From “The Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft
CONSPIRACY THEORY
Pascal points out that the human heart is singularly susceptible to fickleness, to change, to promises, to bribery (Pascal, Pensees 322, 310). It’s a historical fact that no one, weak or strong, saint or sinner, Christian or heretic, ever confessed, freely or under pressure, bribe or even torture, that the whole story of the resurrection was a fake, a lie, a deliberate deception. Even when people broke under torture and denied Christ and worshipped Caesar, they never confessed such a thing. If they made up the story, they were the most creative, clever, intelligent fantasists in history, far surpassing Shakespeare or Dante. Fisherman’s “fish stories” are never that elaborate, convincing, life changing, or enduring. The disciples character argues strongly against such a conspiracy on the part of all of them, with no dissenters. They were simple, honest, common peasants and not cunning and convincing liars. They willingly died for their “conspiracy”. Nothing proves sincerity like martyrdom. The change in their lives from fear to faith, despair to confidence, confusion to certitude, runaway cowardice to steadfast boldness under threat of persecution, not only proves their sincerity but testifies to some powerful cause of it. Can a lie cause such transformation? Are truth and goodness such enemies that the greatest good in history – sanctity- has come from the greatest lie?
Aquinas says,” In the midst of the tyranny of the persecutors, an innumerable throng of people, both simple and learned, flocked to the Christian faith. In this faith there are truths proclaimed that surpass every human intellect; they pleasures of the flesh are curbed; it is taught that the things of the world should be spurned. Now, for the minds of mortal men to assent to those things is the greatest of miracles…This conversion of the world to the Christian faith is the clearest witness…… For it would be truly more wonderful than all signs if the world had been led by simple and humble men to believe such lofty truths, to accomplish such difficult actions, and to have such high hopes” (Summa Contra Gentiles I 6)
There could be no possible motive for such a lie. What did the conspirators get from their lie? They were hated, scorned, persecuted, excommunicated, imprisoned, tortured, exiled, crucified, boiled alive, roasted, beheaded, disemboweled and fed to lions. If the resurrection was a lie, the Jews would have produced the corpse and nipped this feared superstition in the bud. All they had to do was to go down to the tomb and get it. The Roman soldiers and leaders were on the side of the Jews, not the Christians’. The disciples could not have gotten away with proclaiming the resurrection in Jerusalem- same time, same place, full of eyewitnesses- if it had been a lie.
William lane Craig says, “The Gospels were written in such temporal and geographical proximity to the events they record that it would have been almost impossible to fabricate events… the fact that the disciples were able to proclaim the resurrection in Jerusalem in the face of their enemies a few weeks after the crucifixion shows that what they proclaimed was true, for they could never have proclaimed the resurrection (and been believed) under such circumstances had it not occurred. (Knowing the Truth about the Resurrection, ch. 6)
“If there had been a conspiracy, it would certainly have been unearthed by the disciples’ adversaries, who had both the interest and the power to expose any fraud. Common experience shows that such intrigues are inevitably exposed” (Knowing the Truth about the Resurrection)
