Did that Jesus guy really rise from the dead? Does the bible give a true account of what happened?

Answer 1

I have looked at the stories about Jesus' resurrection, and I find it incredibly difficult to understand why Christians think the stories represent accurate accounts of real-life events. The only information we have on what is billed as the most amazing, most astounding, most awe-inspiring and the single most important event in the history of the entire universe consists of just four inconsistent, absurd, contradicting stories from four anonymous people.

I will describe just a few of the problems here. The mention of zombies marching down main street Jerusalem is found in only one Gospel, and it not mentioned by anyone who lived at the time. You would think that someone else, especially the other Gospel writers, might have thought to make note of this. Likewise, the three-hour worldwide darkness described in the Gospels is curiously absent from any writings from the time. What can explain this-worldwide amnesia? Christians often claim that the Gospels represent eyewitness accounts, which is strange since we have no idea who penned these stories. What is also strange is that these "eyewitness accounts" describe Jesus entering hell, talking with the devil on a mountain-top (an impossibly high mountain-top at that) and, at the end of the story, sitting in a throne in heaven. Who were the eyewitnesses to Jesus entering heaven and hell and chatting with the devil? The timeline and details between the four accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection are so contradictory that it is impossible to write a single coherent version of what, exactly, happened-if any of it actually happened at all. I believe that two Gospels even have Jesus ascending to heaven from two quite different locations. Did Jesus rise, then come down and then rise once again in an encore performance of his mystical ascension to heaven? The first Gospel, Mark, which was written 40 years after Jesus was supposedly resurrected, did not even have a resurrection, just an empty tomb. The last 4 paragraphs of Mark were tacked on later by someone, who, like the original writer, remains anonymous.

On top of these and other problems, there is the existence of resurrection stories from other religions that predate the Christian resurrection story. Dying and resurrecting gods were all the rage back at the time when the Jesus story started making the rounds. Is this simply some sort of wacky coincidence? I don't think so. Apologists spill a lot of ink, wear down their keyboards, and stretch logic and language to their outer limits and beyond to deny any connection whatsoever between earlier religions and Christianity. It is an interesting display of their craft, but hardly convincing.

And looking at things from another angle, the idea of the resurrection itself makes no sense whatsoever. Let's see if I can sort it all out: God, who can see the future and is all-powerful, creates people, and they make him angry for being the way he created them (despite his omniscience, God is surprised and angry about this somehow). Because God is so outraged by this outcome (that he had foreseen), he arranges to have the people he created murder him (or his son-I still don't understand whether Jesus and God are one or two people) so as to remove the anger that God feels at the people he created. This whole scenario is supposed to make some kind of sense to rational people. But wait, the story is not done yet: God has created a place called hell where people who do not accept this story will spend eternity screaming in agony.

The apologist Josh McDowell has created what he calls the Resurrection Trilemma, which proposes that there are only three possible explanations for the resurrection story-either Jesus is a liar, or he is a lunatic, or he is the Lord. Here is my twist on McDowell's handy little mnemonic device: The three possible logical explanations for the crucifiction and resurrection of Jesus are:

1) God is stupid.
2) God is sadistic.
3) The resurrection story is a false story, and quite silly as well.

Actually, this could be a quadlemma, since God could be both stupid and sadistic.

Answer 2

The simple answer to your question is yes to both. To prove this we must establish a couple things. First did Jesus exist? Second what books about him would be the most accurate?
To answer the first question as to whether he existed would be to say if he didn't exist then why is there so much fuss over him? Jesus is the most popular name in the world and has been for 2000 yrs. If he never existed then I don't think we would be debating him 2000 yrs later. Also if he didn't resurrect from the dead then what happened to his body? The jews that didn't believe in him could have shown his body after his death and then it would have been over right there.
To answer the second question I'd want to believe the books that were written about him closest to his lifetime. The ones in the bible. The people that wrote these books believed Jesus was coming back in there lifetime, and thats why they waited 30 or so yrs to write them. Also did you know that these people died in horrible ways because of what they saw. They saw Jesus when he came back from the dead. Do you think they would be willing to die for something that they knew was a lie?

