Evangelicals often confuse evidence with claims. When pressed on this or that belief, Evangelicals often respond by saying “the Bible says.” However, the Bible is a book of claims, not evidence. When skeptics ask for evidence for a particular assertion, Evangelicals often quote Bible verses, thinking that, in doing so, they have provided evidence for their claims. They have done no such thing.
Here is some of the claims Evangelicals make;
The Bible is the very words of God
The Bible is without error
The Bible is infallible
God is a triune being
Jesus is the eternal Son of God
Jesus was born of a virgin
Jesus worked miracles, including raising the dead and turning water into wine.
Jesus resurrected from the dead
Jesus ascended to Heaven
Christianity is true, and all other religions are false
All of these statements are claims, not evidence. Just because Evangelicals can “prove” their assertions with prooftexts, this is not the same as supporting a claim with evidence. Certainly, the Bible can be used as a historical source when warranted, but what the Bible says alone is not sufficient to justify Evangelical claims. Just because the Bible says Jesus was born of a virgin doesn’t mean he was. The same goes for every claim made with prooftexts. For skeptics, words from a book are not sufficient evidence for supernatural claims. If I said Harry Potter is a real person and he can fly, people would rightly ask me for evidence for my claim. If I said, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban proves Harry is a real person and he can fly, would you believe me? Of course not. So it is with supernatural claims. Unfortunately, many Evangelicals confuse claims with evidence. If Evangelical apologists can’t provide sufficient evidence for their claims, there’s no reason to listen to them.
I am sure some Evangelical commenters will appeal to faith as justification for their claims. That’s fine, but faith will not fly with me and many of the readers of this blog. Faith is the last refuge for believers. It is a safe place where reason, rationality, and evidence are optional. It is the last refuge for believers hiding from the evil philosophies of the world. With faith, anything is possible.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
According to the Bible, God created the universe and everything in it. From this basic premise, Christian thinking goes off in all sorts of directions. Generally speaking, Christians believe one of the following about the creation of the universe:
Young Earth Creationism: God created the universe in six literal twenty-four-hour days, 6,028 years ago.
Theistic Evolution: God created the universe by and through the process of evolution, leaving room for God to personally intervene in human history when needed.
Old Earth Creationism: God created the universe with the appearance of old age.
Yesterday, I listened to a podcast featuring an old-earth creationist trying to defend his beliefs. Things did not go well for him. Science aside, old-earth creationism posits that God deliberately deceived humanity by creating the universe with the appearance of age. Thus, they can accept what science says about the age of the universe while at the same time claiming God created everything.
In other words, God lied to us. The Earth “looks” old, but it’s not. God is just playing a trick on us. If the Earth is 6,028 years old, why do various testing methods say differently? Simple, God is playing a game with us. He’s a trickster, telling us a painting is thousands of years old, when it is, in fact, two years old.
Why would God do this? What is his endgame? Why would he lie to us? You would think that God would want us to have accurate information about creation and the age of the earth/universe. When science says the universe is billions of years old, this is a factual claim, old-earth creationists say, but — with a wink — they confidently say, “God created the universe with apparent age.” This, of course, is a faith claim.
Evangelicalism has nothing to offer when it comes to science. Their core beliefs about the universe are directly contrary to what science says about the matter. Even the theistic evolutionist is inserting God where none is needed. Science doesn’t have all the answers, but it is superior to the manic rants of preachers about the literal interpretation of Genesis 1-3.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Recently, a Christian man named Marlin had this to say about me:
I dislike Dennis Corle and I know Jack Hyles was evil. But you’re using them as part of your excuse as to why you’re no longer Christian, when it’s pretty clear you never were a believer.
As is my custom, I sent Marlin a link to my response.
Marlin replied:
You’re an old faggot who will burn even hotter for being a scoffer
Marlin reveals that he is either still an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist or his thinking and behavior are deeply influenced by IFB beliefs. By far, the nastiest people I’ve interacted with on this site are IFB Christians.
One tactic often used by IFB Christians is to call your opponent a faggot, queer, gay, or homosexual. This has nothing to do with sexuality. The goal is to marginalize and defame, and by doing so, this allows them to dismiss my story out of hand.
Marlin goes on to say that I am a “scoffer,” and I will suffer greater punishment in Hell for my unbelief. Of course, Marlin provides no evidence for his claim. He doesn’t address the fact that, according to many Independent Baptists, I am still a Christian. Once saved, always saved, right? He also doesn’t address the fact that followers of Jesus can and do deconvert.
