Matt Colby – Reasons to Believe – Class 5 – Rapid Spread of Christianity

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This weekend we’ve been looking
at a lot of evidence to support

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some of the fundamental things
that we believe.

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We’ve looked in the sciences and
in mathematics for proof for the

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existence of God.
We’ve looked in the Bible and in

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ancient history for proof that
Jesus at a point in history

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really was resurrected from the
dead.

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We’ve looked at proof that the
Bible that we have in front of

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us really is the inspired word
of God, that it’s special and

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unique, and that it proves that
to us.

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Once you eliminate the
impossible, whatever remains, no

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matter how improbable, must be
the truth.

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Can anybody tell me who said
that?

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Sherlock Holmes?
That’s right, Sherlock Holmes.

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Of course he’s not real
fictional character, so maybe

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the author who wrote the books,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

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And what he meant was, if you’re
looking at a situation, you

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can’t explain it.
And you come up with some

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theories as to as to how this
might have happened.

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If you can eliminate all of the
theories but one, even if the

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one that’s left seems really
improbable, if it’s the only

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option left, it must be the
truth.

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And the title of this class this
morning, and the last class in

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our series for this weekend, is
the rapid spread of

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Christianity.
So I want to start by defining

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what we mean by that.
And maybe a good place to start

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is telling you what I don’t mean
by this.

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I wouldn’t want you to want you
to come away from this class

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thinking that this is the point
that we made.

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I wouldn’t want you to think
that that we’re trying to say

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this morning that simply because
Christianity is the largest

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religion in the world today,
that it must be the one true

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religion.
Because truth isn’t always on

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the side of numbers.
And if you did think that if if

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that was a reason why you
thought, well, the Christian

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faith must be the correct one
because the most people in the

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world believe that, you’d
actually run into a problem.

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Here’s a chart.
This was based on a census taken

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in 2009 of the entire world
population broken up by

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religious belief or lack
thereof.

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Because you’ll see agnosticism
right on there, which is not a

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religious faith.
And roughly 1/3 of the world’s

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population subscribe to some
form of Christianity.

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So yes, it is the largest
religion in the world.

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But if that was the reason why
you thought, well, it must be

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the truth, well then sooner or
later you’d have a problem.

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If you were to narrow it down to
just the two largest religions

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in the world, you’d have
Christianity and Islam and

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another census taken three years
later in 2012.

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Here were the numbers.
So you can see both of those

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religions had grown in terms of
worldwide population.

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But if you look at Christianity,
it only grew by .07% whereas

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Islam grew by .73%.
So Islam was and continues to

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grow a lot quicker than
Christianity.

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So if this trend continues a few
decades down the road, it may be

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that Islam overtakes
Christianity.

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And if your belief was this must
be the truth because the most

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people believe it, you have a
problem because, well, truth

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often is not on the side of the
numbers when it comes to the

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number of people who believe or
don’t believe a certain thing.

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What we are interested in this
morning is the growth of the

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Christian religion and its
infancy right after the time of

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the Lord Jesus Christ and those
first few 100 years of Christian

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history.
The Christian religion was

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spreading through the world like
wildfire by leaps and bounds,

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and it defied all odds because
in this time, when it was

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spreading throughout the world,
everything was stacked against

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it.
If God was not on the side of

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this religion, if Jesus wasn’t
truly resurrected from the dead,

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if the apostles weren’t really
out there performing real

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miracles with the power of God,
and people didn’t actually have

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the Holy Spirit gifts, then at
the end of this class, the point

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is going to be that there is no
explanation for how Christianity

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succeeded the way that it did.
It should have died.

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It shouldn’t have gotten very
far at all.

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And yet nobody could stop it.
Despite the best efforts of some

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of the most powerful people in
the world for several 100 years,

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nobody could stop it.
And we know that it spread

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quickly because of of evidence
outside of the Bible.

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Even if we don’t want to accept
the biblical record, ancient

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history, the verdict is
unanimous that Christianity was

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spreading faster than anything
anybody had ever seen before

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because of historians like
Suetonius, a Roman historian,

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certainly not a Christian.
It’s because of Suetonius that

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we know as much as we do about
many of the Roman emperors.

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Because of his work, The Lives
of the 12 Caesars.

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And sometime around the year 49
AD he he published this, this

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document, this historical work
that that historians now use

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today.
And in this chapter on Claudius,

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the Emperor Claudius, he
mentions this that since the

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Jews constantly made
disturbances, disturbances at

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the instigation of Christus,
which is their word for for

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Jesus or Christ, Claudius
expelled all the Jews from Rome

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is because of the trouble that
the Christians were making.

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And this is as early as 49 AD
when the apostles would have

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been alive, all the Jews were
kicked out of Rome.

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This is an interesting one
because there’s actually it

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actually coincides really nicely
with the Bible passage.

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You can turn there with me if
you want.

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It’s Acts chapter 18.
You don’t need to because I’m

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only going to read 2 verses for
you.

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But have a look at this Acts
chapter 18 verses one and two.

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After this Paul left Athens and
went to Corinth and he found a

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Jew named Aquila.
A native of Pontus recently come

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from Italy with his wife
Priscilla, because Claudius had

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commanded all the Jews to leave
Rome.

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Isn’t that interesting?
It lines right up with what

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Suetonius had said.
But Suetonius gives us the

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reason why.
It’s because of all the

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disturbances caused by the
Christians that the Jews were

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kicked out of Rome, and that’s
why Aquila and Priscilla had to

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leave.
That’s where they were living,

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but they were Jews and and had
to leave Rome.

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Now, a little bit later on, we
had another Roman historian,

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Tacitus, reading it around 64
AD, so a little over a decade

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later.
And the context of this report

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is, this is, this is during the
life of the Emperor Nero.

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And if you know anything about
the Roman Emperor Nero, you know

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he was completely crazy and that
probably he burned down the city

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of Rome, and so he was looking
for a scapegoat to blame that

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burning of the city of Rome.
No, not the entire city burned

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down, but it was a massive fire,
and this is what it’s talking

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about.
Nero’s looking for a scapegoat

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for that fire in Rome, and it
says consequently to get rid of

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the report, Nero fastened the
guilt and inflicted the most

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exquisite tortures on a class
hated for their abominations,

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called Christians by the
populace Christus, or Christ,

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from whom the name had its
origin, suffered the extreme

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penalty during the reign of
Tiberius at the hands of one of

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our procurators, Pontius Pilate.
And a most mischievous

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superstition.
Thus checked for the moment

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again broke out not only in
Judea, the first source of the

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evil, but even in Rome, where
all things hideous and shameful

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from every part of the world
find their center and become

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popular.
Fantastist tells us that

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Christianity had spread outside
of the region of Judea and had

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gone as far as the the center of
the modern world to the city of

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Rome.
And you get a sense too of how

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the Romans felt about the
Christians at this time.

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They hated them.
And about 50 years after that,

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we have Pliny the Younger, a
governor in Asia.

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And he’s got a problem.
His problem is Christianity.

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It’s all over the place.
He can’t stop it.

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He’s been trying to stop it.
He’s been he’s been capturing

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the Christian leaders, as many
as he can get his hands on and

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and trying to make them refute
their beliefs.

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And many of them won’t.
And he doesn’t know what to do.

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So he sends a letter to the
Roman emperor at the time asking

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for advice.
And in that letter he wrote, I

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therefore postponed this
investigation, and hasten to

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consult you, for the matter
seemed to me to weren’t

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consulting you, especially
because of the number involved.

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For many persons of every age,
every rank, and also of both

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sexes, are and will be
endangered, For the contagion of

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this superstition has spread not
only to the cities, but also to

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the villages and farms.
But it seems possible to check

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and cure it.
And he writes about Christianity

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like it’s a disease.
It’s a contagion, he says.

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I can’t stop the spread.
It’s everywhere.

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And it’s not just in the major
cities now it’s in the outlying

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rural countryside and the farms.
I think we can still stop it, he

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says.
But I’d like your advice.

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I’d like your help now.
This is now 112 AD.

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Christianity has continued to
spread and here’s a map of that

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same year.
This map is showing based on

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archaeological discoveries and
ancient manuscripts to date, how

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much we know about how far the
Christian religion had spread by

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this time just a generation
after the apostles.