Answer 3

Jesus did rise from the dead. The Bible gives a ture account.

Answer 4

Contrary to Robert D, the Gospels were not penned by anonymous writers, but the authors who penned the Gospel are well know eye witnesses, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. They are Mathew, the tax collector; Mark, who was called Levi; Luke, the physcian, and John, the beloved Apostle. The stories are true events, and not contrary stories.

Robert D, what is that about zombies walking down Main Street in Jerusalem? I don't recall ever reading about a Main Street, or zombies in the Bible. They were in the wilderness and mountains surrounding the Jordan River.

The Bible also says that Satan took Jesus to a mountain top, but where does it say anything about it being impossibly high?

The three-hour of darkness is reported outside the Bible. The Jewish historian Josephus, who had no love for the Christians, talks about the darkness at Jesus' Crucifixtion. He also mentions there were earth quakes, and the curtain seperating the Holy of Holies in the Temple was torn in two.

The ascension of Christ was witnessed by five hundred people, most of whom were alive during the writting of the Gospels. Josephus gives a good historical account of the resurrection. And it's easy to write there are contradictory statements, without writting anything specific. Write specific details, with Bible verses, and I'll clear up the contradiction for you.

The last four paragraphs of Mark were not added on by later writters. They were deleted bt Gnostic writters in the second century. Findings of early manuscripts which predate the Gnoostic writtings have the last four paragraphs in them.

Thousands of years befor Christ, His death and resurrection was predicted in the Old Testament. Not only did these writting predate the earlier religions, it was the basis of the stories they wrote.

The Bible is the inerrant, infallible word of God. There are no contradictions. Careful reading of the scripture can clear up any difficulties in meanings. Or, if you want to post a few contradictions, maybe I can clear them up for you.

Answer 5

Each of the 4 gospels gives an entirely different account so it's difficult to say which is accurate since they all could not have occurred at once. If they did, the stories would be identical, but they're not.

Also, certain events depicted in each account would have made the front page news so to speak because they were not normal occurances by any means (zombies in the streets or earthquakes for example). Therefore the secular historians of the time would have recorded them as well, but no one did. Which leads people to believe that they were nothing but stories.

Answer 6

Read Matthew Mark Luke and John in the New Testament yes Jesus did rise from the dead!

Answer 7

Yes,Jesus resurrected from the dead.Yes,the bible gives a true account in the four Gospels and also a scribe of Pilate wrote about it.

Answer 8

The Bible makes it clear that Jesus' resurrection isn't a myth or symbol. Instead, it really happened! The hardened Roman soldiers who crucified Him knew He was dead when they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a borrowed cave-like tomb. But on the third day that tomb was empty, and later hundreds saw Him.

Why is this important? Because it tells us there is hope—hope for this life, and hope beyond the grave. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies" (John 11:25). This hope can become yours, as you turn in faith to the living Christ and ask Him into your life.

Answer 9

I will prove Jesus lived, died and resurected from the tomb.

The first Gospel was Matthew.. It was written roughly around 50-55a.d... Jesus died in 33a.d... Do the math.. that is only 17 years after Jesus died...Not one single person from 33a.d refutted the Gospel of Matthew. Don't you think someone from 33a.d would have said "Hey wait a second.. this man never existed in my lifetime.. this story is a fraud" No one did..
Why didn't ancient historians disprove Jesus' life, death and resurection? If anyone would know.. I think historians would disprove Jesus in a second, but they didn't.

How's that for accuracy?

Answer 10

The history of Jesus and the resurrection is even in the Quran if you want to follow that book. It's interesting that with the books of the bible which have been around for centuries that you young wise people think it's such garbage. I would hate to think what the people who answered your question choose to follow.