00:30:22.599
 This is the criterion of embarrassment to play.

00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:26.019
 First off, Jesus' brothers did not believe in him during his ministry.

00:30:26.139 --> 00:30:29.859
 Take a look at Mark chapter 3, also chapter 6, and John chapter 7.

00:30:29.939 --> 00:30:33.259
 Most scholars believe Mark and John's gospels were written independent of one another.

00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:37.879
 So we have two independent sources that confirm that Jesus' siblings thought he was crazy.

00:30:38.859 --> 00:30:44.099
 Jesus' brothers taunted him, and his brothers were apparently absent at his crucifixion

00:30:44.099 --> 00:30:47.579
 because Jesus entrusted the care of his mother to one of his disciples,

00:30:47.919 --> 00:30:53.099
 not to one of his family members, suggesting that his brothers were non-believers at the time and nowhere to be found.

00:30:53.619 --> 00:30:58.099
 So right up to the crucifixion, Jesus' family members, his brothers and sisters, are nowhere to be seen.

00:30:58.879 --> 00:30:59.919
 And then what happens?

00:31:01.259 --> 00:31:04.659
 Right after the death and resurrection of Jesus, there's a massive change.

00:31:04.660 --> 00:31:10.600
 We're told in Acts 1.14, really shortly after the resurrection accounts of Jesus,

00:31:11.060 --> 00:31:16.960
 that Jesus' brothers were in the upper room with the disciples and Jesus' mother after the resurrection.

00:31:17.580 --> 00:31:22.820
 We're also told all throughout the early church fathers, Josephus and the New Testament,

00:31:23.180 --> 00:31:25.180
 that who was the head of the Jerusalem church?

00:31:25.420 --> 00:31:27.120
 Who was basically the pope in Jerusalem?

00:31:27.940 --> 00:31:28.920
 It wasn't Peter.

00:31:29.380 --> 00:31:30.019
 It wasn't the top.

00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:32.040
 It was James, Jesus' brother.

00:31:32.039 --> 00:31:36.460
 How do you go from being a skeptic to becoming the head of the Jerusalem church?

00:31:37.099 --> 00:31:40.779
 And also, Paul reported his activities to James, not to Peter.

00:31:42.159 --> 00:31:44.940
 It would appear that at least some of Jesus' other brothers became believers.

00:31:45.279 --> 00:31:51.480
 If we read 1 Corinthians 9, verse 5, it talks about the brothers of Jesus, of the Lord, who were doing ministry.

00:31:51.980 --> 00:31:53.779
 And we also have two letters written.

00:31:54.099 --> 00:31:55.720
 We have James, who wrote a letter in the New Testament,

00:31:56.019 --> 00:31:58.599
 but Jesus' other brother Jude wrote a letter in our New Testament.

00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:00.339
 So you can read them when you go home today.

00:32:00.420 --> 00:32:01.279
 Really interesting letters.

00:32:01.279 --> 00:32:06.500
 James' transformation from a skeptic to a believer is plausibly explained by his belief

00:32:06.500 --> 00:32:12.519
 that Jesus had been raised from the dead and he had a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to him.

00:32:12.539 --> 00:32:14.259
 In other words, Jesus appeared to him alive.

00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:19.579
 Paul only names two people that Jesus appeared to in 1 Corinthians 15 by name.

00:32:19.660 --> 00:32:20.259
 Only two.

00:32:20.700 --> 00:32:23.980
 And those two are the exact people that he met in Galatians in chapter 1,

00:32:24.299 --> 00:32:27.660
 about three years after his conversion, five years after the resurrection of Jesus.

00:32:28.059 --> 00:32:28.980
 Do you know who those people are?

00:32:28.980 --> 00:32:32.200
 Number one is Peter and number two is...

00:32:32.200 --> 00:32:36.420
 That's not a fluke.

00:32:36.759 --> 00:32:41.259
 That's probably the moment that transformed James' entire life and changed the course of history.

00:32:41.259 --> 00:32:47.420
 Dr. Mike Lacona, who spoke this past weekend at the Dig and Delft conference,

00:32:47.819 --> 00:32:50.599
 I consider him to be the leading expert on the resurrection on the planet.

00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:52.539
 I mean that.

00:32:52.980 --> 00:32:58.400
 He said in his major monograph, 718 pages by Intervary to Press, he said,

00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:03.660
 The best explanation for this change of heart is that James came to believe that his brother had risen from the dead.

00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:07.740
 Lacona looked at all the arguments for and against why James became a believer.

00:33:08.320 --> 00:33:12.820
 And the only evidence that makes sense is that Jesus appeared to James alive.

00:33:12.920 --> 00:33:14.200
 That changed his entire life.

00:33:15.660 --> 00:33:17.680
 So we apply the historical criteria to this.

00:33:17.740 --> 00:33:18.360
 We have embarrassment.

00:33:18.540 --> 00:33:20.880
 James didn't believe in Jesus before Jesus' death and resurrection.

00:33:21.060 --> 00:33:24.240
 Why would the church invent this as a fictional tale?

00:33:24.540 --> 00:33:26.900
 Why would you invent that Jesus' own brother said he was nuts?

00:33:26.900 --> 00:33:27.780
 You wouldn't.

00:33:28.460 --> 00:33:30.980
 Multiple attestation is confirmed in multiple sources.

00:33:31.460 --> 00:33:35.320
 And we can apply it again because we're told that James became the leader of the Jerusalem church.

00:33:35.640 --> 00:33:38.800
 When you put it all together, you can do what you want in your own mind.

00:33:38.900 --> 00:33:44.860
 But I think the evidence in favor of James became a believer because something massive happened in his life to change his mind.

00:33:45.180 --> 00:33:47.700
 I mean, really, what would it take for you to believe?

00:33:47.800 --> 00:33:49.060
 Now, I ask this question for myself.

