Atheism and The Resurrection of Christ part 1 by Jason Burns

http://www.samuelzwemerseminary.com/

This paper is dedicated to the Atheist community. For a number of months I have studied the atheist community trying to see what they teach.One thing that comes to my mind is they are full of zeal in telling us we have no evidence for the Christian faith.This paper is a ruff draft of a book I hope to submit to be published.It seeks to show that we do have evidence for the Christian faith.This evidence is seen in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Let us see what one atheist says about Christianity.The famous Atheist AronRa is typical of what the atheists have been saying on the world wide web these last few years.


(There are some notable scholars among the 'fringe' who disagree with you, and they have good reasons why they disagree. Among my associates are Dr Richard Carrier and David Fitzgerald, both friends of mine who offer substantial challenges to the notion of an historical Jesus.......


........No you haven't. Even if you had, that still wouldn't have provided evidence for Christianity. 
Allow me to clarify: Christianity proposes (1) that there is a god.
(2) that there is only one complete deity among a host of other subordinate entities bordering on the divine, angels, demons, 'the devil', etc.
(3) that some aspect of humans exists as an immortal immaterial soul.
(4) that there is a supernatural spirit world.
(5) that this supernatural realm is divided into at least two major divisions, being Heaven & Hell.
(6) that Heaven is a place of splendid euphoria and Hell is subterranean prison of perpetual torture.
(7) that Jesus is the sole prophet of, only son of, or gateway to God, if not an avatar of God and thus god himself "made flesh".
(8) those who declare a belief in Jesus as their 'savior' in this capacity will ascend to Heaven after they die.
(9) that those who are not convinced that Jesus is the prophet, son of, or gateway to -God will be damned to endure agony for eternity.
(10) that for reasons which make no sense at all, Jesus died on the cross with the specific intent of appeasing himself so that he could forgive himself for the infallible error of making us prone to error in his image, to atone for our being the way he made us to be, and to punish us for learning right from wrong -even though we obviously couldn't have known right from wrong before then.
That's a summary. Not all of it is constant through every branch of Christianity, but most of it is consistent among nearly all the major denominations. You have provided absolutely no evidence of any of the above. Consequently it is likely all complete horseshit. As there is absolutely no evidence for ANY of the above, what other conclusion could we draw?
You said you had at least shown evidence that some lowly cult-leader named Yeshua bar Yosseff *might* have been crucified at some undeterminable point in the 1st Century, a time when no one recorded any hours of darkness during the day time, and no undead saints shrambling around Judea either. You failed to show that a purely human rebel rabbi ever got his name recorded by any of his contemporaries. But even if you had shown that -which you say you did, the best you would have shown would have been an historical Jesus; you still would not have shown a Biblical Jesus, nor would you have shown support for ANY of the various claims made by Christianity above. You haven't shown that there even a THERE there. You haven't shown any evidence of Christianity at all, because there isn't any. } By AronRa. :  1   http://www.theleagueofreason.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11585&hilit=AronRa .

These kind of arguments are the milk and drink of the atheist culture today.Many young people are taken in by people like AronRa.These atheists not only say these things they have invested allot of time trying to push this message on the web .Take a look at this video one of tens of thousands that these atheists are producing.

Notice what AronRa does not do .He does not aim his guns at the main issue with Christianity. What is the main issue? That is the Christian faith claims Jesus died. and had a resurrection from the dead.If atheists can show Jesus did not die on a cross and he did not rise again then they have won the argument.If Christians can provide evidence that Jesus did do so then the Christians win the debate. The debate is won or lost on these great pillars.If you nock the pillars down you win if you can't you lose.You cannot defeat Christianity unless you destroy the heart of Christianity . Atheists Scholars often will run away from this challenge.They attack Christianity round the edges but they fear to go to the main issue. If you doubt if the resurrection is at the heart of Christianity have a look at these scriptures and see how central the resurrection is.


