Why You Should Be An Orthodox Christian
1. God is the best explanation for why anything at all exists, rather than nothing.
2. God is the best explanation for the origin of the universe at a point in the finite past.
3. God is the best explanation for the applicability of mathematics to the physical world.
4. God is the best explanation for the fine-tuning of the universe for embodied conscious life.
5. God is the best explanation for objective moral values and duties in the world.
6. The very possibility of God's existence entails that He exists.
7. God is the best explanation for the resurrection of Christ.
8. God can be known and experienced.
When the astronomer Fred Hoyle calculated that the odds for life to arise by only natural laws was 1 in 10 to the 40,000th power (one followed by 40,000 zeros), he abandoned his God-denying beliefs.
Of the top ten most intelligent people in the world, eight are theists (they believe in God), and six are professing Christians. (Steve Williams article in "Examiner"). One of these professing Christians has the highest IQ in recorded history. (ibid).
JESUS FULFILLED PROPHECIES
Jesus fulfilled 60 major Old Testament prophecies. According to Professor Peter W. Stoner, The odds of only eight prophecies being fulfilled in one person is 1 in 10 to the 17th power (10000000 0000000000). This analysis was carefully reviewed and pronounced accurate by the American Scientific Affiliation. Jesus was who he claimed to be. And since Christianity is true, all opposing claims are false.
JESUS REALLY DID RISE FROM THE DEAD
The following twelve separate facts about Jesus are considered knowable history by virtually all critical scholars (Habermas, The Historical Jesus, p. 158). In other words, these events are considered historically factual by virtually all Jesus historians and New Testament scholars today, whether theologically conservative or liberal.
1. Jesus died by crucifixion.
2. Jesus was buried.
3. His disciples despaired.
4. Jesus' tomb was later found empty.
5. The disciples believed that they later saw literal appearances of Jesus.
6. The apostles were transformed from doubters to bold proclaimers of his resurrection.
7. The resurrection of Christ was the center of the Apostles' early preaching.
8. The Apostles preached this in Jerusalem shortly after it happened.
9. The Church was born and grew rapidly.
10. Sunday was their primary day of worship.
11. James was converted from skepticism to belief in Jesus' resurrection.
12. A few years later Paul was converted, proclaiming that he had seen the resurrected Christ.
Taking only four of these facts (1, 5, 6, 12) a case can be made that the resurrection of Christ is the best explanation for these four facts (Habermas, The Historical Jesus, p. 162-164).
(For more information read “The Historical Jesus,” by Habermas; and "The Case For the Resurrection of Jesus," by Habermas and Licona)
In his book "Justifying Historical Descriptions," C.B. McCullagh, lists six tests used by historians for the best explanation for historical facts. The hypothesis that God raised Jesus from the dead passes all the tests.
1. It has great explanatory scope.
2. It has great explanatory power.
3. It is plausible.
4. It is not ad hoc or contrived.
5. It is in accord with accepted belief.
6. It far outstrips any rival theories in meeting conditions 1-5.
Alternate naturalistic hypotheses like the conspiracy hypothesis, apparent death hypothesis, and the hallucination hypothesis have been almost universally rejected by contemporary scholarship. (William Craig, Lecture at Yale 2014).
The Jewish scholar Pinches Lapide believes Jesus was raised from the dead and argued that some oral traditions, such as stated in 1Cor. 15:3 can be traced back to eye-witnesses of the events. (Lapide, The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective, p. 99).
The disciples did not hallucinate the resurrected Christ. There is no such thing as group hallucinations in the psychological literature. A hallucination is when there is no objective referent. Further, hallucinations are rare. They only occur under the following conditions:
1. Bodily deprivation.
2. Someone taking drugs.
..."the concept of collective-hallucination is not found in peer reviewed medical and psychological literature. This is based on Bergeron’s comprehensive data base search of the Pubmed and American Psychological Association websites. In agreement with this conclusion, another author and researcher also attested in March, 2009: ‘I have surveyed the professional literature (peer reviewed journal articles and books) written by psychologists, psychiatrists, and other relevant healthcare professionals during the past two decades and have yet to find a single documented case of a group hallucination, that is, an event for which more than one person purportedly shared in a visual or other sensory perception where there was clearly no external referent.’ (Gary A. Sibcy, PhD, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Piedmont Psychiatric Center, Centra Health Hospitals, Virginia, USA.) -- From: The Resurrection of Jesus: A Clinical Review of Psychiatric Hypotheses for the Biblical Story of Easter Joseph W. Bergeron of The Pain Clinic, USA Gary R. Habermas.
RECOMMENDED BOOK ON JESUS’ RESURRECTION
On the Resurrection: Evidences, by Habermas;
The Case For the Resurrection of Jesus, by Habermas and Licona;
Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus, by Craig;
The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, by Licona.
