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One of the key things to note about the era of 1st century Palestine, is that it was primarily an oral culture. This means that information was rarely written down about  things that we might today consider to be highly significant ( let alone every single minor event; a stark contrast to 21st century western society). The main way that information was passed on was through verbal communication. However, we do still have a good number of documents which help to verify information about Jesus and the origins of the early church.

The primary sources for Jesus’ life are the Gospels in the Bible.  The main two sources are Tacitus and Josephus. These two records are very important because they verify the death of Jesus at the hand of Pontius Pilate, which collaborates the Gospel records (Mark 15:1-15, Matthew 27, Luke 23, John 18:28-40).

Cornelius Tacitus (born A.D. 52-54)

A Non-Christian Roman historian, in A.D. 112, Governor of Asia, son-in-law of Julius Agricola who was Governor of Britain A.D. 80-84. He wrote in the reign of Nero, making reference to Christians in Rome, and to Jesus’ death:

‘But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome. Hence to suppress the rumour, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also.’ (Translated quote found in: McDowell, Josh., Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 1990, Scripture Press, p.82)

Flavius Josephus (born A.D. 37)

A Jewish Historian, in A.D. 66 he was the commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee. The following quote has been debated as to its entire validity. Certain sections of the text have been judged, by some, as unlikely to have been written by a Jewish scholar. For a preliminary overview of this see: Strobel, Lee The Case or Christ, Zondervan, 1998, pp.78-80. However, the important sections attesting to the life and death of Jesus are reliable. Josephus’ writings were translated into the Arabic, which does not contain those sections of the text that have been judged suspicious. The following is a quote from the Arabic translation:

‘At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and (he) was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned Him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become him disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that He was alive; accordingly, He was perhaps the Messiah concerning who the prophets have recounted wonders.’ (Translated quote found in: McDowell, Josh., Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 1990, Scripture Press, p.82)

Thallus (a Samaritan-Born historian)

He wrote in A.D. 52, which is one of the earliest writers concerning the life and death of Jesus. Unfortunately we no longer have the originals of his work, but a man called Julius Africanus, who was a Christian writer of about A.D.  221, discusses his work. He cites a section of Thallus that confirms that there was a darkness that covered the land after Jesus died, which is also recorded in Luke 23:44 and Mark 15:33. He writes:

“ ‘Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away this darkness as an eclipse of the sun – unreasonably, as it seems to me’ (unreasonably, of course, because a solar eclipse could not take place at the time of the full moon, and it was as the season of the Paschal full moon that Christ died)’ (Translated quote found in: McDowell, Josh., Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 1990, Scripture Press, p.84)

Phlegon

A first century historian, like Thallus, his work is now lost. However Julius Africanus (above) in A.D. 221 again quotes a section of his work:

“ ‘During the time of Tiberius Caesar an eclipse of the sun occurred during the full moon’ ” (Translated quote found in: McDowell, Josh., Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 1990, Scripture Press, p.84)

Lucian of Samosata

Roman of the Second century: he wrote in The Passing Peregrinus:

‘ . . . the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world . . . Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they were all brothers one of another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws.’ (Translated quote found in: McDowell, Josh., Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 1990, Scripture Press, p.82)

Suetonius (A.D. 120)

Another Non-Christian Roman historian writes in Life of Claudius:

‘As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (another spelling of Christus), he expelled them from Rome’ (Translated quote found in: McDowell, Josh., Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 1990, Scripture Press, p.83)

Plinius Secundus, Pliny the younger

Governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor (A.D. 112). The following quote comes from a letter that he wrote to Emperor Trajan. The main concern of his letter is how to treat the Christians. In the second century, during the reign of the Caesars, the populace was expected to worship Caesar as a god. This the Christians did not do. Pliny had been putting to death those Christians who would not bow down to a statue of Trajan. In the letter he writes the following:

‘They affirmed, however, that the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verse a hymn to Christ as to a god, and bound themselves to a solemn oath, not to do any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, adultery, never to falsify their word, not to deny trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up’ (Translated quote found in: McDowell, Josh., Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 1990, Scripture Press, p.83)

Further reading

There are many more sources that attest to the origins of the early church, and many instances where books are quoted, which no longer exist, but would have been accessible in the day in which they were quoted. For further research, I have suggested some books below:

• McDowell, Josh., Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 1990, Scripture Press, Chapter 5.

