The Call for Muslim Evangelism

Christianity is founded upon the belief that Jesus Christ was crucified and physically rose from the dead. This one doctrine defines who we are and serves as a guide for everything else that we practice. If Jesus in fact rose from the dead, then those who reject Christianity will have to either change their worldview or stand accountable for blatantly ignoring God’s provision of eternal salvation. Therefore, the only hope that any other religious/belief system (especially Islam) has in maintaining their validity in existing is by attacking this historical and pivotal event. 

The excerpt bellow comes from www.answeringinfidels.com. It contains a portion of a conversation between two Christian scholars and two antagonistic atheists. The dialogue took place on The Infidel Guy Show, hosted by the “Infidel Guy” himself, Reginald Finley, Sr. The purpose of the show was to allow Gary and Mike to present their case for the resurrection of Jesus, and to see if this case could withstand questions and objections from Richard and Reginald.  This is will show you some of the arguments against the resurrection and the answers given before the subject got out of hand. “The show got off to a good start. Reginald did an excellent job moving the discussion forward and allowing

Gary and Mike to explain their points. Reginald began by asking why Christians need to defend the resurrection. Mike said that the resurrection is the cornerstone of Christianity, because Jesus made it so by claiming that he would rise from the dead. Hence, if the resurrection is true, then those who reject Christianity need to change their worldview. But if Jesus didn’t rise, then Christians should find something better to do. Either way, it’s an important topic.

Gary added that, while a person may believe in or deny the resurrection by faith, the New Testament position is quite different, for it offers the resurrection as a historical foundation for belief, not simply as a tenet of blind faith.After this brief but important groundwork, Reginald asked the Christian side how we can know that Jesus was a historical figure. This was a bit off-topic, but quite understandable. Many of the show’s listeners have absorbed the ideas of the handful of “Internet Infidels” who subscribe to the “Jesus-myth” theory, and thus may not be aware of the fact that not a single major scholar in the world takes it seriously.[i][1] Gary responded by noting that wherever we look, either at the New Testament or outside the New Testament, we find abundant evidence that Jesus existed. If we go to the New Testament (and virtually all critical scholars use the New Testament to some degree), historians have plenty of material to conclude that Jesus existed. But even if we reject the New Testament altogether, there are 17-18 non-Christian sources written within 100-150 years of the crucifixion, from which we can gather 48-50 comments about Jesus. If we add a third category—Christian writings outside the New Testament—we can gather a few other facts.Having given

Gary an opportunity to outline the evidence for Jesus’ existence, Reginald turned to Mike for the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. Here Mike explained the “minimal facts” approach, which employs facts that meet two criteria: (1) they must be strongly evidenced, and (2) they must be acknowledged by the vast majority of scholars. Using these two criteria,

Gary has assembled twelve facts that relate to the resurrection of Jesus. Mike suggested that these facts could be condensed to three important claims:(1)  Jesus died by crucifixion;(2)  Shortly after his burial, the tomb was empty; and(3)  Some of his closest followers (and at least two people who weren’t originally followers) believed that he had risen from the dead and that he had appeared to them.Mike went on to say that historians seek hypotheses that fit the facts. Once the hypotheses have been narrowed down to those that account for the facts, the best explanation can be selected, and we can have confidence in this explanation to the degree that it outdistances other explanations. Mike concluded by saying that he and Gary both think that there is extraordinary evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.At this point, Reginald asked Mike and Gary for further evidence that Jesus existed and that he rose from the dead. However, in a moment of clarity that he lacked for the rest of the program, Richard said that Jesus’ existence should be granted for purposes of the discussion. (Of course, this may have simply been a careful move on Richard’s part, so that listeners wouldn’t see how flimsy the Jesus-myth theory is.) Reginald agreed with Richard, and attention shifted back to the resurrection. Gary then began an analysis of the early Christian creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3ff, which states that Jesus died, that he was buried, that he was raised from the dead on the third day, and that he appeared to a number of witnesses.

Gary gave a number of reasons for giving this material an extremely early date:(1)  Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in 55 AD.(2)  Paul says that he delivered this material to the Corinthians when he visited them a few years earlier (~51 AD).(3)  There are 8-10 literary features in the text showing that the material in 1 Corinthians 15:3ff was an early Christian creed.(4)  Paul most likely received this creed when he visited the Apostles around 35 AD.(5)  The creed would therefore predate Paul’s visit to

Jerusalem.(6)  Critical scholars give the creed an extremely early date. For instance, atheist New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann places it around 33 AD. The notoriously liberal Jesus Seminar places it at 32 AD (or earlier). James D. G. Dunn and Gerald O’Collins date the creed to 30 AD (i.e. within months of Jesus’ crucifixion).Since this material is very early, and since we can trace reports of Jesus’ death, burial, and appearances back to eyewitnesses, we have evidence that needs to be accounted for. If the resurrection hypothesis is the best explanation for this evidence, and if no other explanation plausibly accounts for the data, then Christians would appear to be amply justified when they claim that a miracle has occurred. Thus ended the clearest and most pertinent portion of the program. Gary and Mike argued (1) that the resurrection is an important topic for both Christians and non-Christians, (2) that there is overwhelming evidence for Jesus’ existence, (3) that Jesus’ death by crucifixion, the empty tomb, and the belief of Jesus’ followers that he had appeared to them are all historical facts, and (4) that the creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3ff is extremely early material that points to Jesus’ resurrection.

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