Did the resurrection happen?

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Not sure if this is the forum to publish this, but is there a book or audio book besides “Case for Christ” that I can go to read each time I start to question my faith or the resurrection?

I became a Catholic at Easter 2005 and Case for Christ helped in that it pointed out Jewish authors who saw Jesus perform sorcery (miracles). I am looking for a Catholic author.

Some of the questions that pop into my head:
  1. Did someone get to the tomb before the guard?
  2. Did Jesus arrange something with Judas beforehand?
  3. Were the apostles just hallucinating after the resurrection?
  4. Did Jesus fulfill the prophecies just because he knew the OT well?
  5. The time period between youth and teaching, was he just setting everything up?
I attend Mass every weekend and 2-3 times during the week. I am also involved in several ministries in the Church.

I feel that my disbelief is the strongest when I am more involved in the Church. Why? I always have to study my way back to a stronger faith.

Thanks,
Rob
 
DTSMA68 said:
Not sure if this is the forum to publish this, but is there a book or audio book besides “Case for Christ” that I can go to read each time I start to question my faith or the resurrection?

I became a Catholic at Easter 2005 and Case for Christ helped in that it pointed out Jewish authors who saw Jesus perform sorcery (miracles). I am looking for a Catholic author.

Some of the questions that pop into my head:
  1. Did someone get to the tomb before the guard?
  2. Did Jesus arrange something with Judas beforehand?
  3. Were the apostles just hallucinating after the resurrection?
  4. Did Jesus fulfill the prophecies just because he knew the OT well?
  5. The time period between youth and teaching, was he just setting everything up?
I attend Mass every weekend and 2-3 times during the week. I am also involved in several ministries in the Church.

I feel that my disbelief is the strongest when I am more involved in the Church. Why? I always have to study my way back to a stronger faith. Thanks, Rob
Click to expand...
JL: You should expect your faith to be tested that’s how you grow. I recommed you spend at lest an half hour before the tabernacle telling the Lord your doubts and concerns. I’m sure there are books and tapes on the subject. I don’t know of any but I’m sure someone will. I will pray for you.
 
  1. No. Mary Magdalene and the soldier were both shocked to find Our Lord absent. The Apostles were shocked to hear about it. If there had been any such “plot”, surely Mary Magdalene and the Apostles would have known of it.
  2. No. Unless you mean prophesying that Judas would betray Him. There is, however, an apocryphal Gnostic “Gospel of Judas” which indicates that Our Lord told Judas to betray him. Gnosticism is a condemned heresy, and the supposed gospel has never been considered a part of Sacred Scripture. St. Iranaeus referred to this apocryphal work as a “fictitious history.”
  3. Most certainly NO.
  4. Jesus fulfilled the prophecies because He is those prophecies. He is the Eternal Word. “Et Verbum caro factum est” - “And the Word was made flesh”. (This is why any mixed-form Mass in the future should bring back the Last Gospel. It’s perhaps the most important section of all Holy Scripture.)
  5. Not sure what you mean here. The only thing we know for certain about His life from age 12 to age 30 is that “he went down with them [His parents], and came to Nazarath, and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men” (Luke 2, 51-52).
 
JL, Thanks I will do it.

IesumPerMariam, I already know the initial response to these questions, but thanks for the added detail.

My problems arise when I check out a DVD from the library about Christianity and it offers or states a different viewpoint and then my mind wonders and I over-think everything. It’s the same kind of media that you would see on the history Channel or A&E.
 
Since your faith is not there, you may be able to connect by seeing examples of the supernatural. We are **in **the spiritual world right at all times. Read some books on St. Padre Pio, and that might help you to tap in. It meant a lot to me, anyway, to do that. My spiritual life has gone from interesting to exotic in the past couple of years.
 
My Theology professor Dr. Stephen Bridge writes a book, Getting The Gospels, he is Catholic. It’s a very thought-provoking book. A chapter is devoted to the Resurrection. You can buy it online, I’m sure.

God bless,
 
I reserved a book on Padre Pio published by OSV and “Getting the Gospels” at my library. thanks.
 
DTSMA68 said:
JL, Thanks I will do it.

IesumPerMariam, I already know the initial response to these questions, but thanks for the added detail.

My problems arise when I check out a DVD from the library about Christianity and it offers or states a different viewpoint and then my mind wonders and I over-think everything. It’s the same kind of media that you would see on the history Channel or A&E.
Click to expand...
I’ve found that the library is only good for what amounts to the opinion of atheists (historical revisionism) or the sola scriptura types.