• Strobel, Lee The Case or Christ, Zondervan, 1998, Chapter 4

• Bruce, F. F., Jesus and Christian Origins outside the New Testament, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974.

• Habermans, Gary., The Historical Jesus, Joplin, Mo.: College Press, 1996

To view Ruth’s recent testimony about how she became a christian, click here

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I want to spend a few minutes addressing those of you who have decided that you are Atheists, that there is definitely no God. It may be helpful to initially ask the question ‘What God is it that you don’t believe in?’.

I am fully aware that there are many different ideas of who God is, and sometimes the representation of God given to you (even by Christians) may seem lacking in credibility. If you think of God as being an old man in the sky with a white wispy beard looking something like my younger brother Duncan (for those of you who know him), then I can appreciate your unbelief! This is one of the types which is often laughed at in the media, understandably! (No offence bro, I love you really!!).

Recently, I was watching an episode of Peep Show (series 2) where one of the main characters Jez shows his indignation for this god who he refers to as a ‘big toga-wearing bearded killjoy’.

There may be other examples of different gods that you don’t believe in like the god of the gaps, (a theory sometimes used to give explanations for areas of the world which science has not found an explanation for as yet) or a god who asks people to blow themselves up and kill others to show their devotion as believers. I also share my disbelief in all of these gods with you.

The Philosophical Problem

So why can’t you be an atheist?

Well, if to be a theist (belief in a God, still active in his creation) means having knowledge that there is a God who exists, being an A-theist is to have an absolute knowledge that no God exists. Philosophically this position is actually impossible to hold, for the simple reason that no human being has absolute knowledge of the whole universe, so at best all that an Atheist can say is ‘From the areas I have been to (eg. Brighton, East Sussex) I have not discovered a God.’ This does not mean that God does not exist, merely that in your travels you have not discovered him, as yet. This means that technically everyone who doesn’t believe in God is agnostic (in the general sense) on this issue (doesn’t know). This is a point that even the popular scientist Richard Dawkins concedes in his book The God Delusion.

Fire, Fire, the house is on fire

Once we have realised that we can be ‘at worst’ an agnostic this then leaves us with two approaches to agnosticism, which are best understood in the story format below.

If someone one day rang you in your office at work and told you that your house was on fire, you would have three options before you (broadly speaking), (a) you could go home and check that the house wasn’t on fire, (b) you might just make a phone call to a neighbour to confirm that this wasn’t the case, or (c) you could just hope for the best, that there wasn’t really a fire and be ignorant of this impending situation. Surely option (c) is not one that we would advise of others in this example, nor one we would take ourselves?

Let’s take it one stage further then. What if your wife and children were rumoured to be inside as well? I’m sure that we would agree that a phone call would not be enough to ease our concerns, we would need to stop whatever we were doing at work and go and check it out for ourselves.

I would suggest if you do not know if there is a God, then it is the kind of thing that you can’t afford to be ignorant about. You can’t be the person who doesn’t bother to look into the facts at all, nor can you simply rely on a simple phone call to find out. For some of you this may represent being reliant on other members of your family who think it’s stupid and rely on them, or relying on the cynical superficial media coverage which focuses on ‘Priests who are paedos’. Maybe you had a bad experience meeting a Christian once before, and this has put you off. I appeal to you not to lightly throw out the ‘baby’ with the ‘bathwater’.

You need to investigate this grand claim for yourself. If the God of the Bible exists then the cost is too great for you to be ignorant of the facts, and the benefits to glorious to miss out on. I’m not just talking about heaven and hell here either, this incredible truth will revolutionise your life in the here and now too.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster

Some people will object at this point and say ”Well technically we can’t be sure that some other object like a Flying Spaghetti monster, a tooth fairy or Father Christmas doesn’t exist, therefore given that we can only be agnostic on these issues (even though in reality we know that they are extremely unlikely to exist) we should put God in this same box.”

This may sound plausible enough as a rational argument, but upon closer inspection it falls apart because it presumes that there is no evidence for God in the same way in which there is no evidence for a flying spaghetti monster.