When confronted with the awfulness of eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire, many Evangelicals will say that it is not up to them who ends up in Hell. They genuinely feel bad that their beliefs require the eternal punishment of their family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Marlin, evidently, has no such qualms. No, in his mind, I never was a Christian, and I will suffer eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire for my unrepentant unbelief. He KNOWS I am going to fry forever. Maybe Marlin is God in drag?
Marlin then left the following comment:
Intellectual reasons? You left Christianity after your neurological problems left you wheelchair-bound. You’re a sad, bitter old man. You were never a Christian because your idol is yourself. You loved your ability to walk and yourself more than the Lord, then claim your superior intellect evolved you beyond the things of God.
In my first response to him, I told Marlin that he was wrong about the reason I left Christianity; that I primarily deconverted for intellectual reasons. Marlin rejects my claim, saying that I “left Christianity after your neurological problems left you wheelchair-bound.” Is there any truth to his claim? Of course not. Marlin has constructed a strawman of me in his mind. Instead of critiquing my life according to what I have written, Marlin uses the strawman Bruce instead. This, of course, leads to faulty conclusions.
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia twelve years before I deconverted. I didn’t start regularly using a wheelchair until 2009 — after I deconverted. It wasn’t until 2022 that I started using a wheelchair (or walker) anytime I am forced to walk more than short distances. I typically use a cane for short distances, a walker for moderate distances, and a wheelchair for long distances or times when I am required to sit for long periods of time.
As everyone but Marlin can see, my disability began when I was still a Christian and a pastor. My health problems played little to no part in my deconversion. I have never blamed “God” for my physical struggles. Life is what it is, and I accept the fact that chronic pain and suffering are as much a part of my life as breathing.
Marlin goes on to say that I am a sad, bitter man. Marlin provides no evidence for his claim. He doesn’t know me, so on what basis does he conclude that I am sad and bitter? I am neither, though, at times, my pain levels reach #10 on the chart, and I can and do feel sad. Who wouldn’t want relief from chronic pain and suffering?
Marlin again claims I was never a Christian. He then adds that I worship myself, saying, “You loved your ability to walk and yourself more than the Lord, then claim your superior intellect evolved you beyond the things of God.”
Honestly, it is hard to tell what Marlin means here. He seems to say that I loved the ability to walk more than I loved God. How did Marlin come to such a faulty conclusion? There’s nothing in my story that remotely suggests I worshipped the man, myth, and legend Jesus Christ. No, as my therapist would tell Marlin if asked, I think poorly of myself, struggling to maintain a healthy self-esteem.
As far as my intellect is concerned, what else should I use to determine my beliefs and make decisions? I assume Marlin does the same. Oh, wait, with one big difference. His intellect is sotted with Christian dogma and practices. They color every judgment he makes. This, of course, can be true of all of us. Our presuppositions can and do lead to faulty conclusions. That’s why I do my best to skeptically and rationally make decisions without bias from presuppositions. Marlin, on the other hand, thinks his peculiar interpretation of the Protestant Christian Bible is superior to anything I might believe. This, of course, is a common problem when dealing with Evangelical Christians. They are certain that they are “right”; that their beliefs and practices come straight from the triune God himself.
Marlin provides no evidence for any of his claims; just assertions and personal opinions. I challenge him to justify his accusations about me. I am confident that he will not do so because his whole view of me is based on a strawman caricature of me.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Recently, a Christian man named Marlin had this to say about me:
I dislike Dennis Corle and I know Jack Hyles was evil. But you’re using them as part of your excuse as to why you’re no longer Christian, when it’s pretty clear you never were a believer.
Dennis Corle and the late Jack Hyles are big names in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist church movement. I have heard both men preach, and Corle held several revivals for me in the 1980s. I assume that Marlin is either a current IFB church member or a former one. Either way, his comment reveals a common IFB trait: making moral judgments without evidence to justify their conclusions. Marlin says it is clear that I was never a “believer,” yet he provides no evidence for his claim. He doesn’t personally know me, so he has no personal experiences with me to base his judgments upon. Further, he doesn’t provide any anecdotal or personal testimony from former congregants or colleagues in the ministry — you know, people who actually knew me — that bolsters his claim about my salvation. Despite not having any evidence to justify his claims, Marlin is cocksure that I was never a Christian.
Marlin suggests that it was people like Dennis Corle and Jack Hyles who played an instrumental part in my deconversion. This claim is patently false. I don’t believe I have ever suggested that these men or other preachers played a part in my loss of faith. I left the IFB church movement in the late 1980s, twenty years before I deconverted. While I was still an Evangelical Christian, I no longer ran in IFB circles.