00:33:49.180 --> 00:33:50.460
 I have three brothers and a sister.

00:33:50.900 --> 00:33:54.360
 What would it take for you to believe that one of your siblings was the Lord of the universe?

00:33:56.900 --> 00:34:03.360
 More for them to think that about you.

00:34:06.040 --> 00:34:07.680
 Fact number five, the empty tomb.

00:34:08.039 --> 00:34:09.500
 That is a first century tomb.

00:34:10.260 --> 00:34:13.680
 And, yeah, that's a younger me with more hair.

00:34:15.860 --> 00:34:17.480
 Fact number five, the empty tomb.

00:34:17.860 --> 00:34:22.079
 Now, unlike the first four facts, the fifth is not held by over 95% of scholars.

00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:24.380
 This one's held by only 75% of scholars.

00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:25.319
 Why?

00:34:25.659 --> 00:34:34.299
 Well, historians don't believe that Paul, our earliest source, even though all the Gospels tell us that Jesus was, that the tomb was empty,

00:34:35.480 --> 00:34:38.960
 that Paul, because Paul doesn't specifically say it, they don't think that the tomb was empty.

00:34:39.079 --> 00:34:41.860
 This is one of the dumbest objections I've ever heard in my life.

00:34:41.860 --> 00:34:47.700
 But just read 1 Corinthians 15, 3-4, written by Paul, and just think it in your mind.

00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:48.019
 Okay.

00:34:48.860 --> 00:34:51.660
 That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

00:34:51.860 --> 00:34:53.400
 So, yeah, Jesus is on the cross.

00:34:53.480 --> 00:34:53.980
 He's died.

00:34:54.820 --> 00:34:56.140
 And that he was buried.

00:34:56.360 --> 00:34:56.599
 Okay.

00:34:56.680 --> 00:34:58.280
 So he's taken down from the cross.

00:34:58.579 --> 00:35:00.340
 His body is placed into the grave.

00:35:00.920 --> 00:35:02.860
 And that he was raised on the third day.

00:35:02.940 --> 00:35:03.200
 Okay.

00:35:03.260 --> 00:35:04.300
 He's raised from the dead.

00:35:04.300 --> 00:35:07.260
 The empty tomb is implied.

00:35:07.460 --> 00:35:15.340
 What these scholars wish Paul would have said is Christ died, was buried, and then somehow he exited out of the tomb, and then he was raised.

00:35:15.460 --> 00:35:16.539
 No, he was raised.

00:35:16.640 --> 00:35:18.039
 That implies that the tomb is empty.

00:35:18.380 --> 00:35:24.960
 As a Pharisaic Jew, which Paul was, there was no concept of resurrection that didn't include using the body.

00:35:25.560 --> 00:35:27.200
 The resurrection means using the body.

00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:28.380
 These aren't ghost stories.

00:35:28.380 --> 00:35:31.060
 The early Christians knew what ghost stories were.

00:35:31.059 --> 00:35:35.059
 When Peter gets out of prison, he goes to the door, and Rhoda answers the door.

00:35:35.699 --> 00:35:36.579
 And what do they say?

00:35:36.659 --> 00:35:37.679
 Oh, it can't be Peter.

00:35:37.739 --> 00:35:38.259
 He's probably dead.

00:35:38.279 --> 00:35:39.179
 It must be his ghost.

00:35:39.539 --> 00:35:41.960
 They knew the difference between a ghost and a body.

00:35:42.119 --> 00:35:42.759
 There's a difference.

00:35:43.360 --> 00:35:49.320
 And Pharisees believed that the resurrection meant the entire, the corpse of the person would be transformed, would be raised from the dead.

00:35:49.519 --> 00:35:51.460
 That's what resurrection means.

00:35:51.739 --> 00:35:53.599
 Otherwise, we have ghost stories.

00:35:54.039 --> 00:35:57.039
 Being raised from the dead means being raised from the dead.

00:35:57.400 --> 00:35:59.099
 Paul believes the tomb is empty.

00:35:59.099 --> 00:36:02.779
 Now, why else should we believe that the tomb was actually empty?

00:36:03.360 --> 00:36:05.559
 Well, because the testimony of women.

00:36:06.380 --> 00:36:09.539
 The four Gospels tell us that it was women that went to the tomb and found it empty.

00:36:09.860 --> 00:36:11.199
 All four of them tell us this.

00:36:11.699 --> 00:36:17.579
 And the New Testament authors would most likely not have fabricated the story of women as the first witnesses of the empty tomb.

00:36:17.799 --> 00:36:18.079
 Why?

00:36:18.679 --> 00:36:24.279
 Because in the ancient world, women were not considered to be reliable sources as giving testimony.

00:36:25.179 --> 00:36:26.960
 In fact, yeah, I'll show you.

00:36:26.960 --> 00:36:30.980
 Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, says this.

00:36:30.980 --> 00:36:35.440
 But let not the testimony of women be admitted on account of the levity and boldness of their sex.

00:36:35.539 --> 00:36:39.019
 Nor let servants be admitted to give testimony on account of the ignobility of their soul,

00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:43.400
 since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain or fear of punishment.

00:36:44.400 --> 00:36:47.139
 The Talmud, the Jewish Talmud says this in Rosh Hashanah 1.8.

00:36:47.199 --> 00:36:49.240
 Any evidence which a woman gives is not valid to offer.

00:36:49.960 --> 00:36:54.139
 This is equivalent to saying the one who is rabbinically accounted robbers qualified to give the same evidence as a woman.

00:36:54.940 --> 00:36:58.300
 This guy's comparing the evidence of a woman to a robber.

00:36:58.300 --> 00:36:59.260
 This is so weird.

00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:01.140
 The Talmud said this.

00:37:02.600 --> 00:37:05.900
 Sooner let the words of the law be burnt than delivered to women.

00:37:07.760 --> 00:37:11.019
 I think these guys died celibate and old and lonely.

