For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures… (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
Mythicists and skeptics attempt to debunk Jesus in a number of ways, from the dismissal of the Scriptures to dubious conspiracy theories. Last time (Day 16) we dealt with the argument that Jesus never existed at all, which turns out to be a really poor historical position. However, many of the arguments deal, not with the existence of Jesus, but with a skeptical look at His death and burial. If one desired to undercut the resurrection, he might argue that, yes, there was a Jesus, but He was never crucified. Or, he was crucified, but didn’t die and was never buried. The empty tomb was a hoax because the body was never there from the beginning. The more popular twist on this, however, is to contend that Jesus was put in the tomb, but He was still alive. This is often called the “swoon theory.” It is the argument that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, but went into some kind of deep subconscious state or coma and later revived.
Let’s work our way through this theory, for it is the one you will most likely encounter:
There is another argument. It is the “substitution theory”. This position is mainly derived by some from the Qur'an which teaches that Jesus was real, a prophet, but it wasn’t Jesus that was crucified. Some then say that it was someone else on the cross, not Jesus—a substitute. This, in itself, would be quite extraordinary that someone would be willing to go through the horrible scourging and despicable death by crucifixion in order to propagate a lie. Even if it were someone else being forced to go through this, surely, we would have heard them denying that they were Jesus throughout the horrible process. Not only that, but you are still left with the empty tomb to explain as well as all the ethical issues we listed above, including that Jesus predicted His death many times and then faked it instead. There are also common-sense issues one of which is how can Jesus be tried and sentenced in front of the High Priest, chief priests and everyone else and no one just happens to notice that it is not Jesus? Or, how in the world did someone make a switch with Jesus under the command of the Roman soldiers? From the time Jesus was arrested until the time He was taken down from the cross, He was never out of the control of the authorities. And can anyone in their wildest dreams imagine that Jesus’ mother, at the cross, didn’t know that they were nailing someone else up there? Is she not able to discern the voice of her own son?
These, again, are desperate notions that expose the fact that we are not dealing with evidential problems. Instead, we are dealing with heart problems. When you are in conversation with your neighbor and they offer some of these theories, recognize the real cause and deal with it appropriately and wisely, with fervent prayer and grace.
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