Atheists how will you refute this proof of Christianity?

Question

The resurrection demonstrates the truth of Christianity
It is no exaggeration to say that the Christian faith rests on the fact of Jesus' resurrection. Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, said that his entire ministry would be worthless if the resurrection had not taken place. "If Christ has not been raised," he wrote, "then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. . . . If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins" (1 Cor. 15:14, 17). On the other hand, if Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, then Paul's message is true, faith has meaning, and we can be freed from our sins.

That's essentially what we have been arguing. It makes good sense to believe in the teachings of Christianity, because those teachings are based on a simple historical fact the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

If Jesus was raised from the dead, then what He said about himself must have been true. When the religious leaders of His day asked for some proof of His authority, Jesus told them that the only proof they would be given would be His resurrection from the dead (John 2:18 19; Matt. 12:38 40). When He was raised from the dead, that proof was provided.

What was proven through Jesus' resurrection? Here are some of the things that Jesus said about Himself, all of which were affirmed by His resurrection from the dead:

"I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst" (John 6:35).

"I am the light of the world; he who follows me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12).

"Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM" [a claim to be God himself] (John 8:58).

"I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John 10:9).

"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11).

"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me shall live even if he dies" (John 11:25).

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me" (John 14:6).

If these statements are true, then anything that contradicts them cannot also be true. In other words, if it is true that Jesus is God, then anyone who says Jesus is not God must be wrong. If it is true that Jesus gives eternal life to those who believe in Him and that He is the only way to the Father, then anyone who says that there are other ways to salvation must be wrong.

How do we know that what Jesus said about Himself is true? We know by His resurrection, which He offered as definitive proof for all that He did and said.

What this means is that the statements quoted above demonstrate the uniqueness of Jesus, but they also demonstrate the uniqueness of Christianity. If what Jesus said about Himself is true, then Christianity is true, and any contradictory religious belief must be false.

That's not a very popular message in today's pluralistic culture, but the fact is that there are genuine differences between world views. Only one can really be correct. If Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead, there's little need for further debate. He alone is the way, the truth, and the life.

Answer 1

Jesus was never raised from the dead. All you have are words on paper. And the gospels are nothing but anonymous hearsay.

If jesus was serious about healing people, why didnt he teach them to make penicillin? He dindt because he didnt know how. He was just a man.

Answer 2

Sorry to take you to task here, but ...

"If Jesus was raised from the dead, then what He said about
himself must have been true."

YEP - IF.

The only "evidence" of this event is from the Gospels and the Pauline Letters, and these were written by men who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Not what I would call objective proof by a long shot.

What other proof do you have? I am not saying that you should not accept the Bible as true, but it really doesn't serve as very good evidence to try and convince those who don't.

I hope that you aren't a lawyer.

"If Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead, there's little need for further debate."

AGAIN - IF. You may believe that he was; others may believe that he wasn't. Therein lie the grounds for a debate.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the Christian faith rests on the fact of Jesus' resurrection."

This IS a point that I will agree with you on. And if there is no resurrection, then there is no Christ.

"Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, said that his entire ministry would be worthless if the resurrection had not taken place."

So then this IS another point of agreement - that Paul is responsible for the development of Christianity and if his ministry is wrong, then it is worthless.

And no, this is not a "historical fact." That's where you REALLY screw up. There is no historical support for this event beyond the writings of the New Testament.

And even these New Testament writings came DECADES after Jesus died. Why so long in getting around to telling the story?

"If these statements are true, then anything that contradicts them cannot also be true."

And if what contradicts them is true, then these statements cannot also be true. But one does not have to disprove the statements; since you are making the argument, you have to be responsible for providing sufficient support for your claims.

"If what Jesus said about Himself is true, then Christianity is true,"

"If Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead, there's little need for further debate."

Lots of "IF"s in your argument, aren't there?

Answer 3

In some cases, it is not a matter of proof; It is a matter of being able to say "I believe!" and truly mean it. Look at the faith of the early martyrs: emotional hodge-podge? I think not. Besides, who ever heard of someone giving their life for secularism? Maybe being a martyr for Agnosticism, or atheism... Why do the three aforementioned proposals sound so lame?
Because they are; Why should you die for your belief in something if your position on faith is that you are resolved not to believe?
I believe that faith, and through faith, works, are the greatest proofs that christianity is something that is eternal.
Diocletian sought to wipe out christianity - but diocletian is dead, and Christ and his church live on.
Nietsche said that God was dead - but nietsche is dead, and Christ and his church live on.
All things made by men must fail, but that which God makes will prevail.
Christianity has been around for over 2000 years, and every attempt to wipe it out has only resulted in a burst of growth.
To me, this is the most convincing evidence of all.

Also, it is funny that martin luther should be mentioned; As an aside, may I remind you that he started the most splintered, fractured branch of christianity that there is (namely protestantism)? True, some of the protestants have a zeal that is rarely matched among the Roman catholics and the Orthodox and Melchite Churches, but where are their leaders? How come they are still splintering and fracturing to this day? Because they were started by a man, and though God can still guide them, The Catholic church and also the Orthodox church have never fallen to splinters.

Also, the church was not trying to eradicate the pagan festivals - it was trying to 'baptise' them (metaphorically speaking). The church knew that it would not be good to force the pagans to stop celebrating their festivals, so they allowed them to continue, but gave them a better reason.

