Why I Believe in Lord Jesus Christ: 25 Reasons to be Christian
Why I Believe in Lord Jesus Christ: 25 Reasons to be Christian is the title of a book written by Conservapedia contributor Nishant Xavier. It is available online through Amazon for purchase. [1]. The first 10 Chapters of the book will be placed online here for readers to judge and assess the apologetic arguments for Christianity.
Chapter I: The Kalam Cosmological Demonstration: First Principles show a First Cause of the Universe: Reason 1.1 Summary of the Kalam – A Reason to believe taken from the Beginning of the Universe Premise I and its Proof: Have you ever asked yourself, “How come there is Something rather than Nothing”?
To ask the question is the first step in finding the answer. We see a House and we reflect that it began to exist only because something caused it to exist. We see a Planet and realize the same. We see the Universe, and the same conclusion should suggest itself.
It is clear that, Whatever begins to exist has a cause. [1]
Premise/Step 1: Whatever begins to exist has a cause. (Logical Truth)
Next, the Universe began to exist. It is estimated to have begun to exist some 10+ billion years ago, though there are variations as to exactly when. But what is certain - per the Big Bang Theory, the most widely accepted theory in cosmology, and also for further reasons we will see below – is that the Universe began to exist. Thus, we have in Step2 a Scientific Truth added to our Logical Truth.
Premise/Step 2: The Universe began to exist. (Scientific Truth)
Proofs of Premise 2:
“The Big Bang was the moment 13.8 billion years ago when the universe began as a tiny, dense, fireball that exploded. Most astronomers use the Big Bang theory to explain how the universe began. But what caused this explosion in the first place is still a mystery.” [2]
The Borde-Guth-Vilenkin (BGV) Theorem also confirms the Universe once had an Absolute Beginning:
“The Borde–Guth–Vilenkin theorem, or the BGV theorem, is a theorem in physical cosmology which deduces that any universe that has, on average, been expanding throughout its history cannot be infinite in the past but must have a past spacetime boundary. The theorem does not assume any specific mass content of the universe and it does not require gravity to be described by Einstein field equations. It is named after the authors Arvind Borde, Alan Guth and Alexander Vilenkin, who developed its mathematical formulation in 2003. The BGV theorem is also popular outside physics, especially in religious and philosophical debates.”[3]
Conclusion from Two Premises: As we will soon see below, Logical Truth + Scientific Truth = Theological Truth.
Reason 1.2 Synopsis of the Kalam – What begins to exist has a Cause and the Universe began to exist: Summary of the Argument: Premise/Step 1: Whatever begins to exist has a cause. (Logical Truth) Premise/Step 2: The Universe began to exist. (Scientific Truth) Conclusion/Step 3: Therefore, the Universe has a Cause. (Theological Truth) ---- Axiom I.1 Corollary/Step 4: If a First Cause of the Universe brought the Universe into existence ex nihilo (out of nothing), then Logic and Reason tells us that the First Cause must be (1) Almighty (2) Eternal (3) Omnipresent (4) a Personal Agent (5) Supreme Goodness.
Now, put Premise 1 and 2 together, as in classical syllogisms, to formulate a Truth about God.
Conclusion/Step 3: Therefore, the Universe has a Cause. (Theological Truth) ---- Axiom I.1 This Truth, acknowledged by practically all of humanity, for most of human history, but denied since the days of Darwin and Marx by a few, is not only a Truth of Faith, but also a Truth of Logical Reason. As Sherlock Holmes famously said, “There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in Religion. It can be reduced to an exact Science by the Reasoner.”[4] Such a Reasoner was St. Thomas Aquinas. Saint Thomas Aquinas has famously handed down 5 important proofs of God’s Existence. But there is a further step we can go, and Dr. William Lane Craig has admirably defended this Kalam Cosmological Argument, before millions of viewers, and in scholarly published peer-reviewed journals. The final step is to see there is not just a First Cause of the Universe but a Personal Creator.
Reason 1.3 Corollaries of the Kalam - Proves an Almighty, Eternal, Omnipresent, Personal Creator of the Universe exists outside time and space who brought the Universe into existence ex nihilo Corollary/Step 4: If a First Cause of the Universe brought the Universe into existence ex nihilo (out of nothing), then Logic and Reason applied once more to the Nature of the First Cause tells us that:
(1) This First Cause must be Almighty, because only an Almighty Power can bring something out of nothing. You or I, for e.g. while we can conceive of an apple, cannot create it out of nothing. Nor can we create an apple tree for that apple, a garden for that apple tree, and an Earth for that garden, and an Universe for that Earth. Yet, the Almighty has done all these.
(2) The First Cause must be Eternal, because this Cause existed before Space-Time ever began, as proven in Premise 3. If He caused time to begin to exist, He must pre-exist time, i.e. be Eternal. In other words, we’ve shown the First Cause is an Almighty and Eternal Creator God.
(3) The First Cause must be Omnipresent, because what precedes the beginning of Space transcends Space. For an analogy, a builder who builds a house for himself was able to exist outside the house he built. Once He built it, He begins to indwell the Universe, and is able to dwell everywhere, except where there is sin. God revealed this Message to us through various Prophets, and we’re now at the point where Logic/Reason can confirm it.
(4) The First Cause must be a Personal Agent, with Intelligence and Will, i.e. with Wisdom and with Love. To understand why, let’s look at the difference between Impersonal Causes and Personal Agents: if the Cause was an impersonal set of necessary and sufficient conditions, the effect would then be co-eternal with the cause. For e.g. if the temperature of water was eternally 0, the effect of the water being frozen would be co-eternal with that cause. But that is not what we observe. It remains, therefore, that the Universe was freely brought into being by a Personal Being with Wisdom and Love, and who therefore deserves our gratitude and our thanks for having – so to speak – created us with so much difficulty and with Love.
(5) The First Cause is Supreme Goodness: Let’s complete and develop the quotation above from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes: “Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”(!)
In other words, from the Beauty of the Gardens, and Flowers etc, that we see, Sherlock Holmes rightly reasons back to the fact of the Goodness of their Omnipotent Creator. He reflects and reasons that only a Being of Great Goodness could have left behind for us Flowers so beautiful, a Garden full of fruits and other food to eat, and so on. Would that all men and women today reasoned as rightly as Sherlock Holmes! But we will conclude this chapter thus.
Further Explanation of the Kalam: Dr. Craig video: [5]
Chapter II: St. Thomas Aquinas’ Contingency Argument: why a Necessarily Existent Being must exist at the end of the chain of contingent beings.
Reason 2.1 The distinction between Contingency and Necessity explained, and the explanation for why contingent beings (dependent on prior beings) must terminate in a Necessary Being proved. Philosophers and Logicians study the relationship between Contingency and Necessity. Some Philosophers know that Contingency and Necessity is another way leading to God. It is, in fact, the famous Third Way of Saint Thomas Aquinas, updated in the modern language of modal logic. Let us quote that passage in the Summa first, then update it in todays terms. “The third way is taken from possibility and necessity, and runs thus. We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, since they are found to be generated, and to corrupt, and consequently, they are possible to be and not to be. But it is impossible for these always to exist, for that which is possible not to be at some time is not. Therefore, if everything is possible not to be, then at one time there could have been nothing in existence. Now if this were true, even now there would be nothing in existence, because that which does not exist only begins to exist by something already existing.
Therefore, if at one time nothing was in existence, it would have been impossible for anything to have begun to exist; and thus even now nothing would be in existence — which is absurd.” Therefore, not all beings are merely possible, but there must exist something the existence of which is necessary … Therefore we cannot but postulate the existence of some being having of itself its own necessity, and not receiving it from another, but rather causing in others their necessity. This all men speak of as God. [1]”
How contingently existing beings – or creatures – presuppose the need for a Necessarily Existing Being, or Eternal Creator, as we saw in Chapter I independently:
Aquinas' argument from contingency may also be formulated like this: if each contingently existing being considers himself Bn, then, because he exists contingently, he depends for his existence on a prior being Bn-1. Now, Bn-1 likewise, if it is contingent, depends on Bn-2. Nevertheless, this series cannot go on until Infinity. At a certain time, we will arrive at a B1, the First Being in existence, and since there is no "zeroth" Being or B0, B1 exists Necessarily, i.e. is not a contingent being. This was Aquinas' Third Way, under Question 2, Article 3 in the Summa Theologica
The German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz made a similar argument with his principle of sufficient reason in 1714. "There can be found no fact that is true or existent, or any true proposition," he wrote, "without there being a sufficient reason for its being so and not otherwise, although we cannot know these reasons in most cases." He formulated the cosmological argument succinctly: "Why is there something rather than nothing? The sufficient reason ... is found in a substance which ... is a necessary being bearing the reason for its existence within itself."[2]
Reason 2.2 The Argument from Contingency explained in 4 simple steps showing God’s Existence
Let’s formulate the argument in 4 premises or steps:
1. Every contingently existing being depends on a prior being for its existence (by definition). Examples of contingent beings include you and I, planets, stars, monkeys, elephants, trees etc. Each one of these contingently existing beings depends on earlier beings in order to exist. They are thus not the Ultimate Cause of Objective Reality but are part of Creation or contingent existence. 2. It is therefore impossible for the chain of contingently existing beings to go on forever. That this is so should be clear from the foregoing. If the chain of contingently existing beings went on forever, then we would never have arrived at the present moment, or the present series of contingent beings, in other words, you and I would never have existed. Therefore, the chain of contingent beings does not go on forever. But what is the alternative? 3. The chain of contingently existing beings therefore ends at a Necessarily Existent Being. As in the well known science of modal logic, philosophers study the Possible and the Necessary, i.e. contingent Truths and necessary Truths, it is necessary now to distinguish between beings whose existence is a contingent Truth, and that One and Only Supreme Being Whose existence is the Necessary Truth that explains Ultimate Reality. God is truly the long sought after “Theory of Everything”, that makes sense of absolutely everything, as to why Reality exists in the first place. Granted, therefore, that a chain of contingently existing beings cannot go on forever, as we logically proved in the last point, it stands to reason that this terminates at a Non-Contingently Existing Being, i.e. Necessarily Existent Being instead. 4. And this Necessarily Existent Being is Eternal, i.e. the Creator God. Therefore, God exists. [A Necessarily Existent Being differs from contingently existing creatures. Its existence is Eternal/Permanent. It neither goes out of or comes into existence. This resembles the Creator God.] And therefore, we have proved a Supreme Being exists, a Necessarily Existent Being, or Necessary Being, on whom all contingent beings depend. This is a logical proof of the existence of Almighty God, which until recently has never been denied. Since, however, today there are a small percentage of Atheists, these opening sections were addressed to them, to show them that the Truth of God’s Existence is not a tenet of blind faith, but of reasonable faith in the Creator’s Revelation. In earlier days, perhaps, no such proof had yet been developed, yet it was wise faith in the tenets of True Philosophy. Today, however, manifest proofs have been developed, hence it would be blind faith to refuse to believe that Almighty God exists. He exists as the One Supreme Being, the Only Necessary Being, on whom all other contingent or subordinate beings depend.
