Jesus Starter Pack: Why believe in any of this?

Step One: Dealing with morality and the purpose/meaning of life

http://whchurch.org/sermons-media/other-media/conferences-seminars/letters-from-skeptic
Check out Week 2's Introduction: "Why Believe in God?"

OR

this testimony (it's the same as above, a bit more detailed):
http://reknew.org/2013/05/gregs-testimony/

OR

C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity (here's the entire book):
http://usminc.org/images/MereChristianitybyCSLewis.pdf


My notes: This is my favorite theologian, Greg Boyd (you'll be seeing a lot of him on this blog. Probably too much), and it's a sermon that revolves around his testimony. The main points revolve around dealing with finding meaning in life. He talks about his struggle with nihilism, dabbling in drugs and Eastern religions, and going in and out of the Christian faith.

The main tidbit here is his realization: If life has no purpose or meaning, why should human beings almost universally evolve to desire purpose and meaning? Where does that come from? There's no other unfulfilled desire in the world that has no answer for it: when we're hungry, we can eat. When we're horny, we can have sex. This is very similar to C.S. Lewis' main argument in Mere Christianity: If there is no meaning to life, how should we ever realize that there is none?


Step Two: Why believe in Jesus as the son of God

http://whchurch.org/sermons-media/sermon-series/jesus-for-thinking-people

Check out the entire series

My Notes (summary of the above sermons. However, I suggest you listen to it, because Boyd is much better at presenting this argument. I'm seriously just taking notes here):

Reasons why Jesus is likely not a conspiracy of the early Christians:

1. No motive. It was not likely to produce any sort of approval amongst the elite of society, and there was no monetary gain to be had. In fact, it was the direct opposite. The early Christians often had everything to lose, and they often did (the early Christian church was essentially a roll-call of martyrs.) Christians were proud and willing to die for their faith, and they often got their wish. Tacitus, a Roman historian (who wasn't a Christian) remarks that he feels sorry about how the Christians are being treated under Nero. Christians were being beheaded, impaled. 

2. No deserters. Usually, when a conspiracy starts and people are getting really pushed around and persecuted, people "in on the conspiracy" start to crack. 

Examples:

- In the Watergate scandal, it took 2 weeks before someone testified against the President, in an attempt to save their own skin. This set off a ripple effect, everyone else soon quickly jumped ship to save their own skin.

- Mormonism - 3 witnesses saw the angel Moroni give Joseph Smith the tablet. In Missouri, once persecution against the Mormons started, 2 of these witnesses recanted their testimony. (I'm sure this would be heavily debated by Mormons, but the interesting take-away is that there isn't even a rumor of a Christian recanter in the early church).

Another thing to consider: the Jews/Pharisees would have been dying to get a Christian to recant, to quickly put an end to the cult. They couldn't find any.

3. Counter-cultural gospel. This is similar to a reason stated in the defense against the Jesus Legend. If early Christians were trying to sell something, sell a product, the gospel of Jesus Christ would not have looked like this at all. Jesus dined with tax collectors and prostitutes. The tomb of Jesus was discovered by women (women are treated as unreliable witnesses in this culture - you wouldn't want to use them if you're trying to convince other people of a lie you invented). Jesus also didn't fit any Messiah expectations: He died a common criminal on the cross, He was divine, when the Jews naturally rejected divinity applied to human beings. And certainly, nobody would have expected the Messiah to utter, "My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?!" on the cross. In fact, nobody expected the Messiah to even die. 

4. It's an easily verifiable lie. The spread of the Christian church happened within a lifetime of Jesus's death on the cross... Christian churches often referenced the eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministries. The church also used big names to leave it easy to falsify: Pontius Pilate, Josephus of Aramathea (member of the Sanhedrin), Caiaphas. Given the investment of the Pharisees to end the cult of Christianity, it would  have been easy to falsify any of this conspiracy.