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And you can see the the major
cities are listed by name.

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There you see Rome and Ephesus
and Alexandria and Jerusalem and

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Antioch and Edessa.
And then you see those, those

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purple squares, those are not
major cities, but cities

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nonetheless, where Christianity
also had communities.

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And then you can see especially
in Asia, but but also in the in

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the Middle East around
Jerusalem.

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The yellow is areas where we see
that Christianity had spread

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outside of the major cultural
centers and into the surrounding

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countryside.
It had spread and nobody could

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stop it.
And a lot of people wanted to

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stop it.
And you know what’s interesting?

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I wouldn’t normally quote
Wikipedia to you as any kind of

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a reliable source.
We know that anybody can

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contribute to Wikipedia.
It has editors that that go

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through and and are constantly
vetting the content.

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But I thought it was interesting
that whoever wrote the article

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on in Wikipedia on the history
of Christianity, there was this

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section within it entitled Why
did Christianity succeed?

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Don’t worry, I don’t expect you
to read this.

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It’s too small, but I wanted to
highlight this for you.

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Whoever wrote it, having looked
at many historical sources,

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concluded there is no agreement
on an explanation of how

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Christianity managed to spread
so successfully prior to the

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Edict of Milan and the
establishment of Christianity as

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the state religion of the Roman
Empire.

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And that’s true.
Historians don’t have a good

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reason for how Christianity
could have spread so

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successfully.
Unless, of course, they’re

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Christian historians, because
there’s really only one

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explanation for it, and I want
to talk now about why that is.

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Why is it that Christianity
really should not have

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succeeded?
And there are a lot of reasons.

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And the first one is this, that
the Romans had a lot of respect

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for ancient things, for
antiquity.

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And the Romans would conquer the
known world.

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They had to develop a procedure
for how they would handle a

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people when they conquered them.
How much freedom are we going to

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give them?
Are we going to let them

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continue to practice their,
their native religion?

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Are we going to let them govern
themselves?

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And so they developed this
process by which they would

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investigate and examine any any
culture which they had conquered

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to determine how much freedom
they would give them.

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And the primary test was this.
Can the culture demonstrate that

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it goes back well into the
history books?

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Have they been doing these
things for a long time?

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If they had, the Romans would
have respect for their customs

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and traditions.
If it was a relatively new

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culture, than the Romans would
just assimilate them and and and

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basically try to convert them to
their own practices and wouldn’t

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let them have the kind of
freedoms that they would let.

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00:12:47,560 –> 00:12:49,320
For example, the Jewish people
have.

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00:12:50,280 –> 00:12:53,200
Because the Jewish people who
they had also conquered the

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00:12:53,200 –> 00:12:57,040
nation of Israel, or perhaps the
most ancient of peoples at this

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00:12:57,040 –> 00:12:58,960
time, they had been around for
so long.

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00:12:59,440 –> 00:13:02,280
And their practices, their
worship practices and their

225
00:13:02,280 –> 00:13:05,200
cultural practices, they could
demonstrate very easily because

226
00:13:05,200 –> 00:13:07,360
of their, their very strict
record keeping that they’ve been

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00:13:07,360 –> 00:13:09,640
doing these things for hundreds
and hundreds of years.

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00:13:09,960 –> 00:13:14,400
So when the Romans conquered the
Jews, they’ve of course had a

229
00:13:14,400 –> 00:13:17,760
lot of respect for their
practices and let them continue

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00:13:17,760 –> 00:13:20,640
to govern themselves, let them
continue to work, worship as

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00:13:20,640 –> 00:13:24,640
they pleased.
One ancient or one modern

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00:13:24,640 –> 00:13:27,960
historian of ancient history,
Robert Louis Wilkin, in his book

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00:13:27,960 –> 00:13:30,600
The Christians As the Romans Saw
Them, he said the primary test

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00:13:30,600 –> 00:13:33,920
of truth and religious matters
was custom and tradition.

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00:13:34,160 –> 00:13:38,520
The practices of the ancients
and the Romans had a saying in

236
00:13:38,520 –> 00:13:41,160
Latin.
It was quad semper, quad ubeque,

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00:13:41,680 –> 00:13:45,040
quad AB, omnibus, which means
what has been held always,

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00:13:45,200 –> 00:13:49,560
everywhere, by everybody.
That was what was important to

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00:13:49,560 –> 00:13:51,640
them.
And this was true within Judaism

240
00:13:51,640 –> 00:13:54,320
as well.
The the Jewish people and those

241
00:13:54,320 –> 00:13:57,880
of the Jewish faith, they, they
were very proud of the fact that

242
00:13:57,880 –> 00:13:59,240
they could demonstrate that they
had.

243
00:13:59,240 –> 00:14:01,520
Their religion had not changed.
For hundreds of years.

244
00:14:01,520 –> 00:14:03,840
They’ve been, they’ve been going
about these practices.

245
00:14:05,280 –> 00:14:08,920
But now came this upstart
religion of Christianity, and

246
00:14:08,920 –> 00:14:11,600
this was brand new.
And you weren’t going to pull

247
00:14:11,600 –> 00:14:13,920
the wool over anybody’s eyes and
try to convince them that it had

248
00:14:13,920 –> 00:14:16,560
been around for any longer than
Jesus, because that was the

249
00:14:16,560 –> 00:14:20,160
beginning of Christianity, as at
least as far as the Romans saw

250
00:14:20,160 –> 00:14:22,600
it.
They crucified this man.

251
00:14:22,720 –> 00:14:27,400
He was just here on this earth.
Christianity was a brand new

252
00:14:27,400 –> 00:14:30,000
religion.
It had no antiquity at all going

253
00:14:30,000 –> 00:14:33,720
for it, and so the Romans would
have no respect for it.

254
00:14:33,720 –> 00:14:37,280
And while they’d have respect
for the Jewish faith, they would

255
00:14:37,280 –> 00:14:39,800
eventually, of course, come down
hard on the Jews as well and

256
00:14:39,800 –> 00:14:41,800
take away their worship
services.

257
00:14:41,800 –> 00:14:46,720
But when the Christians came on
the scene, they had no time for

258
00:14:46,720 –> 00:14:49,160
it.
And along with that was the fact

259
00:14:49,160 –> 00:14:52,360
that the man who the Romans, the
Romans perceived it as, the the

260
00:14:52,360 –> 00:14:55,320
early Christians were actually
worshipping Jesus.

261
00:14:56,160 –> 00:14:58,960
And Jesus was a man who had been
crucified.

262
00:15:00,120 –> 00:15:03,840
Which to anybody else outside of
Christianity at this time would

263
00:15:03,840 –> 00:15:09,360
have seemed ridiculous, because
aside from the fact that

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00:15:09,360 –> 00:15:13,560
crucifixion was was a horrible
way to die, it was also designed

265
00:15:13,560 –> 00:15:16,840
to be humiliating.
It was meant to make an example

266
00:15:17,000 –> 00:15:21,680
of the person who was crucified.
It was reserved for the what

267
00:15:21,680 –> 00:15:25,280
were considered to be the very
worst crimes, so that everybody

268
00:15:25,280 –> 00:15:28,840
would see the person who was
crucified and it would never

269
00:15:28,840 –> 00:15:31,680
want to be in that position.
So they would never, you know,

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00:15:31,680 –> 00:15:35,560
never commit that crime.
Another historian, Martin

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00:15:35,560 –> 00:15:39,160
Hengel, wrote that crucifixion
was an utterly offensive affair,

272
00:15:39,160 –> 00:15:42,000
obscene, and the the original
sense of the word.

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00:15:42,160 –> 00:15:46,280
It was a status degradation
ritual designed to humiliate in

274
00:15:46,280 –> 00:15:50,000
every way, including the
symbolic pinioning, pinioning of

275
00:15:50,000 –> 00:15:53,840
the hands and legs, signifying a
loss of power and loss of

276
00:15:53,840 –> 00:15:57,080
ability to control the body in
various ways, including

277
00:15:57,080 –> 00:16:00,120
befouling oneself with
excrement.

278
00:16:03,480 –> 00:16:07,680
When somebody was crucified.
The point was not to just to

279
00:16:07,680 –> 00:16:11,280
destroy their body, it was to
destroy their reputation.

