(May 2, 2013 at 7:03 pm)A_Nony_Mouse Wrote: It still leaves you to explain your original implication that no one would report meeting the walking dead while the gospel writer did.
Suppose you fabricated the resurrection of Vladimir Lenin. You got all your friends to vouch with you that Lenin walked the streets of Moscow for forty days after his death. Would you, not telling your friends, throw two lines into your account mentioning how a graveyard was emptied and dead people inhabited Moscow? Would that strengthen your case?
(May 2, 2013 at 7:28 pm)Tonus Wrote: But they weren't guarding an imprisoned man; they were guarding a DEAD BODY, presumably so that his disciples would not abscond with it during the night and claim that he had risen from the dead. Why would they expect not to be punished if they reported that A CORPSE DISAPPEARED, when that was almost certainly the reason they were posted?
Any Roman soldier who abandoned his post was sentenced to death. If you doubt me and wikipedia, google away.
(May 2, 2013 at 7:28 pm)Tonus Wrote: How do the priests react to the report of an appearance by AN ANGEL OF GOD? By offering the soldiers a bribe and telling them to lie about it, even though the lie would probably cause them to be punished. And apparently, the appearance of a fucking messenger of god, which caused them to faint in terror, had no other effect on them once they came to and had a few coins in their hands.
How can THAT story make sense????
People refuse to respond to God all the time-- it's their freewill choice. The Bible, and life in general, is full of examples. The Israelites heard the LORD at Mt. Sinai and saw the Red Sea part, yet they worshiped idols anyway. If God appeared to you this minute, would you love Him? And if you didn't love Him, what would you tell others about your encounter?
(May 2, 2013 at 7:33 pm)A_Nony_Mouse Wrote: If in fact the Christian claim is correct, that no one would expect a resurrection and therefore it must be true, why would anyone guard against what no one would expect?
The guard was against Jesus' disciples stealing his body. Matthew 27:
62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead."
