1 Corinthians 15:17–19 (ESV)
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
I don’t get it. Why do you want to talk about history instead of the Bible?
Because you’re a skeptic. You don’t believe the Bible, right?
Right. People say it was written much later. There are no copies that date to the first century.
There are no first century copies. Given that back then, everything was written on papyrus or parchment (animal skin), I wouldn’t expect any. But even the most skeptical historians concede some points that show the first century origin of some of the books.
I’ll be the judge of that.
Fair enough. Let me ask you this. Do you believe that Nero was a real, first century, Caesar and that he tortured Christians for their faith?
Sure. Oh, so you’re going to tell me that there are no first century documents for that.
No, I wasn’t thinking of that. Notice what Nero’s actions imply. There were a bunch of first century people who died for refusing to recant.
So what? People die for causes all the time. Just look at all the suicide bombers.
Yeah, but what was the cause they were willing to die for?
I don’t know. People die for lots of religious causes. What’s so special about these deaths?
What’s special is that this all hinges on the resurrection of Christ. The Christians refused to recant, under pain of death, because they knew that He rose from the dead.
That doesn’t prove the resurrection happened; it only proves that they believed it happened.
Exactly. That’s where I want to start. They sincerely, “willing to die on this hill confidently” believed it. Furthermore, the first Christians—the apostles—made the same sacrifices. They suffered the same kind of martyrdom; they believed it too.
So?
I want to nail down, right from the start, that this couldn’t have been a hoax, or a joke, or a way to make money. You can think all the martyrs were wrong, but they were sincere.
Fine, but that’s not much.
You’re right; more’s coming. While there are legions of skeptics who challenge the authenticity of the Bible, even the most hostile skeptics concede the authenticity of some of the books. I only want to zoom in on one—First Corinthians. It’s quoted in a later letter to the Corinthian Church written by Clement of Rome. Thus, even the leading skeptics list it as one of the New Testament books they view as legit.
What’s so important about that one?
Well, first off, it states plainly that everything hinges on the resurrection. Paul writes, in Chapter 15, verses 17–19, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
Every religion includes the supernatural. What’s so special about this specific supernatural belief?
Because, unlike every other religion, Christianity stand or falls on one historical fact. It either happened or it didn’t. If it did, Christianity is true; if it didn’t, Christianity is false. It doesn’t matter if Christianity is fun, or pretty, or an offer you can’t refuse. It must be true. C.S. Lewis had a glorious explanation of this distinction in “God in the dock.”
“The great difficulty is to get modern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think it true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it or think it good for society or something of that sort.”
Okay, okay. I get it, but you’re light years away from convincing me that the resurrection actually happened.
Right. I haven’t gotten to that yet.
But I want you to notice the contrast between how Christianity is packaged nowadays and what it was originally. In the first century, Christianity was, first and foremost, true. Christians had either seen the risen Lord or knew someone who had (or knew someone who knew someone …).
First century Christianity was truth based; it was fact based. That gave those Christians unassailable faith—faith that they couldn’t deny even while being martyred. They knew what they knew, and they knew that it was true. Nothing could break that.
Yeah, the Christians I’ve talked to don’t sound like that. They sell it as a great bargain. It’s attractive the way they present it; it’s just not convincing.
Fair enough. I want to sell Christianity as truth. On to the logic!
See you tomorrow.
