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Series Code: GFF
Program Code: GFF000014S
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00:01 ♪ ♪ Subodh K. Pandit, M.D.
00:55 Welcome back again friend. This is our last session Number 13. 01:01 It's actually a continuation of the previous one for we've come 01:05 to the final one. I wonder what you're thinking about what we've 01:09 done so far. I hope you continue to keep your mind clear and open 01:14 and accept whatever information that really is credible. So 01:18 we're going to continue the previous section the previous 01:23 topic and this topic now is If the Resurrection story is true, 01:28 do we have some evidence available to weigh out and 01:31 evaluate? There are three. Number one: The after effects. 01:36 Number two: Eye witnesses and number three: Deathbed 01:40 confessions. The after effects: Two things: The changes in the 01:46 disciples and the fact of the Christian church. The change in 01:49 the disciples: "Perhaps the transformation of the disciples 01:53 of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the 01:57 Resurrection." says Stott. And Anderson continues to speak on 02:01 the same topic: "A little band of defeated cowards cowering 02:05 in an upper room one day and a few days later transformed into 02:09 a company that no persecution could silence." What is the 02:13 explanation? Rosscup says: "They were willing to face arrest, 02:17 imprisonment, beatings and horrible deaths and not one of 02:22 them...recanted of his belief that Christ had risen." "Think 02:25 of the psychological absurdity of...attempting to attribute 02:29 this dramatic to nothing more convincing than a miserable 02:34 fabrication they were trying to foist upon the world. That 02:37 simply wouldn't make sense." So why would it not make sense? 02:42 Think. If you and I were told to do it, would you and I do that? 02:48 Would we go around telling people that somebody rose up 02:50 from the dead. So we buried our friend the other day in the 02:55 graveyard two days ago. Should we now go around and start 02:59 telling the people actually the person is not down there. The 03:03 person is alive. Have you ever tried to do that. Think of how 03:08 unnerving that is to try to tell somebody else that somebody rose 03:12 up from the dead. No it is not easy to do that at all. So how 03:18 come these disciples did that? Something happened. That is why 03:23 they changed from being so frightened just a little while 03:27 earlier to being so bold that nothing could silence them. 03:31 We have to give an explanation that makes sense. And we can't 03:36 give just an ordinary explanation saying that they 03:39 just chose to do it. No, nobody chooses to do that. Nobody 03:43 chooses to be persecuted. The fact is they were all persecuted 03:48 for saying that. Nobody chooses to be chased here and there for 03:52 just a statement they were making. You and I wouldn't do 03:56 that. That's why it does not make sense to say that they just 03:59 bluffed their way through. How about then the presence of the 04:03 presence of the Christian church? When did it really start 04:05 Here's how they chose number 12 of the disciples because one of 04:14 them had left. Judas had left the group and now they were 11. 04:19 They wanted to make it 12. So they were going to cast lots to 04:23 choose who it would be. But they had to have criteria as to who 04:27 they will put into that list and here is what they said: 04:30 Therefore all these men who have accompanied us all the time the 04:33 time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from 04:38 the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, 04:41 one of these must become witness with us of his Resurrection." 04:47 That is the start of the Christian church. The group that 04:53 really started it, that group had to be able to do one thing. 04:58 Be a witness to the Resurrection If you want to talk about Jesus 05:04 and how nice he was well that's the other club you join. If you 05:08 want to talk about the fact that he did miracles of healing or 05:12 helping the poor, of coming to see then you join that club. 05:17 If you want to talk about the teachings of Jesus then join the 05:19 other club. But if you want to join this club which must start 05:22 the Christian church then there's only one single 05:26 criterion: You should have been there all the time. You should 05:30 be able to say that I saw him before and after the death of 05:34 him and so I am a witness of his resurrection. The witness of the 05:39 resurrection was the starting point of the Christian church. 