5. No evidence to support this theory. That's what history always demands, and the Conspiracy Theory just doesn't have it. It's just a skeptical speculation. Despite the heavy interests of the Jews and Romans to stomp out Christianity, not once does anybody ever accuse Christians of making this all up. Rather, the Jews considered Him of the devil, instead (not that He didn't perform any miracles).

Reasons against the "Jesus is a legend" theory:

1. The ancient Jews were resistant to legend-creation. They didn't want these preposterous claims made within their nation/religion. They wanted to be nothing like their pagan neighbors, who often had elevated other human beings to gods within their culture. There's a bit of underlying nationalism/racism here: they didn't want to be like "those heathens", because they were God's chosen people. In their culture, if you were to have a human declare that he was himself God... well, that's a crime punishable by death. Ancient Jewish culture was inherently resistant to legends like the Jesus Legend being developed.

2. Legends tend to reinforce the cultural beliefs of the culture they come from. They usually serve as a reaffirmation of the values of that culture. Jesus's story is much too radical and different from any legend that could have thought to be organically developed from that culture. The Messiah was portrayed as a cursed and crucified common criminal abandoned by God. The Jews weren't expecting this, they were expecting the Messiah to be a conquering military hero. If a legend were to be made-up, we would expect that type of legendary Messiah story: one who freed the Jews from the oppression of the Romans. But we don't, the Jesus Legend tells something completely different.... we actually find that Jesus praises a Roman centurion for his faith. Also, women were given a much higher consideration in the Jesus Legend: Jesus spoke to women and valued them in a highly misogynistic culture. (In that culture, the testimony of a woman was treated as worthless - they were all assumed to be liars). 

3. Not enough time for legendary development. In Buddha's case, it took something like 500 years for a small sect of Buddhism to even think of Buddha as a god. For Jesus, it took about 20 years (maybe closer to 15). Paul was already writing about his epistles with Jesus as a deity, and setting that forth as a essential creed for Christians. Legends don't develop that quickly.

4. There were a lot of people that wanted to stomp Christianity out. Christianity was met with hostility, and was considered a cult when it first appeared. If it was a legend, it would have been easy for the Pharisees to call out the claims that the Christians were making (this also plays into reason 3). They would've snuffed it out asap, and they had all the motivation in the world to do so. The easiest way would for the Pharisees to have produced Jesus' dead body. (if you believe Jesus' followers took his body, see 5b below). In fact, though, what the Pharisees actually write about Jesus is that He was of the devil... not that Jesus actually didn't perform these miracles. It's interesting how they never levied the charge of "not-true!" towards Him, they just associated it with something else.

5. The Gospels are presented as historical accounts. They read nothing like legends, and they personally claim to be historical documents. They also contain a lot of irrelevant detail: which is a trademark of history being recorded, not a legend being passed along. Also, the Gospels also tend to invite you spot-check them, as a way of saying "check this out if you don't believe it." Example: Mark's mention of Alexander and Rufus, the sons of Simon of Syrene. These people serve no relevance, other than the author of Mark saying, "hey, check with these guys if you don't believe what I'm saying."

As C.S. Lewis notes: "I am perfectly convinced that whatever the gospels are they are not legends. I have read a great deal of legend and I am quite clear they are not that sort of thing....Christ bent down and scribbled in the dust with His finger. Nothing comes of this. No one has based any doctrine on it. And the act of inventing little irrelevant details to make an imaginary scene more convincing is purely a modern art." (C.S. Lewis worked with a lot of legends in his profession).

5b. If you had objections to some of the above (Jesus' followers potentially stealing His body, the entire reason 5), we're now back onto the Conspiracy Theory that we already covered (the followers of Jesus knowingly exaggerated His deity/ it wasn't unintentional). 

Important note: This is just apologetics. Apologetics only get you so far. I've known of absolutely no one who was argued into the kingdom of God. These things are important, but to find God, you gotta seek. You gotta knock. You'll find Him. I believe that.