Sermon Tone Analysis

Why the World Reject the Resurrection

Why do people reject the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Secularism/Atheism

Patheos.com

[“The Secularist Outpost”]

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/secularoutpost/2018/03/23/why-i-reject-the-resurrection-part-1-list-of-key-points/

Skepticism About the Resurrection

Nobody KNOWS that supernatural beings exists.

Nobody KNOWS that supernatural events occur.

Nobody KNOWS that God exists.

Nobody KNOWS that miracles occur.

Nobody KNOWS that Jesus existed.

Nobody KNOWS that Jesus died on the cross.

Nobody KNOWS that Jesus was alive on Easter morning.

Nobody KNOWS that Jesus rose from the dead.

Nobody KNOWS that God raised Jesus from the dead.

Improbability of the Resurrection

It is IMPROBABLE that any supernatural being exists.

11.

It is IMPROBABLE that any supernatural events occur.

12.

It is IMPROBABLE that God exists.

13.

It is IMPROBABLE that miracles occur.

14.

There is a SIGNIFICANT PROBABILITY that Jesus did not exist.

15.

IF Jesus did not exist, THEN it is CERTAIN that Jesus did not die on the cross, and did not rise from the dead.

16.

IF Jesus existed and Jesus died on the cross, THEN it is IMPROBABLE that Jesus was alive on Easter morning.

17.

IF Jesus existed and was alive on Easter morning, THEN it is IMPROBABLE that Jesus died on the cross.

18. IF God does not exist, THEN it is CERTAIN that the claim that “God raised Jesus from the dead” is a FALSE claim.

19.

IF God does exist, THEN it is IMPROBABLE that God raised Jesus from the dead.

20.

It is  IMPROBABLE that God raised Jesus from the dead (based on 12, 18, and 19).

It is IMPROBABLE that any supernatural events occur.

It is IMPROBABLE that God exists.

It is IMPROBABLE that miracles occur.

There is a SIGNIFICANT PROBABILITY that Jesus did not exist.

IF Jesus did not exist, THEN it is CERTAIN that Jesus did not die on the cross, and did not rise from the dead.

IF Jesus existed and Jesus died on the cross, THEN it is IMPROBABLE that Jesus was alive on Easter morning.

IF Jesus existed and was alive on Easter morning, THEN it is IMPROBABLE that Jesus died on the cross.

IF God does not exist, THEN it is CERTAIN that the claim that “God raised Jesus from the dead” is a FALSE claim.

IF God does exist, THEN it is IMPROBABLE that God raised Jesus from the dead.

It is  IMPROBABLE that God raised Jesus from the dead (based on 12, 18, and 19).

Medium.com

https://medium.com/@sdneidich/a-response-to-impact-360s-explore-the-resurrection-animation-7dbd5a6fb5ab

The contrast between Vesuvius eruption and Jesus’s supposed existence is stark: there is no archaeological verification of Jesus existence or crucifixion, and it took decades for written accounts of him to be recorded anywhere.

There seems to be less evidence for Jesus’s existence than there is for Hercules, Achilles, a number of Persian emperors, or even a few commoners from thousands of years earlier.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence to be universally accepted, and there simply isn’t enough evidence corroborating the literal truth of these five points outside of the Bible.

The earliest historical records we have recovered suggesting Jesus’ existence were recorded at least a generation after his alleged resurrection, and could therefore have been altered through oral tradition before being committed to writing.

So while Jesus’ existence, crucifixion and alleged or rumored resurrection appears to be somewhat historical, the remaining three points fail to meet any reasonable burden or historical proof.

The best statement we can agree on with any historical certainty is that it seems rumors of Jesus resurrection circulated at the time.

While even the strongest versions of these Apostolic Conspiracy theories may appear unlikely to those convinced of the Resurrection, it is important to note that accepting the Biblical explanation requires assigning greater belief to supernatural events than non-supernatural alternatives.

For point of comparison: if I misplace my car keys, I am more likely to believe that they are somewhere in my house, somewhere else I have been recently, were borrowed by my fiance, or any number of other corporeal explanations before I would assume that they had risen themselves from a non-living condition and ascended to heaven.

In my opinion and belief, the most plausible explanation for Jesus’s supposed resurrection is that he simply never existed.

Slightly less probable would be some version of conspiracy theory at the hands of early Christians anytime before the Canonization in 367, followed by some version of the hallucination theory during the time of Christ.

