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Posted on 03/03/2007 1:50:03 PM PST by DaveTesla
Jesus Burial Tomb?
Recently, questions have been raised regarding the historicity of the death and resurrection of Jesus. These issues emerged from the directorial genius of James Cameron and is entitled, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus." This new Hollywood-quality documentary is set to air March 4th, 2007 on the Discovery Channel. However, this documentary is poorly supported by the historical and scientific data, regardless of how well the film has been made.
Good TV, Bad History & Science
"[The Lost Tomb of Jesus] will make good TV but involves a bad critical reading of history. Basically, this is old news with a new interpretation. We have known about this tomb since it was discovered in 1980. There are all sorts of reasons to see that this is much ado about nothing much." - Dr. Ben Witherington, New Testament professor at Asbury Theological Seminary and author of What Have They Done With Jesus?
An incredible number of problems are present in the recent claim that Jesus' grave has been found. In the end, the time-honored, multi-faceted evidence for the Gospel data of the Deity, death, and bodily resurrection of Jesus are more convincing than ever. Even the early opponents of the Christian message acknowledged that Jesus' tomb was empty. And the evidence for Jesus' bodily resurrection appearances has never been refuted.
(Excerpt) Read more at garyhabermas.com ...
Excellent article. Each and every one of these 'new' facts about Christ must be refuted with the truth.
There will be more of these so-called 'proofs' against Christianity. The Devil thinks he is being wise with his deceptions, but it is the Lord who has the upper hand. God is separating the people of the earth. Those who believe, and those who are His sworn enemy. God will not allow fence sitters.
Hundreds of witnesses saw Jesus after he had died and dozens went to their deaths rather than deny this. One deluded individual might willingly die for a known falsehood, groups of people do not.
As to resurrection, I would assume Jesus would have no more use for a dead body than I would and that what people saw for all the world looked and sounded as if he had been resurrected in the flesh but that such was not actually the case and that what they experience was basically paranormal in nature. In fact, had Jesus actually spent 40 days walking around a Roman protectorate in a dead body, Roman soldiers quite certainly would have noticed that, and done whatever was necessary to put a stop to it.
Gary Habermas is awesome. I had him as a professor for a few classes in college.
"We can't possibly alienate our customers. We are Hollywood and we like rule, dude. Just keep piling on the hoakum, they eat it up."
Thomas' confession after he put his hand in Jesus' side after the resurrection indicates it was bodily.
This body also was able to pass through walls, as in the upper room. Thus, only appearing to believers, and avoiding the Roman soldiers would not have been hard to do.
The effects of sin that Adam brought in did not just affect the spirit of but also the body. Thus the reason why we all die. Our spirits are dead to the things of God and our bodies are dead to immortality. The resurrection body of Christ not only proved that the consequences of sin on the spirit have been redeemed but also that the consequences of sin on the body has been redeemed.
If the body does not overcome death, then sin still has the power over it. On the contrary, Paul writes that Christ has conquered sin. "Oh death, where is thy victory? Where is thy sting? Read 1 Corinthians 15.
I agree that the timing is insulting. Could this happen to any other religion? Well, certainly, not without serious protest, and, maybe, even some violence toward those pertetrating the attack. For some reason, it seems to be the season to attack Christianity. Religions come and go; they always have, but the good of them often stays with us and makes us better. Something the attackers ought to think about.
So like what if all this happened to Mohammad? Where's his tomb. Doesn't have one ... went to heaven on a white horse ... so if his tomb was supposedly discovered the rioting would go on for years .....
Or that what Thomas experienced was identically the same as if it had been.
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Gary is one of the leading apologists on the subject of the resurrection. I heard him speak last summer...well worth the time and effort!
If this "documentary" is true than Jesus is a liar and not Savior, leaving all humanity to look for other ways to transcend mortality.
So far, nobody has given their life to defend the claims that are made, while many people who were direct participants in the events associated with the life of Jesus lost their lives in defense of claims made in the four Gospels.
I have written emails to Discovery Communications and gotten nothing back....so I sent physical letters....
Telling Discovery that I am going to exclude them from my cable subscription.
The I wrote my cable company and told them that I was "EXTREMELY OFFENDED" by the premise of this program.....then I've sent emails to all my friends and many religious leaders asking them to complain to Discovery.
BTW a friend is from that part of India where St Thomas evagelized. His Catholic Catechism had some first hand stories about St Thomas.
When Thomas arrived the major religion was Sun worship. Each week the people would disrobe and enter the water, (lake, river of where he was on the coast sea.) they would say prayers offered to the sun and would then scoop up handfuls of water and throw it above their heads. They believed that the water would be blessed by the Sun. Then this cleansing water would fall back on them bringing the Suns blessing.
Thomas spoke of Jesus and Holy Baptism and the cleansing of one sins but he went unheeded. Until one day he entered the water and followed their example except that he was praying to Jesus and asking for the forgiveness of his sins through the Baptism of Faith.
