4 Step Proof for God & Minimal Facts Approach

[Missionary]

Minimal Facts Approach - Proving the Resurrection of Jesus

1. Without assuming Biblical inerrancy, what can we glean from the Scriptures? Almost all skeptical scholars who do their thesis work, are accredited and have peer review journal work done on the resurrection in the past half century (see Gary R. Habermas) agree Paul really wrote and really believed what he wrote in 1 Cor. 15 and Gal. 1 & 2.

2. In these three chapters, Paul said he spent fifteen days with Peter and also time with James, the brother of Jesus, within five years from the cross. Paul was converted two years after the cross then went away to study the Scriptures for three years after which time he returned to Jerusalem whereupon he got to know Peter and James. Later on he met up with John. And he continued to see them again over the years. They all testified to having seen Jesus alive from the dead in various group settings.

3. People do not willingly allow themselves to die for something they know is a lie so the Apostles really believed they saw, talked with, touched, walked with and even ate with Jesus in various group settings after He died on the cross which convinced them He was God so they became bold proclaimers when before they were doubters.

4. Therefore, it must be true they saw Jesus alive from the dead, since all naturalistic explanations have been exhausted these past two thousand years.

Wow, Troy we actually agree on something that I thought we would never agree on... Concise and simple apologetic proving the historicity of the Gospels and of the Work of Christ on the Cross... Kudos!

[Parture]

Perfect Proof for God

Since nature has been proven to always have a cause by the overwhelming preponderance of evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of trillions and trillions of cause and effects, and no hard evidence something comes from nothing, this necessarily leads to an infinite regress, but you would have happened already having had an eternity to do so; so therefore, there cannot be an eternity of the past of cause and effects. Pure and simple! Since nature can't always have existed, that which is outside of nature-time, space and matter-necessarily must be the cause. This is whom we call God.

So the question then becomes who is God? Many can claim to be God or make claims about who God is, but unless they have some evidence they need not be considered. Forget about any claims where God is not intelligent, personal and accessible, for how can God's standards be lower than our own? Any belief system that does not effectively address sin would be deficient. By holding out for the future there could be some evidence to prove God does not exist eventually requires that you be all-knowing but only God could be all-knowing.

Only does Jesus prove He is God! After saying He is God and predicting His death and resurrection, the original disciples testified to having seen Him alive from the dead in various group settings. Since all naturalistic explanations are impossible, then no naturalistic explanation can account for their testimony. Hence, Jesus rose from the dead proving His deity as the uncreated Creator, that He died on the cross for the sins of the world and salvation is only through Him. No atonement would be satisfactory unless it was God Himself. If a person is unwilling to come to the cross as a helpless sinner, they are saying they want to be eternally separated from God.

[Faithful]

Clay Jones writes,

In apologetics we provide argument and evidence for the truth of historic Christianity. For example, consider Jesus’ resurrection. We know that Jesus’ disciples walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, and ate with Jesus—they knew who Jesus was. They were with Jesus when he was arrested and they then scattered. The Romans then scourged Jesus, drove spikes through His wrists and His feet to nail him to the cross, and thrust a spear in His side to make sure He was dead. Then they buried Jesus.

But three days later, Jesus’ tomb was found empty and the disciples started testifying that they again walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, and ate with Jesus. And what’s really amazing is that many testified to his resurrection even to their own torture and death. We know extra-Biblically that Nero beheaded the Apostle Paul and we know from the Jewish historian Josephus that the Sanhedrin stoned to death Jesus’ brother James, who had become a leader of the Christian church.

So here’s my question: if Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, then why would the first disciples willingly die for what they knew was a lie?