280
00:16:12,440 –> 00:16:16,600
And here was a man, essentially
the founder of the Christian

281
00:16:16,600 –> 00:16:19,680
religion, and he had been
crucified.

282
00:16:21,720 –> 00:16:26,000
The very earliest depiction that
we have of Jesus and of

283
00:16:26,000 –> 00:16:30,080
Christian worship dates back
some time to the year 200 AD,

284
00:16:30,080 –> 00:16:33,040
but it wasn’t actually
discovered until the year 1857.

285
00:16:33,960 –> 00:16:37,520
And an area of Rome that hadn’t
been walled off, the building

286
00:16:37,520 –> 00:16:42,440
was called the Domus Galatania
on Palatine Hill in Rome, and it

287
00:16:42,440 –> 00:16:45,480
was in a section underneath the
buildings that had been walled

288
00:16:45,480 –> 00:16:49,040
off for centuries because it was
used to support some of the

289
00:16:49,040 –> 00:16:52,640
structures above.
And it’s actually an an work of

290
00:16:52,640 –> 00:16:54,800
graffiti.
It looks like this.

291
00:16:56,200 –> 00:16:59,040
And you can see here is a
depiction of a man worshipping

292
00:16:59,040 –> 00:17:01,360
somebody who’s being crucified.
But it looks like a human with

293
00:17:01,360 –> 00:17:05,000
the head of a donkey.
Because for some reason at this

294
00:17:05,000 –> 00:17:08,160
time in history, one of the
slanders against Christians was

295
00:17:08,160 –> 00:17:10,720
that for some reason people,
people had started the rumor

296
00:17:10,720 –> 00:17:15,400
that they worshipped donkeys.
So here you have this man

297
00:17:15,400 –> 00:17:17,720
worshipping somebody who not
only is being crucified, but

298
00:17:17,720 –> 00:17:20,000
also is has the head of a
donkey.

299
00:17:20,359 –> 00:17:23,920
And you see some writing here in
the translation of that is Alexa

300
00:17:23,920 –> 00:17:29,080
Minas Worships God.
You see, this was intended to

301
00:17:29,080 –> 00:17:31,360
humiliate this Christian Alexa
Minas.

302
00:17:31,880 –> 00:17:34,000
I found it comforting that
somewhere else nearby in a wall,

303
00:17:34,000 –> 00:17:37,480
somebody else wrote Alexa Minos
is faithful, so he had some

304
00:17:37,480 –> 00:17:41,280
friends as well.
It would seem this is one of the

305
00:17:41,280 –> 00:17:46,680
earliest depictions we have
visually of Christian worship

306
00:17:46,840 –> 00:17:51,080
and of Jesus, although of course
not a very accurate depiction

307
00:17:52,160 –> 00:17:54,800
and to slander the religion.
It’s a depiction of somebody on

308
00:17:54,800 –> 00:17:57,800
a cross because that was
ridiculous to everybody else.

309
00:17:58,040 –> 00:18:00,560
That’s why the Apostle Paul
would write in First Corinthians

310
00:18:00,560 –> 00:18:04,600
chapter one and verse 18, that
the preaching of the cross is to

311
00:18:04,600 –> 00:18:09,760
them that perish foolishness but
unto us which are saved.

312
00:18:10,120 –> 00:18:12,920
It is the power of God.
And that’s why the writer of

313
00:18:12,920 –> 00:18:15,280
Hebrews wrote this Hebrews
chapter 12 and verse two.

314
00:18:15,280 –> 00:18:19,560
We look to Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, who for

315
00:18:19,560 –> 00:18:25,040
the joy that was set before him,
he endured the cross, despising

316
00:18:25,720 –> 00:18:30,240
the shame, and to sit down at
the right hand of the throne of

317
00:18:30,240 –> 00:18:33,960
God.
Have you ever really focused on

318
00:18:33,960 –> 00:18:37,760
the shame in that verse?
I never really had before, but

319
00:18:37,800 –> 00:18:40,240
it was there in the verse
because of the shame that went

320
00:18:40,240 –> 00:18:43,920
along with crucifixion.
And early Christians would be

321
00:18:43,920 –> 00:18:48,760
ridiculed for their belief
because of this for following a

322
00:18:48,760 –> 00:18:53,800
man who had participated or had
endured the shame of

323
00:18:53,800 –> 00:18:56,600
crucifixion.
Now, over and above that, there

324
00:18:56,600 –> 00:18:59,960
was more shame associated with
Jesus from both the Roman and a

325
00:18:59,960 –> 00:19:05,160
Jewish perspective, because the
society that that people lived

326
00:19:05,160 –> 00:19:08,640
in at this time in the Roman
Empire was very much unlike the

327
00:19:08,640 –> 00:19:12,440
society we live in today.
We’re very much societies very

328
00:19:12,440 –> 00:19:15,240
much against any kind of
prejudice or bias, but that was

329
00:19:15,240 –> 00:19:17,720
rampant in the world at this
time.

330
00:19:17,720 –> 00:19:21,200
In the modern world, prejudice
and stereotyping were a way of

331
00:19:21,200 –> 00:19:23,880
life in the Roman Empire at this
point in history.

332
00:19:25,520 –> 00:19:31,800
And Jesus was a Jew, and around
the world Gentiles were

333
00:19:31,800 –> 00:19:37,880
converting to Christianity and
their savior was a Jew.

334
00:19:39,560 –> 00:19:43,560
Here’s another quote from the
Roman historian Tacitus, which

335
00:19:43,560 –> 00:19:47,960
gives us some insight into how
the Romans thought about the

336
00:19:47,960 –> 00:19:52,400
Jews.
He’s describing their history,

337
00:19:52,800 –> 00:19:55,440
where they came from.
He says in order to secure the

338
00:19:55,440 –> 00:19:58,760
allegiance of his people in the
future, Moses prescribed for

339
00:19:58,760 –> 00:20:02,120
them a novel religion, quite
different from those of the rest

340
00:20:02,120 –> 00:20:04,920
of mankind.
Among the Jews, all things are

341
00:20:04,920 –> 00:20:08,440
profane that we hold sacred.
On the other hand, they regard

342
00:20:08,440 –> 00:20:11,280
as permissible what seems to us
immoral.

343
00:20:12,880 –> 00:20:15,560
Whatever their origin, these
observances are sanctioned by

344
00:20:15,560 –> 00:20:17,480
their antiquity.
Now that’s interesting, That

345
00:20:17,480 –> 00:20:19,000
goes back to the previous point,
he says.

346
00:20:19,240 –> 00:20:22,880
Despite how revolting their
practices are, at the very least

347
00:20:22,880 –> 00:20:25,360
they’ve got antiquity going for
them, which is why we’ve let

348
00:20:25,360 –> 00:20:28,440
them continue, or had let them
continue to worship as they

349
00:20:28,440 –> 00:20:30,560
chose.
But he goes on to say, the other

350
00:20:30,560 –> 00:20:33,720
practices of the Jews are
sinister and revolting, and have

351
00:20:33,720 –> 00:20:36,480
entrenched themselves by their
very wickedness among

352
00:20:36,480 –> 00:20:37,920
themselves.
Nothing is barred.

353
00:20:38,120 –> 00:20:40,960
They have introduced the
practice of circumcision to show

354
00:20:40,960 –> 00:20:42,320
that they are different from
others.

355
00:20:42,840 –> 00:20:45,800
Proselytes to Jewry adopt the
same practices, and the very

356
00:20:45,800 –> 00:20:49,520
first lesson they learn is to
despise the gods, shed all

357
00:20:49,520 –> 00:20:53,480
feelings of patriotism, and
consider parents, children and

358
00:20:53,480 –> 00:21:00,720
brothers as readily expendable.
This is how the Romans felt

359
00:21:00,720 –> 00:21:04,960
about the Jews.
This was the society in which

360
00:21:04,960 –> 00:21:10,760
Christianity was spreading,
seemingly unchecked, despite the

361
00:21:10,760 –> 00:21:12,680
best efforts of the Romans to
stop it.