Answer 4

(This is from National Geographic series, Science of the Bible)The gospels were written 30 to 60 years after the event. Which means that they were not written by the actual disciples. Also, there is evidence that Jesus did not rise from the dead but was simply moved. As a gesture of loyalty from Joseph of Aramathia, a loyal friend and secret follower. At that time, tradition was that a body had to be in the tomb before sundown. Jesus died around 3 so they had to hurry up and quickly get him ready. Joseph just happened to own the nearby tomb and said they could put him in there. Knowing full well they were going to move him and give him a proper burial. But after Jesus died, the wrapped him in strips (not a shroud, the turin shroud was done by davinci) And rolled a round stone in the door. Evidence shows that tombs of that time period, had square doors. Squares would over course be harder to move, a round stone much easier. So later that night, Joseph went to the tomb and got Jesus and gave him a proper burial. Then three days later, well you know the story. That is just what it is, a story. A story of faith. You can believe that that event happened as it does in the bible. Or you can believe in science and the truths revealed by the awesome power of science.

Answer 5

Quoting things from a book does NOT make it any more true. I can quote Mother Goose fables and fairytales all day so does that mean that the woman in the shoe really existed?? You weren't around back then when the Bible was written so you'll never know who really wrote it. When they find the bones of Jesus or some kind of REAL proof come back and let us know. Until then, you'll have to accept that there is NO proof.

Answer 6

That's all fine and dandy... your delusions seem pretty well integrated. Unfortunately, modern biblical scholarship makes a very strong case for the idea that Jesus was an entirely fictional character... thus making all of Christianity a huge fraud. See 'The Jesus Puzzle'.

http://home.ca.inter.net/oblio/home.htm

Science, logic, reason, and critical thought have long been regarded (by religious people) as the enemies of religion. Considering that those are the tools of highly intelligent people, it should not come as a huge shock to learn that intelligence (or lack of it) has some connection to religious belief. In fact, there are about 40 studies, conducted over the past 80 years or so, that reveal a statistically significant NEGATIVE CORRELATION between intelligence and religiosity. In plainer language, that means that they found that the more intelligent a person is, the LESS likely that person is to be religious... or, reciprocally, the LESS intelligent a person is, the MORE likely that person is to be religious.

If you think about it, those findings make a lot of sense. Intelligence tests mainly provide an indication of reasoning ability and problem solving ability... logic, reason and critical thought. These are the very qualities that see through religion, and recognize it for what it is; i.e., religion cannot survive the glaring light of reason and critical thought. This was well understood by important figures in religious history. This is why the early church destroyed all the 'tainted' (non-canonical) writings, which were in conflict with dogma... Greek philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, engineering... all the good stuff. By this means, Christianity dragged humanity directly into the Dark Ages.

Just to illustrate the point, let's see what Martin Luther, the 'father' of protestantism, had to say about 'reason' and secular knowledge:

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." ~ Martin Luther

"There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason... Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason should be destroyed in all Christians." ~ Martin Luther

Christianity is essentially a criminal business enterprise... in fact, it is the world's longest running and most successful Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scam. The product they are selling is the illusion of 'salvation'... and the 'pay plan' doesn't kick in until after you're dead. Meanwhile the victims (having been deceived into believing that it is their God-given duty) are out there recruiting MORE victims. What a racket! FORTUNATELY, it only works on those who are gullible enough, and sufficiently lacking in critical thinking skills, to fall for it. UNfortunately, THAT accounts for about 75% of the population of the USA. (There are a lot more people who DON'T know how to think properly than there are people who DO know how to think properly.) That is why there are a lot more religious people in the USA than there are 'Free-thinkers'... including Atheists. Also, Christians are generally too dense to realize that proselytizing (spreading the 'good news') is a key element of the Christian MLM MARKETING PLAN, which was instituted after Christianity lost the political power that had previously allowed them to simply torture and kill anybody who did not comply. Now, they obliviously try to just pester and annoy people to death, through persistent obnoxiousness. If you stop to think about it, you will realize that Christians are very much like the Borg, on Star Trek Next Generation: "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." I would not be surprised to learn that thoughts of Christianity provided the 'creative spark' for the Borg concept.

Interestingly, statistics on supernatural beliefs count the USA on a par with backward, developing Third World nations, rather than among modern, advanced industrial powers.

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"Selling eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their money back after the goods are not delivered." ~ Victor J. Stenger

"Businesses may come and go, but religion will last forever, for in no other endeavor does the consumer blame himself for product failure."  ~ Harvard Lampoon, "Doon" (paraphrase)

http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm

Answer 7

Let me state first that I am a firmly-believing Christian.

Your "demonstration" is somewhat lacking, mainly because you failed to prove or give any evidence outside of the Bible that Jesus actually rose from the dead.

The Jewish historian Josephus, who is a respected historian from that period, attests to the resurrection of Christ. Something like this, in addition to what you have argued here, would make your argument more airtight.

Answer 8

I don't see any proof in that what so ever. You are just quoting words from a book. Where is the proof or physical evidence? There are many many myths in every culture that have someone coming back to life or raising someone from the dead. And it was very common in that time for a god to be born of a virgin.....so what makes his birth or his death so different? Where is the proof?

Answer 9

The bible also mentioned that Lazarus was raised from the dead. How come you don't believe he is god?

Are you professing to the Lazarist faith?

Oh, by the way, do you really have any proof? The world has been waiting for 2000 years and no one has produced it yet.

Answer 10

I'm a Christian and I obviously believe in the resurrection of Jesus but there really isn't any real historic evidence that proves he did. You can quote all the bible excerpts you want, but it doesn't prove anything particularly to those who don't believe the bible is anymore than a big book.