Reason 2.3a. Summary of the Argument:
1. Every contingently existing being depends on a prior being for its existence (by definition). 2. It is therefore impossible for the chain of contingently existing beings to go on forever. 3. The chain of contingently existing beings therefore ends at a Necessarily Existent Being. 4. And this Necessarily Existent Being is Eternal, Almighty God. Therefore, God exists.
Reason 2.3b. A Mathematical Form of the Contingency Argument:
In the course of a debate with Atheists (and this is part of the reason why this author likes debates and discussions as part of Apologetics and Evangelism - they also help refine one's own thinking in Spirit-led ways), this author realized the Argument could be formulated in a Mathematical Form:
St. Thomas Aquinas' argument from contingency may also be formulated like this: (1) Let each contingently existing being consider himself Bn (2) Then, because he exists contingently, he depends for his existence on a prior being Bn-1. (3) Now, Bn-1 likewise, if it is contingent, depends on Bn-2. (4) Nevertheless, this series cannot go on until Infinity. (5) At a certain time, we will arrive at a B1, the First Being in existence, and (6) since there is no "zeroth" Being or B0, B1 exists Necessarily, i.e. is not a contingent being, since He exists without dependence on a prior being (no B0). (7) Therefore, B1, the First Being in existence, is the Necessarily Existent Being God.
This Being B1, exists non-contingently, i.e. eternally, without beginning or end, unlike the contingent universe which we now know scientifically to have begun.
Reason III: The Fine-Tuning Argument: Empirical Evidence for a Supremely Wise, Supremely Good, Divine Creator or Intelligent Designer of the Entire Universe: Reason 3.1 Quotes from Popular Scientists describing the Empirical Fact of Fine-Tuning: Physicist Paul Davies teaches: "There is now broad agreement among physicists and cosmologists that the Universe is in several respects ‘fine-tuned' for life” [1] (Cosmic Jackpot, Why our Universe is just right for life), while even Steven Hawking admits: "The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life." (A Brief History of Time).
Sir Martin Rees mentions 6 of these Cosmic Constants in the Book, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces that Shape the Universe. [2] Sir Martin Rees is a leading researcher on Cosmic Evolution and renowned authority/expert in his field.
Reason 3.2 Fine Tuning Argument stated and proved: Evidence of Design in the Universe
Let’s formulate the Fine Tuning Argument in logical steps:
1. The Life-Permitting Possible Configurations of the Universe are vanishingly small compared to the Life-Precluding ones (as amply admitted/documented by the above Scientists/Researchers).
2. Thus, on Chance alone, it’s reasonable to say no life at all should ever have existed.
3. Therefore, granted the existence of life, Design is a vastly superior explanation to chance, for the fact of why life exists at all in the first place. Chance just isn’t very good at creating life, it turns out, unfortunately for Atheists, because the life-permitting range is mind-bogglingly narrow.
Reason 3.3 Fine Tuning proving Intelligent Design proved by an analogy: Concluding Thoughts
An analogy: 10 sharp-shooters are shooting at you, while you’ve been lined up before them in a firing squad for various crimes. Now, on chance alone, it’s a vanishingly small likelihood that you will ever survive this, because they're all not going to miss by chance. Nevertheless, if it turns out that you did survive, then given the evidence of your survival, the most Logical Explanation is not only Intelligent Design, but even Benign Design.
[Please note, if some of these constants were even slightly altered, galaxies, planets or stars wouldn’t even form in the first place, or the Universe would have re-collapsed long ago into nothingness. Therefore, life would never form because there would be no Planets for it to form on!]
And why do I say that? Because it’s most likely they conspired to miss to keep you alive – or were directed to do so by some Higher Intelligence that was favorable to you. Behold the Goodness, the Love and the Power of God, manifest in Creation, in bringing about the fact of life’s existence!
Chance is the god of Atheism. But like other false gods beside the True God, this god is demonstrably false. We know it is demonstrably false as we know the above sharp-shooters would almost certainly not have missed on chance alone. Chance is thus an unreasonable explanation, given the Scientific Fact of Fine-Tuning well documented by the above Scientists/Researchers.
Now, in this 21st Century (this was unknown till recently), there is no further excuse/good reason to remain in Atheistic Darkness, in light of the above facts, but, recognizing them, we ought to acknowledge the Beautiful Light – even if it may be hard for our Atheistic Friends to accept at first – that a Loving Intelligent Designer exists, extremely Wise, extremely Powerful and extremely Loving.
How do we know He is Wise? Because only great Wisdom could have conceived such extremely diverse constants that needed to be finely tuned. And why Power? Only great Power could have actually brought about what was hitherto only conceived in the Designer’s Mind.
Thus, the Creator and Designer of the Universe reveals Himself to be not only a (1) Remote First Cause but a (2) Wise and (3) Powerful Being.
Finally, how do we know the Designer is (4) Loving? Simple, because He went through such great efforts to ensure the existence of life; and then ensure, fairly recently (20th century), that we would come to know about it, just when Marx et al were lying against the Almighty with their Militant Atheism. A worthy response from the Almighty.
Reason 4: Saint Anselm’s Famous Ontological Argument, updated by Alvin Plantinga and Nishant Xavier: God may be defined as the One Necessary Being, on whom all contingent beings depend. Reason 4.1 If there is a Possible World in which the Necessary Being exists, He then exists in Actual Reality! So next we are going to look at the Ontological Argument[1], borrowed indeed from St. Anselm, and updated slightly by Alvin Plantinga and also, yours truly, Nishant Xavier. Steps 1-5:
1. God is Conceived as the One Necessarily Existent Being (at the end of a chain of contingent beings, as discussed in Ch. 2).
2. Now, if a Being can be conceived as existing necessarily, it is possible that it exists. (since conceivability entails possibility).
3. Next, if a Necessary Being exists as a possibility, it then exists across every possible world. (by nature of Necessary Existence).
4. Then, if a Necessary Being exists in every possible world, it exists in the actual world. (since the actual world is one of many possible worlds).
5. Therefore, God exists in the actual world. Or, more simply, Therefore, God exists.
Reason 4.2 A Reflection on Ontological Arguments. From St. Anselm to the modern age I once thought Ontological Arguments don't make the cut. But now, and I feel the Spirit of God has been leading me in developing a novel Ontological Argument for the modern world, I feel the above passes. The reader will have to judge for himself or herself, though it seems quite strong to me. Most will admit God is at least a Conceivable Possibility, i.e. God, the Necessarily Existent Being who created all other beings, can at least be conceived of as existing without entailing a contradiction.
The reason the argument seems to work is because of the special Nature of God as a Necessarily Existent Being. Things like Circles and Squares are considered by Philosophers to also exist necessarily, but as necessary abstract objects (some say, in the Necessarily Existent Divine Mind).
Because God is a Necessarily Existent Being, His Existence cannot be merely possible without being actual, or actual without being necessary. His Existence is either necessary or it is impossible. In other words, no such Being as God could ever be conceived as possible if He didn't exist.
But since He plainly can be conceived, and thus exists at least as a possible Being who can be conceived, it clearly follows that His existence, as necessarily existent, is in fact necessarily true.
Reason 4.3 Most Philosophers agree with steps 2 to 5 of the argument. The key is in Step 1. And it may surprise non-Philosophers to know Philosophers actually agree that if a necessarily existent being possibly exists, i.e. that if a Necessary Being can be conceived as existing, this Necessary Being then actually exists. In other words, God exists in actual, objective reality.
In other words, steps 2-5 of the argument above are relative uncontroversial. The key is in Step 1.
In order for Atheists to deny God’s actual existence, they must then deny He is even conceivable.
This most people would find absurd. God clearly is conceivable and possible. Thus, the OA works.
Reason 5: Conscience demonstrates the Goodness of God, and the Beauty of Creation, His Beauty. Reason 5.1 How Conscience reveals Objective Moral Duties, and Objective Morality reveals God.
During an investigative case, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes famously quipped: "There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the Goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only a Goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope for from the flowers.”
Come, let us examine and investigate the Goodness of God. Agnostics and some Deists typically argue that God, even if He exists, is evil and thus not to be worshipped. We will see why that’s false.
So, for e.g. if the Principle of Contingent Causation could prove the existence of God or a First Cause, it might still be objected that it says nothing about whether that Being is Good or evil. Is there some specific argument for the Goodness of God? Yes, from Conscience.
A typical Argument would go something like this [generally how Dr. William Craig formulates it, as he did in his Debate with Christopher Hitchens for e.g.]: [1] [2]
1. If objective moral duties/values exist, then God exists. (because there would be no objective and universal moral laws in a godless Universe without a divine Law-Giver.) 2. But we know from our Conscience that objective moral values do in fact exist. (and this is a properly basic belief for virtually everybody, including Atheists.) (e.g. that certain acts are intrinsically and objectively evil, like e.g. murder, rape etc, irrespective of the subjective beliefs of murderers and rapists etc). 3. Therefore, God exists. (In other words, granted the fact of the existence of objective moral values known through our Conscience, we can reasonably conclude that our awareness of this Eternal Moral Law came from the Divine Law-Giver Who made us.)
Summary of the Argument:
1. If Objective Moral Duties exist, then (even philosophers admit) God exists. 2. Objective Moral Duties do exist. We know this as factually true from Conscience. 3. Therefore, from 1 and 2, based on the fact of OMVs existing, we know God exists.
[Even several Atheist/Agnostic Moral Philosophers do concede that Objective Moral Values entail and are entailed by Theism, i.e. Objective Moral Values exist if and only if Theism is the Truth. To maintain their Atheism, they deny then that moral values are objective].
So, since the Objective Moral Law exhorts us to choose good and avoid evil - even if evil may be in our self-advantage - it is thus clear that impulse within us could only have originated from a Supremely Good Being, thus refuting the opinion that God might be evil.
Reason 5.2 The Lord Jehovah, by making the Ten Commandments/Moral Law the basis of OT Religion, ensured these 10 Commandments became the Guiding Light of True Civilization.
The Lord Jehovah, the God of Abraham and Moses, revealed the Ten Commandments to Moses about 3500 years ago. The First 3 Commandments of this Mosaic Law contain precepts regarding Love of God, while the next 7 prescribe Love of neighbour in different ways. (4) honour Father and Mother (5) do not kill (6) do not commit adultery (7) do not steal (8) do not bear false witness (9) do not covet your neighbour’s wife (10) do not covet your neighbour’s house, or anything that is his.
These Ten Commandments have historically been the basis of Western Civilization, [3] and then of Universal Civilization. They are basic requirements for a flourishing human society, more basic than mere economic or social policies – a moral framework that revealed a Divine Law-Giver, and that agrees very well with the Argument from Conscience proving a Perfectly Benevolent Deity/Lawgiver.
The Commandments of Love for God teach us (1) There is only One Almighty God, we are to have no other gods beside Him; we are not to bow down to idols of other gods (2) We are to keep His Name Holy, as the Our Father also prays; (3) We are to keep His Sabbath Day Holy, which is Saturday under the Old Covenant and Sunday in the New Covenant. Interestingly, this Judeo-Christian Tradition of Saturdays and Sundays as “holy days”, is where we get our weekend off, or Saturday-Sunday as holidays or days of rest – a Tradition from which certainly the whole world has benefited! In the work referenced in fn [3], it is further shown that Christianity in general is behind the foundational values, science, morality, art, architecture, laws and framework behind human rights and universal morality.