362
00:21:14,040 –> 00:21:16,800
But even from a Jewish
perspective, the origins of

363
00:21:16,800 –> 00:21:20,320
Jesus were shameful because he
came, they believed, from the

364
00:21:20,320 –> 00:21:25,120
region of Galilee, a land of
ignorant farmers, of uneducated

365
00:21:25,120 –> 00:21:28,280
people in a Jewish society where
education was everything.

366
00:21:30,080 –> 00:21:33,440
And that’s why you remember the
disciple Nathanael.

367
00:21:33,440 –> 00:21:38,400
When he’s told we found the
Messiah, he said, can there any

368
00:21:38,400 –> 00:21:41,080
good thing come out of Nazareth
before he’d ever met Jesus?

369
00:21:41,080 –> 00:21:43,240
He’s like, are you serious?
He comes from the region of

370
00:21:43,240 –> 00:21:45,840
Galilee.
Hard to believe.

371
00:21:46,680 –> 00:21:50,120
Even within Jewish society, the
origins of Jesus were very

372
00:21:50,120 –> 00:21:51,960
shameful.
There was a lot of shame

373
00:21:51,960 –> 00:21:55,680
associated just with Jesus
himself from a human perspective

374
00:21:55,680 –> 00:22:03,320
at this time in history.
Now, if you were writing the

375
00:22:03,320 –> 00:22:06,480
Acts of the Apostles, those
accounts of what happened when

376
00:22:06,480 –> 00:22:09,280
the apostles went out into all
the world to preach the gospel,

377
00:22:10,120 –> 00:22:12,600
and you’re writing all the
stories of the miracles that

378
00:22:12,600 –> 00:22:16,560
happened and the people who were
converted, but you were making

379
00:22:16,560 –> 00:22:20,040
it all up and it was all a
farce, It was all fake, but you

380
00:22:20,040 –> 00:22:21,320
were trying to create a
religion.

381
00:22:21,320 –> 00:22:23,480
So you were you wanted to write
something that people would

382
00:22:23,480 –> 00:22:27,320
believe what you were going to
write was going to be

383
00:22:27,320 –> 00:22:29,640
distributed within modern
society.

384
00:22:29,640 –> 00:22:33,040
So you’d want to make sure that
it it could be fact checked and

385
00:22:33,040 –> 00:22:34,640
people wouldn’t be able to
debunk it.

386
00:22:35,080 –> 00:22:39,680
The very last thing you would do
is associate these miracles and

387
00:22:39,680 –> 00:22:42,600
stories with people who were
well known.

388
00:22:42,600 –> 00:22:46,680
With famous people you’d want to
associate the especially the

389
00:22:46,680 –> 00:22:49,920
miraculous parts with nameless
or obscure people who nobody

390
00:22:49,920 –> 00:22:52,040
knew that nobody could go to
Fact Check.

391
00:22:53,240 –> 00:22:56,520
And that’s the exact opposite of
what happens.

392
00:22:56,760 –> 00:23:00,800
And the Acts of the Apostles.
Remember Herod Agrippa the 2nd?

393
00:23:01,480 –> 00:23:04,800
Remember when Paul was was
imprisoned and he waited for an

394
00:23:04,800 –> 00:23:07,280
audience and he got an audience
with Heritage Grip of the 2nd?

395
00:23:08,160 –> 00:23:11,000
And this is what it says.
I’ll read it for you.

396
00:23:11,520 –> 00:23:14,480
You can turn there if you like,
in Acts chapter 26 verses 24 to

397
00:23:14,480 –> 00:23:20,240
28, as Paul thus spake for
himself, Festus said with a loud

398
00:23:20,240 –> 00:23:24,360
voice.
Paul, thou art beside thyself.

399
00:23:24,720 –> 00:23:26,760
Much learning does make thee
mad.

400
00:23:27,560 –> 00:23:31,720
But he said, I am not mad, most
noble Festus, but speak forth

401
00:23:31,720 –> 00:23:33,400
the words of truth and
soberness.

402
00:23:33,680 –> 00:23:36,440
For the king knoweth of these
things before whom also I speak

403
00:23:36,440 –> 00:23:39,160
freely.
For I am persuaded that none of

404
00:23:39,160 –> 00:23:42,680
these things are hidden from
him, for this thing was not done

405
00:23:42,680 –> 00:23:44,920
in a corner.
King Agrippa, believeth thou the

406
00:23:44,920 –> 00:23:47,320
prophets?
I know that thou believest.

407
00:23:47,920 –> 00:23:51,240
And then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Almost thou persuadest me to be

408
00:23:51,240 –> 00:23:54,120
a Christian.
Now that last part in the past,

409
00:23:54,120 –> 00:23:57,160
you know, I found it convincing
that maybe Agrippa was almost

410
00:23:57,160 –> 00:23:59,200
converted.
But I think a better translation

411
00:23:59,200 –> 00:24:01,880
of that last part is Agrippa
said, You really think you’re

412
00:24:01,880 –> 00:24:03,400
going to convert me to be a
Christian?

413
00:24:05,920 –> 00:24:11,240
But earlier And verse 26, Paul
says, I know that you know about

414
00:24:11,240 –> 00:24:13,720
all of these things, these
miracles and the resurrection of

415
00:24:13,800 –> 00:24:17,280
Jesus, because none of this
happened in a corner in our

416
00:24:17,280 –> 00:24:20,000
second class, which was the
first class yesterday, we talked

417
00:24:20,000 –> 00:24:22,400
about the empty tomb and the
proof for the resurrection of

418
00:24:22,520 –> 00:24:25,120
Jesus.
And Christianity is unique among

419
00:24:25,120 –> 00:24:27,760
all of the religions in the
world, and that it claims

420
00:24:27,760 –> 00:24:30,960
something that seems impossible,
something outside of our frame

421
00:24:30,960 –> 00:24:33,320
of reference that we’ve never
seen before, that at a point in

422
00:24:33,320 –> 00:24:35,600
history a man was raised from
the dead.

423
00:24:38,440 –> 00:24:42,160
And it hangs it out there for us
to check and see if that really

424
00:24:42,160 –> 00:24:48,040
is true, to look at the facts.
It doesn’t couch it in obscurity

425
00:24:48,040 –> 00:24:52,320
so that we can never verify.
It gives us the historical

426
00:24:52,320 –> 00:24:54,400
records to look into for
ourselves.

427
00:24:54,880 –> 00:24:57,360
And that’s why Paul is able to
say to Agrippa, none of these

428
00:24:57,360 –> 00:25:00,600
things were done in secret.
Everybody knows, and Agrippa

429
00:25:00,600 –> 00:25:03,560
doesn’t say to him, no, that’s
not true.

430
00:25:04,640 –> 00:25:06,880
He doesn’t refute that because
he can’t refute that.

431
00:25:07,040 –> 00:25:09,920
Consider that the the writings
this, this record, the Acts of

432
00:25:09,920 –> 00:25:12,800
the Apostles which Luke wrote
would have been distributed.

433
00:25:12,800 –> 00:25:16,600
In the same time people could
have checked with somebody like

434
00:25:16,600 –> 00:25:19,040
Herod of Gripper the 2nd to see
if this is the way that it went

435
00:25:19,040 –> 00:25:21,040
down, or many of the other
people that were there.

