Chapter 9: The Profile Evidence

Strobel begins chapter nine by asking, "if we examine Jesus carefully, does his likeness closely match the sketch of God that we find elsewhere in the Bible?" "If it doesn't," he explains, "we can conclude that his claim to being God is false" (p. 156). Here Strobel attempts to show that Jesus had all the divine attributes of god, and therefore was god. But things don't get far before significant problems are revealed in that endeavor. How could Jesus be omnipresent if he was limited to being in one place at a time? How could he be omniscient when Mark 13:32 implies that even he didn't know the hour of judgment day? How could he be omnipotent when Mark 6:4-5 plainly states that he could not work many miracles in his hometown?

Our author presents all these questions to D.A. Carson, a Christian theologian and the eighth interview in The Case for Christ. Carson offers two responses: (i) the separation of divine and human traits by Benjamin Warfield, and (ii) the kenosis, or emptying, of Jesus in Philippians 2:5-8. As Strobel points out for (i), the picture such a theory creates is one of a schizophrenic Jesus, and "you want to avoid a solution in which there are essentially two minds," Carson concedes (p. 159). The separation of divine and human traits is also a case of cherry-picking done to make the challenges to Christ's divinity seem less problematic. With (ii), Carson argues that Jesus had emptied himself of "the independent use of his attributes," and only "functioned like God when his heavenly Father gave him explicit sanction to do so" (p. 160).

To his credit, Carson notes that "there is a sense in which the eternal Son has always acted in line with his Father's commandments" (p. 160), and so this explanation doesn't offer much at all. The incarnation has long been one of the great mysteries of Christianity for theologians, and in postulating these kinds of speculation as a response to challenges against the omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence of Jesus, Carson is simply addressing questions with a mystery that only yields more questions. All of this seems to rest on the doctrine of the Trinity, too, which is a controversial subject not accepted by all Christians. Thus, neither of Carson's replies provide any actual solution.

How can a loving god send people to hell? Carson paints god as a caring father who we have defied out of a desire to be "the center of the universe" (p. 165), and it is this desire that consigns us to the flames. Christianity has so distorted the portrait of an ideal father that most believers don't seem to recognize that a truly loving dad would not punish his children for going their own way. Quite the opposite, a responsible father wants to raise independent, self-reliant children who are capable of carrying on without him. This is not to say that a good father pushes his kids out the door or abandons them, but that he teaches and respects independence, and when his children eventually come to him of their own accord, it is all the more meaningful. The god of the bible is a father who threatens his children if they don't utterly depend on him and follow his every instruction.

Christians often draw things to the extreme when discussing the morality of hell, and Carson makes this mistake himself in the chapter:

Are the only two options really eternal torment or hands-off chaos? This is a false dilemma that so many believers construct because there is no way to justify the punishment of hell. It's often said that, like a loving father, god has to discipline his children to reinforce good behavior, but discipline comes in many forms, and physical abuse is not the most common or the most effective. For a brief lifetime of sin, we face an eternity of suffering? It's hardly a punishment that fits the crime, which is how responsible parents usually go about disciplining their kids. Could god not effectively discipline by some temporary, non-abusive means? Humans do it all the time, with far more success than punishment that is cruel overkill.

Lastly, Strobel takes on slavery as an incompatibility with "God's love for all people" (p. 167). This is strange, given that god gave instructions for buying and owning slaves in the Old Testament (Leviticus 25:44-46). If god loves all people, why would he allow the Israelites to enslave their fellow human beings - to own others as property? Carson mentions that the Hebrew Law commands the freeing of slaves every seven years, but how is the enslavement of someone for seven years justifiable from a god that loves all people? Furthermore, Carson neglects to cite the source of this law, which is Exodus 21:2-6. Reading the passage, we get a fairly different picture than Carson provides, as it instructs that only male Hebrew slaves are to be freed every seven years. Women and Gentiles could be kept indefinitely.

Carson additionally credits abolitionism to Christianity (p. 168). Having covered this in a separate article on Christianity's Role in Slavery, I won't discuss it here, except to call attention to the ridiculous hypocrisy of making a case from abolitionist Christians while ignoring the numerous Christians who used the bible to fight abolitionism (George Whitefield, Reverend Richard Furman, and George Fitzhugh, for example).

Chapter 10: The Fingerprint Evidence

Next up, Strobel speaks with Louis Lapides, a Jewish convert to Christianity, about Jewish objections to Jesus and the messianic prophecies of the Hebrew scriptures. In the sort of nonsense we've come to expect from Strobel by now, the messianic prophecies are compared to fingerprint evidence. Although Strobel believes these prophecies are like 'fingerprints' of the messiah that only Jesus fits, the analogy is awful when considering the strength and reliability of actual fingerprint evidence, versus the vague and disputable nature of the so-called bible prophecies. Lapides also doesn't seem very qualified for such a subject, since he admits that he wasn't even told about the messiah when he was a Jew (p. 173), and he somehow developed some heavily anti-Christian beliefs (p. 174).

