Hello, once again, this is Dr. Phil Fernandez, the president of the Institute of Biblical Defense and the pastor of Trinity Bible Fellowship. We're going to be talking today a little bit about the Jesus myth hypothesis, the idea that Jesus never really existed, that the ancient church, which were ancient Jews who embraced Jesus as their Messiah and Savior, that the ancient church actually made Jesus up. They just basically borrowed from ancient pagan myths. This is being popularized by people like Robert Price and Richard Carrier. Most of their following is kind of internet-type atheist. Even Bart Ehrman, the leading, you know, Darth Vader, the leading anti-Christian New Testament scholar, who maligns Christianity, denies the deity of Christ, denies the bodily resurrection. I think he's an agnostic in his thought as well. But even Bart Ehrman argues that, hey, if atheists want any level of credibility in scholarly circles, they should just drop this issue that Jesus of Nazareth existed and he was crucified in in approximately 30 AD under Pontius Pilate. Gregory Boyd and Paul Eddy, in their response to Robert Price and his version of the GeoSmith hypothesis, they basically argue that Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Temoz, Baal, Isis, Dionysus, they all fail as true examples of dying and rising gods before Christianity came into existence. So what I want to do is just look at 13 problems that I discovered by reading people like Ronald Nash and J.P. Moreland and Mike Lacona, Edwin Yamauchi, Mary Jo Sharp, Mark Foreman, Paul Eddy, Gregory Boyd. I came across 13 problems with the Jesus myth hypothesis. Number one, as Bart Ehrman says, current scholarship acknowledges that Jesus existed. So if internet atheists want to deny that Jesus existed, that's fine, they can do that, but the fact of the matter is they're going against all historical and New Testament scholarship to do that. Current scholarship acknowledges that Jesus existed. Number two, the early church had Jewish Old Testament roots. So if you want to find where Christianity came from, it came from Old Testament teachings. It's the completion of the Jewish faith and Jesus' fulfillment of Jewish prophecies of the Messiah. Number three, ancient Jews did not embrace pagan beliefs. They just didn't do it. They just didn't embrace pagan beliefs. If they did, they wouldn't have been under, they wouldn't have caused so much flak from the Romans. They refused to say Caesar is Lord. They refused to burn incense to the Roman pagan gods. Instead they said Yahweh is Lord. So the ancient Jews did not embrace pagan beliefs. Number four, the ancient enemies of Christianity acknowledged that Jesus existed. Even the Jewish Talmud The Jewish enemies of Christianity, they acknowledge that Jesus existed and that he was crucified. You even have other ancient non-Christian sources acknowledging that Jesus existed. Justin Martyr, 150 A.D., in his dialogue with Trifo, Trifo there is never once did he concede the fact that Jesus existed. So the ancient enemies of Christianity acknowledged that Jesus existed. Number five, we have no evidence of dying and rising gods before Christianity. So anytime you read about pagan myths where their gods die and rise, those were amendments made to the myths after Christianity. We have no evidence of dying and rising gods before Christianity. Number six, seven of Paul's letters are accepted by even liberal New Testament scholars today. So Paul taught a historical Jesus, even claimed to know Jesus' brother, his half-brother James, and Peter and John, his disciples. And so 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, Philemon, Philippians, and 1st Thessalonians are all accepted as authentic writings of the Apostle Paul, and nobody wants to call him a liar. And so you can see the the fact of the historical Jesus there. Number seven, similarities between Christianity and pagan religions are greatly exaggerated. Anytime you get two religions, they're going to share some ideas. There's going to be a problem, and then there's going to be the attempt to find salvation from that problem, and then there's going to be an idea of the hereafter and things of that sort. So there's going to be some parallels But the parallels, the similarities between Christianity and pagan religions are greatly exaggerated. Number eight, in fact sometimes they're exaggerated just by describing We'll talk about this a little bit later, but describing the pagan cults using Christian terminology. You can make just about anything sound like Christianity if you use terms like born again, last supper, baptism, you know, things of that sort, salvation, redemption, yet the pagans didn't use those terms. Number eight, the pagans rejected the concept of bodily resurrection. They laughed at Paul and Mars Hill. From the time of Plato, at least, the Greeks, their goal was to escape the imprisonment of the body, have the soul escape the body and the immortality of the soul. They weren't looking for bodily resurrection, so the pagans even rejected the concept of bodily resurrection altogether. Number nine, there exists much evidence for Jesus' life and death. You'll find this in the ancient creeds, ancient sermons found in the New Testament that go back to the early 30s AD. The New Testament itself, the writings of the apostolic fathers, the pupils of the apostles selected by the apostles to lead the early church, even non-Christian authors, they didn't tell us that they believed, but they told us what the early church believed. Even Jewish authors, they told us what the early church believed, and it's everything these guys are trying to deny. So there's much evidence for Jesus' life and death. Number 10, the Jews would not have invented a story of a crucified Messiah. Their Messiah is supposed to be their ultimate king, their ultimate Jewish king, and to have him die the most shameful way possible, naked, on a tree, nailed to a tree, in a public place by the pagan Romans, that's not a story the Jews would invent. The ancient Jews were very patriotic. They wouldn't make up that story, so Bart Ehrman says it's really true. Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Number 11, pagan beliefs are often deceptively described using Christian terminology. Sure, it sounds like a parallel when you use Christian terminology, but the pagans never used that terminology to describe their pagan belief system. Number twelve, pagan myths are usually based on seasonal cycles not history. So in the fall and winter nature dies and the vegetation comes back to life in spring and the summer and they're not talking about a real bodily resurrection there. And then finally, number 13, just because you have parallels, which we've really denied that most of the parallels aren't even there, just in the imagination of the Jesus Smithers, but even if you do have parallels, they don't automatically prove borrowing occurred. Mark Forman of Liberty University points out that the Kennedy assassination has much in common, many parallels with the Lincoln assassination. Both of them were elected president in the year ending 1860, 1960. Both had a vice president named Johnson that succeeded them in the presidency. Both were killed by a bullet wound to the head. The list goes on and on of all these parallels, yet Kennedy really was assassinated in 1963, and Lincoln really was assassinated in 1863. So parallels don't automatically prove barring occurred. In fact, Greg Koukl, a friend of mine, in his latest book, he even points out that about 15 years before the Titanic sunk, there was a novel about a cruise liner, a cruise ship, that was billed as totally unsinkable, that would take passengers from America to Great Britain and back, that it was called the Titan, and it hit an iceberg and sunk, killing most of its passengers. Well, that was just a novel. Yet less than 15 years later, the Titanic was real. They did say it was unsinkable, ran the same basic travel route and hit an iceberg and sunk. So even if there are parallels, it doesn't automatically prove borrowing occurred. So when everything is said and done, current scholarship is correct. Jesus of Nazareth actually did exist and was crucified under Pontius Pilate around 30 AD. In fact, they will say that Jesus and Nazareth's death by crucifixion is one of the most firmly established facts from ancient history. What they don't tell you, though, is there's pretty much just as much manuscript evidence for Jesus' bodily resurrection. Why do they accept the crucifixion but not the resurrection? Just because they're biased against miracles. But whatever the case, the Jesus myth hypotheses needs to get thrown into the ash heap of refuted ideas. God bless you. Hello once again, this is Dr. Phil Fernandez, the president of the Institute of Biblical Defense and the pastor of Trinity Bible Fellowship. We're going to be talking today a little bit about the Jesus myth hypothesis, the idea that Jesus never really existed. that the ancient church, which were ancient Jews who embraced Jesus as their Messiah and Savior, that the ancient church actually made Jesus up. They just basically borrowed from ancient pagan myths. This is being popularized by people like Robert Price and Richard Carrier. Most of their following is kind of internet type atheist. Even Bart Ehrman, the leading, you know, Darth Vader, the leading anti-Christian New Testament scholar who maligns Christianity, denies the deity of Christ, denies the bodily resurrection. I think he's an agnostic in his thought as well. But even Bart Ehrman argues that, hey, if atheists want any level of credibility in scholarly circles, they should just drop this issue that Jesus of Nazareth existed and he was crucified in approximately 30 A.D. under Pontius Pilate. Gregory Boyd and Paul Eddy, in their response to Robert Price and his version of the Jesus hypothesis, they basically argue that Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Tamaz, Baal, Isis, Dionysus, they all fail as true. examples of dying and rising gods before Christianity came into existence. So what I want to do is just look at thirteen problems that I discovered by reading people like Ronald Nash, and J.P. Moreland and Mike Lacona, Edwin Yamauchi, Mary Jo Sharp, Mark Foreman, Paul Eddy, Gregory Boyd. I came across 13 problems with the Jesus myth hypothesis. Number one, as Bart Ehrman says, current scholarship acknowledges that Jesus existed. So if internet atheists want to deny that Jesus existed, that's fine, they can do that, but the fact of the matter is they're going against all historical and New Testament scholarship to do that. Current scholarship acknowledges that Jesus existed. Number two, the early church had Jewish Old Testament roots. So if you want to find where Christianity came from, it came from Old Testament teachings. It's the completion of the Jewish faith and Jesus' fulfillment of Jewish prophecies of the Messiah. Number three, ancient Jews did not embrace pagan beliefs. They just didn't do it. They just didn't embrace pagan beliefs. If they did, they wouldn't have been under, they wouldn't have caused so much flak from the Romans. They refused to say Caesar is Lord. They refused to burn incense to the Roman pagan gods. Instead they said Yahweh is Lord. So the ancient Jews did not embrace pagan beliefs. Number four, the ancient enemies of Christianity acknowledged that Jesus existed. Even the Jewish Talmud The Jewish enemies of Christianity, they acknowledge that Jesus existed and that he was crucified. You even have other ancient non-Christian sources acknowledging that Jesus existed. Justin