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They are alleged, unique events. Without actually observation, and hard proof that death did occur, I doubt seriously that resurrection would stand up in court, regardless of what someone said over 100 yrs ago. It may be the most attested to fact in history, but only to Christians. I certainly believe in the existence of God, and admit that He makes anything possible, but I don't believe that resurrection and virgin birth are plausible.

Thank you for your reply. First of all, history is told by eyewitnesses, and criminals are condemned to die based upon eyewitness testimony. If you discount these eyewitnesses, why do you not discount eyewitnesses of all other history, e.g. Heroditus on Pelopenesian war, Caesar on conqust of Gaul, and on and on? The atual resurrection was not witnessed as it occurred in a sealed tomb. However, the risen Christ was seen by over 500 people. Christ was dead - ask the roman who speared him; then, 3 days later, he was seen alive; and seen alive over a period of 40 days. You have alot of questions to answer if it did not occur, e.g. who moved the stone? Why didn't the jewish leaders produce his body and crush the new movement? Why did the roman guards (on penalty of death) allow the tomb to be opened after it was sealed? If you look carefully at the evidence, you will notice: One day the disciples ran like cowards, the next day they are all lions of faith and laid down their lives based on the reality of the Resurrection. How do you explain that? Who would die for a lie - knowing it was a lie? Name one other person in history who died for a lie KNOWING it was a lie. All of the counter-theories have giant holes in them and do not stand up to logical scrutiny (mass hallucination, swoon theory, wild dogs tore apart the body, etc. etc.). An objetive person must admit that Resurrection is the BEST explanation of the evidence. Evidence is evidence. Greenleaf wrote textbooks on evidence which are still used today at Harvard Law School. This is an appeal to authority, granted, but it convinced him.

I certainly believe in the existence of God, and admit that He makes anything possible, but I don't believe that resurrection and virgin birth are plausible.

May I respectfully ask you something. If you believe in God, does this God have any power or is he just a disinterested observer? Is he a personal God with a personalilty who created humans with personalities in his image, or is he an it or a thing? What is your belief in God based upon? Your imagination? How do you define his attributes?

I certainly believe in the existence of God, and admit that He makes anything possible, but I don't believe that resurrection and virgin birth are plausible.

Hey stuartcr. Do you not see the contradiction in your own words?

"Without actually observation, and hard proof. . ."

You know, it's funny that there are so many who demand this when the topic is the resurrection. Yet their standards of evidence are quickly lowered when the topic is evolution or some other such thing.

IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE SUCH A BRASH STATEMENT,

PLEASE,

At least have the intellectual honesty to go to Josh McDowell's site and examine the evidence--or get his MORE THAN A CARPENTER and examine it there.

Josh was a very angry young man. His dad was a Christian in name only and an alcoholic. The dad beat up the mother routinely very visciously. Josh left home, ended up in university furious at any hint of anything Christian. He determined to prove Christianity false on the basis of the evidence in the HISTORICAL RECORD.

A number of other atheists had followed a similar trail. Josh outdid them all in the extensiveness of his research. He learned the languages important for such a study. He spent a good long time at the whole thing.

He did have the intellectual honesty to let the HARD EVIDENCE speak for itself.

Your assertion that there were no observations is false.

There were quality observations. The death evidence has been examined by a number of modern MD's who describe the agony as extreme and that death would have been from a number of factors in relatively short order regardless of sword or no sword in the side--incidentally--a fact of a prophecy hundreds of years earlier.

The death was a fact. The Resurrection was a fact attested to by personal sight eyewitnesses numbering above 500. A number of these witnesses were still alive when the Historical Record was written. We have some sizeable chunks of those records from those lifetimes.

The experts are correct. The evidence is MORE THAN SUFFICIENT to hold up in court.

But earthly courts are not the ones you need to be most concerned with.

How will you account for how you have spent your life?

How will you account for your response to the claims of Jesus The Christ before whom every knee shall bow and every tongue convess that He IS Lord of Lords and King of Kings?

How will you answer when God asks you why you didn't do what He told you to?

How will you answer when God asks why you didn't receive the freely spilt Blood of His only Son in your behalf?

How will you answer when God asks why you flushed that blood down the toilet of your life?

I personally believe these are more important issues for you to ponder.

Of course, if you were merely postulating your statements for discussion/argument and if you are a secret believer, my apologies. Though secret believer would be a bit of an oxymoron.