Also, the kind of Creator God proved in Chapters 1 to 5 absolutely aligns with the Lord Jehovah’s Revelation of who God is – the One, Eternal, Almighty, Personal and Transcendent Creator of all. It thus shows only a consistently monotheistic religion can be the True Religion and aids us to find God.
Reason 5.3 The Lord Jesus, by beautifully summarizing these 10 Commandments into Two Commandments, summed up all Religion and also laid the grounds for a lasting Humanism.
The Lord Jesus, with His penchant for Divine Teaching, and for making difficult things easy (unlike the Pharisees/Scribes, who with their false traditions of men, had invented 613 precepts, which hardly anyone could even name let alone follow), following in the footsteps of His Father, simplified and reduced 10 Commandments to Two Commandments (1) Love God with all your heart, (2) Love your Neighbour as you love yourself, while clarifying in His Good Samaritan Parable and other Teachings that all people, all men and women without exception, regardless of race and religion, are our neighbours whom we are to love. What remarkable divine teaching, and how useful for sound morality and moral principles in families and societies! In His Sermon on the Mount, the Divine Lord went even further, and, in a beautiful analogy or natural metaphor, stated that just as God the Father sends down from Heaven rain upon the just and the unjust alike, and has His Sun shine upon the righteous and wicked alike, Christians are called to love even their enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who persecute us! What amazing moral teachings! How blessed the whole world would be if we all followed this and lived by it! Graham Steines’ family, when Steines himself was cruelly martyred and murdered by a terror outfit, showed this love and forgiveness to their persecutors.
Pope St. John Paul II, when he was the victim of an attempted assassination, likewise showed it to his persecutor Ali Agca, and those who sent him. Mother St. Theresa, who exemplified Jesus Christ’s Teachings in Mat 25:31-40 – that whatever is done to the Poor, the Needy, Hungry, the Prisoners, the Sick, like feeding them, is done to Him/God – is another example, because she forgave her cowardly Western Persecutors like Christopher Hitchens, who abused/insulted her in various ways, yet never spent time caring for India or the Poor, and all these examples of heroic charity combine to show us what Great Value Christianity adds to our lives on Earth, to say nothing of its divine and Heavenly Promises of a blessed afterlife in Eternity to come!
Thus, in conclusion, Christianity’s lofty moral teachings, as presented by Christ and His Apostles of Love in the New Testament especially, are yet another good and excellent reason to be a Christian.
Part II: Evidence for Jesus Christ as the Lord of History and as the One True Creator God proved in Part I. Reason 6: The Evidence from Messianic Prophecies: Evidence demonstrating Divine Omniscience. Reason 6.1: Introduction to Messianic Prophecies; a summary of 7 points prophesied about Christ
[All Scripture citations in this chapter and henceforth will be from NKJV unless otherwise noted]
700 years before Christ was born, the Prophet Isaiah had a Wondrous Vision of a Crucified Savior: “5But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”. (Isaiah 53, 700 BC). This one Prophecy, down through the centuries, has given Millions a fresh Reason to be Christian: Messianic Prophecies. Written 700 years before Christ’s Birth, it reads as if Isaiah had a Vision of the Cross. A YouTube video on Isaiah 53 has 4.2 MN views as of this writing. [1] Though there are an estimated 300+ Messianic Prophecies, we will focus on just 7 of these:
1. The Messiah will be born in Bethlehem about 2000 years ago [Micah 5:2; Gen 49:10; Dan 9]. 2. The Messiah will have a Public Ministry with Miraculous Signs [Isaiah 35:3-6; Matt 15:30]. 3. The Messiah will institute a Melchizedek Sacrifice with Bread and Wine [Gen 14: Psa 110:4]. 4. The Messiah will offer Himself up, like a Lamb without Blemish, a Holy Sacrifice [Isa 53:7] 5. The Messiah will institute a Universal Offering (Mal 1:11), of this same Holy Sacrifice (ibid). 6. The Messiah will not be a mere human being, but God/Jehovah Himself, born of a Virgin (Psa 110:1; Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6; Dan 3:25; Mic 5:2 etc] 7. Despite dying on the Cross like a Lamb, the Messiah, the Son of Man, will somehow be worshipped by people from every Nation!!! (Dan 7:14; Isa 49:6).
Reason 6.2 Points 1 to 4 and their odds: Christ, born in Bethlehem, will work Miracles in a Public Ministry, institute a Melchizedek Sacrifice with Bread and Wine and offer Himself up like a Lamb! Point 1: The Messiah will be (a) born in Bethlehem and this (b) about 2000 years ago.
That the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem is (i) virtually universally admitted by all who know anything about the Messiah, and (ii) easily established from Micah 5 in the Hebrew Bible.
Micah 5:2 (NKJV, 8th Century BC) says: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” [In passing, we note this is one of the first passages in this Book where we’ve appealed to Scripture. Everything until now has been established about God from Reason/Science/Logic/Philosophy etc. Even here we use this as a historical reference].
This clearly refers to the Messiah, and was written some 8 centuries before Christ’s Birth. It also excludes virtually everyone from consideration of being the Messiah, because virtually everyone you and I know (besides we ourselves) were most certainly NOT born in Bethlehem. Thus, the low odds are another indicator Jesus Christ is really the True Messiah, as Christianity teaches while Judaism denies this. Can anyone name 2 famous people born in Bethlehem? Almost everyone would name the Most Famous Person Ever born in Bethlehem, even if they were Jews, as Jesus Christ Himself.
[As an aside, Micah 5:2 also describes the Pre-Existent Divinity of the Messiah. More on that in pt 6. Also, some will claim St. Matthew and St. Luke supposedly “invented” the claim that Christ was born in Bethlehem. More on that in chapter 12, but for now: both St. Matthew and St. Luke died as Martyrs for Christ, part of the reason they are venerated as Saints. Why would they “invent” such a clear lie about Christ, then die to confirm their testimony for Him in their blood? They would not have even begun to believe in Jesus Christ as Messiah, let alone Lord, without confirming His Birth. Beside, Jesus is often acclaimed as “Son of David” by bystanders, showing His birth in Bethlehem was likely well known to them. His Davidic Descent implies also a Birth in the City of David, Bethlehem].
Updating the odds: If we assume 100,000 born in Bethlehem, from about 100 BN on Earth across all time [2], probability is 100K/100BN=100/100MN=1/1MN=0.000001=One in a Million odds. Point 1(b): The time of the Messianic Birth and Death for sins expired about 2000 years ago.
We have seen the place of the Messiah’s birth is fixed as Bethlehem. Point 1(b) is even more staggering. Even the TIME of the Messianic Birth is fixed by Prophecy, and infallibly in the past. This point alone, if it were established, would prove Judaism to be false, and Christianity to be True. A chance fulfilment is basically a statistical impossibility. But we will prove facts from the prophecy. [Genesis 49:10, 15th Century BC]“The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.” This prophecy predicts Judah would not have lost sovereignty before Messiah or Shiloh comes. Said differently, if Judah has lost sovereignty, it is an infallible sign Messiah has come. Now, since Judah certainly lost sovereignty by 70 A.D., Christ came before then. Now, in confirmation, we will quote a passage from Josephus about the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Josephus relates: "And truly, the very view itself was a melancholy thing; for those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were now become desolate country every way, and its trees were all cut down. Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judaea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lament and mourn sadly at so great a change. For the war had laid all signs of beauty quite waste. Nor had anyone who had known the place before, had come on a sudden to it now, would he have known it again. But though he [a foreigner] were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired for it.[2]” By 70 A.D. Judah had historically lost all power and authority. This favours Christianity and refutes Judaism, because Judaism claims the Messiah will come only in the future. In other words, by 70 AD at the latest, the Sceptre [of power, authority, self-rule] had certainly departed from Judah. That is a historical fact. Hence, it is also a historical fact that the Biblical Messiah must have come by then. This Judaism denies, while Christianity maintains. It follows that Judaism is false because it is inconsistent with historical facts, while Christianity is consistent with them. In the NT, Christ prophesies the destruction of the Temple as one of the proofs that He is the Messiah, and as God’s Judgment upon the once faithful city, now unfaithful, for persecuting Jesus: [“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Mat 24:2). Christ prophesied this around 33 A.D. We will see in Chapter 12 that St. Matthew wrote these words down about 10 years later, and St. Mark and St. Luke confirmed the Apostle’s Testimony in their own Gospels within 20 years.] We see once more, out of the 100 BN people estimated to have lived across all time, hardly anyone could be the Messiah. Most of those 100 BN have lived in more recent centuries. Perhaps 1-2% lived before 70 AD. So, based on this one fact alone, the odds Christ could “coincidentally” have fulfilled the prophecy has a probability of just 1/1BN=10^-9. But there is more. A famous 70 weeks prophecy in Daniel places the necessary time of Christ’s Birth and Death not just before 70 A.D. but within a very short range from that time – within about 30 A.D. to 70 A.D. as a matter of fact. So it is quite remarkable Christ came and died historically within this actual prophesied time. The odds of this happening by chance would be 1 in 10 billion at least, and extremely unlikely to have been chance fulfilments. It would have had to be the Intelligent Design of the Lord Jehovah for His Son’s Birth. Updating the odds: after 1(a) we had 1 in a Million/Ten Lakh odds, now (1b) is 1 in 10 BN/100 Crore. Putting them together, we get 1 in 1000 Lakh Crore odds, or 1 in 10 Crore Crore (crore square) odds! Point 2: The Messiah will have a Public Ministry with Miraculous Signs [Isaiah 35:3-6; Matt 15:30]. This is an essential point. The True Messiah must be able to perform miracles, or somehow convince numerous others that He has performed them. False messiahs are mentioned by Gamaliel and Josephus, yet these false messiahs were never reputed to perform miracles. It is difficult to gain the reputation of having performed miracles, as even reasonable non-Christians will admit Christ to have gained early on after His death, unless one actually performed some of them! And as we will see in chapter 10, there are virtually endless miracles worked in Jesus’ Name even today, 2000 years after He visibly left the Earth.
So, as mentioned by the Prophet Isaiah, and confirmed by St. Matthew the Apostle, Jesus Christ worked miracles to confirm and demonstrate He was the True Messiah from God. In more recent times, St. Padre Pio, Pastor Reinhard Bonnke, St. John Vianney and others have done so, all men of God and lovers of Christ, to confirm Christ as the Way, Truth and Life.
Updating the odds: Now, miraculous wonderworkers are charismatic one-in-a-billion men. Hardly anyone can do what they do, and if Jesus Christ did do them, then the odds that He was able to convince others He did this by chance decreases, based on what we calculated above, from one in a million billion (10^-6*10^-9=10^-15) to one in a million billion billion (to 10^-24=10^-15*10^9) – or, for Indian readers, one in a 1000 Crore Crore Crore!
