This talk was delivered at a youth club for 15-18yrs in Sunderland - June '08

The powerpoint slides of the quotes in this talk can be downloaded here.

Band of Brothers? - Prove it!

Watch 'Band of Brothers' - Part 2 - Day of Days - 0:02:23 - 0:04:05 

How do you know the second world war happened?  How do you know, reliably that it was as bad as people say it was?  Ultimately, the only way we know is by trusting other people's testimony about what they experienced and saw.  As a result, no-one doubts that the second world war was a horrendous experience that actually happened 60 years ago.  But I wonder what people would think if they looked back from the year 4008?

A few weeks ago we considered the question raised by Ellie in the film 'Contact'.  She was a scientific sceptic and wanted to see proof for the existence of God.  We are considering that proof.

We have seen that we human beings have a inbuilt capacity to know God, whether we have  relationship with him or not.  We have seen that the world we live in speaks to us of God's character and nature.  So over the next 2 weeks, we are going to consider evidence from history - both evidence from outside the Bible, and the Bible itself.

Some Extra-biblical evidence

We are going to consider evidence from 3 important sources.  Firstly a Jewish historian called Josephus, secondly a Roman historian called Tacitus and thirdly another Roman called Pliny the younger.

Josephus

Josephus was an important Jewish historian.  He is important to us because being Jewish, he was not biased towards Christians, he was born in AD37 so wrote in the lifetime of Jesus eyewitnesses and he has proved to be amazingly reliable.  The evidence he gives us for Jesus is clear.

In a book called 'The Antiquities' which was a Jewish history, he describes how a Jewsh high priest tried to get James, the leader of the early church killed.

'He convened a meeting of the Sanhedrin 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.^'1

This statement, considered reliable by most experts shows that Jospehus recognised some people considered this Jesus, who was the brother of James to be the Christ.

Elsewhere, more controversially he is recorded as writing this.

'About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.  For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly.  He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks.  He was the Christ.  When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him.  On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvellous things about him.  And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.'²

Most scholars believe this is a reliable quote - but probably with a number of 'interpolations' - phrases added by early Christians.

So, to be clear - lets take out the 'suspected' additions and see what we have left.

'About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man.  For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly.  He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks.   When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him.  For the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him.  And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.

Even without the additions, Josephus acknowledges a mand called Jesus who was wise, was known or doing miracles and ;surprising feats, had a significant following, was crucified by Pilate, but continued to maintain a following after his crucifixion by people call 'Christians'.  And this, all within a few years of Jesus death.  Josephus privides us with significant evidence.

Tacitus

Tactitus was a Roman historian in the first Century.  He adds to our evidence.

'Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.  Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome' ³

Tacitus records he growth of the Christian faith, after the death of its Lord - who died on a cross - the 'extreme penalty' the Romans had. 

Pliny the younger

Writing in AD111, he speaks about Christians saying,

'They also have declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant veses alternately amongst themsleves 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, robbery, and adultery.' ⁴

Many people have said to me that believeing in Jesus, and therefore in God is wishful thinking, and lacks any evidence or proof.  This is far from the truth, as shown by these testimonies who, if only they had lived in a different time could have recorded themselves saying these things on a camera - so that then we might believe!

So, what do you make of this evidence?

¹ Josephus, The Antiquities 20.200. 

² Josephus, The Antiquities 18.63-64

³  Tacitus, Annals 15.44

4  Pliny the younger, Letters 10.96