Several factors appear to have influenced Lapides' loss of Jewish faith. He describes the impact of the divorce of his parents, his experiences in the Vietnam war (and the anti-Semitism he encountered even from his fellow G.I.s), and his descent into drug use (p. 174-176). Lapides then began exploring other religions, he says, and his reasons for rejecting certain ones are interesting. "Chinese Buddhism was atheistic, Japanese Buddhism worshiped statues of Buddha, Zen Buddhism was too elusive... Hinduism believed in all these crazy orgies that the gods would have and in gods who were blue elephants" (p. 176). These disturbingly simplistic reductions make it hard to believe that Lapides honestly investigated those religions. The way he frames it, it sounds more like he was shopping at a buffet of spiritual flavors, for something that would satisfy his personal appetite.

Lapides later encounters street preachers who challenge him to read the Old Testament prophecies about the messiah. Coming upon Isaiah 53 [Why Isaiah 53 is Not About Jesus], he's "stopped cold" (p. 177-179). What I find especially suspect about this is how a Jewish child, who was never really taught anything about the messiah, could read Isaiah 53, which he had apparently never read before, and immediately recognize Jesus in it. It seems like Lapides knew more about Christianity than he knew about Judaism! Amusingly, Lapides speculates that the reason why more Jews don't accept Jesus is because "there's a lot of ignorance" about Christianity among them (p. 182). One could easily say the same about why Lapides didn't remain a Jew - perhaps he had a lot of ignorance about his own religion at the time.

Strobel raises four categories of objections to the prophecies of Jesus: (i) coincidence; (ii) fabrications in the gospels; (iii) intentional fulfillment; and (iv) out of context distortions. (i) is unlikely for the volume of prophecies and how some were 'fulfilled,' so I will agree with Strobel and Lapides that this objection doesn't fly. For (ii), Lapides argues that the early community would have prevented fabrication, he asks why Matthew would've let himself be martyred over a lie, and notes that the Jews would've "jumped on any opportunity to discredit the gospels" (p. 184). I have dealt with the 'checks and balances' argument already, and there's just no evidence that opponents were concerned enough to call out Christianity, nor is there evidence that early believers were organized enough to control accuracy of the reports. Hippolytus, the earliest source on the disciples' deaths, states that Matthew died of natural causes, not from martyrdom [1]. And lastly, the Jews likely did not know some of the narratives or stories of Jesus were intended as prophetic fulfillment, since Christians had developed alternate intepretations of those passages that differed from Jewish understanding (Origen reports as much on Isaiah 53). There is also no evidence that the Jews "jumped" to discredit any messianic movement in the first century.

(iii) is another unlikely objection, though it is plausible in some cases. Lapides mentions Daniel 9:24-26 as a prophecy of Jesus' birth (p. 184), but neglects to inform his audience that we do not know the actual date of Jesus' birth, and the gospels give two different answers that have not been reconciled, as we saw in chapter five. Nonetheless, I don't find it probable that Jesus lived his life with the purpose of pretending to fulfill prophecies, so I won't defend this contention. By far, the most compelling objections are (ii) and (iv). I've just shown that Lapides' responses to (ii) don't hold up, but amazingly, nothing but a bald-faced assertion is offered for (iv). "[T]he prophecies," he declares without elaboration, "have stood up and shown themselves to be true" (p. 185). I have debunked 60 so-called prophecies of Jesus used by apologists like Strobel and Lapides, and I have also written separate articles analyzing Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. In numerous cases, there is no remote indication that these passages are intended as prophecy. The 'out of context' objection to messianic prophecies is powerful, but Lapides can't even be bothered to deal with the arguments in The Case for Christ.

Chapter 11: The Medical Evidence

Chapter eleven begins a new section called "Researching the Resurrection." After defending the reliability of the gospels and the divine view of Jesus, Strobel again shifts the tone to focus on the resurrection. Presuming that his readers now believe the gospels are trustworthy and that Jesus was a sane individual who made extraordinary claims about himself that stand up to scrutiny, the final puzzle piece is put into place: the "linch-pin," Strobel calls it, that seals the deal and closes his case.