00:37:17.320 --> 00:37:18.700
 Pagan attitude towards women.

00:37:18.800 --> 00:37:20.760
 So let's not just beat up on the Jewish guys.

00:37:20.760 --> 00:37:25.080
 This is the view of the ancient Roman Near East, the whole area.

00:37:25.520 --> 00:37:26.520
 Democritus says this.

00:37:26.580 --> 00:37:27.580
 I love this one.

00:37:27.620 --> 00:37:28.300
 This is great.

00:37:29.240 --> 00:37:31.160
 A woman must not practice argument.

00:37:31.320 --> 00:37:32.260
 This is dreadful.

00:37:32.800 --> 00:37:36.320
 To be ruled by a woman is the ultimate outrage for a man.

00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:39.820
 Now, I can tell you from personal experience that this is true.

00:37:39.820 --> 00:37:40.120
 No.

00:37:44.280 --> 00:37:46.140
 Your wife can hear this on the web.

00:37:46.360 --> 00:37:46.860
 It's true.

00:37:48.860 --> 00:37:49.300
 Sophocles.

00:37:49.500 --> 00:37:50.420
 Oh, man, this is good.

00:37:52.480 --> 00:37:54.200
 He's trying to make it sound so nice.

00:37:55.539 --> 00:37:56.340
 Oh, woman.

00:37:57.200 --> 00:37:58.900
 Woman's best jewel is silence.

00:38:00.120 --> 00:38:04.480
 For as leaves decorate trees, wool is the beauty of the sheep.

00:38:05.100 --> 00:38:06.760
 The mane, the glory of horses.

00:38:06.760 --> 00:38:09.060
 And the beard, the pride of man.

00:38:09.600 --> 00:38:12.360
 So silence is the jewel of the women.

00:38:18.420 --> 00:38:22.740
 Did you know that in the second century, the leading critics against Christianity,

00:38:23.400 --> 00:38:26.860
 that one of the main reasons why they said we should not trust the resurrection accounts

00:38:26.860 --> 00:38:29.280
 is because it was women that discovered the tomb empty?

00:38:30.920 --> 00:38:33.080
 Celsus, in the year 180 A.D., said this.

00:38:33.080 --> 00:38:35.740
 After death, he rose again, showed the marks of his punishment.

00:38:35.739 --> 00:38:36.799
 I know his hands had been pierced.

00:38:36.979 --> 00:38:37.879
 But who saw this?

00:38:38.319 --> 00:38:40.159
 A hysterical female, as you say.

00:38:40.659 --> 00:38:43.559
 And perhaps some other one of those were deluded by the same sorcery.

00:38:44.279 --> 00:38:45.659
 That's why we shouldn't trust it.

00:38:45.939 --> 00:38:48.899
 Because you're telling us it was women passed the message on to you?

00:38:49.579 --> 00:38:49.939
 Please.

00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:56.099
 When we apply the historical criteria, embarrassment is all over this one.

00:38:56.439 --> 00:38:59.199
 Women were not considered to be reliable witnesses in antiquity,

00:38:59.259 --> 00:39:01.039
 and this would have been embarrassing for the early church.

00:39:01.159 --> 00:39:01.719
 But you know what?

00:39:01.719 --> 00:39:03.980
 Why did they include this in all four Gospels?

00:39:04.379 --> 00:39:07.259
 This is a crucial part of the story, and they didn't make it up.

00:39:07.579 --> 00:39:10.339
 The early Christians had integrity, and they told the story the right way.

00:39:10.619 --> 00:39:12.839
 It was the women that went to the tomb and discovered it empty.

00:39:13.399 --> 00:39:16.659
 If they airbrushed that out, the whole resurrection narrative would sound extremely weird

00:39:16.659 --> 00:39:18.500
 if nobody went to the tomb to make sure that it was empty.

00:39:19.619 --> 00:39:22.299
 All four Gospels include that because it's exactly what happened.

00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:26.819
 And we also have multiple attestations because this was recorded in all four Gospels

00:39:26.819 --> 00:39:28.019
 that women were the first witnesses.

00:39:28.019 --> 00:39:32.920
 Now, the interesting thing is that Paul, in his early creed, where he lists Jesus died,

00:39:33.019 --> 00:39:37.259
 buried, was raised, then he appeared to so, so, so, so, so, he airbrushes out women.

00:39:37.759 --> 00:39:38.000
 Why?

00:39:38.360 --> 00:39:43.500
 Some scholars think it was so that it would seem more credible to outsiders

00:39:43.500 --> 00:39:45.559
 that were skeptical about the evented question.

00:39:46.099 --> 00:39:46.599
 I don't know.

00:39:46.980 --> 00:39:47.619
 It's a good question.

00:39:49.059 --> 00:39:52.539
 D.H. van Dahlen, the famous Dutch New Testament scholar, said this,

00:39:52.539 --> 00:39:56.840
 It is extremely difficult to object to the empty tomb on historical grounds.

00:39:57.400 --> 00:40:02.079
 Those who deny it do so on the basis of theological or philosophical assumptions.

00:40:02.840 --> 00:40:04.420
 So, the case for the resurrection.

00:40:04.779 --> 00:40:07.679
 Now, I'm going to quickly look at maybe just three of the objections

00:40:07.679 --> 00:40:09.539
 because I think I can hear the Sunday School kids.

00:40:09.699 --> 00:40:10.460
 Am I going too long?

00:40:10.860 --> 00:40:11.059
 Maybe?

00:40:13.219 --> 00:40:14.440
 What time did I start at?

00:40:14.440 --> 00:40:18.960
 If you guys are bored, just flail your arms and I'll know it's over.

00:40:19.679 --> 00:40:21.320
 So, the case for the resurrection.

00:40:22.079 --> 00:40:25.000
 Fact number one, the crucifixion of Jesus is historically solid.