05:42 "Christianity stands or falls with the truth of the 05:46 Resurrection. Once disprove it and you have disposed of 05:48 Christianity." Morris said: "The Resurrection gave significance 05:53 to all that they did." And Josh McDowell, he said: "The 05:57 institution of the (Christian) Church,...is a historical 06:00 phenomenon explained only by Jesus' resurrection." Why? 06:05 Listen to this: Jesus died a criminal, condemned by 1) the 06:10 highest religious authority, 2) [by] the highest civil 06:13 authority [at that time in the world Rome] and 3) the greatest 06:17 moral authority described in the Torah. The cause for the origin 06:21 and rise of Christianity must be able to account for and 06:26 overcome all three facts. Only a factual, scrutinized account 06:31 of the resurrection can possibly account for all [these] three, 06:35 [so much so]...that a sharp, questioning Jew would choose to 06:39 follow him... by dropping the whole lifelong traditions, 06:44 dropping their loyalty to the Sanhedrin, dropping their 06:47 loyalty to the Torah and choose to follow this person? And the 06:52 first few thousand followers were all Jews. So when we look 06:58 at the circumstances in which these people began to follow him 07:04 that is an indication on the positive the side that something 07:08 dramatic had happened and the only thing that we can think of 07:13 at that time is the fact that somebody bodily rose up from the 07:16 grave and he said so. Number two: Eye witnesses: Do you know 07:22 that the New Testament, and you saw that earlier, is the only 07:27 ancient writing in which the authors were actual eye 07:33 witnesses. Almost all the other historical pieces that we have 07:37 of literature of the ancient days, are written by somebody 07:40 who got the report from somebody else. And only a portion maybe 07:45 of it would have been what they themselves saw. Nobody ever 07:49 wrote a complete story in which they themselves were the eye 07:53 witnesses except for this one story, the gospel regarding 07:58 Jesus Christ. That's the only writings in which there are eye 08:02 witnesses. Look at the words: "Those who were from the 08:05 beginning were eye witnesses" "...But were eye witnesses of 08:09 His majesty" "He who has seen has testified" And look at 08:12 1 John 1:1 that says: "That which we have heard, which we 08:17 have seen with our... eyes, which we have looked upon and 08:21 our hands have handled..." That is what we are writing down. 08:26 "The very kind of evidence which modern science - an even 08:29 psychologists, are so insistent upon for determining the reality 08:33 of any object under consideration is the kind of 08:37 evidence that we have presented to us in the Gospels regarding 08:40 the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, namely, the things that 08:44 are seen with the human eye, touched with the human hand and 08:48 heard by the human ear. This is what we call empirical evidence" 08:53 An eye witness who states today in a court of law that he saw 08:58 such and such is to be believed at least with everyone who is a 09:04 rational thinker. How about the third one? Deathbed confessions. 09:09 A deathbed confession of an eye witness is one of the strongest 09:14 forms of evidence to be tabled in a court of law today. If it 09:19 is written down, it would amount to a sworn affidavit. If two or 09:23 three such confessions can be found, they would amount to 09:27 nearly unassailable testimony [in a court of law]. Few judges 09:32 [or] juries in the world will overturn multiple deathbed 09:36 confessions stating the same detail. Why do we accept that? 09:40 Because at the point of death most people, even hardened 09:45 criminals, kind of soften up and they say all right, I agree, I 09:51 will tell you what I see and what happened. For example, 09:55 suppose we go to a deathbed of an individual who is dying and 10:01 we say, look you were there, say 20 years ago. You were there so 10:07 could you tell us really what happened. And he sighs, he's 10:11 about to die so he says, Look I cannot hold it anymore. For 10:16 long I've held it as a huge burden on my chest. I knew that 10:20 the wrong person was in jail. But I could not bring myself to 10:24 tell the truth. Now I am dying. I will tell you the truth. It 10:29 was so and so. And the fact is Mr. So and So was also there. 10:36 And so they realize, Oh Mr. So and So is also in the same town. 10:39 We rush over to the other end of town and we say, Sir, do you 10:44 know what happened at that day? And he is also on his deathbed. 10:50 And he says the same thing. I had a huge burden, a load of 10:55 guilt on my mind because I knew the wrong person was in jail. 10:59 But now since I'm dying, I'll tell you. So and so 11:03 and he states the 11:04 same person's name. And just suppose we went to the third one 11:08 and he is also dying and he says the same name. Do you know, I 11:12 don't think there would be any jury or judge in the world that 11:16 will overturn this kind of deathbed confession of the same 11:22 matter. So if three or four are there, it almost settles the 11:26 matter. How many do we have here? Number one: Peter was 11:31 crucified upside down. Two: James was stoned to death. 