I have made it clear over the years that I left Christianity for primarily intellectual reasons. Sure, there were emotional factors too, but at the end of the day, I left Christianity because it no longer made any sense to me.
If Marlin thinks otherwise, I suggest he provide evidence for his claims. Or he can admit that his claims are false. Marlin claims to be a Christian. I accept his claim at face value. If someone says they are a Christian, I believe them. Sadly, Evangelicals-turned-atheists are not given the same respect. Marlin KNOWS I never was a follower of Jesus, and this allows him to dismiss my story out of hand. Accepting my story as it causes cognitive dissonance and theological problems, so it is just easier to assert that I was never a Christian.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Jesus told a whopper of a lie when he said there were people alive who would see him return to earth after his execution, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven. This, of course, did not happen. Everyone who lived in the first century eventually died, all without Jesus returning to earth. Since then, twenty centuries have come and gone without Jesus splitting the eastern sky. False prophet after false prophet has said that Jesus was coming back on such and such a date, without success. According to the Bible, these lying prophets should be executed for their false prophecies. Imagine if this sort of punishment actually happened? Why, the predictions would stop overnight. As it stands now, there’s no punishment for lying about the second coming of Christ.
Since the nation of Israel was established in 1948, countless Evangelical preachers have predicted certain dates and times for the Lord’s return. Passions are stirred, books are sold, prophets get rich, all without Jesus’s return to earth. And no matter how many times these prophets fail, gullible believers will give them more chances to lie, thinking that someday they will hit the winning numbers.
Just because Jesus lied and these false prophets lied, apologists say, doesn’t mean that Jesus is coming back to earth again. True, but after being told over and over and over again that the rapture is “imminent,” it’s not our fault if we think these preachers are frauds. The burden of proof rests on the shoulders of the apologists who say Jesus will soon return to earth. If a friend of mine repeatedly told me that he was coming to visit me and never showed up, I would be justified in concluding that he is a liar. So it is with every preacher who has falsely claimed the rapture was nigh. And if they are willing to lie about this, why should we believe anything they say?
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
David Tee/Derrick Thomas Thiessen is the tall man in the back
Dr. David Tee, an Evangelical preacher whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen, thinks my friend Ben Berwick (MM) and I owe him an apology for some sort of offense that resides only in the dark, empty depths of his mind.
We are still waiting for both MM and BG to apologize and take responsibility for the foul things they have said about and to us. They won’t do it because in their minds, they think they are doing what is right.
I think I speak for Ben when I say that we haven’t done anything worthy of an apology, so one will not be coming anytime soon. Both of us work very hard not to cause unnecessary offense, but when it comes to Thiessen, to speak the truth about him means causing him to “feel” offense. Thiessen speaks in the plural, saying “we are still waiting” for you to apologize. Who is the other person or persons we allegedly offended? Or is this feigned offense all about a butthurt preacher getting upset by something we may have written that he disagrees with?
Memo to Derrick Thiessen: No apology will be forthcoming. Do I regret a few things I have said about you over the years? Sure, but on most accounts, I have written about you truthfully and honestly. You have been given ample opportunity to set the record straight or defend your beliefs, but you choose not to do so, painting yourself as a martyr who is being wrongly “attacked” by atheists and agnostics. You typically write several posts about Ben and me every week. Never charitable, never honest, you choose to paint both of us in a negative light. That’s fine. Such is the nature of the Internet, right? Yet, shouldn’t we expect better behavior from one of God’s chosen ones? Especially, a so-called man of God? What would Jesus do (WWJD), Derrick? Not write two posts a week about two bloggers who, according to you, no one reads (another lie you repeatedly tell).
These days, I rarely respond to the basement-dwelling Thiessen. This post is my reminder to him that he should not expect an apology from me. I sent Derrick a 20″x30″ glossy photo of me pole dancing in the nude. I thought that would satiate his call for apologies and other desires he may have, but alas, Bruce Gerencser swinging in all his glory didn’t do it. Oh well, I tried. (In case Derrick has a hard time with sarcasm and satire, this last paragraph was both.)