Far less likely than any of those: A time-traveling or technologically advanced extra-terrestrial enacting a resurrection.

To most Atheists, this seems more likely than an all-powerful being who cares whether or not I eat meat on a Friday.

📷📷To most Atheists, this seems more likely than an all-powerful being who cares whether or not I eat meat on a Friday.

To most Atheists, this seems more likely than an all-powerful being who cares whether or not I eat meat on a Friday.

Even less likely still would be a quantum-state near-infinitely improbable event where Jesus’ corpse disappeared from the cave by way of quantum tunneling, or some other poorly understood special case of physics.

This special case of physics would be less likely than me winning the Powerball every week if I bought one ticket per week before dying in 40 years.

With regards to Christianity, you could consider me a defacto atheist because I estimate the the resurrection of Jesus at the hands of an omnipotent being as described in the Bible, is even less probable than this quantum tunneling scenario.

It seems so beyond cosmically unlikely that any minuscule cost associated with such belief would be unthinkably high.

It would be impossible for me to accept this proposition as true given these probabilities.

How does the world view faith?“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” - Mark TwainFaith is “the license religious people give themselves to keep believing when reasons fail.” - Sam Harris“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.

Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.”

- Richard DawkinsDo you view your faith as separate from fact and reason?God created us in His image as rational creatures.

Our cognitive faculties were distorted by the fall, but they were not destroyed, and even unbelievers can use these faculties to discover truths about earthly things—as opposed to heavenly things, about which they are completely blind.

We do not fully comprehend God, but this is because we are finite and God is infinite.

Faith and reason, rightly understood, cannot be and are not in any real conflict.

Islam

The Quran

Islam says that Christ never actually died but was assumed into heaven.

The Quranic account of the resurrection of Christ reads, "And for saying, 'We killed (the Messiah) Jesus, son of Mary,' the messenger of GOD.

They never killed him, they never crucified him – they were made to think they did.

All factions are full of doubt concerning this issue.

They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture.

For certain, they never killed him.

Instead, God raised him to Him; GOD is Almighty, most wise."

(Surah 4:157-8)

Al Islam

https://www.alislam.org/articles/how-did-the-belief-in-the-resurrection-originate/

It is the Ahmadiyya view that Jesus did not die on the cross but was saved, a view that can be substantiated by the Gospels themselves.

Based on a purely rational basis, if one is presented with a story that someone was nailed on the cross, and days later that same wounded person is sighted with evidence of an empty tomb, the natural conclusion is that person did not die in the first place.

Although Christians claim that the earliest disciples were ready to sacrifice their life for their belief in resurrection, it is difficult to prove absolutely that belief was the cause of martyrdom, since no writings exist from that era.

It is quite possible some were martyred on account of their belief that Jesus was still alive, the sign of Jonah, understood properly, giving them strength.

However, any further proselytizing would have certainly ended to the Jews, and as the mission of Jesus was only to the House of Israel, the entire mission in Judea would have collapsed.

How then did the belief arise that Jesus actually rose from the dead in the literal sense and became the dominant narrative?

Amidst these difficult circumstances given above, Paul emerged as the originator of a new Jesus movement tailored for the Hellenistic world, outside the homelands of Judaism.

He took the wonderful story which had the kernel of truth – Jesus was alive – and created another stream of Christianity distinct from the original stream of Christianity being a Jewish sect abiding by the Mosaic Law.

What he created was a religion about Jesus in contra-distinction to the original religion of Jesus.

He originated a belief system reminiscent of the Greco-Roman understanding of dying and rising gods straight out of Hellenistic pagan heritage, but fused with Judaic and Gnostic elements.

Judaism

Myjewishlearning.com

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-resurrection-of-the-dead/

Did the Jews kill Jesus?

No. Jesus was executed by the Romans.

Crucifixion was a Roman form of execution, not a Jewish one.

Why Was Jesus Killed?

More likely is the hypothesis that Romans viewed Jesus as a threat to the peace and killed him because he was gaining adherents who saw him as a messianic figure.

What do Jews Believe About the Resurrection of the Dead?

Resurrection of the dead — t’chiyat hameitim in Hebrew — is a core doctrine of traditional Jewish theology.

Traditional Jews believe that during the Messianic Age, the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, the Jewish people ingathered from the far corners of the earth and the bodies of the dead will be brought back to life and reunited with their souls.

It is not entirely clear whether only Jews, or all people, are expected to be resurrected at this time.

Jewsforjudaism.org