Proof of Christianity

[Vicki Q]

And what do you mean faith couldn't have driven them to do what they did? Haven't you heard of people converting from one religion to another? Happens all the time.

Conversions happen because the convert believes that evidence supports adopting a new set of beliefs. Which is exactly my point. What was the evidence for the disciples? Try to imagine the situation in first century Israel.



The disciples went around saying that Jesus, not Caesar, was king, It is, on the face of it, rather surreal to suggest that of a dead person; why would they do this? The Romans took an extremely dim view of alternative claims to kingship, and we know from their sources that Christians suffered terribly as a result.

They also claimed that religious practices such as the Torah could be ignored. Given that this was seen as coming directly from God, and was an absolutely non-negotiable part of C1 Judaism, it is a dramatic move which begs an explanation why. The ruling (religious) authorities took an extremely dim view of challenges to their rule, and the murder of Stephen in Acts 7 outlines their typical reaction.

They also said that Jewish nationalism should be abandoned and the identity of the Jewish people redefined around a relationship to this dead Jesus. This directly contradicted everything the Jewish people had believed about themselves from Moses onwards, and there's no obvious reason for making this change. Every Jew alive would take an extremely dim view of this, and Paul tells very graphically in 2 Corinthians 11:22-29 how they reacted.

I would ask you to read it, because I'm picking up that you don't see the changes as significant. This was C1 Israel. They were beyond massive.

The disciples would have been told they were betraying God, their people and their religion. They would have asked themselves why they were doing it.




While engaging on this thread, I got thinking about how I would react if my mother appeared at the door. It brought home to me vividly that it would change my core beliefs in exactly the same way the disciples changed theirs.


I don't see another explanation coming anywhere close.