Four
minimal facts about the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ:
- Jesus died on the cross and was buried.
- Jesus’ tomb was empty and no one ever produced his body.
- Jesus’ disciples believed that they saw Jesus resurrected.
- Jesus’ disciples were transformed following their observations.
- The disciples were mistaken about Jesus’ death. (Other first century sources acknowledge Jesus’ death/Roman guards faced death/Jesus displayed wounds but never acted wounded.)
- The disciples lied. (Conspiracies are very difficult to maintain - especially under pressure and out of touch with fellow conspirators). Successful conspiracies ‘typically involve a small number of incredibly close-knit participants who are in constant contact with one another for a very short period of time without any outside pressure.’ ‘If their claims were a lie, they would know it personally, unlike those who were martyred in the centuries that followed. While it is reasonable to believe that you or I might die for what we mistakenly thought was true, it is unreasonable to believe that these men died for what they definitely knew to be untrue.’
- The disciples were delusional. Detective Wallace says that witnesses related to victims often are profoundly impacted by grief and remember the best of him but these imaginings are typically limited to the nature of the victim’s character. They may imagine character traits that never existed but ‘I’ve never encountered loved ones who have collectively imagined an identical set of fictional events involving the victim.’ (Individuals have hallucinations not groups; some disciples like Thomas were inclined to doubt.)
- The disciples’ observations were distorted later. There was a wise teacher whose resurrection was a legendary and historically late exaggeration. ‘Cold case detectives have to deal with the issue of legend more than other types of detectives. So much time has passed from the point of the original crime that it seems possible that witnesses may now amplify their original observations in one way or another. Luckily, I have the record of the first investigators to assist me. If the original record of the first investigators is thorough and well documented, I will have a much easier time discerning the truth about what each witness saw.’ One suspect in a cold case had originally told a detective that he was busy repairing a flat tire by the side of the road at the time of the murder. Years later he forgot his original story and although it was documented and the original detective remembered it well - he did not. When re-interviewed he claimed he was changing his oil in his garage at the time. He had forgotten his original story and even failed to recognize it as his own. Because it was well documented it convinced a jury that the suspect was lying and he was convicted of first degree murder. 'Cold-Case Christianity; a homicide detective investigates the claims of the gospels' by J. Warner Wallace David C. Cook Publishers