  Matthew
    1. Matt. 12:39-40- Sign of Jonah
    2. Matt. 16:4- Sign of Jonah
    3. Matt. 16:21- Killed and raised
    4. Matt. 17:9- Do not tell information until risen from the dead
    5. Matt. 17:12- Son to suffer
    6. Matt. 17:22-23- Delivered, killed and raised
    7. Matt. 20:22- Drink of cup and be baptized
    8. Matt. 20:28- Give life a ransom for many
    9. Matt. 21:37-39- Parable of the husbandman-gives son-killed by workers
    10. Matt. 22:7- Small correlation*
    11. Matt. 23:34- Vague correlation*
    12. Matt. 26:2,24 To be crucified
    13. Matt. 26:28- Drink of blood shed
    14. Matt. 26:54- Scriptures must be fulfilled
  1. Mark
    1. Mark 8:31- Suffer, die and arise
    2. Mark 8:34-35- Deny, take up cross and follow
    3. Mark 9:9- Don’t tell until Jesus arisen
    4. Mark 9:30-32- Son will be killed and arise from dead
    6. Mark 10:38 Drink of cup, be baptized
    7. Mark 10:45- Give life a ransom for many
    8. Mark 12:6-8- Son killed by vineyard workers
    9. Mark 14:8- Anoint body for burying
    10. Mark 14:22-24- This is my body
  2. Luke
    1. Lk. 9:22- Rejected, killed and arise
    2. Lk. 9:23- Take up cross
    3. Lk. 9:36- Do not tell what was seen until after resurrection
    4. Lk. 11:29-32- Sign of Jonah
    5. Lk. 12:50- Baptism to be baptized with
    6. Lk. 13:32- Third day perfected
    7. Lk. 16:30-31- Not persuaded though one rise from the dead
    8. Lk. 18:31-33- Mocked, killed and rise again
    9. Lk. 20:14-15- Son killed by vineyard workers
    10. Lk. 22:15- Eat Passover before suffering
    11. Lk. 22:19-20- Bread and wine-body and blood symbolism
    12. Lk. 22:37- Allusion to death
    13. Lk. 22:42- Agony in Gethsemane-let cup pass
  3. John
    1. John 1:29,36- Lamb of God
    2. John 2:18-22- Destroy temple and raise it in three days
    3. John 3:14- Son must be lifted up
    4. John 3:32- Meat to eat that you know not of
    5. John 6:27- Labor for meat of life-son of man shall give
    6. John 6:51-58- Bread given-flesh of Jesus
    7. John 8:28- Lifted up the Son of man
    8. John 10:15- Lay down life for sheep
    9. John 10:17-18- Lay down life and take it
    10. John 11:50-51- Caiaphas prophesied Jesus’ death
    11. John 12:7- Ointment used for Jesus’ burying
    12. John 12:23-25- Son of man to be glorified-possibly means death
    13. John 12:32-33- Lifted up
    14. John 13:11,21- Knew who would betray him*
    15. John 13:33- Only with them a little while
    16. John 13:36- Cannot follow now, but later
    17. John 16:16- Little while and will not see Jesus
    18. John 16:32- Disciples to forsake Jesus*
  4. Acts
    1. Acts 1:3- Alive after passion
    2. Acts 1 - Jesus’ words after the resurrection
    3. Acts1:22- Witness of resurrection
    4. Acts 1:16-22- Peter’s statement
    5. Acts 2:14- Peter’s Pentecostal sermon
    6. Acts 2:23-24- Jesus crucified and raised
    7. Acts 2:27- Not leave soul in hell
    8. Acts 2:31 Resurrection of Christ
    9. Acts2:32- Witnesses of the resurrection
    10. Acts 2:36- Jesus crucified: Lord and Christ
    11. Acts 3:13-16,18- Jesus killed and raised
    12. Acts 3:26- God raised Jesus
    13. Acts 4:2- Through Jesus the resurrection of the dead
    14. Acts 4:10- Jesus crucified and raised
    15. Acts 4:33 Great power gave apostles witness of the resurrection
    16. Acts 5:28- Bring man’s blood upon us
    17. Acts 5:30-32- Death and resurrection-apostles and Holy Spirit are witnesses
    18. Acts 7:52- Murderers of Jesus
    19. Acts10:39-43- Death and resurrection witnesses, commission to preach
    20. Acts 13:29-31- Paul preached: death, burial, empty tomb, appearances, witnesses
    21. Acts 13:33-37- Resurrection