11:34 Three: Matthew was killed with a sword. Four: James the son of 11:37 Alpheus was crucified. Five: James the son of Zebedee was 11:40 killed by the sword. Six: Thaddaeus was shot through with 11:43 arrows. Seven: Bartholomew was crucified. Eight: Andrew was 11:47 crucified. Nine: Phillip was crucified. 10: Simon the Zealot 11:50 was crucified. 11: Thomas was killed with the spear. Paul 11:54 number 12, was beheaded. And not a single one ever recanted of 12:02 his belief that Jesus had risen up from the grave, not a single 12:06 one. Just think about it. They were not killed at one time with 12:09 one sweep. No, they were killed one and then a 12:13 few months later the 12:14 other one and then a few months later the other and a few months 12:15 later the other. They could have told them look, look what 12:18 happened to other guy, we killed him. Now you tell the truth. 12:20 How easy would it have been, my friend, to tell the truth and go 12:26 home. Why would you die for a lie? How reasonable is that? 12:31 You and I wouldn't do that. And so we should not thrust a lie 12:36 onto those people who died for what they truly believed. Now 12:40 you can die you know for what you were, you know, 12:44 deceived to believe. 12:45 You can die for a delusion that you had. But you cannot die for 12:51 something that you know. Here we are saying, for example, that 12:54 disciples knew that they had buried Jesus in maybe Peter's 12:57 backyard. How will they now be so bold to tell a lie and also 13:03 to die for it? If you and I were there, at least me, I would have 13:07 told them, Hey don't kill me, go the body is there. He didn't 13:11 rise up. But not one of them did that. Every one of them said You 13:15 do whatever you want. I'm going to say he rose up from the dead. 13:20 We'll beat you up. He rose up. We'll spit on your face. He rose 13:26 up. We'll lash you. He rose. We'll put you in jail. He rose. 13:31 We'll kill you. He rose up from the dead. I cannot go against my 13:38 own conscience. I saw him alive. Before and after putting into 13:44 the tomb. I saw him myself. How can I say anything but the truth 13:48 of the matter. He rose up from the dead! And all of them died 13:53 one after the other saying the same thing. My friends, deathbed 13:57 confessions are strong. We must not reduce the strength of those 14:03 statements. And if we are honest inquirers, remember what we said 14:07 We would give credit where credit is due. It is due here 14:12 for the simple reason that they died for it. Nobody dies for 14:17 known falsehood. So now let's look at those others. Not just 14:22 you and me who looked at the story, and see what they say. 14:27 Look at the word evidence as I go through the next few quotes. 14:32 I've bolded them so it'll be easy for you. Watch this. 14:36 Westcott said: "Indeed taking all the evidence together it is 14:42 not too much to say that there is no historic incident better 14:47 or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ." 14:51 Henry Morris said: "By all rules of evidence His bodily 14:56 resurrection from the grave can be adjudged the best proved fact 15:01 of all history." Of all ancient history. How about Thomas Arnold 15:07 The chairman of the Department of Modern History in Oxford 15:10 University said this. "Thousands and tens of thousands of persons 15:14 have gone through it piece by piece as carefully as every 15:18 judge summing up a most important case. I have myself 15:22 done it many times over, not to persuade others but to satisfy 15:25 myself...and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind 15:30 which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort 15:35 to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than that Christ died 15:39 and rose again from the dead." Arnold Toynbee wrote a big 15:45 compendium on history. He called it the Study of History. He 15:49 devoted 80 pages to anyone who would call themselves savior. 