436
00:25:21,480 –> 00:25:24,720
He was a very famous, prominent
figure, let alone people like

437
00:25:24,720 –> 00:25:28,040
Pontius Pilate or Annus and
Caiaphas, the high priests or

438
00:25:28,040 –> 00:25:30,480
Joseph of Arimathea and
Nicodemus, those secret

439
00:25:30,480 –> 00:25:33,680
followers of Jesus who were
among the leading Sanhedrin

440
00:25:33,680 –> 00:25:37,400
council of the Jews.
If this was all fake, you would

441
00:25:37,400 –> 00:25:40,640
associate it with nameless,
obscure people, not the leaders

442
00:25:40,640 –> 00:25:46,960
of your time.
But that’s what we see in the

443
00:25:46,960 –> 00:25:52,840
Acts of the Apostles.
And if you were to convert to

444
00:25:52,840 –> 00:25:57,400
Christianity in this time, and
thousands of people around the

445
00:25:57,400 –> 00:26:00,840
world were doing it from all
stations of life, of different

446
00:26:00,840 –> 00:26:04,840
ethnic backgrounds, Jews and
Gentiles all over the world,

447
00:26:05,080 –> 00:26:12,320
rich and poor, slaves and free,
then you were signing up for

448
00:26:12,320 –> 00:26:17,040
something very difficult because
the Jews would dislike you, the

449
00:26:17,040 –> 00:26:21,240
Romans would dislike you, your
family would disown you, and

450
00:26:21,240 –> 00:26:23,920
everybody else that wasn’t a
Christian would avoid you and

451
00:26:23,920 –> 00:26:27,640
ridicule you.
Hebrews chapter 10, verses 32

452
00:26:27,640 –> 00:26:32,560
and 33 called remembrance the
former days in which ye after ye

453
00:26:32,560 –> 00:26:34,840
were illuminated.
Ye endured a great fight of

454
00:26:34,840 –> 00:26:38,160
afflictions, partly whilst ye
were made a gazing stock, both

455
00:26:38,160 –> 00:26:40,960
by reproaches and afflictions,
and partly while she became

456
00:26:41,080 –> 00:26:43,880
companions of them that were so
used.

457
00:26:44,480 –> 00:26:47,160
The writer of the Hebrews
reminds them of how difficult it

458
00:26:47,160 –> 00:26:49,960
was when they became a
Christian, ridiculed by

459
00:26:49,960 –> 00:26:53,640
everybody else losing their
station if they had a station in

460
00:26:53,640 –> 00:26:55,760
society.
And in First Peter, chapter 3,

461
00:26:55,760 –> 00:26:59,400
verse 16, Peter says that you
have a good conscience, that

462
00:26:59,400 –> 00:27:03,400
whereas they speak evil of you
as of evil doers, they may be

463
00:27:03,400 –> 00:27:09,600
ashamed that falsely accuse your
good conversation in Christ.

464
00:27:11,040 –> 00:27:13,720
It wasn’t an easy thing to
become a Christian at this time.

465
00:27:14,800 –> 00:27:18,400
You were making a difficult
decision to walk away sometimes

466
00:27:18,400 –> 00:27:23,120
from your family, from your job,
from everything that that gave

467
00:27:23,120 –> 00:27:26,080
you safety and security.
Why?

468
00:27:26,520 –> 00:27:29,640
Why would you do it if the
miracles weren’t really

469
00:27:29,640 –> 00:27:34,080
happening, If Jesus wasn’t
really resurrected from the

470
00:27:34,080 –> 00:27:36,320
dead, then what could convince
you to do this?

471
00:27:36,480 –> 00:27:39,120
But around the world, thousands
of people were doing it.

472
00:27:43,000 –> 00:27:46,720
The historian Bruce Molina wrote
that given the sharp social

473
00:27:46,720 –> 00:27:50,520
stratification, prevalence, and
antiquity, persons engaging in

474
00:27:50,520 –> 00:27:54,000
inappropriate social relations
risked being cut off from

475
00:27:54,000 –> 00:27:56,080
networks on which their
positions depended.

476
00:27:56,680 –> 00:27:59,320
In traditional societies, this
was taken with deadly

477
00:27:59,320 –> 00:28:02,600
seriousness.
Alienation from family or clan

478
00:28:02,800 –> 00:28:05,960
could literally be a matter of
life and death, especially for

479
00:28:05,960 –> 00:28:08,840
the elite, who would risk
everything by the wrong kind of

480
00:28:08,840 –> 00:28:11,880
association with the wrong kind
of people.

481
00:28:13,280 –> 00:28:15,360
This was the nature of society
at this time.

482
00:28:16,240 –> 00:28:20,960
If you had wealth, if you had a
name for yourself, you had to be

483
00:28:20,960 –> 00:28:24,560
very careful about how you
preserved that name and one slip

484
00:28:24,560 –> 00:28:27,840
up and you could lose it all.
Your life may even be at stake.

485
00:28:28,080 –> 00:28:31,000
Families would sometimes
assassinate their own members if

486
00:28:31,000 –> 00:28:33,080
they were elite, wealthy
families and they thought that

487
00:28:33,080 –> 00:28:36,520
somebody in their family was
endangering the the livelihood

488
00:28:36,520 –> 00:28:40,560
of the family.
But around the world, wealthy

489
00:28:40,560 –> 00:28:45,280
people, famous people, were
converting to Christianity, and

490
00:28:45,280 –> 00:28:47,520
Jesus had predicted that this
would happen.

491
00:28:47,800 –> 00:28:50,800
In Matthew chapter 19, verse 29,
he said everyone that has

492
00:28:50,800 –> 00:28:53,800
forsaken houses or brethren or
sisters or father or mother or

493
00:28:53,800 –> 00:28:58,480
wife or children or lands for my
name’s sake shall receive an

494
00:28:58,480 –> 00:29:02,120
hundredfold and shall inherit
everlasting life.

495
00:29:02,360 –> 00:29:05,920
I’d suggest to you that today we
know nothing about sacrifice

496
00:29:06,280 –> 00:29:09,040
compared to these earliest
Christians.

497
00:29:09,880 –> 00:29:12,560
To become a Christian, they
often had to walk away from all

498
00:29:12,560 –> 00:29:15,680
of these things, and Jesus had
predicted that it would be this

499
00:29:15,680 –> 00:29:21,080
way and they were choosing to do
it anyway.

500
00:29:23,120 –> 00:29:26,920
Now you may wonder at this point
if, if this is the case, what is

501
00:29:27,200 –> 00:29:29,360
if?
If somebody’s a critic, if

502
00:29:29,360 –> 00:29:32,880
somebody’s cynical about this
and their historian, how would

503
00:29:32,880 –> 00:29:37,040
they come back against this,
this argument about the rapid

504
00:29:37,040 –> 00:29:39,400
spread of Christianity in a
world where it should not have

505
00:29:39,400 –> 00:29:41,600
succeeded?
There’s no real good rational

506
00:29:41,600 –> 00:29:45,520
explanation of how it should
have succeeded if the miracles

507
00:29:45,520 –> 00:29:48,920
weren’t really happening, if
Jesus wasn’t really resurrected

508
00:29:48,920 –> 00:29:52,360
from the dead.
And there’s one response that we

509
00:29:52,360 –> 00:29:55,800
get time and time again to this,
to this particular train of

510
00:29:55,800 –> 00:29:58,680
thought.
And it’s this that, yes, it

511
00:29:58,680 –> 00:30:03,240
seems remarkable, The the rate
at which Christianity grew at

512
00:30:03,240 –> 00:30:06,240
this time, the explosion of the
Christian religion in the 1st

513
00:30:06,240 –> 00:30:09,080
and the 2nd centuries.
It seems remarkable, but it’s

514
00:30:09,080 –> 00:30:13,600
not unprecedented.
We’ve seen even faster growth of

515
00:30:13,600 –> 00:30:17,080
other religions, and the two
religions that are usually cited

516
00:30:17,080 –> 00:30:25,240
are Mormonism and Islam.
So I want to take a second to

517
00:30:25,320 –> 00:30:27,920
talk about those religions with
you and how they’re different

518
00:30:27,920 –> 00:30:29,720
from Christianity.
And in fact, it’s a very

519
00:30:29,720 –> 00:30:33,560
different story with those two
religions than it is with

520
00:30:33,560 –> 00:30:36,280
Christianity itself.
Of course, Mormonism is is a

521
00:30:36,280 –> 00:30:39,280
branch of Christianity.
They, they believe in the Bible

522
00:30:39,280 –> 00:30:42,680
and then Jesus, because it’s a
little bit of a strange one.

523
00:30:43,800 –> 00:30:45,640
And they had their own book, the
Book of Mormon.

524
00:30:47,040 –> 00:30:50,960
Mormonism was started by a man
named Joseph Smith, and he

525
00:30:50,960 –> 00:30:56,040
claimed to have continually
received revelations from God.

526
00:30:57,240 –> 00:31:01,520
And these revelations would, for
Mormons, expand upon the message

527
00:31:01,520 –> 00:31:04,760
of the Bible.
Only he saw them.

528
00:31:05,480 –> 00:31:08,520
They came only in his mind
visions just to Joseph Smith.

