Resurrection: Faith or Fact? by Carl Stecher & Craig L. Blomberg

Author:Carl Stecher & Craig L. Blomberg [Stecher, Carl]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Pitchstone Publishing
Published: 2019-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

A Reply to Craig

Carl Stecher, Ph.D.

Craig prefaces his ten-point positive case for the resurrection of Jesus as a fact of history with an excellent scholarly essay surveying various skeptical responses in the past century or so, and explains why he finds none of them convincing. Having accomplished this, he writes, “It is to Carl Stecher’s credit that he opts for none of the approaches surveyed thus far.” This being the case, I will comment on these opening pages of Craig’s only in so far as they seem relevant to the question of Jesus’ resurrection as we are debating it. I will then respond to the positive case that Craig makes for the resurrection as history.

In his first paragraph, Craig writes of “the claims [Jesus] made during his life to be a heaven-sent, divinely accredited spokesman for Yahweh, God of Israel, who was revealing the very will and nature of Yahweh himself.” Two comments. First, as Craig knows, the authenticity of this claim, that Jesus identified himself as God incarnate, has been hotly debated. In fact, in October 2015, Craig and I debated this question for the Socratic Club of Oregon State University; that debate can be found on YouTube. Furthermore, a strong case can be made that Jesus believed himself to be Christ, the Messiah of Jewish expectations. If that were the case, Jesus was not claiming divinity, but instead that he was the one who would be God’s human representative, the king who—like his ancestor David—would rule over God’s kingdom on earth once Roman rule was overthrown.

It should always be remembered that Jesus and all his original disciples were first-century Palestinian Jews. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets,” Jesus is depicted as saying, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matt. 5:17–18, KJV). The Romans are long gone from Jerusalem, but many faithful Jews are still awaiting this Messiah. As either Cleopas or the other, unidentified disciple said to the unrecognized Jesus on the Road to Emmaus, “we had been hoping that he was to be the liberator of Israel” (Luke 24:21). Bart Ehrman has explored the significance of Jesus’ probable belief that he was the Messiah that many Jews were awaiting:

What he meant by “messiah” has to be understood within the broader context of his apocalyptic proclamation. This is where one of the sayings of Jesus … almost certainly authentic comes into play … Jesus told his disciples—Judas Iscariot included—that they would be seated on twelve thrones ruling the twelve tribes of Israel in the future kingdom … But who would be the ultimate king? Jesus was their master (=lord) now. Would he not be their master (=Lord) then? He is the one who called them, instructed them, commissioned them, and promised them thrones in the kingdom. It is almost unthinkable

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