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Most of us are familiar with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Independent Fundamentalist Baptists (IFB) knocking on our doors, hoping to share their version of the Christian gospel with us. If you are anything like me, you find such intrusions into your privacy to be irritating. These God-bothers mean well — thoroughly convinced that they are right. “Hell is real, death is certain,” their thinking goes. I knocked on countless doors in nondescript rural communities as an IFB pastor. I hated the practice, but I was taught by my pastors and college professors that it was essential for me to knock on every door where I pastored. And so I did, for years, taking a handful of loyal church members with me. Spring, summer, winter, and fall, we knocked on doors, hoping to share the gospel with sinners. I taught classes on soulwinning, teaching congregants the most effective way to knock on doors and evangelize people. I even had “specialists” come in to teach church members tricks they could use to reach people with the gospel. Year after year, we knocked on doors, without success. Oh, people would listen to us, and even get “saved,” but few of these converts ever walked through the doors of the church, and those who did rarely stayed.
Fortunately, I eventually outgrew Baptist Fundamentalism and its evangelism practices. In the late 1980s, I became a Calvinist. This change in theology delivered me from the need to bother people with my version of the Christian gospel. “God is sovereign, and he alone saves,” I believed. While I still preached on the street (please see My Life as a Street Preacher — Part One, My Life as a Street Preacher — Part Two, My Life as a Street Preacher — Part Three, and Bruce, the Street Preacher), my focus was on the message instead of evangelism techniques. While there were still people “saved” as a result of my preaching, my focus had changed. I saw that it was my duty to preach the Word and let God do the “saving.”
Did you knock on doors as an Evangelical Christian? Please share your experiences in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
According to most Evangelicals, the Bible is the inspired (God breathed) Word of God, inerrant and infallible in all that it says. “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me,” Evangelicals often say. “We are people of the book!” Supposedly, Evangelicals are True Christians, people who take seriously the teachings of Christ. Yet, when careful attention is paid to how Evangelicals live, we find that most believers preach one thing and practice another
Some Evangelicals believe Jesus is coming again on September 23, 2025. Yet, if you look at their lives, you see little difference between them and the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the world. If I believed Jesus was returning tomorrow, I would be doing all I could to win my family, friends, and neighbors to Christ. Instead, most Evangelicals live as if Jesus is NEVER coming back, even though they believe his return is imminent.
Thirty-seven years ago, Edgar Whisenant predicted Jesus would return between September 11 and September 13, 1988. Whisenant wrote a small book titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. Five million copies of the book were sold and distributed. At the time, I pastored the Somerset Baptist Church in Mt. Perry, Ohio. I still remember the big crowd we had at church on September 11. Most church families had read Whisenant’s book, frightened, yet excited, that the rapture was about to happen. As their pastor, I felt it my duty to minister to them, telling them what I believed the truth to be about the rapture. The title of my sermon was oh-so catchy: Why Jesus Won’t Return in 1988. My sermon relieved some and angered others. As you know, Jesus did not return in 1988.
South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela predicted the Rapture, or Second Coming of Jesus, will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, or Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. Mhlakela’s claims, which have gone #RaptureTok viral on TikTok and social media, state that the revelations came to him in a dream, with Jesus telling him he will “come to take my church.”
….
The dates of Sept. 23, 2025, or Sept. 24, 2025, that Mhlakela has marked the “Rapture” coincide with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish Feast of Trumpets, which many Christians associate with the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy.
….
A TikToker with over 1 million followers said people are selling their cars and houses, leaving items behind for those who “don’t get Raptured.” Tiktoker Sonja (@sonj779) has shared multiple videos on “Rapture Trip Tips,” which have garnered tens of thousands of views. Her posts have led to confusion over whether it’s satire or truth: Among her tips, she urges people to buy new underwear before the Rapture, suggesting that the last impression of you” should not be your old underwear.”
As with past predictions, scores of believers will really believe Jesus is coming to earth, and come Wednesday, they will be sorely disappointed. No rapture, and all the stupid decisions they made thinking Jesus was coming again now come due. Most Evangelicals, however, will continue living their lives just as they always have — giving lip service to the teachings of the Bible. Imagine if you were an Evangelical Christian and you KNEW the rapture was happening tomorrow. How would you respond? Everywhere I look, I see Evangelicals acting more like the people talked about in Matthew 24:
Who, then, is the faithful and wise slave whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time?Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives.Truly, I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions.But if that wicked slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know.He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:45-51 NRSV)
Here’s what I know: watch how people live, and they will reveal what they really believe. Most of the people I pastored were good people. However, their lives were so filled with the present — jobs, family, church — that they had little time to ponder the imminent return of Christ. It was no different for me, as their pastor. Between ministry and family obligations, I had little time to think about the return of Christ. I thought that if I were busy working in God’s vineyard when Jesus returned, all would be well. Whether my thinking was justified or not, one thing was certain then and is still certain today: Jesus is not coming back to earth. Why? Jesus is dead. That’s why, 2,000 years after Jesus was executed by the Roman government, he remains buried somewhere in an unknown grave.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Recently, a friend of mine — a retired pastor — posted the following on Facebook:
One thing I’ve noticed since the murder of Kirk is the outpouring of support and adoration for him. He has certainly become a powerful symbol for many. But to be honest, I wonder how many of us actually followed him before last week or even knew much about him? In a culture of celebrity worship, many have latched onto him, or at least the vision we’ve been given. Politicians are demanding in some cases that we say nothing ill of him.