529
00:31:09,120 –> 00:31:13,120
And much of the Book of
Mormonism came from the sayings

530
00:31:13,120 –> 00:31:14,920
of Joseph Smith.
Based on the supposed

531
00:31:14,920 –> 00:31:18,400
revelations that he had, there
was no way to put that out there

532
00:31:18,400 –> 00:31:20,920
for anybody to verify.
You either trusted Joseph Smith

533
00:31:20,920 –> 00:31:23,080
or you didn’t.
So you’d have to ask the

534
00:31:23,080 –> 00:31:26,800
question, did Joseph Smith have
anything to gain if he were to

535
00:31:26,800 –> 00:31:31,000
make these things up?
And you look at the facts,

536
00:31:31,880 –> 00:31:35,440
Joseph Smith founded a community
and became its leader.

537
00:31:36,040 –> 00:31:40,440
It’s a rags to riches story.
He was able to successfully

538
00:31:40,440 –> 00:31:44,440
practice polygamy and a society
where that wasn’t really

539
00:31:44,440 –> 00:31:48,960
accepted, but he made it
accepted in his community and he

540
00:31:48,960 –> 00:31:52,160
had himself appointed the
prophet, priest, and king of the

541
00:31:52,160 –> 00:31:55,800
millennial monarchy.
He gave himself that title.

542
00:31:56,400 –> 00:32:01,240
He became extremely wealthy, and
a little known fact is that at

543
00:32:01,240 –> 00:32:04,000
one point he even ran for
president of the United States.

544
00:32:05,200 –> 00:32:07,400
And he asked the question, did
he have anything to gain by

545
00:32:07,400 –> 00:32:10,640
making up a religion?
And the answer is he absolutely

546
00:32:10,640 –> 00:32:12,440
did.
And he asked the question, Could

547
00:32:12,440 –> 00:32:14,280
you verify any of the things
that he said?

548
00:32:14,280 –> 00:32:18,000
And the answer is no.
It could easily have all come

549
00:32:18,000 –> 00:32:22,640
from the mind of Joseph Smith.
And so, despite the fact that

550
00:32:22,640 –> 00:32:25,800
Mormonism grew by leaps and
bounds, it was not at a time in

551
00:32:25,800 –> 00:32:29,360
history where Mormons were
persecuted the way the original

552
00:32:29,360 –> 00:32:33,040
Christians were, and it was not
a religion that exposed itself

553
00:32:33,040 –> 00:32:36,040
to to fact checking the way that
Christianity did.

554
00:32:36,200 –> 00:32:38,720
And so, no, the story is not the
same at all.

555
00:32:39,800 –> 00:32:43,520
Now let’s talk about Islam,
which started with Muhammad,

556
00:32:43,520 –> 00:32:47,560
known as the Prophet Muhammad.
Muhammad was born into a

557
00:32:47,560 –> 00:32:51,880
polytheistic society.
They believed in many gods, and

558
00:32:51,880 –> 00:32:55,160
he was born into a a prominent
plan in the city of Mecca, but

559
00:32:55,160 –> 00:32:58,160
his family had been in decline
for several generations now.

560
00:32:58,440 –> 00:33:01,840
They used to be wealthy and and
powerful, and they’d lost most

561
00:33:01,840 –> 00:33:03,880
of their most of their prestige
and wealth.

562
00:33:06,840 –> 00:33:09,320
And so he set about to change
things for himself.

563
00:33:10,640 –> 00:33:16,000
And he claimed, sort of like
Joseph Smith, to also receive

564
00:33:16,200 –> 00:33:20,160
revelations from God, during
which he said the Angel Gabriel

565
00:33:20,160 –> 00:33:24,400
came and spoke to him.
And it’s upon those revelations

566
00:33:24,400 –> 00:33:30,480
that the the holy book for the
Muslims, the Quran, is based, he

567
00:33:30,480 –> 00:33:33,760
would often break into what we
would call today an epileptic

568
00:33:33,760 –> 00:33:36,920
fit or seizure, falling on the
ground and shaking and foaming

569
00:33:36,920 –> 00:33:38,280
at the mouth.
And when he would come out of

570
00:33:38,280 –> 00:33:41,160
it, he’d say, God has been
speaking to me.

571
00:33:41,160 –> 00:33:43,960
And there’d be a scribe nearby
to record the things that he

572
00:33:43,960 –> 00:33:45,920
would now say that he had just
seen.

573
00:33:47,320 –> 00:33:51,720
But just like Joseph Smith, you
had to trust Muhammad that he

574
00:33:51,720 –> 00:33:54,360
really had seen a vision because
nobody else had seen it.

575
00:33:56,880 –> 00:34:03,040
And through military prowess and
political prowess, he conquered

576
00:34:03,040 –> 00:34:05,320
and united all the nomadic
tribes.

577
00:34:05,920 –> 00:34:08,480
His home city, Mecca, rejected
him because they were

578
00:34:08,480 –> 00:34:11,920
polytheistic and and he was
preaching A monotheistic

579
00:34:11,920 –> 00:34:14,159
religion.
There’s only one God, and that

580
00:34:14,159 –> 00:34:16,880
way it’s very similar to
Christianity.

581
00:34:18,520 –> 00:34:21,400
So he went to another city,
Medina, where he convinced them

582
00:34:21,840 –> 00:34:26,480
by by his charisma, with his
charisma that he truly was a

583
00:34:26,480 –> 00:34:29,520
prophet of God.
And he won over the city and he

584
00:34:29,520 –> 00:34:32,360
took control of the military of
that city and went out and

585
00:34:32,360 –> 00:34:35,040
conquered 1 by 1 all of the
small nomadic tribes.

586
00:34:35,159 –> 00:34:37,440
And every tribe that he
conquered, he forced them to

587
00:34:37,440 –> 00:34:43,480
convert to his religion and
brought them in to the fold so

588
00:34:43,480 –> 00:34:47,239
that their army was now his army
until he had a massive army.

589
00:34:48,639 –> 00:34:51,239
And then that army knocked on
the doors of his home city,

590
00:34:51,239 –> 00:34:54,360
Mecca.
And he conquered his home city

591
00:34:54,840 –> 00:34:57,120
and took it.
He conquered everybody in the

592
00:34:57,120 –> 00:35:00,720
region, and everybody that he
conquered he forced to convert

593
00:35:00,720 –> 00:35:04,640
to Islam.
But interestingly, his track

594
00:35:04,640 –> 00:35:07,560
record was not perfect.
He was clearly a gifted military

595
00:35:07,560 –> 00:35:11,080
general, but he was defeated
several times and during his

596
00:35:11,080 –> 00:35:15,200
conquest the revelations that he
would receive from God seemed to

597
00:35:15,200 –> 00:35:18,560
nicely coincide with his
personal or his military agenda.

598
00:35:19,280 –> 00:35:22,040
If he wanted to attack a certain
tribe, then he’d have a

599
00:35:22,040 –> 00:35:25,160
revelation that God says it’s
time to attack that tribe.

600
00:35:26,120 –> 00:35:29,680
And at one point desperately
hoping for the accommodation of

601
00:35:29,680 –> 00:35:33,560
his home family who had kind of
kicked him out because of of his

602
00:35:33,560 –> 00:35:38,400
new beliefs, either from fear of
hope or or from fear or from

603
00:35:38,400 –> 00:35:41,080
hope of succeeding more readily
with his family.

604
00:35:41,320 –> 00:35:43,920
He actually, even though to this
point he’d been preaching

605
00:35:43,920 –> 00:35:46,440
monotheism that there is one
God.

606
00:35:47,680 –> 00:35:50,200
He changed his tune.
He said he’d he’d realized that

607
00:35:50,200 –> 00:35:53,880
they’re actually that God has
three daughters, 3 goddesses

608
00:35:53,880 –> 00:35:56,080
that just happened to have the
same names of those that were

609
00:35:56,080 –> 00:35:58,440
already worshipped by the people
in Mecca.

610
00:35:59,880 –> 00:36:03,240
Later on, after he conquered
everybody, he retracted that

611
00:36:03,240 –> 00:36:05,120
statement, said that one was a
deception.

612
00:36:05,120 –> 00:36:06,480
The devil deceived me on that
one.

