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From: lab@qubix.UUCP (Q-Bick)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Historical veracity (?)
Message-ID: <1483@qubix.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Oct-84 16:06:01 EST
Article-I.D.: qubix.1483
Posted: Mon Oct 29 16:06:01 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Oct-84 06:05:58 EST
References: <229695fe.708@apollo.uucp>
Organization: Quadratix ... Quartix
Lines: 42

> W. Christensen

> [Schweitzer's] essential conclusion? There is NOT ONE SHRED of physical, historical,
> or any other reliable kind of verifiable evidence that such a person as
> Jesus ever actually existed. The marvelous thing about this is that this
> conclusion did not shake Schweitzer's FAITH one iota. While honestly admitting
> that there is no evidence whatsoever for the existence of Jesus, Schweitzer
> continued as strongly as ever in his belief in the SPIRIT of Christianity,
> which any account of his life amply illustrates. 

The *shreds* are your argument. The existence of Jesus Christ is one of
the best-established FACTS of history. I would refer the reader to the
thoroughly documented _Therefore, Stand_ by Wilbur Smith, perhaps the
most outstanding apologetic of this century. Even such an anti-Christian
as H.G.Wells gave scores of lines to Jesus of Nazareth in his _Outline
of History_. And the evidence was compelling enough for a skeptic such
as Lew Wallace (while writing a book to "forever destroy Christianity")
to break down and cry out "My Lord and my God!" [You may better remember
Wallace as the author of _Ben-Hur_.]

> > [Mr. Samuelson again...]
> > Now, if the disciples couldn't get the body, and their enemies
> > couldn't produce it, and it couldn't walk away on its own accord,
> > what happened to it?

> Trying to demonstrate the validity of Christianity as a viable moral and
> philosophical system via corpus delecti is pathetically absurd. I submit that
> such sophomoric silliness is quite apt to give all Christianity a bad name. 

Quite the contrary. Disprove the Resurrection and Christianity is kaput.
Further, the title for pages 359-437 of _Therefore, Stand_ reads:

	THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST FROM THE DEAD:
	   THE APOLOGETIC FOR AN AGE DEMANDING
		  HISTORICAL CERTAINTY

Hardly "pathetically absurd."
-- 
		The Ice Floe of Larry Bickford
		{amd,decwrl,sun,idi,ittvax}!qubix!lab

You can't settle the issue until you've settled how to settle the issue.