Conspiracy

I am amazed at how quickly people are willing to believe in lies and conspiracy over accepting the simple truth:

• Crop Circles – Even though the perpetrators behind a large number of crop circles have confessed to making them and have even demonstrated how, people still believe that some crop circles are caused by extraterrestrials.
• 9/11 Terrorist Attack – Despite the evidence, there are still a number of people who believe this was not orchestrated by terrorists but by the US Government.
• Origins of Life On Earth – While people continue to deny the possibility that there is a God and that He created life on earth, there are now a number of scientific theories proposing that life was planted here by highly intelligent alien beings.
• Area 51 – Even though many of the stealth airplanes designed, built and tested at Area 51 have been public knowledge now for so long that they are being retired, people continue to spread rumors of UFO crashes, alien autopsies, and reverse engineered extraterrestrial technology.

With Easter coming up I thought I would look into some of the conspiracy theories related to Christ’s death and resurrection.

The biggest lie at the heart of each of these resurrection conspiracies presumes that Jesus Christ was just a man, not God incarnate. Since we know that Jesus is God, His rising from the dead, although miraculous, is not extraordinary or unusual for His abilities. Jesus performed many miracles during His time on earth.

But if Jesus was only a man, could the events of His resurrection be explained under human terms?

• The entire event of Christ’s death and resurrection never really happened, it was all made up – The problem with this conspiracy theory is that there is just too much evidence to the contrary. The birth of the Christian Church and the exponential expansion of its membership coincides specifically with the event of Christ’s death and resurrection. Unlike other religions, the Christian Church wasn’t founded hundreds of years after its story of origin when the facts could not be verified, it formed on the day of Pentecost in the very same year as Christ’s resurrection, and it’s founding members held on to the truth of that resurrection even under the penalty of martyrdom.
• A doppelganger was crucified instead of Christ enabling Him to appear alive after the fact – The problem with this conspiracy theory is two fold, first that a doppelganger would willingly give up his own life just for the sake of starting a new religion, and second that everyone would be taken in by such a trick. The idea that the people plotting to kill Christ would be fooled by a doppelganger is unlikely, and the idea that the Disciples would not immediately recognize a substitute is preposterous. And if the Disciples did know that it was a doppelganger, that again would mean that they defended a lie as truth even under the penalty of martyrdom.
• A doppelganger was substituted as Christ resurrected after He really died – This conspiracy theory is even more preposterous because everyone close to Christ would have to have been in on it, and yet every one of them willingly defended that lie as truth to their graves.
• Despite appearances Christ actually survived the crucifixion and didn’t die – This conspiracy theory suggests that Christ was able to fool those watching into thinking He was dead so they took Him down before He was actually dead, and that He was also able to survive being pierced by the Centurion’s spear and being asphyxiated by the burial spices.

The problem behind all of the conspiracy theories is truth itself. The Christian church was born on the day of Pentecost and has been spreading like wildfire ever since. Centuries of history documented in the archives of churches, kings and even pagans all attest to this unstoppable movement. No matter what the conspiracy theory implies, it cannot hold up to the simple facts. Each and every fact below is documented by secular sources outside of the Bible:

• Belief in a coming Messiah was not uncommon among the Jews at the time of Jesus
• Jesus the person actually existed
• It was believed that Joseph was not Jesus’s biological father
• There was a worldwide census at the time of Jesus’s birth
• John the Baptist’s was beheaded by the order of Herod
• Jesus was known to be a worker of miracles
• Jesus’s trial was instigated by the Jewish religious leaders
• Jesus was tried before Pilate
• Jesus was crucified
• The use of nails for crucifixion is consistent with historical practices of the time
• Breaking of legs of crucified victims is consistent with historical practices of the time
• There was a period of unnatural darkness around the time of the crucifixion
• There was an earthquake around the time of the crucifixion
• The physical descriptions regarding Jesus’s death are consistent with medical expectations of crucifixion
• Taking crucified victims down from the cross for burial is consistent with historical practices of the time
• The location of the tomb is consistent with historical practices of the time
• The accounts of the burial are consistent with historical practices of the time
• Many people of the time believed in Jesus’s resurrection
• Historical records even point to a possibility of Pilate being convinced of the resurrection
• A religion was born based on Jesus’s resurrection
• The Biblical records regarding Jesus’s resurrection date all the way back to the first century

Of course the most prominent and undeniable fact is that the Church of Jesus Christ is alive and well to this very day.

Before you fall for the lie of a conspiracy, I recommend that you should first check the facts. Jesus said, “…I am the way, the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6). He really did rise from the dead, because He really is God.

Happy Easter everyone!


James :)