Point 3 and Point 5: The Messiah will institute a Melchizedek Sacrifice with Bread and Wine [Gen 14: Psa 110:4] – the Aaronic Priesthood that existed earlier will stand abolished. This Melchizedek Priesthood offering sacrifice with Bread and Wine will then fill the whole Earth, and as Mal 1:11 testifies, will offer sacrifice from dawn to dusk. Furthermore, this magnificent Priesthood and Sacrifice will span the Globe.
As a Sign that He has arrived and has inaugurated the promised New Covenant (Jer 31:31), the King Messiah, Jesus Christ, institutes first of all a change in the Law and Priesthood, the Melchizedek Priesthood. This fact alone, combined with the practical abolition of the old Aaronic Priesthood, should be a powerful declaration to anyone, that King Messiah has come, that the Bible is Truth, that God keeps His Promises, and that we can trust His Word with our lives. For, after 70 AD, the Aaronic Priesthood has practically ceased to exist, whereas the world is full of Priests of the order of Melchizedek, ordained by Christ and His Apostles, and offering sacrifice under the form of bread and wine, as Melchizedek did in Gen 14 some 4000 years ago. The Catholic Church alone has 400,000+ Priests, not to mention those in Orthodox and other denominations. Thus, once more, God’s Promise of a New Priesthood, a New Covenant, and the Messiah coming to inaugurate this has clearly and visibly taken place.
Updating the odds: after point 2, we had come to a probability of 10^-24. Recognizing it is humanly almost impossible both to cause the old Aaronic Priesthood to virtually cease, along with its sacrifices, and then to fill the whole world with New Covenant Priests offering the sacrifice of Melchizedek, we will assume the probability of this is 1 in a trillion or 10^-12. Then, the updated probability after point 3 is, 10^-24*10^-12=10^-36, or 1 in a trillion cubed!
We have seen but 4 points out of 7 (4, 6 and 7 are left), and already we are at impossible odds. Imagine a deposit of coins one trillion times one trillion times one trillion arranged as a cube. One single coin alone contains a checkmark. The probability that Jesus Christ could have “coincidentally” fulfilled all this by chance would be like blindly searching in that maze of a huge number of coins and yet, somehow, on one’s first try, choosing the checked coin!
Point 4: Messiah will offer Himself up, like a Lamb without Blemish, a Holy Sacrifice [Isa 53:7] - The Suffering Servant Who offers His Life like a Lamb to make Atonement for Sin. This is the Prophecy we mentioned at the beginning of this Chapter. Seven hundred years before Christ’s Incarnation, the mighty Prophet Isaiah had a wondrous vision of Christ’s Passion: “[5] But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.”[6] All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. [7] He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.” (Isa. 53:5–7). The Rabbis understood this of Christ. [5]
If Christ will be risen, such that “His Sepulchre shall be Glorious” (Isa. 11:10), when “the Lord shall set his hand the second time to possess the remnant of his people” (Isa. 11:11), it is manifest that Christ must have died first. This notion of Christ as Suffering Servant, who gloriously rises such that His Body will not see corruption and His Sepulchre will be Glorious, did not fit with the political conception of the Messiah as a military leader that the Jews were expecting. We Christians now know the Truth, and very many Jews have converted to Christ on reading Isaiah, as the video in [1] shows. The Christ was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. He would offer His life as the Suffering Servant and Lamb of God in order to be an Atoning Sacrifice for all sin. This is prophesied in Isaiah 53, the fourth of four Suffering Servant passages in Isaiah (for others, see 42:1–10; 49:5–10; 50:4–10).
Updating the Odds: This is the most magnificent and daring thing Christ dared to do for Humanity – a God who sacrificed Himself for the sins of His People, just as was prophesied. No one ever dared, before or since, to pretend himself sinless and say his sacrifice could remit sins. Christ alone, the Lamb without Blemish, in perfect accordance with Prophecy, born in the prophesied place, at the prophesied time, completed the prophesied Sacrifice!
It's safe to say, even if a trillion men exist until the end of time, no one will dare do what Christ has done. Certainly, none of 100 BN+ have done it. Therefore, once again, we update the odds from one in a trillion cubed (10^36)*10^12=1 in a 10^48 chance, or 1 in one trillion to the power of 4. This is the astonishingly, incredibly and ridiculously low odds of a chance fulfilment. Subtracting this from 1, which gives us 1-(near 0)=1, we can say that we have near 100% confidence that Jesus Christ is the Promised Messiah, and the Bible is the Truth.
Reason 6.3 Continuation of Messianic Prophecies: The Messiah is God/the Lord Jehovah Himself in the Flesh, the Lord of David in Psalm 110:1, the Pre-Existent Son of God in Dan 3:25, born the Son of a Virgin, Isaiah 7:14, the Mighty God Himself 9:6 etc.
Point 6, some General Reflections: The Messiah is no mere man, but the Lord Jehovah Himself, now come as Savior (Jesus means Jehovah the Savior), to redeem His People
Our Lord Himself, His apostles, and the first evangelists frequently make use of the prophetic witnesses in the O.T. Scriptures in their arguments and their preaching. Thus, Our Lord taught the Pharisees — who considered the Messiah to be only a human king, instead of the divine Son of God and Lord of David — that David himself had prophesied otherwise.[4] I: Christ is the Lord of David and the Son of God. David in Spirit calls Him as Lord: Mat 22:[41] And the Pharisees being gathered together, Jesus asked them, [42] Saying: What think you of Christ? whose son is he? They say to him: David’s. [43] He saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying: [44] The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool? [45] If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?[46] And no man was able to answer him a word; neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. Quoting His ancestor according to the flesh King David, who had written Ps. 110:1 some 1,000 years earlier, Our Lord proves to the Pharisees from prophecy that Christ is Divine. He was not, as they thought, just a human person, but a Divine Person, who was made flesh (Jn. 1:1–14) in the fullness of time for our sake, the true Son of God who became Son of Man.
A reflection and an exhortation to fellow Christians: Could a reason for the fact that Christian Evangelism today has not taken off as successfully as Apostolic Evangelism did be that we have departed from the example of the apostles and saints in beginning the proclamation of the Gospel with historical references to Messianic prophecies? I earnestly encourage every Christian to become familiar with at least 5-10 Messianic prophecies, and share them with friends and loved ones. Let’s look at how St. Paul preached. In the Book of Acts, we read, in Acts 9:20: “And immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.” And Acts 18:5: “And when Silas and Timothy were come from Macedonia, Paul was earnest in preaching, testifying to the Jews, that Jesus is the Christ.” And so on likewise ’til the end of Acts, during St. Paul’s Roman imprisonment, Acts 28:23: “And when they had appointed him a day, there came very many to him unto his lodgings; to whom he expounded, testifying the kingdom of God, and persuading them concerning Jesus, out of the law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning until evening.” II: The Holy One will enter Hades in soul. His Body will not see corruption at all. Similarly, we know well of St. Peter’s preaching on that First Pentecost Sunday, when 3,000 souls entered the Kingdom of God, the Church, and were baptized. Acts 2: “[25] For David saith concerning him: I foresaw the Lord before my face: because he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved. [26] For this my heart hath been glad, and my tongue hath rejoiced: moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope. [27] Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. [28] Thou hast made known to me the ways of life: thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. [29] Ye men, brethren, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David; that he died, and was buried; and his sepulchre is with us to this present day. [30] Whereas therefore he was a prophet, and knew that God hath sworn to him with an oath, that of the fruit of his loins one should sit upon his throne. [31] Foreseeing this, he spoke of the resurrection of Christ. For neither was he left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption.” St. Peter is quoting Ps. 15:9–11, a magnificent prophesy of the Resurrection of the Holy One of the Lord. His soul God would not leave in Hades, showing it would return to the Body, and His Body would not see corruption, showing it would undergo a Glorious Resurrection. The Apostolic example serves as a calling to the Church to make use of the prophetic witnesses in the Scriptures in order to see abundant fruits from the harvest.
III. St. Philip preached Jesus Christ to the Ethiopian in Acts 8:31–35 from Isaiah 53:
[31] Who said: And how can I, unless some man shew me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. [32] And the place of the scripture which he was reading was this: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb without voice before his shearer, so openeth he not his mouth. [33] In humility his judgment was taken away. His generation who shall declare, for his life shall be taken from the earth? [34] And the eunuch answering Philip, said: I beseech thee, of whom doth the prophet speak this? of himself, or of some other man? [35] Then Philip, opening his mouth, and beginning at this scripture, preached unto him Jesus. IV. Christ, the Son of God, was pre-announced as being born of an Immaculate Virgin. This is prophesied in Isa. 7:14. It is cited by St. Matthew the Apostle (1:23) “Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Even the prophecy made thousands of years before Christ’s Incarnation by God Himself, and recorded by the Prophet Moses in Genesis 3:15 some 1,500 years prior, implies that Christ will be born of a virgin, for it speaks of the “Seed of a Woman,” implying He will be born of a woman alone without any human father.
The Sefer Toledot Yeshu, a Jewish polemic against Jesus Christ, which we will study further later, acknowledges He declared Himself to be the Son of God born of a Virgin Mother: “Concurrences with the gospel accounts include the fact that Jesus's parents were named Joseph and Mary; that he was born in Bethlehem; that he was bold toward the Jewish elders; that he could perform miracles (here made out to be sorcery); that he claimed to be born of a virgin; that he claimed to be the Son of God; that he applied Isaiah 7:14 to himself; that he raised the dead; that he healed a leper; that Jews fell down and worshipped him; that he entered Jerusalem upon an ass; that he applied to himself Zacharias 9:9; that he charged the Jews with being stiff-necked people; that he applied to himself the 2nd and 110th Psalms; that he walked on water; that he was betrayed by Judas; that he was scourged, crowned with thorns, and given vinegar to drink; that he was put to death on the Passover and buried before the Sabbath began; and that his twelve apostles spread a story of his resurrection.”[5]
Beside Isaiah 7:14 announcing the Virgin Birth, it also implies the Child born of the Virgin will be God Himself, for it says His Birth will be a Sign, i.e. a Miracle, and His Name will be Emmanuel, i.e. God with us. Isaiah 9:6 confirms this, for it says His Name shall be Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Daniel 3:25 wondrously confirms this, for it shows us a Divine and Pre-Existent Son of God Who has Power to save His friends from the fire! Daniel 7 shows us this same Son of Man – foreshadowing the Son of God would be made Man (Enoch also speaks of this Son of Man, and Son of God, as Eternal) – who would receive an Eternal Kingdom as Eternal as God and His Father Himself, and receive service and worship from people of all nations. No one else, except Jesus Christ alone, has come even remotely close to fulfilling all these prophecies.
V. Christ’s institution of the Melchizedek priesthood and of the perpetual sacrifice. The Church Fathers often point to Mal. 1:11 in dialogue with the Jews (e.g., St. Irenaeus, St. Justin — even the Didache does so). Mal 1:10: “Who is there among you, that will shut the doors, and will kindle the fire on my altar gratis? I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will not receive a gift of your hand. [11] For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts.” This passage clearly foretells the Holy Mass, the pure sacrifice of the Altar. This sacrifice will be offered in every Gentile place from dawn to dusk, while God will receive no more sacrifice in Jerusalem, because their Temple would be destroyed in 70 A.D.