15:54 Savior of the world, savior of your nation, savior of your 15:58 community, savior of your family savior of your friend. If you 16:02 called yourself a savior and he knew about it, he studied you 16:05 out and this is what he said at the end of his study. "When 16:09 we first set out on this quest we found ourselves moving in the 16:13 midst of a mighty marching host. ...In the last stage of all, our 16:17 motley host of would-be saviors, human and divine, has dwindled 16:21 to a single company of none but gods. At the final ordeal of 16:25 death, few, even of these would- be savior-gods, have dared to 16:30 put their title to the test by plunging into the icy river [of 16:33 death]. And now as we stand and gaze with our eyes fixed upon 16:39 the farther shore, a single figure rises from the flood [of 16:43 death], and straightway fills the whole horizon. There is the 16:48 Savior." "The bones of Abraham and Muhammad and Buddha and 16:54 Confucius and Lao Tzu and Zoroaster are still here on 16:58 earth. Jesus' tomb is empty. It is the concrete, factual, 17:03 empirical proof that: Life has hope and meaning; love is 17:07 stronger than death; goodness and power are ultimately allies, 17:11 [and] not enemies; life [and not death] wins in the end; God has 17:16 touched us right here where we are and has defeated our last 17:20 enemy; we are not cosmic orphans." [Kreeft and Tacelli] 17:24 How about this Lord Chief Justice, England? "The claims of 17:28 of Jesus Christ, namely His resurrection has led me as 17:33 often as I have tried to examine the evidence to believe it as a 17:39 fact beyond dispute." These are the words of Lord Caldecote, 17:44 Chief Justice of England. Here's another one. "I know pretty well 17:49 what evidence is; and I tell you such evidence as that for the 17:54 Resurrection has never broken down yet." Wilbur Smith. The 17:58 words of Lord Lyndhurst, three time High Chancellor of England. 18:01 These are not people who just wondered and just took a blind 18:05 shot at what the story might have been. These people are 18:09 people who went into the details of the story, studied them out, 18:14 weighed them out. That's what they said. And here's another 18:17 one: "On that greatest point we are not merely asked to have 18:23 faith. In its favor as living truth there exists such 18:28 overwhelming evidence, [the words again overwhelming 18:33 evidence], positive and negative factual and circumstantial, that 18:36 no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict 18:41 that the resurrection story is true." [Lord Darling]. Did you 18:47 see all the times when they said that it was evidence? It was not 18:52 blind belief. They've looked for those evidences. It was 18:57 something that gripped them because it was evidentiary 19:00 it was evidence-based fact. And that's what they claimed. That's 19:05 what they said from their study. So we also when we looked. We 19:10 looked at the pros and we looked at the cons. We looked at what 19:13 the other alternative theories might be and we looked also for 19:18 evidences that could have given us the real true story. That is 19:23 what we mean by saying that we are actually inquirers. As 19:28 inquirers we will look at both sides, we'll look at all the 19:31 evidence and we'll give credit where credit is due. A thorough 19:36 going scientist may doubt the story of the resurrection, but 19:42 will have no grounds to deny it. There's a difference between 19:47 doubt and denial. Ordinarily we would still doubt. We're not 19:52 very, very, exactly very sure, but here's what we can do with 19:55 our doubt. We can take our doubt and ask whether the evidence 20:01 clears the doubt or establishes it. In other words, what is the 20:06 weight of evidence. That is how we started out our whole trip 20:12 together, my friends. Our journey, the last 13 sessions, 20:16 we started by saying that we will look for evidence, not 20:21 opinion. We will look for reason, we will look for logic, 20:25 and when we do that through the whole series we've come to a 20:30 place where even something that is as unbelievable as a 20:35 resurrection, a bodily resurrection, can have a certain 20:40 amount of evidence and if that evidence is the weight of 20:45 evidence, then you and I should give it the credit that it is 20:49 due. A fair inquirer will find enough evidence to make a 20:54 reasonable claim that the resurrection story is true. 20:57 It is the evidence that compels the fair and honest inquirer. So 21:02 we go back to Socrates who said: "Go where the argument leads." 21:09 Go where the evidence leads. Don't pull the evidence and the 21:15 argument to where you think it should go. Have I challenged you 21:20 to think critically and to look at reports or claims or theories 21:28 as an inquirer? So that we look at both sides so that we are 21:34 sure that we are finally done our study that the correct side 21:39 has the weight of evidence. That side wins the discussion. We 21:45 have shown it and so now we've come to the last question that 21:49 we were asking in our series when I said we will go to the 21:53 para religious factors. These are not the doctrinal matters. But 21:57 can you see on this point if the resurrection story is true it is 22:05 a stand we can take as a doctrine, as a belief, as a 22:10 philosophy that somebody rose up from the grave and therefore 22:13 that individual, whoever rose up, has a credential that nobody 22:18 else on earth has. So now we've finished these topics. Let's 22:24 look at the summary of the conclusions of our study now of 22:28 these religions. Here is the summary: Number one: The New 22:32 Testament is the best documented ancient writing in the world. 