The Goof, The Aloof, The Spoof and The Proof
Just Keep It Real Christopher Merola 3-27-16 Video 1, Josh McDowell - Manuscripts
1. Did the Disciples Goof Their Account of Jesus?
We base almost everything we know about Alexander the Great from historians who wrote about him 300-500 years after his death.
The New Testament and Resurrection story was written in the lifetime of the authors
Thomas Arnold - Historian
Author of the three-volume History of Rome, and Chair of Modern History at Oxford University.
“I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort…than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.”
Other Writers Confirm the New Testament
Didache, Clement of Rome, The Shepherd of Hermas, Ignatius, Polycarp, Diognetus Papias, Quadratus of Athens, Aristides, Justin Martyr, Claudius Apollinaris, Minucius Felix, Melito of Sardis, Hegesippus, Dionysius of Corinth, Athenagoras of Athens, Irenaeus of Lyons, Rhodon, Theophilus of Caesarea, Theophilus of Antioch, Maximus of Jerusalem, Polycrates of Ephesus, Pantaenus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Serapion of Antioch, Apollonius, Caius, Hippolytus of Rome, Origen
History’s Most Amazing People Believed in the Resurrection of Jesus and the Validity of the NT
Isaac Newton Blaise Pascal Louis Pasteur Nicolaus Copinercus Galileo Galilei Johannes Kepler William Shakespeare George Washington Abraham Lincoln Martin Luther King
Video 2 Frank Turek – Non Christians Confirm There Was No Goof!
The New Testament was written within lifetime of the writers -- they were eyewitnesses of the events.
The New Testament is corroborated by non-Christian writers
The NT mentions at least 30 historical figures who have been confirmed in history.
The NT includes over 140 historically accurate details 2. The Aloof Disciples?
The Jews are the only people in the history of the world to hold on to their culture, religion and identity -- their social structure -- after thousands of years of being persecuted and scattered across the globe.
When the Jews returned to Israel in 1948, they literally picked up where they left off thousands of years later. That is how important their social structure was to them.
Jewish Culture and Social Structure J.P. Moreland, PhD
“At the time of Jesus, the Jews had been persecuted for seven hundred years by the Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, and now by the Greeks and the Romans…the things that made the Jews, Jews—the social structures that gave them their national identity…The Jews would pass these structures down to their children, celebrate them in synagogue meetings every Sabbath, and reinforce them with their rituals, because they knew if they didn’t, there soon would be no Jews left.”
Jewish Culture and Social Structure Continued… “Now a rabbi named Jesus appears from a lower-class region. He teaches for three years, gathers a following of lower-and middle-class people, gets in trouble with the authorities, and gets crucified…But five weeks after he’s crucified, over ten thousand Jews are following him and claiming that he is the initiator of a new religion. And get this: they’re willing to give up or alter all five of the social institutions that they have been taught since childhood…” Video 3, Frank Turek – Impact Events Not Aloof, but Bold as Lions!
The disciples were instantly transformed from frightened individuals in hiding to bold witnesses of the resurrection – even in public at Pentecost.
How was it that Jesus’s disciples and followers easily threw off that culture (social structure) knowing that it would get them beaten, rejected, persecuted and killed?
They Risked Everything!
Why would they risk being shunned by their families and put out of the synagogue where they could no longer worship or make sacrifices to pay for their sins? This is huge!
If they died without atoning for their sins they would go to Hell!
Unless they knew that Jesus WAS the final atoning sacrifice – the true Lamb of God!
180 Degree Transformations
James the brother of Jesus thought Jesus was crazy -- he was embarrassed by him and said so. After seeing the resurrected Jesus he risks everything to follow him and is persecuted and dies.
Paul (Saul of Tarsus) hated Christians and killed them, until… 3. The Spoof – Just a Big Fake? The messiah had to fulfill ALL 353 OT prophecies. Neither Jesus or his disciples could not have purposely fulfilled all 353 OT prophecies. http://www.accordingtothescriptures.org/prophecy/353prophecies.html
A fake messiah, while still in his mother’s womb, would have had to make his parents go to Bethlehem, give birth to him in a stinky, smelly, stable with animals nearby.
He would have had to have made the shepherds and the wise men visit him.
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! A fake messiah would have had to make Herod kill all baby boys under age two.
He would have to make the Romans call for a Census.
He would have had to make his parents take him to Egypt.
353 OT prophecies fulfilled by Jesus in his 33 years of life on Earth. The odds are hundreds of billions to 1 that they could be fulfilled by accident or by a phony.
No Phony Does This…
In the OT, God told the Jews to place the blood of the sacrificial animals on their doors. Those with the blood on the doors were passed over for judgement by God.
Jesus was crucified on Passover weekend. Proving He is the final Passover lamb. When you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, then His blood is placed on the door of your heart; you will be passed over for judgement on judgment day.
Did Jesus fake this? Did he tell the Jewish leaders and the Romans to crucify him purposely on Passover weekend so he could fool everyone?
Video 4, Frank Turek – The Disciple's Account 4. The Proof – It’s Undeniable
There were 515 people who witnessed a Resurrected Jesus on many occasions.
They could not all hallucinate the same hallucination.
Jesus appeared to multiple people at once and at different times; they saw him but also heard him and had conversations with him and touched him 2000 Years and Still No Body
Buddha, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Confucius, Marx, Lenin, etc…
If the Jewish leaders could produce a dead body of Jesus, it’s game over!
They never did -- and neither has anyone else!
Atheists that researched the NT and became Christians
-CS Lewis, Professor at Oxford and Cambridge -Lew Wallace, Union General in the Civil War; author of Ben-Hur -Simon Greenleaf, founder of Harvard Law School -Lee Stroebel, Journalist with Chicago Tribune; Law degree from Yale -J. Warner Wallace, cold case detective; on Dateline and 20/20) -Josh McDowell, best selling author
Video 5, Frank Turek – The Six E’s of Proof