In a nutshell, or nutcase if you prefer, a key argument for me is a modern development on the older question of how the Early Church got started; this would be the question of why the Early Church got started with the beliefs that it did.
(Experience has shown that reducing a mass of analytical detail to readable post length means that essential points have to be omitted, and aaagh it's still too long...)
We know a lot about the spectrum of first century Jewish belief. Broadly speaking, they were waiting for the Kingdom of God to arrive, which would consist of God coming to His people, the Romans getting booted out of Israel, the establishment of God's Kingdom and Law on earth, and the establishment of a New Covenant. There was also talk about the dead coming back to bodily life, but that was a bit fringe to the set-up.
Now along comes this group of Jews, who have a major mutation of belief. That God's Kingdom was the world, not geographical Israel. That God had returned to Israel, in (a) person. That the Law, Covenant and markers for God's people had been redefined around that person. Although continuous with earlier belief, it was surprisingly, shockingly, different. Furthermore, although coming from a spectrum of belief on resurrection they claimed as one that a completely unexpected single case had occurred within history.
If you asked them why they believed those things, the clear and only answer was that they had seen this strange resurrection, and it backed up their earlier experiences of this person.
Centuries of attempts have been made to provide realistic alternative explanations for the older question, and none have really proved successful. This developed question is even stronger. The best explanation of the data, IMHO, is that what they say they saw, is what happened.
Although much too brief, I hope this is helpful.
(Experience has shown that reducing a mass of analytical detail to readable post length means that essential points have to be omitted, and aaagh it's still too long...)
We know a lot about the spectrum of first century Jewish belief. Broadly speaking, they were waiting for the Kingdom of God to arrive, which would consist of God coming to His people, the Romans getting booted out of Israel, the establishment of God's Kingdom and Law on earth, and the establishment of a New Covenant. There was also talk about the dead coming back to bodily life, but that was a bit fringe to the set-up.
Now along comes this group of Jews, who have a major mutation of belief. That God's Kingdom was the world, not geographical Israel. That God had returned to Israel, in (a) person. That the Law, Covenant and markers for God's people had been redefined around that person. Although continuous with earlier belief, it was surprisingly, shockingly, different. Furthermore, although coming from a spectrum of belief on resurrection they claimed as one that a completely unexpected single case had occurred within history.
If you asked them why they believed those things, the clear and only answer was that they had seen this strange resurrection, and it backed up their earlier experiences of this person.
Centuries of attempts have been made to provide realistic alternative explanations for the older question, and none have really proved successful. This developed question is even stronger. The best explanation of the data, IMHO, is that what they say they saw, is what happened.
Although much too brief, I hope this is helpful.
