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 You are in / Foolish Faith / Read Book Online / Conclusion - Part 5
"Regular experience, not negligible probabilities and remote possibilities, is the basis of science."
»  Conclusion of Foolish Faith
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Conclusion

Part 5

All New Testament scholars agree that, contrary to popular belief, the New Testament Gospels (the biographies of Jesus) were written and circulated within Jesus’ generation, during the lifetime of His contemporaries; many scholars argue persuasively that some of the Gospels were written as early as the 50s A.D. From the time of Jesus’ death in A.D. 30, this eliminates any significant time for legend to have accumulated — it would be without precedent anywhere in history for a myth to have grown up that fast.

There is no doubt today among scholars[9] that all of the relevant historical facts surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus are true; what is in question is how to explain them. If someone reaches the verdict that Jesus did not rise from the dead, then that is fair enough. But they must offer an alternative explanation that is plausible given all of the facts.

However, to date, every alternative explanation to the resurrection of Jesus has failed to provide a plausible account of all the facts of the case, and therefore have all been universally rejected by contemporary scholarship.

To conclude that Jesus did not rise from the dead by maintaining there is not enough evidence to reach a firm conclusion is at odds with the pattern of archaeological discovery during the last century. If the past teaches us anything, it is surely that whenever the evidence from archaeology is unmistakable, it tends always to reinforce the accuracy of the events recorded in the New Testament. The excessive skepticism shown toward the New Testament events has been progressively discredited. More and more, archaeological finds are affirming the historical accuracy of the Bible. It is thus inconsistent to presume that some future discovery will provide a plausible alternative explanation to the resurrection of Jesus — archaeology has repeatedly shown just the opposite.

Today, the simplest and only known explanation that can flawlessly explain every relevant fact is that Jesus, like it or not, really did physically rise from the dead. Extraordinarily, there is no historical or scientific[10] reason to reject this conclusion.

As a result, many of the world’s greatest lawyers, after studying the subject (including those who had initially set out to disprove it), have come to the remarkable conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus is a genuine historical fact.

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