Bear decided to invite Dr. Gary Habermas, a scholar of high reputation, to the Den for Easter, in the following video, to discuss the historical evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus. He has spent many years of his life on this subject alone, and is unusually well qualified to discuss the issue.
He originally got interested in the issue in his younger days, picking it for the subject of his Doctoral dissertation in History. He was apparently a Christian who had become progressively disillusioned in various ways and progressively skeptical, and was at about the end of his personal faith -- not even certain whether to declare himself a Christian or not at that point.
His research into the subject brought him to a deep faith and belief.
He has done many, many talks about the subject, and has written many books about it as well.
In this particular talk, he discusses the issue by throwing out every Christian arguement for the subject, and just sticks to using evidences and proofs that even the most skeptical scholars have to admit are accurate historical evidences. He uses data that 95% of scholars -- even those who are the most adament in their rejection of Christianity -- agree is totally valid.
He argues on the basis of: Even if the Bible were not God's Word, and is just your average history book, with all the potential flaws a history book can have, and taking into consideration all the other history books on the subject . . . the unbiased historian would still have to conclude that Jesus rose from the dead.
And it was very helpful to Bear in several ways, to watch it.
Although this talk was originally made to a college class, it's easy to follow and understand. And Dr. Habermas is a casual and engaging speaker, in his striped cotton shirt, and interrupting himself to show pictures of his wife and kids. The first half of the time (maybe about 45 minutes) is spent presenting the evidence and explaining why it's so valid. The second half is spent on more personal testimony type of stuff about how this impacted his own life, and on answering questions from students.
Bear found it all helpful, although it does kind of drag around the middle section somewhat. (Also, it seems to Bear that one of the video clips repeats itself -- maybe about 10 or 15 minutes of repeated material, but she had no way to fix that, so left it as is.)
(For those who receive Den updates through feeds or on Facebook, the video won't be visible or usable until you come and visit in the Den itself).
Most people likely won't have time to watch this today, being in the midst of Easter activities with family and friends. But it will be available, running in the Den for some time, (in today's Post still), so can be watched later.
And it definitely seemed like Easter was the right time to initially bring Dr. Habermas into the Den. Because much of Habermas' life has been devoted to the truth we celebrate today . . .
He is Risen, indeed!
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