00:40:25.480 --> 00:40:28.780
 Fact number two, the disciples claimed that he appeared to them individually in groups.

00:40:29.260 --> 00:40:31.280
 Fact number three, Paul went from persecuting the church,

00:40:31.380 --> 00:40:33.740
 becoming one of the most famous Christians of all time,

00:40:34.059 --> 00:40:37.760
 authoring a third of the New Testament because of his belief that Jesus appeared to him alive.

00:40:38.200 --> 00:40:41.960
 And fact number four, Jesus' brother James became the head of the Jerusalem church.

00:40:41.960 --> 00:40:45.960
 Why? Because 1 Corinthians 15, 7 tells us that Jesus appeared to James,

00:40:46.260 --> 00:40:48.099
 totally freaked him out and changed his life.

00:40:48.519 --> 00:40:50.980
 And number five, the tomb was discovered empty by women.

00:40:51.220 --> 00:40:55.019
 When you put these five facts together, if these are facts, as I've shown,

00:40:55.380 --> 00:40:56.579
 you've got to do something with them.

00:40:57.500 --> 00:41:00.260
 And now, I've asked some of the leading agnostic scholars on the planet,

00:41:00.400 --> 00:41:03.559
 one of them teaches here in Ottawa, actually, and teaches New Testament,

00:41:03.740 --> 00:41:06.500
 and he told, I said, do you believe all these five facts?

00:41:06.559 --> 00:41:08.159
 Because I went through and he said, yes.

00:41:08.519 --> 00:41:10.000
 I said, what do you do with those?

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:11.340
 He said, I don't know.

00:41:11.340 --> 00:41:13.420
 I said, do you believe Jesus was raised from the dead?

00:41:13.480 --> 00:41:14.079
 He said, no.

00:41:14.600 --> 00:41:15.860
 I said, then how do you explain it?

00:41:15.880 --> 00:41:17.039
 He says, I don't know.

00:41:20.100 --> 00:41:20.420
 Okay.

00:41:21.400 --> 00:41:25.980
 So, I do know Jesus was raised from the dead.

00:41:26.600 --> 00:41:29.460
 That's what I really believe, and that's what I think I hopefully have shown this morning.

00:41:29.559 --> 00:41:32.059
 Now, what are the five leading objections to the resurrection?

00:41:32.300 --> 00:41:33.720
 I'm going to try to go through this pretty quick.

00:41:34.240 --> 00:41:36.180
 Fact number one is the conspiracy hypothesis.

00:41:36.539 --> 00:41:39.039
 Once again, not every person believes Jesus was raised from the dead.

00:41:39.039 --> 00:41:42.820
 Some of them don't think it happened, but the conspiracy hypothesis is this.

00:41:43.259 --> 00:41:47.739
 Jesus' disciples stole the body, lied about his appearances, thus faking the resurrection.

00:41:48.159 --> 00:41:49.679
 The problems with this are numerous.

00:41:50.059 --> 00:41:52.659
 Many of the disciples went to their deaths proclaiming the resurrection,

00:41:52.960 --> 00:41:56.840
 and if they fake the story, why did they invent women as the first to discover the empty tomb?

00:41:56.840 --> 00:42:01.360
 I can just picture this happening, like all the guys are gathered together.

00:42:01.660 --> 00:42:03.120
 Okay, boys, here's the plan.

00:42:03.539 --> 00:42:06.200
 We get the body out of the tomb, and then we stash us somewhere.

00:42:06.579 --> 00:42:09.700
 Then we come back, and we're going to tell a story that's probably going to get us all killed.

00:42:09.780 --> 00:42:10.640
 So, who's with me?

00:42:16.480 --> 00:42:17.380
 Objection number two.

00:42:17.380 --> 00:42:47.360
 Objection number two.

00:42:47.380 --> 00:42:48.539
 He had nails through the ankles.

00:42:48.860 --> 00:42:49.400
 No problem.

00:42:49.640 --> 00:42:50.000
 Upright.

00:42:50.099 --> 00:42:50.680
 Looking great.

00:42:51.180 --> 00:42:54.340
 And he was able to walk down the street and convince his disciples that he'd been raised from the dead.

00:42:55.260 --> 00:42:55.579
 Problem.

00:42:55.660 --> 00:43:01.000
 If you saw a man who had been crucified, there is no way you would have mistaken him as gloriously raised from the dead

00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:02.680
 and start worshiping that guy as a deity.

00:43:05.039 --> 00:43:08.099
 I mean, if a crucified man shows up at your door, how would you respond?

00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:09.420
 Unlikely.

00:43:09.700 --> 00:43:10.559
 Look at this guy.

00:43:10.800 --> 00:43:11.440
 He's a mess.

00:43:11.740 --> 00:43:13.039
 Covered with blood and nails.

00:43:13.320 --> 00:43:15.000
 It's obvious he's been raised from the dead.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:18.780
 You know, more likely, hey, get this poor man a doctor.

00:43:18.920 --> 00:43:19.679
 He's going to die.

00:43:19.780 --> 00:43:20.900
 He needs some serious help.

00:43:23.059 --> 00:43:23.920
 Objection number three.

00:43:24.019 --> 00:43:25.199
 Displaced body hypothesis.

00:43:25.420 --> 00:43:29.300
 So, this theory is that Joseph Arimathea, the guy who buried Jesus in his own tomb,

00:43:29.699 --> 00:43:33.400
 buried Jesus only temporarily, and then he moved the body to another one after the fact.

00:43:33.400 --> 00:43:38.099
 The woman went to the empty tomb on Easter Sunday and thought, you just naturally, if there's a tomb empty,

00:43:38.420 --> 00:43:39.820
 that means only one thing.

00:43:40.420 --> 00:43:42.119
 The person's been raised from the dead.

00:43:42.240 --> 00:43:43.639
 That happens all the time, doesn't it?

