All Rise with Abdu Murray

Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is central to the Christian faith. The gospel message is that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on the cross. Yet some object that Jesus' substitution for us on the cross is unjust. How is it just for an innocent person to be punished in the place of the guilty? Abdu addresses this objection by pointing to legal principles showing how it can often be fair for an innocent person to take on the liability of another.

Abdu will apply the principles discussed in Part 1 to matters of faith, particularly the credibility of the New Testament and the creation account in Genesis.

When assessing a claim, we often look at the testimonies of witnesses, including experts. But how can we tell if a witness is being biased toward one side or the other? Do we sometimes give too much weight to someone's opinion just because they happen to have expertise in a certain area? And what about jurors—those whose responsibilities are to come to a verdict? Can they be biased as well? Abdu will walk us through how to think about these issues. As we look at the claims and objections regarding spiritual claims, we have to be on the lookout not only for the biased witnesses, but also our own biases.

Could the disciples have experienced a mass hallucination that Jesus rose from the dead instead of actually seeing the risen Jesus? We put this explanation, popular among some skeptics, to the test by employing the rules as to the admissibility of expert testimony.

One explanation of what happened to Jesus is that he didn't rise from the dead, because he never actually died. Instead, some say he "swooned" so that it seemed like he was dead but he was actually entombed alive. In this episode, Abdu looks at how expert medical testimony establishes that Jesus did in fact die on the cross.

This episode begins with the discussion of counter-explanations to the Resurrection. Specifically, the objection that since miracles are the least likely event, they are the least likely explanation of what happened to Jesus. In this episode, Abdu indicates how this objection employs unfounded assumptions and actually employs circular reasoning.

This episode continues to discuss the CASE acronym, specifically the S and the E to establish the case that Jesus rose from the dead. We discuss the burden of proof once again, and how the Christian can meet the burden and then shift it onto the skeptic to try to explain what happened to Jesus.

This episode explains the differences between "circumstantial evidence" and "direct evidence." It includes Abdu's "CASE" acronym setting out four key facts about the historical Jesus that the vast majority of scholars agree on. Abdu argues that Jesus' resurrection from the dead best explains the facts.