Ps. 110:4 says Christ will institute the priesthood of the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a great priest who had blessed the patriarch Abraham. Gen. 14:18: “But Melchisedech the king of Salem, bringing forth bread and wine, for he was the Priest of the Most High God [19] Blessed him, and said: Blessed be Abram by the most high God, who created heaven and earth. [20] And blessed be the most high God, by whose protection the enemies are in thy hands. And he gave him the tithes of all.”
Point 7: Despite dying on the Cross like a Lamb, the Messiah, the Son of Man, will somehow be worshipped by people from every Nation!!! (Dan 7:14; Isa 49:6).
We will mention point 7 in conjunction and then update the odds. We briefly hinted at it above, that Christ, after dying on the Cross, would somehow be worshiped everywhere, and spread God’s Salvation everywhere! This would be practically impossible, and itself implies a Resurrection, but God has done the impossible over and over again in Jesus Christ! Isaiah 49:6 shows the Father speaking to His Son, the Suffering Servant, and telling Him that, through Him alone, the Name of the Lord Jehovah and His Salvation will reach the farthest ends of the Earth. And indeed, just as was spoken, so it has come to pass, that Jehovah’s Salvation has reached the farthest ends of the Earth through the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, Daniel 7:14 confirms, as St. Paul would later explain in Phil 2, and King David had prophesied in Psalm 110, that the Messiah, after His Suffering, and after capturing and conquering the hearts of men and women by His Loving Sacrifice, would receive the greatest exaltation, ascend into Heaven, sit at the right hand of God, and receive worship from all.
Updating and Finalizing the Odds: We had arrived at 10^-48 chance, an incredibly small number, before the final two prophecies. Again, the fact that the Messiah is foretold to be God Himself, and born of a Virgin, something we can confirm today after the printing press, the internet, and AI, was known to no false Messiah, but only to Jesus Christ. He declared He was God, and born of a Virgin, while no false Messiah said that. The odds of a person having come to know this by chance would, again, be something like 1 in a trillion at least. We therefore can update the odds to 1 in 10^60, or 10^-60. And the final step, for now, is to show that, even after doing all this (Christ could have died, and declared Himself to be God, but naturally speaking, or if He was trying to cheat God, God could have ensured His Church and His Name came to nothing – God did the opposite, to show He was with His Son in all things), He somehow has come to be worshipped by people of all nations, as the world clearly and visibly sees He is, and as He Himself prophesied (Mat 24:14) He would be.
This amazing Truth leads us to our final estimate: 10^-60*10^-12=10^-72 odds Christ fulfilled this by chance. 1-10^-72=0.999999999999999999 (70+times) or just =1=100% chance Jesus Christ fulfilled this by Divine and Intelligent Design. Thus, as we have an argument in ch. 3 and 13 that God designed the Universe by Intelligent Loving Design, we have a similar proof of the Divine Author of Holy Scripture, by Intelligent Loving Design.
We can, through mathematical study and logical analysis alone, be near 100% certain of this.
Another question: Messianic prophecies are great for evangelism of the Jewish people. But are they useful when speaking to others, especially e.g. atheists and agnostics? They can still serve as an introduction to the Gospel — especially because everyone knows, even atheists admit, and it can be proved historically, that the Old Testament prophecies were written down centuries before Christ. The Jews have always expected the Messiah to come for thousands of years, and these Old Testament passages also bear witness to it. Vatican I states: “5. Hence Moses and the prophets, and especially Christ our Lord himself, worked many absolutely clear miracles and delivered prophecies; while of the apostles we read: And they went forth and preached every, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it [Mk 16:20]. Again it is written: We have the prophetic word made more sure; you will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place [2 Pet:1:9].”[6] So we know that prophecies are signs of divine revelation and proofs of supernatural origin that the Holy Spirit can use during our preaching of the Gospel to help souls come to Christ.
A final prophecy — the Church’s mission to old Israel will ultimately succeed at last: The apostles and fathers have prophesied the return of the Jewish people to Christ one day: The Old Testament contains several prophecies of the end-times conversion of the Jews. The Prophet Hosea says this: “The children of Israel shall sit many days without king and without prince and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without ephod and without theraphim. And after this the children of Israel shall return, and shall seek the Lord their God and David their king: and they shall fear the Lord, and His goodness in the last days” (Hosea 3:4-5). There are two parts to this prophesy. The first is that the Jews will be without king, prince, sacrifice, altar, ephod, and theraphim. This is a reference to the loss of civil kingship and sacrificing priesthood among the Jews. Regarding this part of the prophecy, Saint Augustine comments, “Who is there who does not see in this a portrait of the present state of the Jewish people?” The second part of the prophecy involves the return of the Jews, about which, Saint Augustine says this: “Nothing can be clearer than this prophecy, in which David stands for Jesus Christ [since He], says the Apostle, is born of the line of David, according to the flesh”
Saint Cyril of Alexandria says this: “Towards the end of time, Our Lord Jesus Christ will effect the reconciliation of His former persecutor Israel with Himself. Everybody who knows Holy Scripture is aware that, in the course of time, this people will return to the love of Christ by the submission of faith[.] … Yes, one day, after the conversion of the Gentiles, Israel will be converted, and the Jews will be astonished at the Treasure they will find in Christ(!) (Commentary on Genesis, Bk. 5) (7]
Let us pray and work for this glorious event! When Israel comes to Christ, the Period of Peace mentioned by St. John the Apostle in the Apocalypse will finally begin! Hallelujah!
Reason 7: The Evidence for the Resurrection of Christ. The Evidence from various Historical Works
"For this reason, therefore, by the miracles wrought by His Apostles, He renders the evidence of His Resurrection unequivocal, so that not only the men of those times — this is what would come of the ocular proof — but also all men thereafter, should be certain of the fact, that He was risen. Upon this ground also we argue with unbelievers. For if He did not rise again, but remains dead, how did the Apostles perform miracles in His Name? But they did not, you say, perform miracles? How then was our religion instituted [in the beginning]? For this certainly they will not controvert nor impugn what we see with our eyes: so that when they say that no miracles took place, they inflict a worse stab upon themselves. For this would be the greatest of miracles, that without any miracles, the whole world should have eagerly come to be taken in the nets of twelve poor and illiterate men!
For not by wealth of money, not by wisdom of words, not by anything else of this kind, did the fishermen prevail; so that objectors must even against their will acknowledge that there was in these men a Divine power, for no human strength could ever possibly effect such great results." ~ Patriarch St. John Chrysostom of Constantinople.
Now, Atheists/Agnostics/Deists typically object, with respect to the Contingency/Design/Moral arguments for God's Existence/Intelligence/Power and Goodness that, even were all these arguments or demonstrations successful in showing that some kind of God exists, they would in no way prove by themselves that Jesus Christ is God, or the Truth of the Christian Religion. That's true. What does that is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, the question becomes, is there Good Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? Yes, we will cite first, (1) the Toledot Yeshu, which gives an extremely hostile, but informative, account of the life of Yeshua or Jesus Christ from the perspective of the Pharisees, depreciatingly called "Yeshu" to mock Him; (2) Tacitus the Roman Secular Historian, who was also a biographer of Roman Emperors, (3) Josephus the Jewish Secular Historian, the (4) Gospel Records, and certain facts from them recognized by Secular Historians even today (for e.g. Christ's Crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, which John Dominic Crossan of the Jesus Seminar called "as certain as anything historical can ever be". Pilate was governor of Judea between 26 and 36 A.D. Also well known.)
1. Here is an excerpt from the Pharisaic Polemic "Toledot Yeshu": "A man of the tribe of Judah, Joseph Pandera, lived near a widow who had a daughter called Miriam [Mary] .. Miriam gave birth to Yeshua [Jesus], whose name later depreciated to Yeshu ..He gathered 310 young men and proclaimed himself the Messiah, claiming Isaiah's "a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son" [7:14] and other prophets prophesied about him. Using God's name he healed a lame man, they worshipped him as the Messiah .. The Sanhedrin decided to arrest him, and sent messengers to invite him to Jerusalem. They pretended to be his disciples to trick him ... On the day before the Passover, Yeshu decided to go to the Temple and recover the secret name. He entered Jerusalem riding on an ass, but one of his followers, Judah Iskarioto, told the sages he was in the Temple. On a day before the Passover, they tried to hang him on a tree .. and he was buried .. His followers on Sunday told the queen that he was not in his grave, that he ascended to heaven as he had prophesied. As a gardener took him from the grave, they searched it and could not find him. But the gardener confessed he had taken it to prevent his followers from stealing his body and claiming his ascension into heaven. Recovering the body, the sages tied it to a horse's tail and took it to the queen. Convinced he was a false prophet, she ridiculed his followers and commended the sages"
This testimony is as hostile to the Life and Person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth as it is possible to be, coming from His Greatest Enemies, the Pharisees, who mocked Him as a false prophet all His Life. Origen also relates that Celsus repeats many of these claims about Christ, from the unbelieving Jewish perspective. And yet, it attests to very important historical information about Him, and confirms important details in the Gospel records: (1) He was of the Tribe of Judah, (2) His Mother was the Blessed Virgin Mary, His legal father St. Joseph, (3) He declared Himself to be the Virgin Born Son prophesied in Isaiah (7:14) 700 years before His Virgin Birth. He was worshipped as the Messiah promised by God. (through all the Prophets going back to Abraham to whom it was said, through one Son of his, Who is Christ, All Nations will be blessed). (4) Judas Iscariot betrayed him to the Sanhedrin and ultimately caused his death/killed Him. (5) After He was killed and hung on a Tree around Passover, He was buried (6) His tomb was found empty, (7) His disciples began to preach that He had risen from the dead, and was now ascended into heaven.
In a Court of Law, when some basic facts are admitted by both sides, representing both the defense and the prosecution, those facts would hardly be placed in doubt. Accordingly, these basic naturalistic facts, the Empty Tomb etc admitted also by many secular historians today, can be known to be certain historical facts.
2. Next, we have Roman Historian Tacitus: "Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty [of Christianity]".
Again, extremely hostile, hardly a friend of Christ or Christians, who speaks himself with hatred against Christians, who were innocent scapegoats for Nero's Crimes, and whose only crime was professing faith in Christ and love for mankind. But, as the Lord, "If they have hated Me, they will hate you also. If they have kept My Word, they will keep yours also". Anyway, Tacitus still bears witness to Christ's Crucifixion under Pontius Pilate.
Historian Pliny the Younger also mentions some of the "crimes" of the Christians, and that they worshipped Christ as God: “They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to God, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food–but food of an ordinary and innocent kind.”