00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:47.920
 You know, the problems with this are just legion.

00:43:48.320 --> 00:43:52.119
 First off, this theory does not take into account the post-mortem of Jesus to his disciples,

00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:54.360
 to skeptics like James and to Paul.

00:43:55.039 --> 00:43:57.680
 And also, Jesus' disciples didn't know he was going to rise from the dead,

00:43:57.700 --> 00:43:58.660
 even though he kept telling them.

00:43:59.120 --> 00:44:01.480
 Because Jews, which all Jesus' disciples were,

00:44:01.599 --> 00:44:05.180
 only believed in the resurrection of all people at the end of time.

00:44:05.480 --> 00:44:06.340
 The general resurrection.

00:44:06.500 --> 00:44:08.099
 Which, by the way, is the Christian belief, too.

00:44:08.440 --> 00:44:11.019
 If you think that heaven is your final destination, it's not.

00:44:11.260 --> 00:44:12.120
 It's the resurrection.

00:44:12.559 --> 00:44:16.039
 Heaven is only a holding tank with Jesus until the resurrection happens.

00:44:16.700 --> 00:44:17.099
 Right?

00:44:17.640 --> 00:44:19.460
 God didn't create these bodies for no reason.

00:44:19.460 --> 00:44:24.500
 This isn't some sort of like, I'm going to give these guys bodies for a few years,

00:44:24.639 --> 00:44:28.119
 and they'll be a floating ethereal in space playing harps, singing with wings.

00:44:28.619 --> 00:44:31.579
 This is plan A, and it's going to remain that way.

00:44:31.679 --> 00:44:35.079
 And when we get raised from the dead, our bodies are going to be transformed like Jesus'

00:44:35.380 --> 00:44:36.800
 which was still a body.

00:44:37.500 --> 00:44:37.659
 Okay?

00:44:37.960 --> 00:44:38.599
 Just wanted you to know that.

00:44:38.920 --> 00:44:41.519
 And the empty tomb alone would have proved absolutely nothing.

00:44:41.659 --> 00:44:44.039
 So if the tomb's empty, all you have is an empty tomb.

00:44:44.199 --> 00:44:44.880
 So what?

00:44:45.579 --> 00:44:49.139
 You know, you need to have both an empty tomb and post-mortem appearances

00:44:49.139 --> 00:44:50.440
 for the resurrection to make sense.

00:44:50.539 --> 00:44:53.799
 Otherwise, you have ghost stories or you just have an empty tomb, which means nothing.

00:44:54.859 --> 00:44:58.400
 And the Jewish and Roman authorities could have easily squashed the Jesus movement

00:44:58.400 --> 00:45:01.739
 by going to Joseph of Arimathea, going to the real tomb,

00:45:01.940 --> 00:45:04.960
 getting the actual body of Jesus, and parading it up and down the street in Jerusalem,

00:45:05.059 --> 00:45:06.579
 and that would have ended the Jesus movement immediately.

00:45:06.719 --> 00:45:07.759
 That never happened.

00:45:08.859 --> 00:45:10.679
 I can just picture the woman at the empty tomb.

00:45:11.000 --> 00:45:14.639
 Well, we know this is the same tomb as on Friday night, but the body's not here.

00:45:15.079 --> 00:45:17.019
 Let's not bother to check if the body was moved.

00:45:17.199 --> 00:45:18.379
 Let's just assume resurrection.

00:45:19.139 --> 00:45:20.400
 It wouldn't happen.

00:45:21.779 --> 00:45:22.619
 Objection number four.

00:45:22.799 --> 00:45:24.000
 This is really weird.

00:45:24.559 --> 00:45:26.400
 Some of you can shut off your brain at this point.

00:45:26.440 --> 00:45:30.099
 I don't blame you at all because this is held by nobody that's a serious scholar.

00:45:30.259 --> 00:45:32.879
 But this is sort of the Internet skeptic when you Google it online.

00:45:33.339 --> 00:45:38.679
 It's like the person that thinks that all we know about Jesus is stolen from all these other pagan religions

00:45:38.679 --> 00:45:41.239
 and all over the world through history and piled together.

00:45:41.339 --> 00:45:43.759
 We have this composite figure named Jesus of Nazareth.

00:45:44.279 --> 00:45:45.900
 So here's the theory.

00:45:45.900 --> 00:45:52.280
 The stories of Jesus' death and resurrection are fabricated to model the supposed tales of dying and rising gods of the pagan world.

00:45:52.420 --> 00:45:54.039
 Well, the problems with this is a lot.

00:45:54.539 --> 00:45:57.380
 The ancient Near Eastern figures were said to have died and come back to life.

00:45:57.460 --> 00:46:02.139
 They're mostly fertility gods who would die every single year and they would return in springtime.

00:46:02.139 --> 00:46:04.059
 So why do the leaves fall off the trees?

00:46:04.219 --> 00:46:05.460
 Well, the gods must be dying.

00:46:05.539 --> 00:46:06.940
 Why are the leaves coming back on the trees?

00:46:07.219 --> 00:46:08.799
 Oh, the gods must be waking up again.

00:46:08.940 --> 00:46:10.679
 It was more of a going to sleep, waking up thing.

00:46:10.739 --> 00:46:13.159
 It had nothing to do with resurrection involving a body.

00:46:13.639 --> 00:46:17.539
 And the language of resurrection used in the New Testament echoes that from the Old Testament,

00:46:17.779 --> 00:46:22.639
 which is Jewish language, which means you die once, you're raised from the dead.

00:46:22.719 --> 00:46:23.879
 That's what resurrection means.

00:46:23.880 --> 00:46:29.420
 It's not a cycle thing based on the calendar of the seasons.

00:46:30.300 --> 00:46:31.920
 And Jesus' earliest followers were Jewish.

00:46:32.079 --> 00:46:32.760
 None of them were pagan.