THE NEW TESTAMENT IS HISTORICALLY RELIABLE AND TRUE
The ancient Church historian Eusebius said the four gospels were never doubted by the orthodox church as coming from the apostles who's names they bore. (Ecclesiastical History 3.25.1).
The early Church Fathers knew that Matthew was written by Matthew. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.1).
Mark, the companion and interpreter of Peter, took his preaching and made it the Gospel of Mark. The New Testament scholar William Lane Craig said most scholars believe the Gospel of Mark is based on eye-witness testimony (Craig, On Guard, p. 222). Rudolph Pesch, a German expert on the Gospel of Mark believes that the passion narrative in Mark comes from a source dated to A.D. 37. (ibid, p. 191).
Luke, Paul's personal traveling companion, as seen in the "we" sections of Acts 16:10-18 composed Luke-Acts (Luke 1:1-4). (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.1).
"Most scholars have taken the view that Luke's preface as a whole belongs within the tradition of Greek historiography and for its first readers would serve to identity the genre of Luke's work as some kind of history." (Bauchum, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, p. 117).
Luke-Acts appropriately belongs within the rather wide spectrum of "Hellenistic historiography." (ibid, p. 118).
The eminent British scripture scholar and classicist F.F. Bruce writes:..."Luke's record entitles him to be regarded as a writer of habitual accuracy." (Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, p. 90).
The world-famous archaeologist Sir William Ramsay stated: "Luke is a historian of the first rank...This author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians." (Craig, On Guard, p. 194).
John the Apostle wrote the gospel that bears his name (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 2.22.5; 3.11). John used "we" many times (1:14; 1 John 1:1-3).
No document from the ancient world is as well attested bibliographically as the New Testament (Montgomery, History and Christianity, p. 29).
The Roman historian Colin Hemer overwhelmingly confirms the historicity of the New Testament. (see Hemer, Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History).
30 persons in the New Testament have been confirmed by archaeology. (Holden, The Harvest Handbook of Apologetics, 203).
The Book of Acts has at least 84 facts that have been confirmed by historical and archaeological research. (see Geisler and Turek, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an atheist, pp. 256-259).
The classical Roman historian A.N. Sherwin-White notes: "For the New Testament book of Acts, the confirmation of history is overwhelming...Any attempt to reject its basic historicity, even in matters of detail must now appear absurd. Roman historians have long taken it for granted." (Sherwin-White, Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament, p. 189).
LEGAL EXPERTS ON GOSPEL RELIABILITY
Lawyers that were originally critics of the Gospels but became believers after studying and applying the legal rules of evidence:
Craig Parton, Ross Clifford, Frank Morrison, Thomas Sherlock (The Tryal of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus), Simon Greenleaf (The Testimony of the Evangelists). To see a recent survey of this area, read "The Historical Development of Legal Apologetics, with an Emphasis on the Resurrection," by William Broughton.
There are three forms of evidence: testimonial, documentary and real. The Gospels are documentary evidence (i.e., writings).
Appropriate custody contributes to the authenticity of the documents. (Greenleaf, The Testimony of the Evangelists: The Gospels Examined by the Rules of Evidence, p. 16).
The Gospels have been in the Church, so they can be authenticated. (ibid 16-17).
The early Church carefully copied and translated the words and deeds of Christ without fabrication. (Limbaugh, Jesus on Trial: A Lawyer Affirms the Truth of the Gospel, p. 212).
The Harvard law professor, Simon Greenleaf, credited with writing the standard study of legal evidence, wrote: "copies which had been as universally received and acted upon as the Four Gospels, would have been received in evidence in any court of justice, without the slightest hesitation." (see Greenleaf, The Testimony of the Evangelists, 9-10).
THE MIRACLE OF THE HOLY FIRE SUPPORTS THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST AND ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY. CLICK ON THIS VIDEO:
Please understand, since Orthodox Christianity is true, all opposing claims are false.
Recommended Reading List:
The Great Divide, By Fr. Alexey Young
Little Russian Philokalia (six volumes)
A Man is His Faith, By Fr. Alexey Young
The Optina Elders Series (nine volumes)
The Law of God, By Seraphim Slobodskoi
My Elder Joseph the Hesychast, By Elder Ephraim
Christianity Or the Church?, By St. HIlarion Troitsky
Man of God: Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco
Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, By Fr. Michael Pomazansky
Romanian Patericon: Saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, By Fr. Seraphim Rose
The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit in Ancient Russia, By Kontzevich
The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) (Volume 2), By Jaroslav Pelikan
The Spiritual Life: And How to Be Attuned to It, By St. Theophan the Recluse
Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View, by Fr. Georges Florovsky
The Northern Thebaid: Monastic Saints of the Russian North, By Fr. Seraphim Rose
Contemporary Ascetics of Mount Athos (three volumes), By Archimandrite Cherubim
Saints Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene of Lesvos (Modern Orthodox saints), By Cavarnos