On this site you will find a more in depth analysis of some of these points, but I will briefly outline some of the ‘footprints’ of there being a God which we can go and investigate. Here I will summarise the points of the arguments briefly:

1.    A Created Order

Whether we like it or not, the world sure looks as if it has been created by an intelligent designer. The universe had a beginning, whether you want to call this a big bang or not, things of this grandeur do not begin by themselves, they have a creator behind them.

http://reason.cck.org.uk/who-made-god/

http://reason.cck.org.uk/hasnt-the-theory-of-evolution-shown-the-bible-to-be-false/

2.    Fine-Tuning of the universe

The World has been made in such a way that it is incredibly fine-tuned, and if several scientific constant’s where very slightly different, we would not exist at all.

http://reason.cck.org.uk/how-does-modern-science-show-that-there-is-a-god/

3.    Scientific Investigation

Because there is a God, there is a law-giver and because of this as scientists we are able to assume that the world has order to investigate. Without this assumption of order, we would have no basis for believing that there was an ordered universe for us to investigate. Everything would be chaos.

John C Lennox – Has Science buried God?

4.    Meaning in Life

If there is no God, then ultimately there is no point for us being here, except to do whatever we like. One day it will all be forgotten anyway, and so we may as well ‘eat, drink, for tomorrow we die’. If you’re not having a good time, then why not just end it now? Yet, we know that there is meaning to our existence, which comes ultimately from our creator.

http://reason.cck.org.uk/is-life-without-god-meaningless/

http://www.bethinking.org/right-wrong/intermediate/the-practical-impossibility-of-atheism-in-the-meaning-value-and-purpose-of-life.htm

5.    The existence of Morality

If there is no God, then there is no objective morality either. We need someone to provide a standard of what is right and wrong or we just do whatever we like, and as society norms change so will our sense of what is right and wrong. At its worst this becomes, if it feels right then do it.

http://reason.cck.org.uk/can-morality-exist-without-god/

6.    Jesus Christ’s Life & Resurrection.

The greatest evidence for me that God exists is that around 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ lived on Planet Earth as a man. He went around doing incredible miracles and giving remarkable teaching. However, the pinnacle of his work was actually completed in his death and resurrection as he took upon himself the sin of the world, and then on the third day rose again. Dead men don’t rise…and the evidence points so strongly that Jesus did. How? Christians believe that he was raised by the power of God (1 Cor 6:14).

http://reason.cck.org.uk/tag/resurrection/

http://bethinking.org/resurrection-miracles/intermediate/the-resurrection.htm

To some of you reading this, this will sound fanciful…but I invite you not to take my word for it, but to look into it yourself.

Conclusion:

So does God exist? It’s a big deal for sure, and one which could potentially change your life forever depending on what you find out. If you consider yourself an atheist or agnostic then do not close off your heart. Before you start your investigation, why not ask God to reveal himself to you if he exists. For all the intellectual questions we have (which are totally viable) the bible says that it is a decision of the heart to not pursue God (Psalm 40:1), so I invite you to ask God to show himself to you as you look into these matters.

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The Bible promises that anyone who searches for God will find him

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)

This includes the search through scientific investigation, indeed there are many areas of modern science that point to the existence of the God of the Bible (some of which will be discussed below).

Can science see, detect or measure God?

Despite its great successes there is a limit as to how much science can tell us. Science is the study of the material world around us, its aim is to provide an explanation for the way the physical world works. God does not fit into the realm that science is able to directly study: for God to have created space and time, He must exist somewhat outside of it. A study of God is largely spiritual, and an exercise in faith – faith is the assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. Belief in God and what he has done for us requires faith and trust in Him. This does not have to be “blind faith” with no intelligent thought involved, however, there is still a necessary step of faith. If a person has rejected God and hardened their heart to Him it would be difficult to change their mind based on the scientific evidence alone, but for those who are willing to look, God has left his fingerprints all over creation for us to find:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)

.. his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. (Romans 1:20)

In fact there are many scientists who have sought to find God through studying the world around them and come to faith in Jesus as a result (e.g. Dr Hugh Ross (Co-founder of Reasons-to-Believe)).

The discussion of science and God is such a vast one that many books continue to be written on the topic, and I’d encourage Christians and  non-Christians alike to investigate the subject. Many people have objections to faith based on the common mis-conception that science and Christianity are at odds with each other. This is not the case, areas of contention are often resolved by new scientific data or in some cases by people re-examining a poor interpretation of a passage of scripture.  

Science can give us an insight into the way God has created.

Scientific studies to date have revealed a little of just how amazingly beautiful and complex the world around us is, all of this points to an amazing God who is all the more amazing to have created it in a way that we are able to study it, and enjoy it. 

