Is Christianity Legit Vid 4
Notes
Transcript
What about outside of the bible?
What about outside of the bible?
If you have watched the last three videos about the legitimacy of the christian faith, you are probably shouting at the screen saying.
“Well what about outside of the bible your being too biased!!”
Well friend let me talk about the proof outside of the bible.
Josephus, Tacitus and Pliny the younger
Josephus
Josephus was a Jewish writer at the time of the Roman Empire.
We would refer to Joesphus as a Historian now days.
Josephus though never became a Christian, he remained a Jew but the most interesting this about Josephus is he was essentially an Atheist.
The term Atheist did not exist in those days but that is what we would call him today.
Yet an Atheist because he was a concise Historian noted the accusation that happened around the death of a Roman governer called Festus.
Josephus Writes this in what is called The Antiquities in AD 93.
“He convined a meeting of the Sanhedrien and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus, Who was called the Christ and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned.”
As we can conclude here that Jesus must have existed as proof becomes clear even outside of the bible, from the likes of an Atheist who had no intention then to prove the case for christ.
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and historian of the Roman Empire.
In his writings he records about one of the most famous events in Roman history the great fire of Rome.
Here Nero has accused the Christians on starting the fire and uses them as a scapegoat.
This is an important note in the History books as it once again proves that there was a movement of people that believed in the resurrection of Christ.
In one of his writings Tacitus writes: Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians.
He then goes onto write how their cause was a very mischecievous superstition against Rome.
They would be asked by Neros men and sometimes Nero himself if they believed in the ressurection of Christ Jesus to which they would state yes and then they would be burnt at the stake because of their beleif.
This whole account leaves us with an important fact. How can we explain the spread of a religion based on the worship of a man who had suffered the most cruciating death known to man? The Christian anwser to this is that Jesus was resurrected after this act.
Also you have to ask yourself why would a huge number of people knowing full well they would be burnt alive if they answered Neros question with a simple yes to the resurrection of Christ. If it did not happen? They have nothing to gain from this only death.
Pliny the Younger
Pliny the younger became a Roman governer of Bithynia in northwestern turkey around AD 79.
He was the son of the famous Pliny the Elder who wrote the first encyclopedia.
In one of Pliny’s writings he states that there is a movement of people being persecuted for their belief.
He also notes he does not know what to do about the movement because he can not see the real harm in it but that the truth of it does require torture.
He then arrests two deconesses and torutures them for the truth of the matter.
He writes what could be the most important proof for the legitamacy of Christianity.
“ On a fixed day they chant versus amongst themselves in honour of Christ as if to a God, and also to bind themselves by oath, not for any criminal purpose, but to abstain from theft, roberry and adultery.”
This is important because this account which Pliny unkowingly writes proves that, there is worship to Jesus as a God, that christians maintained a high ethical standard, and they were not easily swayed from their beliefs.
Putting the Three Together
In putting these three accounts together from people that were not christians, some were leaders in the Roman empire their words carried a lot of weight if they lied about anything they would be faced with death.
Then with History being noted by an Atheist Jew, you can conclude that there is evidence for the life and resurrection of Jesus.