00:46:32.840 --> 00:46:36.519
 In fact, they were so finicky about making sure that they didn't compromise with pagans,

00:46:36.579 --> 00:46:40.220
 that they wouldn't even eat food sacrificed to idols that they could cook up later,

00:46:40.300 --> 00:46:41.460
 which would mean almost nothing.

00:46:41.740 --> 00:46:44.200
 They wanted to distance themselves from anything to do with paganism.

00:46:44.599 --> 00:46:48.740
 So why would they all of a sudden adopt a pagan view of the dying and rising?

00:46:49.140 --> 00:46:50.200
 It just wouldn't make sense.

00:46:50.199 --> 00:46:53.859
 It's based on the Old Testament belief that God will raise everybody from the dead.

00:46:53.960 --> 00:46:58.839
 But in this case, Jesus is the first person and only person yet to have been truly raised from the dead,

00:46:58.980 --> 00:47:00.659
 resurrected, not resuscitated.

00:47:01.139 --> 00:47:05.939
 And there is no evidence that any pagan deities were known or worshipped in rural Palestine

00:47:05.939 --> 00:47:07.719
 or in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus.

00:47:08.259 --> 00:47:12.119
 So much so that even one of the most skeptical New Testament scholars on the planet,

00:47:12.539 --> 00:47:16.059
 Professor Bart Ehrman, he said this on dying and rising deities in pagan religions,

00:47:16.059 --> 00:47:21.779
 The idea of Jesus' resurrection did not derive from pagan notions of a God simply being reanimated.

00:47:22.219 --> 00:47:25.920
 It derived from Jewish notions of resurrection as an end times event

00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:29.159
 in which God would reassert his control over this world.

00:47:29.420 --> 00:47:30.900
 Thank you very much, Dr. Ehrman.

00:47:31.320 --> 00:47:35.360
 Also, the leading expert on dying and rising deities in the ancient pagan world,

00:47:35.840 --> 00:47:38.559
 his name is Trigeth Mettinger from Lund University in Sweden.

00:47:38.779 --> 00:47:39.099
 He said,

00:47:39.099 --> 00:47:44.099
 There is, as far as I am aware, no evidence that the death and resurrection of Jesus is a mythological construct,

00:47:45.039 --> 00:47:48.000
 drawing on the myths and rites of the dying and rising gods of the shrouded in the world.

00:47:48.079 --> 00:47:49.579
 This guy is for a living.

00:47:49.759 --> 00:47:53.159
 He studied ancient Near Eastern pagan texts.

00:47:53.440 --> 00:47:55.960
 He's like, there is no parallels at all to be found.

00:47:56.380 --> 00:47:58.099
 The Christians did not rip this off.

00:47:58.279 --> 00:47:59.299
 That's totally bizarre.

00:47:59.960 --> 00:48:03.779
 So that's what the leading experts say, and I've read their work, and it all makes sense.

00:48:03.780 --> 00:48:09.000
 Now, this is the leading objection on the planet to the resurrection of Jesus.

00:48:09.240 --> 00:48:13.340
 This is the one that even my relative the other day raises an objection.

00:48:13.740 --> 00:48:15.660
 Maybe they're just hallucinating like people do.

00:48:16.519 --> 00:48:17.540
 Maybe they just hallucinated.

00:48:18.380 --> 00:48:20.680
 So this theory is basically this.

00:48:20.740 --> 00:48:21.440
 They just hallucinate.

00:48:21.500 --> 00:48:23.480
 That's the theory, both individually and in groups.

00:48:23.700 --> 00:48:27.300
 Well, first off, this theory takes no account of the empty tomb.

00:48:27.600 --> 00:48:30.420
 But then let's really take a look at the science on hallucinations.

00:48:30.420 --> 00:48:35.519
 According to the Dictionary of Psychology published by the American Psychological Association in 2009,

00:48:36.119 --> 00:48:43.440
 we're told that 15% of people under the age of, I think it's under the age of 50, experience hallucinations.

00:48:43.900 --> 00:48:48.940
 But then 50% of senior citizens experience hallucinations of their deceased loved ones.

00:48:49.260 --> 00:48:52.700
 But only 7% of these are visual hallucinations,

00:48:52.820 --> 00:48:55.579
 because you probably all thought hallucinations were just visual nature, didn't you?

00:48:55.680 --> 00:48:56.099
 No.

00:48:56.579 --> 00:48:58.180
 Hallucinations come in multiple forms.

00:48:58.179 --> 00:48:59.899
 Some hallucinations are visual.

00:49:00.039 --> 00:49:00.960
 Some of them are auditory.

00:49:01.039 --> 00:49:03.639
 So you swear you hear something that's not really there, even though you don't see it.

00:49:03.839 --> 00:49:05.899
 Some of them are perceptory, where you just sense like,

00:49:06.259 --> 00:49:08.119
 I think somebody's in the room with me right now.

00:49:08.679 --> 00:49:09.500
 I've had that before.

00:49:09.619 --> 00:49:10.079
 It's kind of weird.

00:49:12.159 --> 00:49:13.419
 I don't think that's hallucination.

00:49:13.519 --> 00:49:16.299
 I think that's just me after I watch a scary movie, you know.

00:49:16.300 --> 00:49:22.120
 Some of them are even tactile, where you swear you've touched something that's there that's not really there.

00:49:22.400 --> 00:49:23.740
 That's another form of hallucination.

00:49:23.880 --> 00:49:28.340
 Some of them are gustatory and olfactory, where you swear that you smell or taste something that's not there.

00:49:28.580 --> 00:49:30.660
 That's a form of hallucination, believe it or not.

00:49:31.320 --> 00:49:35.480
 Now, I just thought I'd throw this one in, that women are more likely to hallucinate than men.

00:49:35.480 --> 00:49:42.599
 Now, let's put this in perspective, shall we?