An Example from Astrophysics:

An obvious place where religion and science do overlap, is the question of creation itself: “Where did the universe come from?”. Until the mid 1900’s much of the scientific community believed that the universe was static and eternal, clearly in disagreement with the account in Genesis. In 1916 Einsteins theory of General Relativity highlighted the theoretical difficulties with this view of the  universe, and indicated an expanding universe with a beginning. In 1929 Hubble provided observational support for this new model. Measurements of distant galaxies show that they are receding from us with increasing speed the further away they are. If everything is moving apart, things must have been closer together in the past. Taking this idea back far enough leads to a very dense and energetic beginning to the expansion- An event now known as the Big Bang.
 
Many independent observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, and chemical abundances in the universe have resulted in the Big Bang model being almost universally accepted. The model very successfully describes the history of the universe back as far as the first 10-43 seconds, but as far as the absolute beginning goes, modern science can say nothing. It appears to be creation from nothing, with a cause that may be outside the view of scientific study. A Nobel Prize winning physicist Arno Penzias said of the Big Bang: “The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted had I nothing to go on but the first five books of Moses, the Psalms and the Bible as a whole.”    

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

It also appears that the universe we live in is incredibly fine tuned in order to exist for any length of time let alone to support life (known as “The Fine Tuning Problem”). There are a vast number of physical parameters (the speed of light, the strength of gravity and various aspects of electromagnetism to name a few) that all have to be precisely the value they are, or else we would not exist. There is no reason to suggest that these values should all arise naturally, in fact it is highly unlikely, many people see this as very strong evidence for design, and therefore an intelligent creator.

Suggested books to start with:

The case for a Creator -   Lee Stroble
The Language of God: A scientist presents evidence for belief -   Francis Collins
God’s Undertaker: Has science buried God? -  John C. Lennox

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I think that we can look at answering this question in two ways. Firstly, and with greater prominence we can look at the testimonies of the people who said that they saw him, and secondly, we can look into the testimonies of these individuals to discern their validity.
 
Biblical witnesses
 
With the first of these two points in mind I think it best to start by looking at the Bible, specifically 1 Corinthians 15:3-7.
 
 “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance… that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles…”
 
This part of the Bible was written a short time after the Resurrection, from the information given by people who had themselves seen Jesus alive again. This means that we have an account we can trust. In it Paul gives us a list of these witnesses; there are the five hundred brothers (by brothers he means fellow Christians, not literally brothers!), Peter, the Twelve (disciples who followed him around) and finally James (the brother of Jesus). If we look at them individually we firstly have the five hundred believers. These would have been people who followed the teaching of Jesus before his resurrection and subsequently would have seen him many times before.
 
If we move on to the Twelve, we have a group who saw Jesus every day for roughly three years, and consequently would have been very familiar with his appearance. They were not however, anticipating his resurrection. Luke 24:12 records Peter’s reaction to finding the tomb empty; “Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
 
 Even when the body had gone the disciples were not looking for a resurrected Jesus, and Luke 24 : 36-37 records their reaction to seeing him for the first time post Resurrection:“… Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost” From these two passages we can gather that the disciples immediately recognised the resurrected Jesus, even thought they were not looking for him and did not yet fully understand what had happened.
 
Finally, Paul lists James the brother of Jesus as a witness, one who obviously grew up with Jesus and knew exactly what he look liked. Interestingly, James was not a Christian until after the Resurrection, and was so amazed when he saw him alive again that he rightly began worshipping him as God. This is not the likely response of a brother to a look-alike.
 
Validity of the testimonies
 
It is worth considering briefly why we should accept these individuals’ testimonies of resurrection of Jesus. In response to this I would point out the extreme suffering and persecution that these witnesses underwent, rather than deny what they had seen. As I observed earlier they did not expect Jesus to be raised from the dead, yet were fully convinced when they saw him and died affirming it as truth. James, Jesus’ brother was killed early on for believing and announcing his brother was God, a length people don’t generally go to for a lie. This is true also for all the other individuals who were killed for a certainty that brought them no benefits and only served to shorten their lives, filling them with suffering and persecution.
 
To summarise, Jesus appeared many times, to many people, and although they knew him in varying degrees of intimacy, with Thomas (better known as ‘Doubting Thomas’) they all declared him to be Jesus of Nazareth and “…my Lord and my God.”

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