Alexander Metherell, M.D., is Strobel's tenth interviewee, and the purpose of this chapter is to determine that Jesus really died by crucifixion. If he had not died, how could he be raised from the dead? The "swoon theory" - that Jesus only fainted on the cross and was revived later by the cool air of the tomb - is the major issue here, and Metherell addresses it by crafting a picture of the severity of crucifixion, the detail of which would please Mel Gibson. There's not much worth saying here, except that I do not find the swoon theory remotely probable, and so I agree with Strobel and Metherell, that if Jesus was in fact crucified, it's extremely unlikely that he somehow survived.

Metherell makes a couple of questionable comments, though, as he explains what Jesus might have experienced, based on the gospels. In an attempt to provide a scientific basis for the sweating of blood in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44), Metherell states that, "This is a known medical condition called hematidrosis" (p. 195). Though case studies have been done on this phenomenon, it has not yet been confirmed scientifically [2]. Hematidrosis is also reported to be extremely rare, with only a few examples in the clinical literature. Jesus sweating blood in the gospel of Luke is most likely a literary device to emphasize the stress he was under and foreshadow the redeeming value of his blood. Chalking it up to a case of hematidrosis is sheer speculation.

Metherell also speculates on the blood and water that comes out of Jesus when his side is pierced by the spear in John's gospel. This, he argues, is evidence of heart failure from hypovolemic shock (p. 199). However, this explanation ignores the much more likely meaning that blood and water had as symbols of life and spirit. Passages like 1 Corinthians 10:4 and 12:13 show that water was a symbol of the holy spirit and the spirit of Christ, whereas blood is the symbol of life, which is necessary for the remission of sins, according to Hebrews 9:22. That the early Christians reading John 19:34 would recognize the blood and water as symbolic of the power of Christ's sacrifice and redemption is far more plausible than a 'coded' reference to heart failure.

Regardless, there is nothing in Metherell's medical explanation of the crucifixion to give the impression that the gospel authors had miraculous or advanced knowledge. As common as the punishment of crucifixion was in Roman times, all of the information in the gospels could easily be gained from simply witnessing crucifixions and observing the standard process of death.

Chapter 12: The Evidence of the Missing Body

To build a case for the resurrection, Strobel interviews William Lane Craig, an apologist and well-known Christian debate star. Strobel's introduction of Craig is less than objective journalism, as he mentions first seeing him in action at a debate where he "dismantl[ed] the arguments for atheism" and won by "no contest," causing forty-seven nonbelievers to leave as Christians (p. 206). Curiously, we're not told the specifics about this polling, but since debates generally tally up votes for which side performed the best, and don't actually gather information on changes in belief, Strobel's conclusions are misleading.

William Lane Craig likes to pretend that he holds the most rational position, that he defends a 'reasonable faith.' He assures us in The Case for Christ: "I find it's prudent to base my arguments on evidence that's most widely accepted by the majority of scholars" (p. 212). Yet Craig is more than willing to cast aside evidence and reason when they don't support the presuppositions of his faith:

This is very relevant to Craig's attempt at establishing the resurrection as the best explanation for the evidence of the tomb, the earliness of the reports, etc. As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15:17, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile". Strobel and Craig both believe the resurrection is the cornerstone of Christianity, the "fundamental truth of the Christian faith". Craig's explanation of the evidence is that Christ was raised from the dead, and this is an explanation that Craig is unwilling to see falsified. Any evidence or reasoning that undermines Craig's explanation - which is the fundamental truth of the Christian faith - ought to be discarded, according to Craig. Real debate and open discussion cannot be had with someone who holds such an irrational position. And not surprisingly, Craig's case for the resurrection is built on shifting sands.

What is the evidence for the empty tomb? Craig names six pieces: (i) the 1 Corinthians 15 'early creed'; (ii) detractors' knowledge of Jesus' tomb; (iii) the earliness of Mark's passion narrative; (iv) the primitive nature of Mark's empty tomb story; (v) the embarrassing detail of the women at the tomb; and (vi) the presupposition of the empty tomb's historicity in the "earliest Jewish polemic" (p. 220-221).

I have discussed the 1 Corinthians 15 'creed' many times by now, but aside from uncertainty on its earliness, there is also no empty tomb in the passage. The closest it comes is in a short note that Jesus "was buried," and somehow Craig finds this enough to presume that the gospel's empty tomb story was what Paul had in mind. But Paul doesn't say anything about an empty tomb or any of the characteristics of it that we find in the gospels (no women, no angels, no stone). Quite simply, there is nothing in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 that indicates knowledge of the empty tomb legend. Craig has to look outside the bible for support of his presumption, and he finds it in the idea of a physical resurrection had by the Jews (p. 211). Yet even if this means Jesus was physically raised, according to the creed, it does not tell us where or how he was buried. What's more important is that the passage, while it may imply an empty tomb, could also mean that the empty tomb was not witnessed by any, hence the absence of it in the creed. That the creed refers to Peter as the first to encounter the risen Jesus may be of interest too, given that Peter did not meet Jesus at the empty tomb in any gospel story, but met him elsewhere.