00:49:43.099 --> 00:49:51.920
 Not 15%, not 50%, but 100% of Jesus' disciples would have had to have had visual hallucinations

00:49:51.920 --> 00:49:59.199
 and tactile hallucinations and auditory hallucinations and perceptory all at the exact same time.

00:49:59.199 --> 00:50:03.199
 This is impossible.

00:50:04.559 --> 00:50:06.339
 Individually and in group settings.

00:50:07.480 --> 00:50:09.000
 What about group hallucinations?

00:50:09.099 --> 00:50:10.059
 What do we know about these?

00:50:10.179 --> 00:50:14.259
 Well, according to the Bible on hallucinations, it's called Hallucinations,

00:50:14.399 --> 00:50:18.819
 The Science of Idiosyncratic Perceptions by Andre Illman and Frank Lerati.

00:50:19.119 --> 00:50:22.480
 This is what every psychiatrist has on their shelf to deal with the topic.

00:50:25.019 --> 00:50:26.439
 According to the authors of this book,

00:50:26.440 --> 00:50:30.079
 they did not include anything in group hallucinations.

00:50:30.639 --> 00:50:30.900
 Why?

00:50:31.400 --> 00:50:34.200
 Well, Mike Lacona, the expert in resurrection who presented this past weekend,

00:50:34.480 --> 00:50:35.740
 he emailed them and asked them,

00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:37.980
 like, look, I was writing my book on the resurrection of Jesus

00:50:37.980 --> 00:50:39.659
 and I wanted to deal with group hallucinations.

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:41.860
 And your book is the Bible in hallucinations.

00:50:42.139 --> 00:50:44.920
 How come you don't have anything on group hallucinations in your book?

00:50:44.980 --> 00:50:46.159
 Because I really want to know about this.

00:50:46.639 --> 00:50:47.679
 And they wrote back and said,

00:50:47.960 --> 00:50:50.440
 because they couldn't find anything to include in all the scholarly literature.

00:50:51.619 --> 00:50:52.940
 These are the experts in hallucinations.

00:50:53.619 --> 00:50:54.280
 If you think about it,

00:50:54.280 --> 00:50:57.200
 two individuals cannot share the same subconscious state as one another.

00:50:57.840 --> 00:50:58.360
 You can't.

00:50:59.160 --> 00:50:59.300
 You know?

00:51:00.080 --> 00:51:02.060
 According to clinical psychologist Gary Sibsey,

00:51:02.400 --> 00:51:04.760
 he couldn't find anything whatsoever in group hallucinations

00:51:04.760 --> 00:51:08.240
 in the professional literature for 20 years up to around 2005.

00:51:09.420 --> 00:51:11.860
 So, it's scientifically, at this point,

00:51:11.960 --> 00:51:13.700
 it's impossible for everybody to include hallucinations.

00:51:14.140 --> 00:51:15.360
 There can be grouped illusions,

00:51:15.920 --> 00:51:18.200
 where you can convince somebody to believe something that's not there,

00:51:18.199 --> 00:51:20.099
 but that's not the same thing as hallucination.

00:51:20.480 --> 00:51:22.419
 Because hallucination is when everybody,

00:51:22.679 --> 00:51:23.779
 in their subconscious state,

00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:25.519
 believes that they're seeing the exact same thing.

00:51:25.599 --> 00:51:27.039
 Now, I want you to think about this.

00:51:27.519 --> 00:51:28.719
 You know, I just...

00:51:28.719 --> 00:51:30.000
 Actually, I think I have a...

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:30.500
 No, I don't.

00:51:31.219 --> 00:51:31.779
 Picture this.

00:51:32.439 --> 00:51:34.039
 It would be like the disciples in the room.

00:51:34.739 --> 00:51:35.239
 And, you know,

00:51:35.659 --> 00:51:38.379
 because hallucinations in your subconscious mind,

00:51:38.439 --> 00:51:39.399
 it's like, you know,

00:51:39.480 --> 00:51:40.639
 I can picture Peter being like,

00:51:40.919 --> 00:51:41.879
 hey, do you see that?

00:51:42.299 --> 00:51:43.379
 I think I see Jesus.

00:51:43.820 --> 00:51:46.119
 He's floating up there in the top right in the room,

00:51:46.180 --> 00:51:47.500
 but he's not saying anything to me.

00:51:48.099 --> 00:51:49.019
 And then John's like,

00:51:49.599 --> 00:51:50.579
 I see Jesus too,

00:51:50.640 --> 00:51:51.539
 but he's not up there.

00:51:51.740 --> 00:51:52.680
 He's over there,

00:51:52.880 --> 00:51:54.079
 but he's talking to me.

00:51:54.500 --> 00:51:55.420
 The other guy's like,

00:51:56.019 --> 00:51:56.240
 you know,

00:51:56.320 --> 00:51:56.820
 Philip's like,

00:51:56.980 --> 00:51:58.019
 I don't see Jesus,

00:51:58.260 --> 00:51:59.280
 but I can smell something.

00:51:59.340 --> 00:52:00.380
 Do you think I'm smelling Jesus?

00:52:00.579 --> 00:52:01.780
 Like, that's what would have happened,

00:52:01.840 --> 00:52:03.920
 because hallucinations are all in different forms.

00:52:04.119 --> 00:52:05.180
 But to put it all together,

00:52:05.280 --> 00:52:06.559
 from having all the exact same experience

00:52:06.559 --> 00:52:07.400
 at the exact same time,

00:52:07.400 --> 00:52:08.640
 it doesn't work.

00:52:09.320 --> 00:52:10.079
 So, in conclusion,

00:52:10.579 --> 00:52:11.619
 after all of this,

00:52:12.300 --> 00:52:13.340
 the resurrection of Jesus,

00:52:13.380 --> 00:52:14.860
 is the only hypothesis

00:52:14.860 --> 00:52:15.760
 that takes account

00:52:15.760 --> 00:52:17.680
 of all of the historical facts,

00:52:18.140 --> 00:52:19.480
 and not a single objection

00:52:19.480 --> 00:52:20.539
 stands up to scrutiny.