    22. Acts 17:3- Suffer and rise again
    23. Acts 17:18- Jesus and resurrection
    24. Acts 17:31-32- Assurance by raising Jesus from the dead
    25. Acts 20:28- Flock purchased with Jesus’ blood
    26. Acts 22:15- Witness of Jesus-was the risen Lord-(also see Acts 9, 26)
    27. Acts 23:6-8- Resurrection of the dead-24:15, 21, 26:8
    28. Acts 25:19- Jesus dead-Paul said alive
    29. Acts 26:14-18- Appearance of Jesus
    30. Acts 26:23- Jesus suffer and rise first
  5. Romans
    1. Rom. 1:4- Declared Son of God by resurrection from the dead
    2. Rom. 3:24-25- Faith in His blood
    3. Rom. 4:24- Jesus raised
    4. Rom.4:25- Delivered and raised
    5. Rom. 5:6-11- Christ died for the ungodly-justified by His blood-saved by His life.
    6. *Rom. 5:15- Offense-death-free gift
    7. Rom. 6:3-14- Baptism: parallels death, burial and resurrection
    8. Rom. 7:4 Dead to Christ: married to Him who was raised
    9. Rom. 8:11- Spirit raised Jesus
    10. *Rom. 8:17-18- Suffered and glorified with Christ
    11. Rom. 8:3- God delivered Jesus for us all
    12. Rom. 8:34- Jesus died and arose
    13. Rom. 10:6-7 Jesus died and rose (implied)-up from the dead
    14. Rom. 10:9- God raised Jesus
    15. Rom. 14:9- Death, resurrection and revived-Lord of dead and living
    16. Rom. 14:15- Destroy not a person for whom Christ died
  6. 1 Corinthians
    1. 1 Cor. 1:13- Paul crucified for you?
    2. 1 Cor. 1:17-18- Cross of Christ
    3. 1 Cor. 1:23- Christ crucified
    4. 1 Cor. 2:2- Know Jesus Christ and Him crucified
    5. 1 Cor. 2:8- Crucified Lord of glory
    6. 1 Cor. 5:7- Christ Passover sacrificed for us
    7. 1 Cor. 6:14- God raised up the Lord
    8. *1 Cor. 6:19-20- Bought with price
    9. 1 Cor. 8:11- Weak brother perish for whom Christ died?
    10. 1 Cor. 10:16- Body and blood-bread and wine
    11. 1 Cor.11:23-29- Received/delivered: body/blood
    12. 1 Cor.15:1-8- Creedal material on death and resurrection that Paul received
    13. 1 Cor. 15 - Resurrection - the importance of the resurrection
  7. 2 Corinthians
    1. 2 Cor. 1:9- Trust God which raiseth the dead
    2. *2 Cor. 2:12- Preach Christ’s gospel-4:3-4, 10:14, 11:4
    3. 2 Cor. 4:10- Dying of Lord Jesus
    4. *2 Cor. 4:11- Life of Jesus
    5. 2 Cor. 4:14- Jesus raised: so will we
    6. 2 Cor. 5:14-15- Jesus’ death and resurrection
    7. *2 Cor. 5:21- Jesus made sin for us
    8. 2 Cor. 13:4- Crucified by weakness: lives by the power of God
  8. Galatians
    1. Gal. 1:1- God raised Jesus
    2. Gal. 1:4- Jesus gave himself for our sins
    3. Gal. 1:6-10- Another gospel
    4. Gal. 1:11-1- Taught gospel by revelation
    5. Gal. 1-2 - Conversion and gospel; Possible location where Paul received the 1 Cor. 15:3-8creed?
    6. Gal. 2:2 Communicated gospel-doubt in Paul’s mind?
    7. Gal. 2:20- Crucified with Christ-Christ gave Himself for me
    8. Gal. 2:21- Christ died to free us from the law
    9. Gal. 3:1- Jesus crucified among them
    10. Gal. 3:13- Christ redeemed us from the law by being hanged on a tree
    11. Gal. 5:11- Offense of the cross
    12. Gal. 6:12- Persecution for the cross of Christ
    13. Gal. 6:14- Glory only in the cross
    14. *Gal. 6:17- Marks of the Lord Jesus
  9. Ephesians
    1. Eph. 1:7- Redemption through blood
    2. Eph. 1:20- Christ raised and set in heavenly places-above all-Jesus exalted
    3. Eph. 2:6- Raised us up to sit with Christ
    4. Eph. 2:1- Made nigh by blood of Christ
    5. Eph. 2:16- Reconcile by cross
    6. Eph. 5:25- Christ gave Himself for the Church
  10. Philippians
    1. *Phil. 1:7- Defense and confirmation of the gospel (cf. 1:17)
    2. *Phil. 1:29- Suffer for His sake
