Today, I listened to the re-broadcast podcast on the Unbelievable? podcast which was the recording of The Big Conversation Season 5 at https://www.thebigconversation.show/videos/season-5/episode-1/
The “conversation” or “constructive argumentation” was around the question, “Did Jesus of Nazareth rise from the dead?”
I believe that Jesus of Nazareth did rise from the dead!
I believe like Paul:
“Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection.” 1 Corinthians 15:12-15 (MSG)
Having said that, I do not believe there is “historical proof” for the resurrection. I believe there are historical facts that make the resurrection the best possible explanation from those historical facts. I believe that the alternative explanations are lesser explanations.
But, I think Bart Ehrman, the agnostic New Testament scholar, did better presenting his case than Justin Bass, the Christian New Testament scholar. Bart has been doing conversations like this for a long time and it showed. Justin suffered from the “whack the mole” argument style. Instead of working through each argument back and forth, Justin would merge different arguments to bolster the prior argument. He called this the “accumulating facts.” One fact can’t be used to prove another fact if neither fact have been either agreed to or argued well.
This is my opinion.
Give the broadcast a listen and come to your own conclusions.
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