Martyr, 150 AD, in his dialogue with Trifo, Trifo there is never once did he concede the fact that Jesus existed. So the ancient enemies of Christianity acknowledged that Jesus existed. Number five, we have no evidence of dying and rising gods before Christianity. So anytime you read about pagan myths where their gods die and rise, those were amendments made to the myths after Christianity. We have no evidence of dying and rising gods before Christianity. Number six, seven of Paul's letters are accepted by even liberal New Testament scholars today. So Paul taught a historical Jesus, even claimed to know Jesus' brother, his half-brother James, and Peter and John, his disciples. And so 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, Philemon, Philippians, and 1 Thessalonians are all accepted. as authentic writings of the Apostle Paul and nobody wants to call him a liar and so you can see the the fact of the historical Jesus there. Number seven, similarities between Christianity and pagan religions are greatly exaggerated. Anytime you get two religions, they're going to share some ideas. There's going to be a problem, and then there's going to be an attempt to find salvation from that problem, and then there's going to be an idea of the hereafter and things of that sort. So there's going to be some parallels But the parallels, the similarities between Christianity and pagan religions are greatly exaggerated. Number eight, in fact sometimes they're exaggerated just by describing We'll talk about this a little bit later, but describing the pagan cults using Christian terminology. You can make just about anything sound like Christianity if you use terms like born again, last supper, baptism, you know, things of that sort, salvation, redemption, yet the pagans didn't use those terms. Number eight, the pagans rejected the concept of bodily resurrection. They laughed at Paul and Mars Hill. From the time of Plato, at least, the Greeks, their goal was to escape the imprisonment of the body, have the soul escape the body and the immortality of the soul. They weren't looking for bodily resurrection. So the pagans even rejected the concept of bodily resurrection altogether. Number nine, there exists much evidence for Jesus' life and death. Find this in the ancient creeds, ancient sermons found in the New Testament that go back to the early 30s AD. The New Testament itself, the writings of the apostolic fathers, the pupils of the apostles selected by the apostles to lead the early church. Even non-Christian authors, they didn't tell us that they believed, but they told us what the early church believed. Even Jewish authors, they told us what the early church believed, and it's everything these guys are trying to deny. So there's much evidence for Jesus' life and death. Number 10, the Jews would not have invented a story of a crucified Messiah. Their Messiah is supposed to be their ultimate king, their ultimate Jewish king, and to have him die the most shameful way possible, naked, on a tree, nailed to a tree, in a public place by the pagan Romans, that's not a story the Jews would invent. The ancient Jews were very patriotic. They wouldn't make up that story, so Bart Ehrman says that it's really true. Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Number 11, pagan beliefs are often deceptively described using Christian terminology. And sure, it sounds like a parallel when you use Christian terminology, but the pagans never used that terminology to describe their pagan belief system. Number twelve, pagan myths are usually based on seasonal cycles not history. So in the fall and winter nature dies and the vegetation comes back to life in spring and the summer and they're not talking about a real bodily resurrection there. And then finally, number 13, just because you have parallels, which we've really denied that most of the parallels aren't even there, just in the imagination of the Jesus Smithers, but even if you do have parallels, they don't automatically prove borrowing occurred. Mark Forman of Liberty University points out that the Kennedy assassination has much in common, many parallels with the Lincoln assassination. Both of them were elected president in the year ending 1860. Both had a vice president named Johnson that succeeded them in the presidency. Both were killed by a bullet wound to the head. The list goes on and on of all these parallels, yet Kennedy really was assassinated in 1963, and Lincoln really was assassinated in 1863. So parallels don't automatically prove barring occurred. In fact, Greg Koukl, a friend of mine, in his latest book, he even points out that about 15 years before the Titanic sunk, there was a novel about a cruise liner, a cruise ship, that was billed as totally unsinkable, that would take passengers from America to Great Britain and back, that it was called the Titan, and it hit an iceberg and sunk, killing most of its passengers. Well, that was just a novel. Yet less than 15 years later, the Titanic was real. They did say it was unsinkable, ran the same basic travel route and hit an iceberg and sunk. So even if there are parallels, it doesn't automatically prove borrowing occurred. So when everything is said and done, current scholarship is correct. Jesus of Nazareth actually did exist and was crucified under Pontius Pilate around 30 AD. In fact, they will say that Jesus and Nazareth's death by crucifixion is one of the most firmly established facts from ancient history. What they don't tell you, though, is there's pretty much just as much manuscript evidence for Jesus' bodily resurrection. Why do they accept the crucifixion but not the resurrection? Just because they're biased against miracles. But whatever the case, the Jesus myth hypotheses needs to get thrown into the ash heap of refuted ideas. God bless you.