    3. Phil.2:5-11- Jesus humbled, died, exalted and glorified. This is considered a hymn by many scholars which has an early date.
    4. Phil. 2:10-11- Know Him and the power of His resurrection-conformed to his death and sufferings
    5. Phil. 3:18- Enemies of the cross of Christ
  11. Colossians
    1. Col. 1:14- Redemption though blood
    2. Col. 1:20- Peace through blood of cross
    3. Col. 1:21-22- Reconciled through His death
    4. Col. 2:11-13- Put off sins by circumcision of Christ-buried and raised by baptism
    5. Col. 2:14- Nailed it to the cross
    6. Col. 2:20- Dead with Christ
    7. Col. 3:1- Risen with Christ
    8. Col. 3:3- Dead: life hid with Christ
  12. 1 Thessalonians
    1. 1 Thess. 1:10- Jesus raised from the dead
    2. 1 Thess. 2:15- Killed Jesus
    3. 1 Thess. 4:14- Believe Jesus died and rose again
    4. 1 Thess. 5:10- Jesus died for us
  13. 2 Thessalonans
  14. 1 Timothy
    1. 1 Tim. 2:6- Gave Himself a ransom for all
    2. 1 Tim. 3:16- Manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit
  15. 2 Timothy
    1. 2 Tim. 1:10- Jesus abolished death: brought life and immortality to light through gospel
    2. 2 Tim. 2:8- Jesus raised from dead according to the gospel
    3. 2 Tim. 2:11-12- Suffer and live with Christ
    4. 2 Tim. 2:18- Resurrection past - claim of heretics
  16. Hebrews
    1. Heb. 1:3- Purged sins-set down in heaven
    2. Heb. 2:9- Jesus made lower for suffering of death
    3. Heb. 2:14- Death-destroyed him who had power over death
    4. Heb. 5:3- Offer for sins
    5. Heb. 6:2- Resurrection of dead
    6. Heb. 6:6- Crucify Son of God afresh
    7. Heb. 7:16- Power of an endless life
    8. Heb. 9:7-28- Blood, death
    9. Heb. 9-10 - Blood and death
    10. Heb. 10:12- Blood
    11. Heb. 10:28- Sacrifice for sins
    12. Heb. 10:29- Blood of [New] Covenant
    13. Heb. 11:35- Better resurrection
    14. Heb. 12:2- Endured cross-throne of God now
    15. Heb. 12:24 - Jesus mediator of New Covenant with blood
    16. Heb. 13:12 - Jesus suffered, blood sanctifies us
    17. Heb. 13:20 - God brought Jesus back from dead, blood of covenant
  17. James
  18. 1 Peter
    1. 1 Pet. 1:2 - Sprinkling of blood of Jesus Christ
    2. 1 Pet. 1:3- Resurrection of Jesus from dead
    3. 1 Pet. 1:19- Redeemed with blood of Christ
    4. 1 Pet. 1:21- God raised Jesus
    5. 1 Pet. 2:21- Christ suffered for us leaving an example
    6. 1 Pet. 2:24- Bore sins, tree, healed
    7. 1 Pet. 3:18- Put to death in the flesh, quickened by Spirit
    8. 1 Pet. 3:18-20- Death, hell, resurrection, exalted
    9. 1 Pet. 4:1 Suffered in flesh
    10. 1 Pet. 4:13- Christ’s sufferings
    11. 1 Pet. 5:1- Witness of Jesus’ suffering
  19. 2 Peter
    1. *2 Pet. 1:16- Witnesses of His majesty-transfiguration
  20. 1 John
    1. *1 John 1:2-3- Witnesses
    2. 1 John 1:7- Blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin
    3. 1 John 2:2- Jesus is the propitiation for our sins
    4. 1 John 3:16- Jesus laid down His life for us
    5. 1 John 4:10- Son payment for our sins
    6. 1 John 5:6,8- Came by water and blood-bears witness
  21. 2 John
  22. 3 John
  23. Jude
  24. Revelation
    1. Rev. 1:5- First begotten of dead, washed us in His blood
    3. Rev. 1:18- Lived, died and arose
    4. Rev. 5:6- Lamb slain
    5. Rev. 5:9- Redeemed by blood
    6. Rev. 5:12- Lamb slain
    7. Rev. 7:14- Washed robes, white by blood of Lamb
    8. Rev. 11:8- Lord crucified
    9. *Rev. 11 - Witnesses raised
    10. Rev. 12:11 Overcame by blood of Lamb
    11. Rev. 13:8- Book of Lamb slain from foundation of the world-Lamb reference
    12. *Rev. 16:6- Blood to drink
    13. Rev. 19:13- Vesture dipped in blood-Jesus
    14. *Rev. 20:5-6- First resurrection