I pride myself in being in the know about a lot of what’s going on in the country abd the American church, but I’ll admit im not always aware of the powerful forces at work. I knew about Kirk and his organization, Turning Point USA (TPU) But what seemed to be behind the scenes is now coming out in the open. A toxic mix of church and state is becoming a reality, but instead of a Rome or Canterbury, generic evangelical Christianity is becoming our national religion.
If you go to the TPU website, as I finally did last night, you’ll either love what its about or be horrified. They is no line between church and state. And for many of us, that is a problem. Our country did not come together as a ‘Christian’ nation. Nations are not Christian. People are Christians. And together, that is the true Church. Our citizenship is in heaven, and Jesus emphatically said his kingdom was not of this world. We are a nation of many religions and cultures, or even no religion at all. We need to respect that. But pushing for what amounts to a theocracy, we often demand laws that do not touch on the poor, greed, and injustice, which were major themes of the New Testament and the Prophets. We instead gear towards a Christian Taliban, punishing those that we deem unclean or immoral.
As a Christian and a pastor, I reject the idea that the state and the church can co-exist as equal partners. When the Church gets into bed with the state, it becomes a whore that is only used for the pleasure of its false master. The Church, Christ’s bride, needs to reject this false idol of power and be a prophetic voice to the world instead of a mouthpiece for antichrist values. We promote Christ and his Kingdom, not the whore of Babylon. Let us not confuse the two.
If you doubt this pastor, consider what took place at Charlie Kirk’s funeral — a full-blown worship of not only Kirk, but Christian Nationalism. The funeral was nothing more than masturbatory worship of Kirk, the Evangelical deity, and Christian Nationalism.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Now I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8 NRSV)
Allegedly, Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead after being executed by the Roman government. Twenty or so years after the death of Jesus, the Apostle Paul (with Sosthenes as his co-author) wrote the words above, saying that Jesus appeared to more than 500 men and women at one time after he resurrected. Most of these witnesses were still alive at the time of writing 1 Corinthians 15.
Question Evangelical apologists about the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, and they will often quote 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. “Over five hundred witnesses saw the resurrected Jesus,” they claim. However, what evidence do Evangelicals have for this claim? Outside of this passage of Scripture, there’s no evidence for the claim that over five hundred people saw the post-resurrected Jesus. No, all we have is a singular author claiming more than five hundred witnesses saw Jesus. Not one historical record apart from Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15 testifies to the five hundred witnesses claim.
We find another interesting passage in Matthew 27:
Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last.At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split.The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.
According to this passage of Scripture, when Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, and scores of saints who were sleeping in their graves resurrected, walked through the streets of Jerusalem, appearing to many.
In 2003, our family moved to Yuma, Arizona, hoping the weather would be better for my health. Yuma had a static population that would double in the winter months when “snowbirds” arrived. So it was for Jerusalem in the first century. Its population would swell during Passover, upwards of 150,000 people. Yet, despite the large crowds, not one historian, biographer, or reporter wrote one word about any of the events mentioned in this post. No mention of the five hundred witnesses or one word written by them. No mention of dead people coming back to life and walking through Jerusalem.
Could these claims be true? Sure, but there’s no evidence that they are. Saying more than five hundred people witnessed the resurrected Christ is a wonderful claim, but such a fantastical event was not mentioned by contemporary writers one time outside of the Bible. The same goes for the ripped veil and the resurrected saints walking the streets of Jerusalem. Justification for these claims requires more than a few Bible verses. These supernatural events were so astounding that you would think someone in Jerusalem might have written them down. They didn’t, so all we are left with is this: The Bible says . . .
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
This cookie is set by X to identify and track the website visitor. Registers if a users is signed in the X platform and collects information about ad preferences.
2 years
personalization_id
Unique value with which users can be identified by X. Collected information is used to be personalize X services, including X trends, stories, ads and suggestions.
2 years
external_referer
Our Website uses X buttons to allow our visitors to follow our promotional X feeds, and sometimes embed feeds on our Website.
