HANDBOOK OF CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS AND ITS DEFIANCE OF LOGIC IN ORDER TO SHOW JESUS WAS THE REAL DEAL

Handbook of Christian Apologetics is a cosmetic for superstition. I bought this book and it is the best summary available of Christian apologetics. The book is a demonstration of how poor Christian apologetics is.

It deploys disfigured logic to inflict the likes of Christianity on the world.

What is sure and certain is that a man who cannot be shown to have risen from the dead has no right to be adored as God. He’s an idol.

On page 182, a chart is made out to show us that if Jesus rose then

#the result was Christianity

# that if the apostles were deceived it was a hallucination

# if they were myth-makers the result was myth

#if they were deceivers the result was conspiracy

# if Jesus didn’t die then the swoon theory that he came round in the tomb is true.

So we are given five results – which is a huge over-simplification.

We are not told that the witnesses could have been fooled by a ghost or a spirit changing their memory. We are not told that they could have been deceivers without a much of a conspiracy – maybe Joseph of Arimathea blackmailed them to say Jesus rose.

On page 183, we are told that Roman Soldiers would have been put to death had Jesus survived the cross due to them not doing their job right therefore it is certain that Jesus was killed on the cross. This is nonsense for mistakes do happen and if the authorities could not find the revived Jesus they could not have put the soldiers to death. Had there been a convincing supernatural resurrection the soldiers would have been put to death for the resurrection would be thought to be proof that despite all appearances they bungled the execution of Jesus.

The book tells the lie that the blood and the water coming out from Jesus’ pierced side proves that his lungs had collapsed and he had suffocated to death. There are other explanations.

The John gospel states that Jesus escaped the traditional breaking of the legs for he died fast. If Jesus had been raising people from the dead then why didn’t the Roman soldiers take a minute to smash his legs like they did for the other two just to make double sure he was dead and perhaps keep him dead? They would have been told to.

Incredibly, St Paul is put down as one of the greatest minds in history and his being attracted to Christianity and testifying to the resurrection is thought to be very credible for that reason (page 157).

We only have a few letters of his and there is nothing that impressive in his writings and also if he is so smart it is a fact that smart people can be very easily manipulated for their minds think in a more restricted way so somebody can know what buttons to press to get them converted. We do not know if he understood all he wrote. When he was so vague at times it seems he was only using other people’s thoughts or speculations. We do not know what exactly he believed about Jesus but we can be sure it was different from the gospel portrait. And that all this conniving drivel should be used to try and win converts for Jesus is scandalous.

The book just gives nonsense to prove the resurrection. All that is proved is what a bucket of poison Christianity really is. When lies are the fruit of the resurrection and Jesus said bad fruits result from what is not authorised by God then God does not want us to believe that Jesus rose.