        :2  Death and Resurrection Passages in the New Testament Ryn Turner


      As we can see form all these texts the core of Christianity is the resurrection of Christ.Now you will find very little in  Atheist scholarship or in the atheist blogs on this subject .What they tend to do is attack the Old Testament or talk about how Christianity is against Science .If Atheist scholars like DR Richard Carrier do take on the subject they use scholarship that is 70 years out of date . This is a major problem for the atheist scholarly community and the blog sphere.
      They have not got up to date scholarship on this topic and they do not want you to know how modern scholarship has been confirming the Death and Resurrection of Christ. Over the next ten weeks I hope to introduce you to this amazing scholarship that gives solid evidence for the truth of Christianity. Before I do I just want to labour this point as it is so vital to this debate.
      You can't prove Christianity is not the truth unless to debunk the resurrection of Christ.Once again it is the central core of the faith.

      "In calling attention to this preoccupation with the atonement, my purpose is not to challenge the validity and necessity of this development, far less to call into question the conclusions reached. I wish to point out that the dominating interest in the death of Christ has had associated with it a relative neglect of the resurrection".

      "For Paul, "life" in the soteriological sense ... is grounded specifically in the resurrection of Jesus and it's manifestation is always an expression of that resurrection. Life for Paul is pointedly resurrection-life".
      "Resurrection with Christ involves an existential component. The believer's continuing walk in newness of life is based upon resurrection with Christ as that has taken place in his actual life history".
      "Baptism signifies and seals a transition into the experience of the recipient a transition from being (existentially) apart from Christ to being (existentially) joined to Him".
      "The resurrection is not an aspect or component of the death. Rather ... each has a meaning of its own which is suppressed at the risk of seriously distorting Paul's Gospel".  

      "The resurrection is the salvation of Jesus as the last Adam; it and no other event in His experience is the point of His transition from wrath to grace".
      "Strictly speaking not Christ's death but His resurrection (that is His exaltation) marks the completion of the once-for-all accomplishment of redemption".

      "In fact only by virtue of His resurrection is His death, a dying to sin. A soteriology structured so it moves directly from the death of Christ to the application to others of the benefits purchased by that death, substantially short-circuits Paul's own point of view".
      "This does not imply that Paul compromises the absolute necessity and intrinsic efficacy of Christ's death (as an atonement). It does mean however that he does not confuse the ransom price, no matter how sublime and precious with what is secured by it's payment".


       : 3 "The Centrality of the Resurrection" by Richard B Gaffin Jr


      Notice that Dr Gaffin Jr shows how even Theologians have neglected the resurrection in theological discourse.If Theologians can do so how much more the Atheists?We need to be intellectually honest and deal with the real Challenges of Christianity and not hide by out modded easy target arguments that are emotional or pray on peoples ignorance.This is the stock and trade of these modern atheists.It is time we called them out.

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