613
00:36:06,480 –> 00:36:08,480
Let’s take that one out of the
record books.

614
00:36:08,480 –> 00:36:12,080
There there’s only one God, But
at a time it was convenient to

615
00:36:12,320 –> 00:36:14,960
to tell the people that no,
there’s actually more.

616
00:36:15,160 –> 00:36:17,040
This is a little bit more
similar to what you already

617
00:36:17,040 –> 00:36:20,840
know, and you have to ask the
question, did did Muhammad have

618
00:36:21,360 –> 00:36:24,440
any incentive to make up the
things that he did?

619
00:36:24,440 –> 00:36:26,320
And the answer is absolutely he
did.

620
00:36:26,920 –> 00:36:29,040
This is another rags to riches
story.

621
00:36:29,720 –> 00:36:33,880
He went from a family in decline
to the leader of a powerful

622
00:36:33,880 –> 00:36:37,760
nation.
He gained wealth and prestige

623
00:36:37,840 –> 00:36:41,400
and power, and he had every
reason to do it because he found

624
00:36:41,400 –> 00:36:44,240
himself at the bottom of the
barrel and he climbed his way

625
00:36:44,240 –> 00:36:47,480
out.
And everything that he said,

626
00:36:47,480 –> 00:36:50,120
you’d have to just trust him
because there were no facts to

627
00:36:50,120 –> 00:36:52,640
hang out there to test if it
really was true.

628
00:36:52,640 –> 00:36:54,720
Nothing like the resurrection of
Jesus.

629
00:36:55,960 –> 00:36:59,480
It’s either true or it isn’t,
and we can look at the facts to

630
00:36:59,480 –> 00:37:04,640
see if we think it is.
And now we look at the apostles.

631
00:37:06,600 –> 00:37:10,840
Did the apostles make it up?
Because if you, if you don’t

632
00:37:10,840 –> 00:37:14,440
believe in the message of the
Bible and in the events that are

633
00:37:14,440 –> 00:37:17,080
recorded in the gospels and and
in the Acts of the Apostles,

634
00:37:17,080 –> 00:37:19,680
then you’d have to believe that
at the very least the apostles

635
00:37:19,680 –> 00:37:23,040
were making up the miracles and
they were making up the story

636
00:37:23,040 –> 00:37:27,120
about the resurrection of Jesus.
And so you’d have to ask the

637
00:37:27,120 –> 00:37:31,800
question, why would they do that
if they had followed this man?

638
00:37:31,800 –> 00:37:32,880
Right.
But right up until the point

639
00:37:32,880 –> 00:37:34,760
where he was crucified and that
was it.

640
00:37:34,760 –> 00:37:39,000
And he never came back.
Why would they make up the story

641
00:37:39,000 –> 00:37:41,440
that he’d come back, that he was
resurrected?

642
00:37:41,880 –> 00:37:43,880
Why would they make up the
miracles?

643
00:37:44,480 –> 00:37:46,800
What did they have to gain?
Did they gain wealth?

644
00:37:46,840 –> 00:37:49,160
And the answer is no.
Did they gain power?

645
00:37:49,160 –> 00:37:51,680
Maybe you could argue they
gained power because they they

646
00:37:51,680 –> 00:37:53,680
now became the leaders of a new
community.

647
00:37:55,040 –> 00:37:58,840
But almost to a man, every
single one of these apostles

648
00:37:58,840 –> 00:38:00,640
would die for what they
believed.

649
00:38:01,720 –> 00:38:05,640
Some of them would die horribly.
And you have to ask the

650
00:38:05,640 –> 00:38:08,800
question, does it make sense
that every single one of them

651
00:38:09,000 –> 00:38:12,680
would go out and die for what
they believed if what they

652
00:38:12,680 –> 00:38:17,800
believed they knew was a lie and
it just doesn’t make sense?

653
00:38:18,680 –> 00:38:22,400
And there has come down to us no
evidence that suggests that the

654
00:38:22,400 –> 00:38:26,080
tomb of Jesus was not empty or
that these miracles didn’t

655
00:38:26,080 –> 00:38:29,360
really happen.
And there were people all over

656
00:38:29,360 –> 00:38:34,040
the world witnessing them.
There were communities growing

657
00:38:34,880 –> 00:38:37,480
throughout the Gentile world,
not just within the Jewish

658
00:38:37,480 –> 00:38:39,400
community, and nobody could stop
it.

659
00:38:39,800 –> 00:38:43,320
And the Jews wanted to stop it
and the Romans wanted to stop it

660
00:38:43,720 –> 00:38:47,200
and they could not.
So I’d like you to turn with me

661
00:38:47,200 –> 00:38:54,240
to Acts Chapter 5.
And I I love this particular

662
00:38:54,240 –> 00:39:01,280
story.
In Acts chapter 5, when Peter

663
00:39:01,280 –> 00:39:05,320
and some of the other apostles
are arrested by the Jewish

664
00:39:05,320 –> 00:39:12,600
leaders and the Sanhedrin
Council is talking about killing

665
00:39:12,600 –> 00:39:15,080
them, what are we going to do
about these people?

666
00:39:15,080 –> 00:39:17,480
They won’t listen to us.
We’ve told them to stop teaching

667
00:39:17,480 –> 00:39:19,600
that this guy has been raised
from the dead and they won’t.

668
00:39:19,600 –> 00:39:22,640
What should we do?
And many of them are whispering

669
00:39:22,640 –> 00:39:26,840
that let’s kill them, let’s just
kill them, be done with it like

670
00:39:26,840 –> 00:39:30,080
we did with Jesus.
And I’m going to start reading

671
00:39:30,080 –> 00:39:35,560
at verse 33 of Acts chapter 5.
When they heard this, they were

672
00:39:35,560 –> 00:39:39,720
enraged and wanted to kill them.
But a Pharisee in the council

673
00:39:40,080 –> 00:39:44,760
named Gamaliel, a teacher of the
law held in honor by all the

674
00:39:44,760 –> 00:39:47,640
people, stood up and gave orders
to put the men outside for a

675
00:39:47,640 –> 00:39:52,200
little while.
And he said, men of Israel, take

676
00:39:52,200 –> 00:39:54,560
care what you were about to do
with these men.

677
00:39:55,120 –> 00:39:58,840
For before these days Theodus
rose up claiming to be somebody,

678
00:39:59,240 –> 00:40:01,520
and a number of men, about 400,
joined him.

679
00:40:02,200 –> 00:40:05,520
He was killed, and all who
followed him were dispersed, and

680
00:40:05,520 –> 00:40:09,600
came to nothing after him Judas
the Galilee, and rose up in the

681
00:40:09,600 –> 00:40:12,240
days of the census, and drew
away some of the people after

682
00:40:12,240 –> 00:40:15,720
him.
He too perished, and all who

683
00:40:15,720 –> 00:40:20,160
followed him were scattered.
So in the present case, I tell

684
00:40:20,160 –> 00:40:22,800
you, keep away from these men
and let them alone.

685
00:40:22,960 –> 00:40:27,200
For if this plan or this
undertaking is of man, it will

686
00:40:27,200 –> 00:40:31,000
fail.
But if it is of God, you will

687
00:40:31,000 –> 00:40:34,760
not be able to overthrow them.
You might even be found opposing

688
00:40:34,760 –> 00:40:39,960
God.
So they took his advice, he

689
00:40:39,960 –> 00:40:41,400
said.
We’ve seen this before.

690
00:40:42,240 –> 00:40:48,400
We’ve seen rebel leaders rise up
with the following and wage war

691
00:40:48,560 –> 00:40:50,720
against the Romans, and the
Romans every single time have

692
00:40:50,720 –> 00:40:55,040
come down and crushed them.
We know the position in which

693
00:40:55,040 –> 00:40:56,800
we’re in.
We know that we cannot hope to

694
00:40:56,800 –> 00:40:59,600
overcome the Roman Empire.
We can only hope to appease them

695
00:41:00,160 –> 00:41:04,080
and stay on their good side.
And so they’re in an impossible

696
00:41:04,080 –> 00:41:06,560
situation.
What these men are teaching will

697
00:41:06,560 –> 00:41:08,520
not succeed.
Look at the society in which we

698
00:41:08,520 –> 00:41:09,840
live.
They can’t succeed.

