Hello brothers and sisters in Christ.
In the previous video I ended it with the mentioning of a famous and common objection that many argue against the Resurrection.
In this last video of the series "Proving that Jesus indeed resurrected" I'm going to put forward more famous and common objections and how to reply to them, so that we can hopefully bring people to the Truth.
OK. Let's look at a second objection: "There are too many discrepancies in the Resurrection accounts to take them seriously."
What is being referred is the Gospels account containing minor errors and inconsistencies.
The fact is, as with any historical text, even if it were true that the Gospels contained minor errors and inconsistencies that cannot, in any way, be reconciled—and I should note that as Catholics, we believe they can be reconciled—but even if the skeptic was right about this,
that doesn't discount the general points affirmed independently by all the sources.
For example, it can seem that the Gospel accounts about the empty tomb differ. One Gospel says Mary Magdalene was first to discover the empty tomb, while another Gospel says she was joined by another Mary and another Gospel says that Simon Peter joined them.
Similarly, one Gospel account mentions two angels at the empty tomb, and another mentions three angels. With all of this, many ask: "Isn't this a sign that the Gospels are unreliable?"
Well, again, even if they were unreliable about these minor details, what they all agree on, consistently, is that the tomb was discovered empty!
That's the key historical fact. Who discovered the tomb, or how many angels were initially present, is besides the main point. Regardless of any minor discrepancies—and I want to again stress these are apparent discrepancies, and not actual contradictions—all of our sources agree on at least the three facts
I've been focusing throughout this series, that after his death and burial, Jesus' tomb was found empty; Jesus appeared to several people after his death; and shortly after Jesus' death, there suddenly arose this new Christian religion, in which disciples were convinced Jesus rose from the dead.
Those facts are confirmed by multiple, independent sources and they must be taken seriously even if there are minor discrepancies elsewhere.
So when facing someone making this argument, tell them not miss the forest for the trees: even if there were minor discrepancies, the major facts are well-attested.
OK, here's a third common objection: "The earliest Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, had no Resurrection account. That was added later. How could Mark have left out this most important event?"
This objection refers to the last chapter of Mark, Mark chapter 16. Most of our earliest manuscripts end with verse 8, which covers the disciples finding the empty tomb of Jesus and an angel telling them Jesus had been raised.
The next several verses (verses 9 through 20) -- which most Bibles contains -- recounts appearances of Jesus to the other disciples.
So how should you respond? Well, you want to make three observations. First, even scholars who think the last section of Mark was added later still admit that the rest of the Gospel of Mark points to the Resurrection, since in several earlier chapters—specifically chapters 8, 9 and 10—Jesus predicts his resurrection.
Also, even the shorter version of Mark ends with an empty tomb and an angel announcing that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
Second, you want to note that there are good reasons to think the last section of the Gospel—again, chapter 16, verses 9 through 20— wasn't added later, but was instead accidentally left off of the earliest copies we have.
It might be possible that whoever copied Mark's gospel made the mistake of not copying it completely. But afterwards maybe there were found the original copies where it contained the post-mortem appearances, and so the later copies contained this.
We can't get into the details here, but one common theory of why some manuscripts don't contain that ending is that, for whatever reason, one early copy didn't have it, likely due to the page being lost or damaged, and future copies made from that manuscript didn't know this and simply copied what they saw.
So that may explain why some early manuscripts have it, and some don't.
The third point you want to make is that the Resurrection doesn't depend only on the ending of the Gospel of Mark. It's affirmed in the other three Gospels too, and, more importantly, in the letters of St. Paul, all of which are dated even earlier than the Gospel of Mark.
So that's the ultimate reply: even if Mark didn't talk about the Resurrection, Paul does, and he talks about it many years before Mark even sat down to write his Gospel.
OK, let's look at one final objection: "I don't believe Jesus rose from the dead because it's just impossible for that to happen. It's too far-fetched."
Now, if someone says something like this, you have to probe a little deeper to figure out exactly what their issue is. But usually, it's one of two things:
a) either they think that since we have no other example of someone rising from the dead, it's so incredibly unlikely and hard to believe;
OR
b) they mean that miracles are simply impossible altogether, and in that case it's impossible that Jesus miraculously rose from the dead.
If it's the first case, you can actually agree with them. It is true that nothing like this has ever happened before, or ever since. But this doesn't mean it's an impossible event—it just makes it rare and unique, which is exactly what Christians believe, too.
So this is not a serious objection. That said, when we account for the context of Jesus' Resurrection, including his claims to be God and his prophecies that he would rise from the dead, the Resurrection becomes far more likely, at least from a probabilistic perspective.
How about the second version of this objection, the one that says miracles are just impossible? the one thing I'd encourage you to do is delicately push back and say,
"Interesting. Well, why do you think miracles are impossible?"
Making this claim is to put forward a philosophical view, one that says miracles are impossible, and such a view demands reasons or support. So put a little pressure on the other person and push the ball back into their court.
If they think miracles are impossible, ask them to provide reasons or support for thinking that's true. Make them defend it. Chances are high they can't and they won't.
In many cases, you'll find that this sort of objection is just based in emotional resistance. Something inside them just feels off about the idea of Jesus being raised from the dead.
And that's OK. The key is to help them realize that, to see that their resistance is not based in logic or reason, but in their feelings, and feelings can be overcome.
OK, so those are good responses to four of the best objections to the Resurrection. Hopefully that gave you lots of clarity on how to respond and also fortified you in the faith, in the fact we believe that Jesus of Nazareth died and was raised.
I wish you a great continuation of Easter season and stay tuned for the next video, I think you'll find it very interesting. See you next week, God willing.
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