All of this is in perfect accordance with the events related in the Gospel, that Christ was crucified and died under Pontius Pilate [and Tiberius the Emperor], but His disciples and early followers believed Him Risen, and worshipped Him as God. If Christ had not risen, no one would worship Him
3. Third, we come to Jewish Historian Josephus: There are two indisputable references to Jesus Christ in Josephus, where (1) he says that Jesus was called Christ, (2) and speaks of James, the Brother of Jesus, and also John the Baptist, once more confirming the Gospel record, and a third, (3) where he seems to speak about the Resurrection of Christ itself, is of course disputed by atheists and liberals. Apart from the fact that that particular portion is found in virtually every manuscript of Josephus we possess, and the Church Fathers believed it authentic, so it is undoubtedly ancient, a middle position, espoused by some scholars, is that the passage related some historical naturalistic information about Jesus Christ. We will discuss this important passage more fully in the next chapter.
Saint Jerome wrote in De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men) about Josephus: "Josephus, the son of Matthias, priest of Jerusalem, taken prisoner by Vespasian and his son Titus, was banished. Coming to Rome he presented to the emperors, father and son, seven books On the captivity of the Jews, which were deposited in the public library and, on account of his genius, was found worthy of a statue at Rome ... In the eighth book of his Antiquities he most openly acknowledges that Christ was slain by the Pharisees on account of the greatness of his miracles, that John the Baptist was truly a prophet, and that Jerusalem was destroyed because of the murder of James the Apostle. He wrote also concerning the Lord after this fashion: “In this same time was Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it be lawful to call him man. For he was a worker of wonderful miracles, and a teacher of those who freely receive the truth. He had very many adherents also, both of the Jews and of the Gentiles, and was believed to be Christ, and when through the envy of our chief men Pilate had crucified him, nevertheless those who had loved him at first continued to the end, for he appeared to them the third day alive. Many things, both these and other wonderful things are in the songs of the prophets who prophesied concerning him and the sect of Christians, so named from Him, exists to the present day." So we see St. Jerome et al took for granted Josephus wrote about Jesus Christ.
4. Next, the Gospel record itself, which gives specific years and times: "3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness." (Luk 3:1-2). Again, the 15th year of Tiberius, we now call/know as 29 A.D. John the Baptist began his ministry in this year, and Jesus Christ shortly thereafter, after being baptized by him in water. Gospel also says Christ was round 30 at the time He began to preach, and that 3 passovers passed (3 years) before His Crucifixion. Some scholars indeed claim He was crucified in 30 A.D., but more likely, it was 33 A.D in light of the above 30+3 calculation. But in any case, that He was crucified under Pontius Pilate and Tiberius is dead certain. The first historical fact, therefore, is (1) that Jesus Christ was crucified and died. Scholars also know the reference in 1 Cor 15 derives from an earlier Creed that likely dates to within 5 years of Christ's Death. And similarly, it can be shown, (2) that He was buried in a tomb, the third, (3) that His tomb was found empty, (4) the fourth, that Christ's Apostles began to preach, first in Jerusalem, and then elsewhere, that Christ had risen from the dead and appeared to them, and this was evidently a sincere conviction of theirs, for which they were martyred. The final point is that the Resurrection is the explanation of these 4 facts. These 4 facts, dear reader, are naturalistic historical facts, and acknowledged by the majority of secular historians today, for good historical reasons.
Even Anthony Flew, Atheist-turned-Deist admitted: “the evidence for the Resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity.” So even some Deists admit as much. Anthony Flew became a Deist and was almost on the verge of becoming Christian and being saved by a honest review of the evidence for Almighty God and for Jesus Christ.
5. The argument from these 4 facts, which others like Dr. Craig, Lee Strobel etc have also related, and which many former Atheists have in fact given as a reason of why they first became persuaded of Christ's claims, or re-persuaded of it after they had fallen away from Christ, may be summarized like this: "Briefly, therefore, the fact of Christ's Resurrection is attested by more than 500 eyewitnesses, whose experience, simplicity, and uprightness of life rendered them incapable of inventing such a fable, who lived at a time when any attempt to deceive could have been easily discovered, who had nothing in this life to gain, but everything to lose by their testimony, whose moral courage exhibited in their apostolic life can be explained only by their intimate conviction of the objective truth of their message. Again the fact of Christ's Resurrection is attested by the eloquent silence of the Synagogue which had done everything to prevent deception, which could have easily discovered deception, if there had been any, which opposed only sleeping witnesses to the testimony of the Apostles, which did not punish the alleged carelessness of the official guard, and which could not answer the testimony of the Apostles except by threatening them "that they speak no more in this name to any man" (Acts 4:17). Finally the thousands and millions, both Jews and Gentiles, who believed the testimony of the Apostles in spite of all the disadvantages following from such a belief, in short the origin of the Church, requires for its explanation the reality of Christ's Resurrection, for the rise of the Church without the Resurrection would have been a greater miracle than the Resurrection itself." (1907 Catholic Encyclopedia, Resurrection of Jesus Christ).
St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa Contra Gentiles takes up a similar argument: "The Divine Wisdom, that knows all things most fully, has deigned to reveal these her secrets to men, and in proof of them has displayed works beyond the competence of all natural powers, in the wonderful cure of diseases, in the raising of the dead, and what is more wonderful still, in such inspiration of human minds as that simple and ignorant persons, filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost, have gained in an instant the height of wisdom and eloquence. By force of the aforesaid proof, without violence of arms, without promise of pleasures, and, most wonderful thing of all, in the midst of the violence of persecutors, a countless multitude, not only of the uneducated but of the wisest men, flocked to the Christian Faith ... This so wonderful conversion of the world to the Christian Faith is so certain a sign of past miracles, that they need no further reiteration, since they appear evidently in their effects. It would be more wonderful than all other miracles, if without miraculous signs the world had been induced by simple and low-born men to believe truths so arduous, to do works so difficult, to hope for reward so high. And yet even in our times God ceases not through His Saints to work miracles for the confirmation of the Faith."
Or, as New Testament scholar N.T. Wright put it: "That is why, as a historian, I cannot explain the rise of early Christianity unless Jesus Christ rose from the dead, leaving an Empty Tomb behind Him".
How do you explain the rise of early Christianity? Just a series of naturalistic "miracles", that millions flocked to the Christian Faith even amidst severe persecution, taught by 12 simple disciples, all of whom were martyred for their bold confession of Truth, without a Risen Christ and an Empty Tomb? God Bless.
Reason 8: Evidence from the Shroud of Turin: the Miraculous Relic demonstrating Christ’s Resurrection Reason 8.1: The Shroud of Turin is a remarkable relic that provides Direct Evidence of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection The Shroud of Turin is a remarkable relic. As mentioned in the previous chapter, there were more than 500 eyewitnesses and all kinds of evidences for the historical fact of Christ’s Resurrection. But the Shroud of Turin is that rare relic that affords even visible proof of that historical fact. Our Lord is unique among all people who have ever existed. Everyone else died and remained dead. He alone died and gloriously rose again. As St. Paul mentions in 1 Cor 15:6 (an early Creed), there were more than 500 eyewitnesses to that historical fact. But the Shroud of Turin is a miraculous relic that gives even visible evidence of it. A recent study showed only a great burst of energy [1][2], more powerful than any laser on the market today, could have produced the Image of the Holy Face on the Shroud. Reason 8.1.1 The Image on the Shroud of Turin required a burst of immense energy to produce: “The ultraviolet light necessary to [simulate the image] exceeds the maximum power released by all ultraviolet light sources available today,” says Di Lazzaro. It would require “pulses having durations shorter than one forty-billionth of a second, and intensities on the order of several billion watts.” If the most advanced technologies available in the 21st century could not produce a facsimile of the shroud image, he reasons, how could it have been executed by a medieval forger?”[1] Reason 8.1.2 New scientific tests demonstrate that the Shroud of Turin originated in the Ancient Middle East or Near East, not medieval Europe: “New scientific tests conducted on the famous Shroud of Turin have revealed that the flax used to make the linen was grown in the Middle East. The results of isotope tests provide new evidence that the shroud is the actual garment that was used to cover the body of Jesus Christ following his crucifixion – and is not a forgery that was created in medieval Europe. Fragments of cloth taken from the shroud show that its flax originated in the western Levant, a swathe of land occupied today by Israel, Lebanon and western parts of Jordan and Syria. William Meacham, the American archaeologist who commissioned the study, said: “With a probable near Eastern origin, new doubts must be raised about interpreting the shroud as simply a fake relic made in medieval Europe, and new questions arise about what the image on the cloth signifies.”[3] Reason 8.1.3 Remarkable 120 Coincidences of blood and fluid stains with the Sudarium of Oviedo “One-hundred twenty coincidences of blood and fluid stains between the Shroud and the Sudarium of Oviedo give evidence of a date and location of the Shroud’s origin similar to that of Jesus.” [2] Reason 8.1.4 The Blood Stains on the Shroud are Real Blood. They are of Blood Type AB “III. The blood stains on the Shroud: The blood stains tell a story very similar to the highly unusual crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth — they were imprinted on the Shroud before the image was made (the opposite of what would need to be done by a forger). The Shroud has deposits of real human blood, according to the experts who studied the blood flecks gathered on the STURP tapes in 1978. They determined that the blood on the Shroud is real. Some researchers have found that male DNA and an AB blood type are also present on the cloth.” [2] Reason 8.1.5 The Image on the Shroud is a Photographic Negative. Its Formation suggests a Divine or Supernatural Origin, because, as seen above, 1st or even 10th century technology couldn’t produce it: “Formation of the image on the Shroud: The image was not formed by dyes, chemicals, vapors or scorching. The only known explanation for the formation of the image is an intense burst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation (equivalent to the output of 14,000 excimer lasers) emitted from every three-dimensional point of the body in the Shroud (which technology didn’t exist then). The combination of the above evidence is exceedingly difficult to explain in any way other than the burial cloth is that of Jesus of Nazareth. Moreover, the formation of the image by an intense outburst of vacuum ultraviolet radiation is suggestive of a resurrection event similar to that described in the Gospels. The above scientific evidence requires that a new carbon-dating test be done which observes the standard protocols for sampling. When these protocols are observed, it would be surprising if the result was not similar to the results of the four new dating methods mentioned above — approximately A.D. 50. If this result is obtained, it would indicate that the Shroud of Turin is very likely the burial shroud of Jesus Christ with evidence suggestive of His resurrection in light.” [2] Reason 8.1.6. Stop the Presses! After this book was sent to publication, a new study came out vindicating the divine origin of the Shroud of Turin. I have included it in the book for completion’s sake. Catholic News Agency reported: “Spitzer said that the creatinine in the blood “generally indicates a heavy polytrauma [severe injuries in multiple locations],” adding that “the blood came from a person who had undergone tremendous heavy polytrauma.” “The man certainly was struggling to breathe [as well],” Spitzer said, citing the findings in the study. “He had undergone real tortures. …You can tell that he lost a tremendous amount of blood … especially from the whipping — the scourging that he received.” According to Spitzer, the blood evidence points to the “unique crucifixion of Jesus on the cross.” In defending the authenticity of the shroud, he said “a medieval forger” could not have possibly anticipated 21st-century scientific studies of the cloth: “[He] certainly would not have used the hematic serum of a victim who experienced a heavy polytrauma.” Spitzer referenced other recent