(ii) has been covered to death throughout this review, so I will simply say that the disciples lateness in proclaiming the resurrection (seven weeks after his supposed ascension, as Acts tells us) would have made it a moot point for the Jewish or Roman authorities to exhume the body in order to disprove the rumors coming from a small sect of fanatics. (iii) and (iv) focus on the alleged antiquity of Mark's empty tomb story and passion narrative, but Craig doesn't justify the earliness of these reports - which he believes come from before 37 C.E. - beyond vague references to language, grammar, and style of the text, as well as the simplicity and the fact that they are "unadorned by theological reflection" (p. 220). The crucifixion in Mark's gospel shows a fair amount of theological adornment, though, such as the darkness, the veil in the temple tearing, the centurion's statement, and other symbols. All that Craig points out for the empty tomb story may merely be the evidence of a legend that was in the process of developing.

(v) is an interesting feature in Craig's evidence line-up, since women are not mentioned in the 1 Corinthians 15 creed. Their presence in Mark (and in the subsequent gospels that used Mark as a source) may be part of the recurrent theme of tragic irony that helped to conceal the messianic secret (Mark 3:21, 4:13, 6:1-6, 15:34). Embarrassing details surrounded Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, but this was god's plan, to save the secret of his messiah for only the chosen (8:27-30). This puts a very different spin on the appearance of women at the tomb, as a device intentionally used by Mark, not an embarrassing fact included for accuracy's sake. That the entire gospel of Mark seems to conform to this style doesn't help Craig's theory. The "earliest Jewish polemic" that Craig speaks of in (vi) is actually from Matthew 28:11-15, and Matthew's gospel is certainly not unbiased or friendly in its portrait of the Jews, having them cry out for Jesus' blood to be upon them and their children (Matthew 27:25). Craig's "earliest Jewish polemic" is highly suspect, then.

On the issue of the inconsistencies between the empty tomb accounts in the gospels, Craig makes the extremely redundant argument that the "core of the story" remains the same (p. 215). I've never understood why Christians seem to think this is an adequate response. If the core of a story changes, we are no longer talking about the same story. The film Apocalypse Now is based on the story The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and because the setting, characters, and other elements were altered enough, the stories diverged into different tales. Christianity structured itself around the resurrection of Jesus, and so any change to this core of the story would result in something arguably not Christian. Seeing how Christians were the primary, if not exclusive, distributors of the Jesus story at first, it's not surprising that the empty tomb story is in all the gospels, but neither does this mean the empty tomb was more reality than myth.

Despite all of this, and even if we concede all his points for the sake of argument, William Lane Craig's evidence for the empty tomb is not best explained by resurrection. Jeffery Jay Lowder has written an erudite essay that proposes a natural, alternative explanation for the empty tomb accounts and everything in Craig's arsenal [4]. The truth is that an empty tomb has many possible explanations, most of which are unextraordinary and thus more probable than resorting to extraordinary and non-falsifiable claims of the supernatural. All of Craig's arguments in favor of an early tomb tradition assume the reliability of the New Testament authors and the factual accuracy of their reports. These assumptions were 'dismantled,' as Strobel might say, in my critique of the first five chapters, and Craig has offered no additional defense of them here.

Experience will tell us, at the very least, that people are not usually raised from the dead. It will tell us that many false claims of resurrection have been made before. It will also tell us that people who are deeply emotionally invested in leaders, movements, and beliefs are often susceptible to confirmation bias. Science will tell us that a corpse that has been brutally beaten and crucified and buried in a tomb for three days will not return to life after the brain has died and decay has begun to dissolve away organs like the heart and lungs. It will tell us that supernatural explanations have been supplanted by natural ones many times, but never the other way around. It will also tell us that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and the extraordinary claims of religion have not once met their burden of proof. But one wouldn't expect Craig to admit to any of this. Against the fundamental truth of the Christian faith reality can never prevail.

Go to page 4 - Chapter 13: The Evidence of Appearances

1. Hippolytus. "On the Twelve Apostles of Christ." Ante-Nicean Fathers. Vol. 5.
2. Rapini, R.; Bolognia, J. & Joseph Jorizzo. (2007) Dermatology: 2-Volume Set. Mosby: St. Louis.
3. Craig, W. (1994) Reasonable Faith. p. 36. Crossway: Wheaton.
4. Lowder, J. (2001) Historical Evidence and the Empty Tomb Story: A Reply to William Lane Craig. The Secular Web. Retrieved June 3, 2011.