Board index ‹ Resurrection of Christ

[mrtj]

I know apologists often cite the disciples willingness to die for their belief in the evidence of the resurrection. Indeed, many of the disciples witnessed / experienced the resurrected Christ. Do you have any thoughts on how to distinguish this willingness to die by the disciples from countless of other people in other religions who have divine experiences and are willing to die on the beliefs from those experiences? For example, didn't many of the early muslims die for their belief?

[jimwalton]

The difference is this: if they knew the resurrection was a story they just made up to gain some kind of notoriety or status in the community, or to start a new religion, whatever, then they were willing to die for what they knew was a lie. That's different from Muslims willing to die for their faith (which they believe is true), or Hindus (which they believe is true), or for a cause that they believe is a worthy cause. We see many people through history willing to die for a worthy cause or for what they are convinced is the truth. But this is not the situation here if they conspired together to perpetrate a lie.

Let's think it through, supposing the disciples got together and decided to spread this rumor in the community that Jesus had risen from the dead. In the first couple of weeks their ploy worked, and people were turning to the "Lord" ("Great joke, eh? And now people respect us!"). But now the pressure comes on. James is killed. Stephen is killed. Peter is imprisoned. In all practicality, we may find one or two of them willing to die for their ruse, but all 11? Not likely at all. Somebody (most of them) would crack under the pressure and confess it was fictional.

The counter accusation in the atheist community is maybe the disciples didn't know it was a lie; maybe they all had a mass hallucination to the point where they were convinced they all saw Jesus. The response to that is there is no such thing as a mass hallucination. A hallucination is something that happens in one person's mind, not across minds. That's not a sensible claim.

Chuck Colson tells the same story after the Watergate scandal broke in the early 1970s. The major players were all protecting each other and maintaining the lie until the pressure came on and they were going to be sent to prison for a long time. Then, Colson says, a bunch of them started singing like canaries, implicating the others, fighting for their own freedom and innocence, brokering deals. Many may die for what they believe to be true (plenty of martyrs of all stripes), even if it's false—they believe it's true. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie. As Paul Little says, "If ever a man tells the truth, it is on his deathbed."