Risen Jesus

The following episode is part two of the debate between atheist philosopher Dr. Evan Fales and Dr. Mike Licona in 2014 at the University of St. Thoman in St. Paul, Minnesota. In the first 30 minutes, Dr. Licona provides his positive case for the resurrection and then evaluates it alongside Dr. Fales’ hypothesis that Jesus did not rise from the dead but instead, the stories of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus recorded in the gospels are myths designed by the authors to provide both the Romans and Jews with solutions to their political problems. He finishes the session with a 30-minute audience Q&A.

In this episode, we join a 2014 debate between Dr. Mike Licona and atheist philosopher Dr. Evan Fales on whether Jesus rose from the dead. In this first segment of the four-part debate, Dr. Licona answers the question, “Can historians investigate miracle claims?” He gives a resounding “yes” as he defines miracles, discusses how to identify them, provides examples, and addresses objections to miracles. After delivering an approximately 30-minute presentation, Dr. Licona finishes this session by taking audience questions.

In today’s episode, we have a Religion Soup dialogue from Acadia Divinity College between Dr. Mike Licona and Dr. Dale Martin on whether Jesus physically rose from the dead. Dr. Licona presents a positive historical case for physical resurrection based on the following five historical facts:Paul was an eyewitness to the risen Jesus.Paul knew the apostles personally.Paul checked with Peter and other apostles to verify that he was preaching their gospel.Both individuals and groups reported experiences that they believed were encounters with the risen Jesus.These encounters were of a physical Jesus.Dr. Martin argues against this, asserting that the resurrection cannot be historically established. He cites the vast differences among the recorded appearance accounts and that the tomb of Jesus did not become a place of veneration for the early Christians. Martin contends the resurrection involved a “pneumatic” body and cites scripture frequently recounting people not recognizing Jesus when he appeared to them as support for this view.

In this episode, Dr. Mike Licona and Dr. Dale Martin discuss their differing views of Jesus’ claim of divinity. Licona proposes that “it is more probable than not that Jesus claimed to be God in some sense.” He bases this on the fact that the earliest Christians, those most plausibly connected to the apostles, held this view and that the best explanation is that Jesus said so himself. Licona cites passages equating Jesus with God and Jesus using “Son of Man,  divine and co-equal with God, as his preferred way to refer to himself.  Dr. Martin concedes that Jesus may have claimed divinity in some sense but not as orthodox Christians conceive. Instead, references to him as the “Son of Man” are claims to messiahship in a human or angelic sense, subordinate to God the Father. Martin claims that the orthodox Christian belief in Jesus’ divinity arose after his death in the second and third centuries, for if this had been taught by Jesus directly, the New Testament would not contain such a messy assortment of ideas about if, in what sense, and when Jesus became divine.

In this episode, Dr. Mike Licona and Dr. Bart Ehrman face off for the second time on whether historians can prove the resurrection. Dr. Ehrman says no. Given that 1.) historians work to establish what most probably happened in the past and that 2.) miracles are, by definition, the least probable occurrence of an event, historical proof is impossible since the least probable occurrence of an event cannot also be, at the same time, the most probable. Dr. Licona disagrees, answers Ehrman, and makes his case for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection.

In this episode, Dr. Mike Licona and Dr. Lawrence Shapiro debate the justifiability of believing Jesus was raised from the dead. Dr. Shapiro appeals to Bayes' Theorem and the unverifiability of the alternative hypotheses for the post-death appearances to argue against justifiability. Dr. Licona retorts that Bayes’ Theorem, which states that the less likely something is to happen, the stronger the evidence for it must be to convince us of its truth, is primarily inapplicable in historical studies since it requires that the probabilities for an event’s prior occurrence to be known. He also disputes Shapiro’s claims that the alternative hypotheses are as adequate as the resurrection hypothesis.

In this episode of the Risen Jesus podcast, we join Dr. Licona at Ohio State University for his 2017 resurrection debate with philosopher Dr. Lawrence Shapiro. Dr. Licona argues that believing that Jesus rose from the dead is justifiable and that Dr. Shapiro’s arguments to the contrary fail as they present a flawed view of the gospels, do not consider evidence from New Testament scholarship, and neglect the most substantial proof available, Paul’s writings. Dr. Shapiro disagrees that the details of the New Testament are essential to this question, asserting that the postulation that Jesus came back to life is no better an explanation for the reports of his post-death appearances than any other hypothesis. Furthermore, he states that even if we grant these appearances occurred, the various theories are not independently verifiable, so we have no justification for believing one over the others.

Dr. Mike Licona and Dr. Willian Lane Craig contend that the texts about Jesus’ resurrection were written to teach a physical, historical resurrection because when understood in their first-century Jewish Palestinian context, there is no other way the writers would have conceived of them. Dr. Spangenberg and Dr. Wolmarans disagree, arguing that they are later developed stories and myths taken as fact. This episode of the Risen Jesus podcast features a 2010 debate between the four scholars on this important topic.

Muslim professor Dr. Ali Ataie, a scholar of biblical hermeneutics, asserts that before the formation of the biblical canon, Christians did not believe that Jesus was killed. He argues that this claim was not, as held by some, originally a Muslim idea found in the Quran. In this episode, he debates Dr. Michael Licona, who refutes Ataie’s claim while contending that four solid historical facts provide sufficient evidence for Jesus’ death by crucifixion and later resurrection.

Is it reasonable to believe that Jesus rose from the dead? Dr. Michael Licona claims that if Jesus didn’t, he is a false prophet, and no rational person should follow him. In this episode, Licona argues a case for the resurrection using the historical method and based on five facts gleaned from Paul’s writings. Former Christian minister, now agnostic philosopher and writer Dr. Abel Pienaar disagrees, citing biblical discrepancies, a pre-scientific worldview, the lack of hard evidence, and parallel stories of ancient gods and heroes coming back to life, as indicating that the resurrection of Jesus is a myth. Listen to the two scholars debate this critical topic in this episode of the Risen Jesus Podcast.