DEBUNKING THE CONSPIRACY THEORY

[Randy Carson]

The apostles began to preach the resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified and buried.

If the tomb wasn't empty, why didn't the authorities simply take the body from the tomb, parade it through the streets, and silence the Apostles?

Since the Gospels were written years and decades after the alleged events by unknown authors who were almost certainly not eyewitnesses, there is no reason to believe in their literal truth.

That's a common claim, Chas, but it doesn't really hold up to scrutiny.

Without repeating the entire explanation of how we can know the gospels were written earlier than you care to admit (and by eyewitnesses whose identities we do know), I'll just point to 1 Corinthians 15 which most scholars acknowledge as a proto-creed of the Church which Paul is repeating from memory as learned from Peter, James and John in Jerusalem as early as AD 35.

IOW, the Church had already formulated this creed within five years of the resurrection.

This by itself doesn't PROVE anything concerning the resurrectin, but it is a stake through the heart of your legend theory, Chas.