22:37 It is solidly historical in nature. The gaps are the 22:41 closest. It has the greatest manuscript evidence and the 22:45 authors were right there. We saw the top feature of the writing. 22:50 The endorsement that one author gave to the other when he said 22:55 the Lord gave me the information The Lord also gave him the 23:00 information, maybe 500 even a thousand years earlier. 23:03 Therefore the Lord was the ultimate writer of the book and 23:07 if the Lord lived for 1400 years well that's absolutely 23:11 impossible for a human to do. So it is beyond human capability. 23:15 Number three about the Bible: It is the only book that has an 23:21 open test for authenticity. It fulfills its own test 23:27 wonderfully, clearly. What was the test? Predictive prophecy. 23:32 It made predictions before it took place and those predictions 23:38 came true. Do you remember what Pierre Simon Laplace said? 23:41 If there's an intellect that could do it then that intellect 23:45 knows everything in the universe and we found that maybe that was 23:51 the intellect. He who lives in the heavens is that intellect 23:55 who knows everything so he can predict the future. And we saw 23:59 how clearly the predictions came true. What was the statistical 24:05 possibility of having those number of predictions come true? 24:08 Way beyond what we have as the total number of chance in the 24:14 universe. And therefore, we can give it the credit where it is 24:18 due. So look at the consistency of what we are seeing. The New 24:23 Testament is the best attested historical literature, its 24:27 feature is beyond human capability and it is the only 24:31 literature that says yes you can test me and tested by predictive 24:36 prophecy. Number four: Jesus dared to make the highest claim, 24:41 Son of God. He did not just bring the truth, the way and the 24:43 life; He claimed to be the truth and the way and the life. 24:46 And Jesus, the only one whose life record matched His teaching 24:51 perfectly. The only one with the right to say, "Follow Me." 24:54 Look at the consistency. He says I am God. From there the Lamb of 25:00 God he came to be human. Therefore, he brought the 25:02 message in himself and if he brought the message in himself 25:04 then he lived according to the message and we saw that was true 25:07 Number seven: He was the only founder to be born in abject 25:11 poverty, and worse illegitimate! Number eight: Jesus had, by far, 25:16 the shortest period of ministry. And number nine: The only 25:19 founder who died a shameful, violent death of a condemned 25:22 criminal. These three pull him down to the lowest point 25:26 possible. But here comes the 10th: The only one to go into 25:30 the domain of death - the most feared enemy of human kind - 25:34 break those bands, and come back as a conqueror over death. Why 25:40 did he do that? He said why he did it. He said if I live you 25:44 also will live. In other words, he did that so that he could 25:49 tell us that he has a power stronger than death and it us 25:53 that he has conquered it and because he conquered it we also 25:57 can have the hope of conquering death. So the final conclusion 26:01 of what we've been doing all this while: We find that Jesus 26:06 and the Bible are matchless in their claims. In other words, 26:12 you pit the claims of Jesus and the Bible against the claims of 26:16 any other founder and their writings and we'll find that 26:20 they are simply matchless. Number two: They do have the 26:25 highest credibility compared to any other claim on the face of 26:29 this earth. And therefore they provide to mankind, remember 26:34 for what we were looking, that RED marble! What is the meaning 26:37 of the red marble? It was THE ONLY WAY! 26:43 We've come to the end, my friends. Reflect on what we have 26:47 done and may God bring you to the point in which you can see 26:51 and have your life worth living. So I now for the present 26:55 bid you adieu. 26:56 If you have enjoyed this presentation with Dr. Subodh 27:02 Pandit and wish to watch more of this unique 13 part series for 27:07 free online visit the website GodFactOrFiction.com. That's 27:12 GodFactOrFiction.com. If you would like to order this 27:16 fascinating series on DVD it is now available from White Horse 27:19 Media... 27:27 Dr. Subodh Pandit has written two eye-opening books entitled 27:31 Come Search With Me: Does God Really Exist? and Come Search 27:35 With Me: The Weight of Evidence which further explore the topics 27:39 of evolution, theism, atheism and religion. 27:43 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2021-09-14