Gospel authenticity & Witnesses

  • Thread starter Thread starter Micawber
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Micawber said:
Truly, can any other “radical” event as recounted in the Bible be said to have influenced so many people into martyrdom?
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That is a reasonable explanation if you accept their deaths as being caused by their belief in the resurrection. However, there is no real evidence that they were killed for this particular belief - there are many other possible reasons for their deaths. As far as the Romans were conserned, anything which upset just about anything was reason enough to be persecuted. Attempting to turn the masses away from traditional values and traditional gods would certainly have been enough.

There are also numerous examples thoughout history of people being willing to die for something bizarre which they were taught to be true by someone else.
 
patg said:
**That is a reasonable explanation if you accept their deaths as being caused by their belief in the resurrection. **However, there is no real evidence that they were killed for this particular belief - there are many other possible reasons for their deaths. As far as the Romans were conserned, anything which upset just about anything was reason enough to be persecuted. Attempting to turn the masses away from traditional values and traditional gods would certainly have been enough.
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But that’s not what I said. They were tortured and killed for being Christian, not specifically for believing in the resurrection. However, it’s hard to believe they endured torture & death for a fraudulent claim of resurrection. Or for a “symbolic” view resurrection.
There are also numerous examples thoughout history of people being willing to die for something bizarre which they were taught to be true by someone else.
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Yes, there are many examples. But none of them still has millions and millions of worshippers that still believe in “something bizarre.”

EDIT: and as Buffalo points out this should of course be taken within the larger framework of evidence for the resurrection generally. N.T. Wrights book is really extraordinary in its analysis of the evidence. Worth reading imo.
 
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