Here's where the miracle occurred. When he cast the water into the air it hung above his head and didn't fall. Since Thomas's God worked this miracle the people were immediately converted and followed the teachings of Thomas!
2000 years later this Christian enclave in India still pass the story from Father to Son!
I've posted this story before but during Lent it is worth repeating. BTW Quo Vadis was on TCM yesterday. I look forward to these religious movies during Lent since they add substance to my regious feelings.
Watched most of the Discovery broadcast and found it interesting without finding it particularly offensive. Of course, the overriding implied suggestion that Jesus may not have been ressurected was downplayed. The facts of the matter, however, are somewhat interesting. A mathematician calculated the odds of the find being anything other than that of the historic Jesus at about 60,000 to 1 (maybe it was 6,000 to 1, I'm not all that sure right now). But, whatever the odds, 60,000 or 6,000, some attention needs to be given to that finding. It was the most persuasive conclusion in the entire broadcast. Don't know if you are a gambler or not, but 6,000 to 1 is a pretty good gamble. I've made money on odds far shorter than that! :)
Statistics lie and liars figure.
The first indication of deception (by the claim of the odds the figure isn't the body of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus are something like 6,000/60,000 to one) is that for the statisitcs to be that simple, it should be more convincing to simply state the variables being multiplied together to produce such a statistical probability.
By no means have the cultural implications of Christ's appearance and Resurrection been enumerated to produce any such probability without significant error (by several orders of magnitude).
It would be like taking all the male first names in English and deducing an equal likelihood that any particular male baby will have a particular name. If the bodies in the tomb are from the same time frame, it is probably more realistic to consider many believers from that age may have renamed their entire families after their perception of a Holy family with the anticipation they might inherit more in the resurrection of their families, which might not be from their own control, but by the work of angels.
IMHO, a more noteworthy hypothesis would be that many families from that era renamed themselves after Jesus Christ, the disciples and nearest associates.
I would assume Jesus would have no more use for a dead body than I would and that what people saw for all the world looked and sounded as if he had been resurrected in the flesh but that such was not actually the case and that what they experience was basically paranormal in nature. In fact, had Jesus actually spent 40 days walking around a Roman protectorate in a dead body, Roman soldiers quite certainly would have noticed that, and done whatever was necessary to put a stop to it.
Jesus had precious use for a body following His crucifixion. The body that Jesus presented to Thomas was physical, not an apparition. Following His resurrection, He met the disciples in Galilee and asked for something to eat ... they gave Him fish and He ate it in front of them, to show He was not an apparition. In fact, the disciples are reported to have offered this very same question to Him upon seeing Him risen from the tomb! And He went out of His way to show them it was in fact He in the flesh, the resurrected, transformed flesh. So, why is this important to note?
The Romans were going out of there way at the time of Jesus's crucifixion to appease the Jewish leadership. To have a faked crucifixion of the leadership's main antagonist of that day would have been grounds for revolt, something Pilate was sent to Jerusalem to prevent. When the Romans crucified a man, he stayed dead. Were there to be a body rotting in some hideaway, the Romans and the Jewish leadership would have found it, to end the controversy and seal the deal -so to speak- of Rome giving the Jews something they cried out for, the death of this agitator from Galilee.
Had Jesus not been dead when removed from the Cross, the Romans would have been culpable for aiding a revolt against the Jewish Sanhedrin's authority and thus it would undermine Roman authority. No, He died on the Cross, and a rich man gave his tomb to have Jesus buried quickly because of Jewish law. On the third day He arose from the tomb and transformed His body, the body which had been crucified leaving nail marks, scars from scourging, a spear stab in the side, and thorn wounds.
When questioned by the disciples in Galilee, Jesus showed them the marks and told Thomas to touch Him so that he would no longer doubt that It was indeed Him come back to them, as proof of the spiritual power undergirding His promise of spiritual salvation and bodily resurrection for each of them. When He ascended into Heaven, He took that resurrected body with Him, a body that could take in cooked fish and be felt when touched ... He took the body to prove His divinity, not to hide His body from corruption; the scriptures read that He would not see corruption.
So, what purpose do these fabrications for doubting the divinity of Christ serve? Well, for Simcha this fabrication is a wealth builder and feeds Simcha's twisted ego. For common folk wondering if this Christ is God and can He actually save their immortal soul, the media pieces and the seemingly scholarly discussions of same work wonders to block repentance and humility before God ... 'who would humble their soul before a myth being refuted on television?'
Don't aid and abet the enemy of Christ, the father of lies, a murderer from the start. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto your Salvation ... and if the crucified body rotted on Earth, your salvation would be a scam. Choose you this day ...
Like I say, to me it doesn't matter, I'm willing to worship Jesus either way, so that the lunatics are wasting their breath at least as far as I am concerned.
Parable of the sower,...some seed fell in rocky soil. Some will be at first joyous, then choked out by the weeds.
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