A Case For Christ
A few weeks ago my wife and I came across a great movie entitled A Case for Christ. It's an interesting film based on a true story of how an atheist investigative journalist came to believe in Jesus Christ.
After finishing the film, I realized that some of the information conveyed in the movie - about the authenticity of Christ's resurrection - were things I'd never heard in the church. They were valid points based on science, psychology, and medicine that anyone can research for themselves today. Here are the three common challenges to Christianity that the movie addressed:
1. Authenticity of New Testament writings describing Christ's resurrection.
A typical belief in the world is that the New Testament writings might not be that reliable, and that there isn't enough evidence that the documents are true. The film, however, points out that there are in fact thousands of authenticated copies of the New Testament documents, which is significantly more than the widely accepted writings of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. Authenticated New Testament writings are also dated close to the time of Christ's resurrection, around 30 A.D., establishing their accuracy.
2. Those who claimed to see Jesus after His death didn't actually see Him, or maybe were hallucinating.
There are roughly 500 documented reports of people seeing Jesus shortly after his death on the cross. Two points on this: first, mass hallucination is not possible. This is a widely accepted fact in the world of psychological education. Second, the first two people to report seeing Jesus were women. Importantly, Jewish customs at the time did not accept the testimony of women. This means that, if one wanted to the world to believe a made up story at that time, they would not begin with the testimony of women. The most plausible explanation for women being recorded as the first to see Jesus is that these women were telling the truth.
3. Jesus Christ did not actually die on the cross.
Jesus Christ was flogged before his crucifixion. Roman scourging/flogging utilized a whip with pieces of bone attached to the ends. When such a whip contacted a body, it tore the skin along with parts of flesh. After a flogging, the individual would be in critical condition from the trauma and blood loss. In many cases, scourging “was itself fatal” (Kittel, 1967, 4:517). This explains why Jesus collapsed while carrying the cross to Calvary and needed assistance. Once nailed to a cross, the initial hanging position (similar to a 'Y') requires the person to pull the weight of their body up (to a 'T' position) to inhale each breath completely. Imagine the pain here, considering Jesus' back was already torn from the flogging. Eventually, Jesus did not have the strength to continue to lift his body - pushing down on his nailed feet and pulling up on his nailed wrists or palms - so he could breathe, permanently staying in a 'Y' position until he died.
This post only conveys the topics that the movie covered, but there's a lot more to research. The information gathered above is available for all, and I suggest looking into it yourself to draw your own conclusions.
References
Bert Thompson, Ph.D., Brad Harrub, Ph.D. "An Examination of the Medical Evidence for the Physical Death of Christ" - The Apologetics Press
Kittel, Gerhard, ed. (1967), Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans).