studies to defend the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, particularly the 2022 wide-angle X-ray scattering analysis published by Italian researchers at the National Research Council in Bari. The team of researchers was led by Liberato De Caro” (See more at: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/258943/study-claims-blood-evidence-on-shroud-of-turin-consistent-with-torture-of-christ) Reason 8.2 The Creed in 1 Cor 15, its early date, the authenticity of the Testimonium Flavianum etc Now that we have seen how the Shroud as a visible relic powerfully confirms the Resurrection of Jesus, as does the Sudarium of Oviedo, here is more on the Early Creed referenced in 1 Corinthians 15[2], a Creed which even Secular Scholars increasingly admit likely goes back to just a few years or possibly even as little as just a few months (a strong guarantor of historicity) after Christ’s historical crucifixion: [4] “The strong majority of historians acknowledge that the creed dates back to AD 30-35… The Oxford Companion to the Bible: “The earliest record of these appearances is to be found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, a tradition that Paul ‘received’ after his apostolic call, certainly not later than his visit to Jerusalem in 35 CE, when he saw Cephas (Peter) and James (Gal. 1:18-19), who, like him, were recipients of appearances.” [Eds. Metzer & Coogan (Oxford, 1993), 647.] Gerd Lüdemann (Atheist NT professor at Göttingen): “…the elements in the tradition are to be dated to the first two years after the crucifixion of Jesus…not later than three years… the formation of the appearance traditions mentioned in I Cor.15.3-8 falls into the time between 30 and 33 CE.” [The Resurrection of Jesus, trans. by Bowden (Fortress, 1994), 171-72.] Robert Funk (Non-Christian scholar, founder of the Jesus Seminar): “…The conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead had already taken root by the time Paul was converted about 33 C.E. On the assumption that Jesus died about 30 C.E., the time for development was thus two or three years at most.” [Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus, 466.] … James Dunn (Professor at Durham): …This tradition, we can be entirely confident, was formulated as tradition within months of Jesus' death. [Jesus Remembered (Eerdmans, 2003) 854-55.] This Creed and its early date is powerful evidence for the authenticity and antiquity of the disciples’ belief in Jesus Christ’s Resurrection in the early Church in Jerusalem. It demonstrates the solid foundation of this belief, shows it was not a later myth, but preached by the earliest Apostles, believed by Christ’s closest disciples in Jerusalem, and thus provides additional evidence of the historicity of Christ’s Resurrection. The Creed may date to as little as a few months after Christ’s Resurrection, as the various authorities cited above recognize. [4] Reason 8.3 The “Testimonium Flavianum” or Testimony of Josephus re-visited. The Letter of Pilate to Tiberius confirming the Resurrection, its attestation by St. Justin, Tertullian and ancient sources: One among the many irrefutable proofs of the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ that even serious non-Christians are forced to contend with is the testimony of Flavius Josephus, first-century Jewish historian and eyewitness to the remarkable fulfilment of Our Savior’s prophecies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. [5] For the Saints and for us, the testimony of Christian historians like St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, St. John, etc. has precedence over that of any Jewish or Roman historian, ancient or modern, but we should know that modern liberals treat Josephus almost like a secular bible when it comes to the history of first-century events. So imagine just how shocked they must be to find this clear and explicit testimony to the Resurrection of Jesus in the Antiquities of Josephus! Flavius Josephus, Antiquities XVIII, Chapter III, Para. 3: "Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man; if it be lawful to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful works; a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross; those that loved him at the first did not forsake him. For he appeared to them alive again, the third day: as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day." I. This historical testimony attests to all the most important facts in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ: His divine Wisdom, His astonishing miracles, His lofty doctrine, His powerful preaching attracting men and women from all races and cultures; His crucifixion under Pilate and Glorious Resurrection in accordance with what the great prophets of Israel had written. It shows that all this was almost universally known among the Jews of the time, even those hostile or indifferent to the Gospel. II. The testimony is so clearly Josephan that it throws all secular critics into the greatest and insuperable difficulties; they have no choice but to desperately plead that it is a forgery to maintain their secularism. But this is an absurd and farcical pretense. The passage fits perfectly with all we know of Josephus’s style and vocabulary; it has unique expressions as “tribe of Christians” and calls Jesus “a wise man,” etc. that occur nowhere else. As the C.E. notes, moreover, “all codices or manuscripts of Josephus’s work contain the text in question; to maintain the spuriousness of the text, we must suppose that all the copies of Josephus were in the hands of Christians, and were changed in the same way.” III. Its authenticity was universally taken for granted for centuries. From the same C.E. article, “Third, Eusebius (“Hist. Eccl”., I, xi; cf. “Dem. Ev.”, III, v) Sozomen (Church History I.1), Niceph. (Hist. Eccl., I, 39), Isidore of Pelusium (Ep. IV, 225), St. Jerome (catal.script. eccles. xiii), Ambrose, Cassiodorus, etc., appeal to the testimony of Josephus; there must have been no doubt as to its authenticity at the time of these illustrious writers.” [7] We can note that Josephus, like Gamaliel and others, may have been content with discreetly operating within the synagogue — among a number of other possible explanations for why he was not baptized. Regardless, this clear testimony from a historian so universally regarded as credible is convincing proof that the Jews of Jesus’s time were well acquainted with the fact of His Resurrection. Like the holy Shroud of Turin, and the 500 eyewitnesses to the Resurrection, and the heroic lives and martyrdoms of the holy apostles sealing and confirming their testimony to Jesus and His resurrection in their blood, the Testimonium Flavianum, as it is called, affords no small proof of the Resurrection! It must command the attention of every serious inquirer into Christianity. Some of the early Christians knew that Josephus believed in Christ and so regarded this great historian with much respect. His conversion, like that of Rabbi Gamaliel, should be another clear call to non-Christians to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved. It should confirm the wavering in the Faith. And it should console the faithful that the Lord God we serve has done and is able to do astonishing things. That St. Jerome attested completely the testimony of Josephus and considered him an Illustrious Man and virtually a Christian is evident from the testimony of his quoted in the Last Chapter. The Great Doctor who gave us our Latin Vulgate Bible here explains that Josephus plainly testifies to these things as incontrovertible. And here is St. Ambrose: "The Jews themselves also bear witness to Christ, as appears by Josephus, the writer of their history, who says thus: ‘That there was at that time a wise man, if (says he) it be lawful to have him called a man, a doer of wonderful works, who appeared to his disciples after the third day from his death, alive again according to the writings of the prophets, who foretold these and innumerable other miraculous events concerning him: from whom began the congregation of Christians, yet he was no believer, because of the hardness of his heart and his prejudicial intention. However, it was no prejudice to the truth that he was not a believer, but this adds more weight to his testimony, that while he was an unbeliever and unwilling, this should be true, he has not denied it to be so." Here, the Saintly Bishop of Milan points out that the principal facts in the life of Christ, including His public ministry and miracles, His life and Gospel, His death and crucifixion, His burial and resurrection were so well known as to be undeniable even to those who did not openly confess Christ. If non-Christians say Josephus was not a Christian, this only adds all the more weight to his testimony. If they claim he became a Christian, then they should do so also. Thus, modern skeptics, who are aware of the great credibility of Josephus but find this testimony inexplicable because of their a priori prejudice against Christianity, should come with the aid of grace to the realization that this testimony is absolutely true. Jesus Christ is really the promised Messiah, and He really died under Pontius Pilate on Nisan 14, 33 A.D. and rose from the dead on the third day. As we saw in the Last Chapter, two learned Philosophers (Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Thomas Aquinas) explain why the fact of the Resurrection is so certain that, as the existence of God can be known from its effects in creation, so the Lord’s Resurrection, which is the New Creation, can be known through its effects in history, in the Lives of the Apostles, and in those 1000s and Millions who converted.
Letter of Pilate to Tiberius:
There is also a letter from Pontius Pilate to the Emperor Tiberius, a letter which causes even more problems for atheists and liberals. It is attested by St. Justin, Tertullian and St. Eusebius. “And again there was another having a withered hand; and not the hand only, but rather the half of the body of the man, was petrified, so that he had not the form of a than, or the power of moving his body. And him by a word he healed, and made sound. And a woman that had an issue of blood for many years, and whose joints and veins were drained by the flowing of the blood, so that she did not present the appearance of a human being, but was like a corpse, and was speechless every day, so that all the physicians of the district could not cure her. For there was not any hope of life left to her. And when Jesus passed by, she mysteriously received strength through his overshadowing her; and she took hold of his fringe behind, and immediately in the same hour power filled up what in her was empty, so that, no longer suffering any pain, she began to run swiftly to her own city Kepharnaum, so as to accomplish the journey in six days. And these are the things which I lately had in my mind to report, which Jesus accomplished on the Sabbath. And other signs greater than these he did, so that I have perceived that the wonderful works done by him are greater than can be done by the gods whom we worship. And him Herod and Archelaus and Philip, Annas and Caiaphas, with all the people, delivered to me, making a great uproar against me that I should try him. I therefore ordered him to be crucified, having first scourged him, and having found against him no cause of evil accusations or deeds. And at the time he was crucified there was darkness over all the world, the sun being darkened at mid-day, and the stars appearing, but in them there appeared no lustre; and the moon, as if turned into blood, failed in her light. And the world was swallowed up by the lower regions, so that the very sanctuary of the temple, as they call it, could not be seen by the Jews in their fall; and they saw below them a chasm of the earth, with the roar of the thunders that fell upon it. And in that terror dead men were seen that had risen, as the Jews themselves testified; and they said that it was Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs, and Moses and Job, that had died, as they say, three thousand five hundred years before. And there were very many whom I also saw appearing in the body; and they were making a lamentation about the Jews, on account of the wickedness that bad come to pass through them, and the destruction of the Jews and of their law. And the fear of the earthquake remained from the sixth hour of the preparation until the ninth hour. And on the evening of the first day of the week there was a sound out of the heaven, so that the heaven became enlightened sevenfold more than all the days. And at the third hour of the night also the sun was seen brighter than it had ever shone before, lighting up all the heaven. And as lightnings come suddenly in winter, so majestic men appeared in glorious robes, an innumerable multitude, whose voice was heard as that of a very great thunder, crying out: Jesus that was crucified is risen: come up out of Hades, ye that have been enslaved in the underground regions of Hades. And the chasm of the earth was as if it had no bottom; but it was as if the very foundations of the earth appeared along with those that cried out in the heavens, and walked about in the body in the midst of the dead that had risen. And he that raised up all the dead, and bound Hades, said: Say to my disciples, He goes before you into Galilee; there shall you see him. And all that night the light did not cease shining. And many of the Jews died, swallowed up in the chasm of the earth, so that on the following day most of those who had been against Jesus could not be found. Others saw the appearing of those that had risen, whom no one of us had ever seen. And only one synagogue of the Jews was left in this Jerusalem, since all disappeared in that fall. With that terror, being in perplexity, and seized with a most frightful trembling, I have written what I saw at that time, and have reported to thy majesty.” [7]