699
00:41:10,080 –> 00:41:12,280
This won’t get far.
It doesn’t have legs.

700
00:41:12,880 –> 00:41:15,440
Just wait.
You don’t need to murder them.

701
00:41:17,520 –> 00:41:20,160
They’ll take care of themselves.
If they keep preaching this way,

702
00:41:20,840 –> 00:41:25,920
they won’t last long unless God
is on their side.

703
00:41:27,200 –> 00:41:29,640
And if God is on their side,
then nobody’s going to be able

704
00:41:29,640 –> 00:41:35,400
to stop them.
And the words of Gamaliel echo

705
00:41:35,400 –> 00:41:40,560
throughout 2000 years of history
to us because nobody was able to

706
00:41:40,560 –> 00:41:43,720
stop them.
A common sense interpretation of

707
00:41:43,720 –> 00:41:48,600
the situation said this will not
go far, it won’t succeed, And it

708
00:41:48,600 –> 00:41:53,200
did, and it did in an incredible
way that proves to us that God

709
00:41:53,200 –> 00:41:56,440
was behind it all.
That could be the only

710
00:41:56,440 –> 00:42:01,320
explanation, because once you
eliminate the impossible,

711
00:42:01,960 –> 00:42:05,800
whatever remains, no matter how
improbable, must be the truth.

712
00:42:05,960 –> 00:42:09,520
And the truth must be that Jesus
was resurrected from the dead,

713
00:42:10,280 –> 00:42:12,880
that the apostles really were
performing miracles.

714
00:42:12,880 –> 00:42:16,520
Because that’s the only way that
these early Christians around

715
00:42:16,520 –> 00:42:19,120
the world, thousands of them,
would be willing to walk away

716
00:42:19,120 –> 00:42:22,280
from everything that they knew
for something that was brand new

717
00:42:22,280 –> 00:42:26,560
that they’d only just heard.
And it’s the only explanation

718
00:42:26,560 –> 00:42:28,840
that makes sense.
As improbable as many people

719
00:42:28,840 –> 00:42:32,000
might think, it’s the only
explanation left.

720
00:42:32,920 –> 00:42:40,680
And in our first class yesterday
about the empty tomb, we talked

721
00:42:40,680 –> 00:42:42,840
about a man named Albert Henry
Ross.

722
00:42:44,000 –> 00:42:47,320
And Albert Henry Ross lived at
the beginning of the 20th

723
00:42:47,320 –> 00:42:52,720
century, and he was a journalist
with some legal training, and he

724
00:42:52,720 –> 00:42:54,480
had grown up going to a
Christian Church.

725
00:42:54,480 –> 00:42:56,200
But as an adult, he’d stopped
doing that.

726
00:42:56,200 –> 00:43:00,880
He was a skeptic, and he set out
to write a book that was going

727
00:43:00,880 –> 00:43:02,840
to be a critique of the gospel
accounts.

728
00:43:03,920 –> 00:43:07,880
He was going to tear it apart.
And by the time he wrote his

729
00:43:07,880 –> 00:43:10,840
book, he had looked at all of
the evidence he could find

730
00:43:11,200 –> 00:43:14,480
ancient history from the time
about the way Jewish society

731
00:43:14,480 –> 00:43:19,400
worked and functions.
And he compared the gospel

732
00:43:19,400 –> 00:43:21,960
accounts to each other to look
for inaccuracies.

733
00:43:23,640 –> 00:43:26,680
And he had changed his mind.
He wrote a book called Who Moved

734
00:43:26,680 –> 00:43:29,840
the Stone?
Which was the opposite of the

735
00:43:29,840 –> 00:43:33,560
book he intended to write.
It’s become a powerful Christian

736
00:43:33,560 –> 00:43:36,400
apologetic work, published in
1930.

737
00:43:37,400 –> 00:43:39,360
He wrote under the pen name
Frank Morrison.

738
00:43:39,360 –> 00:43:42,920
And towards the end of that
book, which we quoted in that

739
00:43:42,920 –> 00:43:45,600
class yesterday, and we quote a
different part here today,

740
00:43:46,920 –> 00:43:50,480
here’s what he had to write,
talking about the apostles

741
00:43:50,480 –> 00:43:53,120
themselves going out into the
world to preach the gospel

742
00:43:53,120 –> 00:43:55,920
message.
He says the terrors and the

743
00:43:55,920 –> 00:43:58,960
persecutions these men
ultimately had to face and did

744
00:43:58,960 –> 00:44:03,720
face unflinchingly, do not admit
of 1/2 hearted adhesion secretly

745
00:44:03,720 –> 00:44:06,440
honeycombed with doubt.
The belief has to be

746
00:44:06,440 –> 00:44:10,240
unconditional and of
Adamantine’s strength to satisfy

747
00:44:10,240 –> 00:44:13,600
the conditions.
Sooner or later too, if the

748
00:44:13,600 –> 00:44:16,400
belief was to spread, it had to
bite its way into the corporate

749
00:44:16,400 –> 00:44:19,960
consciousness by convincing
argument and attempted proof.

750
00:44:21,080 –> 00:44:23,960
Now the peculiar thing about
this phenomenon is that not only

751
00:44:23,960 –> 00:44:27,160
did it spread to every single
member of the party of Jesus of

752
00:44:27,160 –> 00:44:32,400
whom we have any trace, but they
brought it to Jerusalem and

753
00:44:32,400 –> 00:44:36,160
carried it with inconceivable
audacity into the most keenly

754
00:44:36,160 –> 00:44:39,800
intellectual center of Judea
against the ablest dialecticians

755
00:44:39,800 –> 00:44:43,840
of the day, and in the face of
every impediment of brilliant

756
00:44:43,840 –> 00:44:48,120
and highly organized Camaria
could devise, And they won.

757
00:44:50,000 –> 00:44:52,640
Within 20 years the claim of
these Galilean peasants had

758
00:44:52,640 –> 00:44:56,600
disrupted the Jewish church and
impressed itself upon every town

759
00:44:56,600 –> 00:44:59,400
on the eastern literal of the
Mediterranean from Caesarea to

760
00:44:59,400 –> 00:45:03,040
Troas.
In less than 50 years, it had

761
00:45:03,040 –> 00:45:05,480
begun to threaten the peace of
the Roman Empire.

762
00:45:07,600 –> 00:45:09,880
When we have said everything
that can be said about the

763
00:45:09,880 –> 00:45:12,560
willingness of certain types of
people to believe what they want

764
00:45:12,560 –> 00:45:15,880
to believe, to be carried away
by their emotions, and to assert

765
00:45:15,880 –> 00:45:19,960
as fact what has originally
reached them as hearsay, we

766
00:45:19,960 –> 00:45:24,080
stand confronted with the
greatest mystery of all.

767
00:45:24,920 –> 00:45:29,680
Why did it win?
And there can be only one answer

768
00:45:30,640 –> 00:45:35,320
that God truly was behind it.
As Gamaliel had said, if God is

769
00:45:35,320 –> 00:45:38,520
behind this, then nobody will be
able to stop it.

770
00:45:41,760 –> 00:45:44,480
And so we believe that
Christianity and its early

771
00:45:44,480 –> 00:45:50,000
original pure form is the one
true religion and that Yahweh,

772
00:45:50,000 –> 00:45:51,960
the God of Israel, is the one
true God.

773
00:45:53,160 –> 00:45:55,200
And as we’ve said on multiple
occasions throughout this

774
00:45:55,200 –> 00:45:58,520
series, if that is true, then
that means that everything

775
00:45:58,520 –> 00:46:03,840
written in this book is so
important that it would be worth

776
00:46:04,160 –> 00:46:09,640
dedicating our lives to learning
it and applying it to everything

777
00:46:09,720 –> 00:46:11,520
that we do.
So that we can be in that

778
00:46:11,520 –> 00:46:15,400
Kingdom that is promised here.
That we can be resurrected just

779
00:46:15,400 –> 00:46:19,040
like Jesus did, or just like
Jesus was, and given immortality

780
00:46:19,200 –> 00:46:21,360
and that Kingdom that God has
promised to us.