The Lost Tomb of Jesus: A Response to the Discovery-Channel Documentary Directed by James Cameron

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If the Resurrection (or the Ascension, or a combination of the two) was a guy leaving a dead body and going somewhere in spirit, it would not be any more a miracle than when Anna Nicole Smith dropped dead three weeks ago. The Resurrection, for example, proved God had the ultimate power over death. Therefore, the idea that Jesus was "resurrected" as a spirit, appeared to His disciples as a spirit (why would He invite Thomas to touch wounds that were not available to be touched?) and ascended as a spirit are not only inaccurate, contrary to what is known about the events and antithetical to the moral teachings you respect Him for, they basically amount to a ghost story and shouldn't be the foundation of a life of faith anymore than any other haunting.

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.

I'm curious to see what you mean here. Do you mean that Christians who believe in the Resurrection believe in the concept of (as they used to say on Futurama) "Sweet Zombie Jesus?" You think we're saying that a rotting body hiked around Palestine for 40 days?

I don't particularly care whether or not anybody might have have found Jesus' tomb (which would be damned near impossible to prove one way or another), whether Jesus was the son of God or the son of a carpenter, or anything like that at all. Jesus WAS a devine messenger and the message he brought to earth involved morality and conduct and still rings true 2000 years later.

If Jesus was not what he claimed, then He is not the great moral messenger you hail. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, if Jesus is not God (see John 8:58 for an example of where He claims to be the Almighty) then He might as well be claiming to be a poached egg. Get out your Bible and go through the Gospels and I'm sure you'll find at least ten places where He says something that is a lie or the babble of a madman if it is not being said by God in the flesh.

While we're on that subject, why (in Revelation 1:8, 21:6 and 22:13) do God and Jesus both describe themselves as the Alpha and the Omega? If Jesus is not God, then he is standing in heaven lying to John in Revelation 22. In Revelation 1, after God says He is "the Alpha and the Omega...who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty," in verse 8, Jesus appears to John:

"When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades."--Revelation 1:17-18

Yet you say it doesn't matter whether you believe that He's the Son of God, or whether He actually rose bodily from the grave. Why doesn't it matter? Can you really follow the one who called himself Truth while not caring what the truth is about Him?

Paul wrote that if Jesus did not rise from the grave, Christians were in the worst condition of any men. Christ's message isn't worth anything if it was issued by a mere man who got killed and became a ghost.

>The Lost Tomb of Jesus: A Response ...

Or that what Thomas experienced was identically the same as if it had been.

Actually, the Bible never says Thomas put his hands on the wounds or in His side.

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:26-29

BTW, ricky, you should note that Thomas' exclamation of "My Lord and my God!" would be a terrible blasphemy if Jesus was just a man, ghost or flesh. Yet Jesus, instead of saying "I'm just a man, don't worship me," congratulates him on his expression of faith and says those who believe the same thing will be blessed.

What I find strange is that you think that if Thomas did put his hands on the wounds and he experienced something like touching flesh even though there was no flesh there you can still believe Jesus was a moral teacher. It would meant that God (or the non-God, non-resurrected "Jesus ghost") was acting on Thomas' senses to deceive him. I don't see how it would be any different than handing a blind man a five dollar bill and telling him it was a twenty dollar bill. It would feel the same to him, wouldn't it?

How could a man who called Himself the Truth act to deceive one of his followers, and then congratulate him on believing the falsehood presented? Short answer: He couldn't.

The bottom line is, you can trust Jesus as everything the Bible claims about Him. Open your heart to a wider and deeper faith! He is risen indeed!