Early Church Father Saint Justin Martyr wrote: “And the expression, They pierced my hands and my feet, was used in reference to the nails of the cross which were fixed in His hands and feet. And after He was crucified they cast lots upon His vesture, and they that crucified Him parted it among them. And that these things did happen, you can ascertain from the Acts of Pontius Pilate.” [8]
Tertullian, the great jurist and theologian of Carthage, addressing his Defence of Christianity to the main authorities in Africa around AD 197, says: “Tiberius, in whose time the Christian name first made its appearance in the world, laid before the Senate tidings from Syria Palestina which had revealed to him the truth of the divinity there manifested, and supported the motion by his own vote to begin with. The Senate rejected it because it had not itself given its approval. Caesar held to his own opinion and threatened danger to the accusers of the Christians." [9] Saint Eusebius confirms: “1. And when the wonderful resurrection and ascension of our Saviour were already reported abroad, in accordance with an ancient custom which prevailed among the rulers of the provinces, of reporting to the emperor the novel occurrences which took place in them, in order that nothing might escape him, Pontius Pilate informed Tiberius of the reports which were reported abroad through all Palestine concerning the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus from the dead. 2. He gave an account also of other wonders which he had learned of him, and how, after his death, having risen from the dead, he was now believed by many to be a God. They say that Tiberius referred the matter to the Senate, but that they rejected it, ostensibly because they had not first examined into the matter (for an ancient law prevailed that no one should be made a God by the Romans except by a vote and decree of the Senate), but in reality because the saving teaching of the divine Gospel did not need the confirmation and recommendation of men. 3. But although the Senate of the Romans rejected the proposition made in regard to our Saviour, Tiberius still retained the opinion which he had held at first, and contrived no hostile measures against Christ.” [10] The Evidence for the Resurrection is so strong it alone has convinced millions throughout history. May it, together with the other Evidence, by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, convince Billions more. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Reason 9: Evidence from Eucharistic Miracles confirmed by Modern Empirical Science today: Reason 9.1 Eucharistic Miracles have converted former skeptics and have been called by them, “the most powerful evidence in favor of Christianity” – these are amazing wondrous signs of Grace Eucharistic Miracles are a divine or supernatural proof of the Truth of the Christian Faith. "This was evidenced by intact white blood cells being found in the tissue. This showed the heart sample was pulsating as elsewise the white blood cells would have disintegrated roughly 15 minutes outside of a living body. Interesting fact: The Archbishop who commissioned the research was none other than the now Pope Francis!" [1] “A [formerly] non-Christian friend of mine called Eucharistic Miracles “the most powerful evidence for (Catholic) Christianity.” It is easy for us non-skeptics to understand why. For skeptics and doubters, these miracles serve as supernatural signs. Vatican I explains it well: “In order that the submission of our faith should be in accordance with reason, it was God’s will that there should be linked to the internal assistance of the Holy Spirit external indications of His Revelation, that is to say divine acts, and first and foremost miracles and prophecies, which clearly demonstrating as they do the Omnipotence and Infinite Knowledge of God, are the most certain signs of revelation and are suited to the understanding of all (Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith: Chapter 3, On Faith).” [2] Reason 9.2 The Eucharistic Miracle at Lanciano – a wondrous miracle still marvelled at today: Christ worked the wondrous Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano [3] in response to a poor Priest struggling through his own dark night. He wondered if Christ really was present in the Eucharist, as Christ had promised in the Gospel. In His Mercy, the Good Lord chose to answer the doubts of this “doubting Thomas” with a Eucharistic Miracle. It reminds us of His post-Resurrection apparition to St. Thomas. The next time you are at Mass, just remember the Living God is truly present in the Host. Some believe because they have seen. But blessed are those who believe even without seeing, as Our Lord said. Believing without seeing will merit for you in Eternal Life a great reward in Heaven. More about Lanciano: In 1970-'71 and taken up again partly in 1981 there took place a scientific investigation by the most illustrious scientist Prof. Odoardo Linoli, eminent Professor in Anatomy and Pathological Histology and in Chemistry and Clinical Microscopy. He was assisted by Prof. Ruggero Bertelli of the University of Siena. The analyses were conducted with absolute and unquestionable scientific precision and they were documented with a series of microscopic photographs. These analyses sustained the following conclusions: • The Flesh is real Flesh. The Blood is real Blood. • The Flesh and the Blood belong to the human species. • The Flesh consists of the muscular tissue of the heart. • In the Flesh we see present in section: the myocardium, the endocardium, the vagus nerve and also the left ventricle of the heart for the large thickness of the myocardium. • The Flesh is a "HEART" complete in its essential structure. • The Flesh and the Blood have the same blood-type: AB (Blood-type identical to that which Prof. Baima Bollone uncovered in the Holy Shroud of Turin)(!) [3] Reason 9.3 Evidence from more Eucharistic Miracles: 4-5 cited and quoted to bolster your Faith. Here is more: “2) Mexico 2006 Where: The Parish of Saint Martin of Tours in Tixtla When: 21 October 2006 What Happened: During a Mass in a parish retreat, a host that was about to be distributed was effusing a reddish substance. The diocese decided to conduct extensive scientific study of the host to discern its cause, origin and ensure there was no hoax being played. The study took several years but its results were eventually published in 2013. The reddish substance analysed in the host was indeed blood in which there was DNA and haemoglobins of human origin. Two studies conducted by eminent forensic experts using different methods both showed that blood came from inside the host; this showed that it wasn’t possible that the blood was placed on the host from an outside source. The blood type was AB positive, the same type as found in other Eucharistic miracles and the Holy Shroud of Turin. A microscopic analysis of the blood in 2010 showed that since 2006 much of the blood visible had coagulated (as expected) but that underlying internal layers contained the presence of fresh blood which showed that the Eucharist was still bleeding. The human tissue found in the host was living, evidenced by intact white and red blood cells and active macrophages. The immunohistochemical studies revealed that the tissue found corresponds to the muscle of the heart mentioned in Buenos Aires, the Myocardium. All in all, the study proved beyond a doubt that the occurrence was not of natural origin and went further by linking this miracle to the others that happen around the world. 3) India 2001 Where: The parish church of Saint Mary in Chirattakonam When: 5 May 2001 What Happened: On April 28 2001, the church began the Novena to St. Jude Thaddeus as they did every year. At 8:49am, the priest exposed the Most Holy Sacrament in the monstrance for public adoration. After a few moments they saw what appeared to be three dots in the Holy Eucharist. They prayed to the host for a while and then it was placed secure in the tabernacle. The priest then went to the archbishop of the diocese to inform him of the change but when he returned to the parish and opened the tabernacle it had in fact developed further as now clearly in the Eucharist was not only the three red dots but a face crowned with a crown of thorns. It is suggested that the three red dots refer to the three wounds St. Thomas asked to see of Jesus before he would believe he rose from the dead, a thought compounded by the fact that this was the reading of the day. The Eucharist remains there to this day and is often adored by the faithful. 4) Venezuela 1991 Where: The Marian Shrine of Finca Betania in Cúa When: 8 December 1991 What Happened: The priest had just divided the big host into four parts and consumed one of those pieces, as is normal in the Mass. When he placed the remaining pieces back on the paten (the plate the host is kept on) he noticed that one of the pieces now had a red spot and from it a red substance was coming out, similar to the manner in which blood escapes from a wound, the numerous pilgrims who were there immediately verified the blood did not come from the priest. The host continues to produce fresh blood and the then-Bishop of Los Teques requested a series of studies to test the Eucharist’s miraculous appearance. The host was analysed by 500 commissions of the World Health Organization and it was confirmed that the blood of the priest did not match that of the Eucharist. The studies, like before, showed that the blood came from inside the host and matched that of other Eucharistic miracles, it again being AB positive and from a living heart. It is possible to go and see the miraculous host all days of the year at any hour in the convent of the Augustianian Recollects Nuns of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Los Teques. 5) Poland 2008 Where: The parish church of Saint Anthony of Sokółka When: 12 October 2008 What Happened: A consecrated host accidently fell to the ground during Mass and, when the priest noticed it, he believed it was dirty and so placed it in a vasculum (a small container filled with water) to dissolve it and get rid of a dirty host in the proper manner. Later, when it was brought out again, although it was partially dissolved it was still there and what was thought to be ‘dirt’ at a passing glance was in fact what at looked like a blood clot. Intense study followed and two scientists of global fame and specialists in pathological anatomy at the Medical University of Białystok were called in to lead the investigation, Professor Maria Elżbieta Sobaniec-Łotowska and Professor Stanisław Sulkowski. These two scientists studied the ‘blood clot’ independent of each other and made use of the most modern optical microscopes and the transmission electronic microscope. To further ensure no bias in the study, Professor Sulkowski was not informed that the sample which he was examining came from a host. Despite this, both scientists reached the same conclusion: the sample examined was neither a clot, nor blood… it was a human cardiac muscle tissue (heart tissue) and was still alive. The details of the heart’s condition are the same as those we’ve mentioned earlier, but the most incredible thing about this study was that, due to the advanced nature of the equipment they used, they were able to observe that the cardiac tissue was joined to the consecrated host in an inseparable manner. There is no scientific explanation for this; they penetrated each other, as if a fragment of ‘bread’ had suddenly transformed itself into ‘body’. It is not possible to manipulate an event of this type. No one, absolutely no one, would have been able to do it. “Even the scientists of NASA, who have at their disposal the most modern analytical techniques, would not be able to artificially recreate such a thing” affirmed Professor Sobaniec-Łotowska.”[1]
The evidence of Eucharistic Miracles worked by Christ should be enough to bring all of us to Faith.
Footnotes, References, Links and Further References
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalam_cosmological_argument [2] https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/astronomy/how-did-the-universe-begin [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borde%E2%80%93Guth%E2%80%93Vilenkin_theorem [4] https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/521809-there-is-nothing-in-which-deduction-is-so-necessary-as [5] “The Origin of the Universe Brings Physicist Back to God!” https://youtu.be/4hmJLyyyKMA
[1] https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1002.htm [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmological_argument#Argument_from_contingency
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-tuned_universe [2] https://www.amazon.in/Just-Six-Numbers-Martin-Rees/dp/0465036732
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_argument
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tYm41hb48o (Craig vs Hitchens, Biola University). [2] https://www.reasonablefaith.org/media/debates/does-god-exist (Transcript of the Debate). [3] https://www.amazon.in/Catholic-Church-Built-Western-Civilization/dp/1596983280
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGz9BVJ_k6s (Isaiah 53, the Forbidden Chapter, 4.2 MN Views) [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12288594/ [3] Josephus. BJ. Translated by Whiston, William. 6.1.1. [4] https://onepeterfive.com/messianic-prophecies-evangelization/ [5] https://www.conservapedia.com/Prophesies_Fulfilled_by_Christ#Prophesies_of_the_Sacrificial_Death_of_the_Messiah [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledot_Yeshu [7] https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/first-vatican-council-1505 [8] https://catholicism.org/ad-rem-no-310.html
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledot_Yeshu [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus_on_Jesus [3] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12789a.htm
Book
- Why I Believe in Lord Jesus Christ: 25 Reasons to be Christian by Nishant Xavier. Iterative International Publisher IIP. September 4, 2024