I got a dvd from the library about the early Church. You’d think it was run by hippies the way the “pastor” described things. Was put out by Focus on the Family or Zondervan, can’t remember which. Either way, I’ve never found a true Catholic DVD from the library. I’d guess your library is similar.

The common theme in them is to insinuate facts while stating opinion or totally unBiblical apocryphal opinion i.e. Gospel of James, Gospel of Judas, etc. as true.

Gotta be careful. These things were already answered in full by the early Church Fathers. The repackaging of their lies today is just a matter of digging out the old weapons.
 
  1. No
  2. No
  3. No
  4. No
  5. We do not know.
Catholic authors source for above answers: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter.
 
DTSMA68 said:
  1. Did someone get to the tomb before the guard?
  2. Did Jesus arrange something with Judas beforehand?
  3. Were the apostles just hallucinating after the resurrection?
  4. Did Jesus fulfill the prophecies just because he knew the OT well?
  5. The time period between youth and teaching, was he just setting everything up?
Click to expand...
Briefly:


  1. *]Yes, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary (Joses’ mother) were present when Jesus’ body was entombed. It was not until the next day that Pilate authorized the guard, so anyone including the aforementioned three could have stolen the body in the mean time. Two things to keep in mind, however: (a) in order to steal the body, the stone would have had to have been rolled away; (b) this would have had to have been performed on a Sabbath.
    *]As far as I can tell, it cannot be determined conclusively from the text whether Jesus and Judas conspired. But the hypothesis of conspiracy creates more problems than it solves.
    *]Hallucinations are too idiosyncratic to explain the postresurrection appearances. Besides, Thomas not only was indisposed to believe the appearances were real, but also personally inspected Jesus’ wounds during an appearance; further, during one appearance, Jesus ate a piece of broiled fish, whose consequent vanishing requires an explanation.
    *]In theory Jesus could have engineered the fulfillment of some prophecies, but those concerning his conception and birth would have had to have been lucky strikes.
    *]During his youth and early adulthood, yes, he could have been setting everything up. But I’m sure you would agree, to posit such a thing amounts to craven speculation.
 
  1. We don’t know. But it is said in Bible that when the women were on their way to where the other disciples were, some of the guards went and told the Jewish priests and those Jewish people were thinking about a way to cover the event. And the women were shocked when they saw no one there. If someone had taken the body all of the disciples should have known and should have gone to worship his dead body. So I don’t think someone were there ahead and took the body
  2. Catholics don’t think so. This is a typical teaching of the heresy of Gnosticism - secret knowledge. Think about this. If those two guys really talked about this, that means Judas was to be awarded for “betraying” Jesus our Lord. woo… No. He died painfully.
  3. I don’t think so. Jesus showed his scars to his disciples and broke bread with them again. That means he was physically with them at that time. And all the apostles and other disciples went insane at one time? Not easy right?
  4. He definitely knew OT better than anyone else ever stepped on this world, for those were His words. But he did not plan himself to be Christ. If he were just a human being, he would not have died for no reason. Anyways I cannot do that.
  5. We do not know. No gospel in the canon talks about his early life that much. In Gospel of Luke it seems that Jesus was and always is the only begotten son of God. And he knew God’s plan on him from a very young age. There are some gospels talking more about these things but since the Church didn’t put them in the canon list, I’m not sure if it is reliable. Many of those teachings will be heresies.
Last but not least, the reason I believe the resurrection did happen is not that I’m a Catholic and the Church says here you go that happened. If Jesus hadn’t been raised from the dead all of his disciples would have gone - including Peter our first Pope. Not to mention Apostle Paul who never knew Jesus the Lord in person. If the resurrection were just a lie, why would those early martyr rather die than give up their faith? They all went crazy? Definitely not. And I have to say if that were a story, everything would be perfect than it is now

Those who found Jesus would be men according to women’s status at that time. And everything in the Bible would be so accurate in order to convince people. But actually not.
Such as Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Does it look like Jesus was a disciple of John? And one of the Apostles was armed when Jesus was captured. You know during Passover one is not allowed to carry any weapon into Jerusalem. Those places really seem weird. No one would ever make up a story like that. Not convincing at all.
 
Yes it happened - our whole faith depends upon it - there is no Christian faith without the resurrection.Its what all the Gospels testify to and we also have St Paul and his vision.I don’t know how you can be Catholic and say we don’t know - we do know - by the faith in us and the testimony of the Gospels and the prophets of the old testament - and especially by Saint Paul whom had a vision and was converted preaching the Gospel immediately and unto his death.
 
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