The
painting is called The Incredulity of St. Thomas, painted by Carvagio, an Italian
Baroque artist in the early 1600s. It captures the moment of Thomas's doubts
about the resurrection of Jesus, dissipating in the light of the evidence
as he puts his finger into the side of Jesus. Is the painting's notoriety due
to Carvagio's skill as a painter, or is it due to the fact that so many of us
can identify with the contents of the painting? All of us go through doubts
about our faith at different times and ask the question, is there enough evidence
to support my beliefs? With Christianity, it all comes down to this. Is there
enough evidence to support Jesus' resurrection from the dead? We all have a
belief or beliefs. Some people believe in evolution and some people believe in
intelligent design. Some people believe in capitalism and still others believe in
socialism. There are those that say they don't believe in anything and yet they
believe in that belief. What do you believe and what is the evidence of your
belief? Three weeks from now you will present your belief and more importantly
you'll present the evidence of that belief. Any questions?
Hey Caroline. Caroline, hey. Hey. Are you okay? Hey Allen. I'm fine. I'm just
thinking about the assignment we got. Yeah, isn't it great? I mean it should be a
piece of cake for us since we've been Christians all of our lives. That's just
the thing. I don't know the evidence for why I believe what I do. You can go to
church your whole life but it's like osmosis. You take on everyone else's
faith but do you know why? Well I mean I believe because I just do. Don't you see
my predicaments? I mean our predicaments. Well I think that'll be good for us to
explore the foundation of our faith. I don't even know where to start. How about
with the resurrection since that is the core of our beliefs? How do you even do
that? What are you adoring Thomas? Come on.
I'm getting nowhere with this. You know Rome wasn't built my day. Rome also fell
Neil. What's your presentation about? Evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. You
believe in that? Well yeah. You don't? I did a personal investigation into the
claims of Jesus last semester. What did you find out? Jesus was a good man, a
teacher, a devoutly spiritual person but as far as empirical evidence of the
resurrection there is none. It's based on claims of others that invested three
years of their lives following him. It's understandable they'd want to think their
lives hadn't been wasted when he died. I think his body was stolen. It's Hindu
tradition that Jesus traveled throughout Southeast Asia learning many of his
teachings from the spiritual leaders of India. So you aren't denying Jesus was
real? Not at all. I think everyone would believe Jesus was real but he did not
rise from the dead. Well what do you believe then? As a Muslim I believe his
body was taken into heaven so he would not experience the crucifixion. That is
why his body was never found. You're relying on evidence that is the source
of your claim. We haven't even discussed what Buddhists, Mormons and others say.
No one has any idea what occurred with his body but it didn't rise from the
dead. Everyone has an explanation for Jesus body not being in the tomb. Why is
that? If the resurrection occurred if his claims were true then what? Then we'd be
held accountable to him as being God just like he claims. So instead it's
explained in a way that's conducive to one's belief. You're varying beliefs on
the resurrection. Don't prove anything but you all agreed on one thing with me
and that is Jesus body was not in the tomb. Something did happen.
Old Testament prophecies about Jesus on manuscripts like the Dead Sea Scrolls
which pre-date Jesus were proven true.
According to F.F. Bruce if the New Testament were a collection of secular
writings their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.
Some speculate that Jesus didn't die but fainted. He'd been beaten, crucified and
starved for three days. How can he move a hundred pounds of burial bombs and move
a 1500 pound rock? Hundreds of people saw him over the course of nine
appearances. Some were strangers and skeptics. There is no historical account
of group hallucination. When Paul wrote 1st Corinthians he told people to ask
the witnesses since they were still alive.
Follow me on this. Okay. The empty tomb. The entrance was blocked by a boulder
that needed levers to put it into place. The boulder itself weighed over 1500
pounds and the tomb had a Roman seal on it that put a death sentence of being
crucified upside down on anyone who broke it. And besides that there was a
contingent of at least four Roman soldiers guarding the entrance to prevent
anyone from stealing the body. So the defenses were put in place to keep the
body from being stolen. Exactly. And by this time most of Jesus's followers had
abandoned him. That's why they tried to steal the body anyway. Hey, how much do you
think that fridge weighs? I don't know. Four, five hundred pounds? Try and move it.
Now imagine trying to move a boulder that weighs 1500 pounds. Wow. That'd be like
trying to move a dead hippo. Huh? Oh, I was just reading. Never mind. And that does
even factor in the Roman soldiers or the fear of being crucified upside down. Who
could even pull that off? No one.
In my study of the lives of the apostles I found that they were men who ran
scared from the local authorities when Jesus was arrested and crucified. They
lost all hope and some went back to their old professions. They gave no
inclination whatsoever that they were about to change the course of human
history. What brought about this abrupt and extreme change within them? The
Apostle Thomas doubted the claims of the resurrection by saying he wouldn't
believe until he could see the marks of the nails in Jesus' hands. What
motivated Thomas, the man who's synonymous with doubt to travel to India and
China to proclaim the truth about Jesus and face martyrdom? The resurrection of
Jesus. 500 witnesses saw him alive in flesh and blood. When the Apostle saw
Jesus resurrected, it became a catalyst that emphatically changed the course of
their lives. If Jesus overcame death, what did they have to doubt or fear?
Nothing. For the rest of their lives, they were persecuted. They were imprisoned
and many died for their faith. Why would they all embrace this life if it were a
lie? Everything hinges on the resurrection. If it's true, then everyone
should believe in God. If it's false, then Christianity should be dismissed as a
farce. Now some people have a hard time believing the evidence for the
resurrection. It happened 2,000 years ago. There's no eyewitness that's still
alive to speak authoritatively on the matter. There is no smoking gun. And if
you only focus on a single piece of evidence, I'm not sure you can make a
compelling case. But if you step back and look at the big picture, a mosaic of
truth emerges. Jesus was who he said he was. He lived, he died, he rose from the
dead. And the world has never been the same since.