00:52:21.059 --> 00:52:22.460
 They all have serious weaknesses,

00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:24.039
 and they should be dismissed.

00:52:24.519 --> 00:52:26.440
 Those who reject the resurrection of Jesus

00:52:26.440 --> 00:52:28.880
 do so not because of historical reasons,

00:52:29.320 --> 00:52:30.640
 but because of philosophical

00:52:30.640 --> 00:52:32.800
 or theological assumptions.

00:52:33.460 --> 00:52:34.940
 Why does all of this matter

00:52:34.940 --> 00:52:35.720
 at the end of the day?

00:52:37.660 --> 00:52:38.660
 Because how do you know

00:52:38.660 --> 00:52:39.380
 there's an afterlife?

00:52:40.720 --> 00:52:41.440
 How do you know

00:52:41.440 --> 00:52:42.300
 that you're going to see

00:52:42.300 --> 00:52:43.320
 your deceased loved ones

00:52:43.320 --> 00:52:44.280
 and put their faith in Christ?

00:52:46.800 --> 00:52:48.060
 If Jesus has risen,

00:52:48.539 --> 00:52:49.720
 then nothing else matters.

00:52:50.500 --> 00:52:52.120
 And if Jesus has not risen,

00:52:53.080 --> 00:52:54.300
 then nothing else matters.

00:52:54.900 --> 00:52:55.539
 Let's pray.

00:52:56.500 --> 00:52:58.160
 Lord, I want to thank you for this day.

00:52:58.320 --> 00:53:00.460
 Thank you for this wonderful body of believers.

00:53:00.460 --> 00:53:03.500
 And I just want to bless everyone here.

00:53:03.780 --> 00:53:04.599
 Church of the Messiah.

00:53:05.400 --> 00:53:06.380
 Thank you for this church.

00:53:06.539 --> 00:53:07.720
 Thank you that we can come here

00:53:07.720 --> 00:53:09.880
 and we can examine our faith

00:53:09.880 --> 00:53:10.860
 and we don't have to be afraid

00:53:10.860 --> 00:53:12.179
 of looking under any rock.

00:53:12.820 --> 00:53:14.539
 Nothing should fear us about the truth.

00:53:15.119 --> 00:53:16.960
 Thank you that you are the God of truth.

00:53:17.720 --> 00:53:19.119
 And when we search for truth,

00:53:19.559 --> 00:53:20.619
 we will find you.

00:53:21.619 --> 00:53:22.380
 Thank you, Lord,

00:53:22.440 --> 00:53:23.500
 that you encourage us

00:53:23.500 --> 00:53:26.280
 to do inquiry

00:53:26.280 --> 00:53:27.579
 and to look into things.

00:53:27.679 --> 00:53:28.659
 That we are to love you

00:53:28.659 --> 00:53:29.539
 with all our heart, soul,

00:53:29.679 --> 00:53:31.480
 mind, and strength.

00:53:33.000 --> 00:53:34.659
 I pray that more people here,

00:53:34.960 --> 00:53:35.900
 that you would help more of us

00:53:35.900 --> 00:53:36.719
 to love you

00:53:36.719 --> 00:53:37.559
 with the whole encompass

00:53:37.559 --> 00:53:38.119
 of our lives,

00:53:38.420 --> 00:53:39.300
 including our mind,

00:53:39.699 --> 00:53:40.760
 and to look for answers

00:53:40.760 --> 00:53:41.679
 for our hard questions

00:53:41.679 --> 00:53:43.099
 and not push our doubts

00:53:43.099 --> 00:53:44.460
 into the corner of our mind

00:53:44.460 --> 00:53:44.980
 and our soul.

00:53:45.539 --> 00:53:46.960
 Help us to tackle them head on.

00:53:48.019 --> 00:53:48.800
 Thank you, Lord,

00:53:49.099 --> 00:53:49.719
 for Ottawa.

00:53:50.039 --> 00:53:51.119
 Thank you for all the people

00:53:51.119 --> 00:53:51.739
 that live here,

00:53:51.839 --> 00:53:52.299
 that love you,

00:53:52.319 --> 00:53:53.019
 and that serve you.

00:53:53.359 --> 00:53:54.179
 I want to pray a blessing

00:53:54.179 --> 00:53:54.899
 over this city,

00:53:55.459 --> 00:53:56.559
 that more people would come

00:53:56.559 --> 00:53:57.500
 to know your son, Jesus,

00:53:57.919 --> 00:53:59.119
 and experience the freedom

00:53:59.119 --> 00:54:00.980
 of feeling their sins forgiven,

00:54:01.439 --> 00:54:02.079
 washed away,

00:54:02.219 --> 00:54:03.659
 knowing that they are right with you

00:54:03.659 --> 00:54:06.339
 and get to be part of your kingdom,

00:54:06.799 --> 00:54:08.159
 of turning earth

00:54:08.159 --> 00:54:10.019
 into an image of heaven now,

00:54:10.279 --> 00:54:11.419
 instead of waiting down the road

00:54:11.419 --> 00:54:12.199
 for the afterlife.

00:54:13.319 --> 00:54:14.539
 Pray all this in the name

00:54:14.539 --> 00:54:15.639
 of the only person

00:54:15.639 --> 00:54:17.079
 who's been truly raised

00:54:17.079 --> 00:54:17.599
 from the dead,

00:54:17.719 --> 00:54:18.179
 resurrected,

00:54:18.399 --> 00:54:19.139
 who right now sits

00:54:19.139 --> 00:54:20.539
 in the right hand of the Father.

00:54:20.900 --> 00:54:21.879
 Pray it in His name.

00:54:22.379 --> 00:54:22.659
 Amen.