I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (44 page)

They are cowards—all the disciples but one hide when Jesus goes to the cross. Peter even denies him three times after explicitly promising, “I will never disown you” (Matt. 26:33-35).

Meanwhile, as the men are hiding for fear of the Jews, the brave women stand by Jesus and are the first to discover the empty tomb.

They are doubters—despite being taught several times that Jesus would rise from the dead (John 2:18-22; 3:14-18; Matt. 12:39-41; 17:9, 22-23), the disciples are doubtful when they hear of his resurrection. Some are even doubtful
after
they see him risen (Matt. 28:17)!

Now think about this: If you were a New Testament writer, would you include these embarrassing details if you were making up a story? Would you write that one of your primary leaders was called “Satan” by Jesus, denied the Lord three times, hid during the crucifixion, and was later corrected on a theological issue? Would you depict yourselves as uncaring, bumbling cowards, and the women—whose testimony was not even admissible in court—as the brave ones who stood by Jesus and later discovered the empty tomb? Would you admit that some of you (the eleven remaining disciples) doubted the very Son of God
after
he had proven himself risen to all of you? Of course not.

What do you think the New Testament writers would have done if they were making up a story? You know perfectly well: they would have left out their ineptness, their cowardice, the rebuke, the three denials, and their theological problems, and depicted themselves as bold believers who stood by Jesus through it all and who confidently marched down to the tomb on Sunday morning right through the elite Roman guards to find the risen Jesus waiting to congratulate them on their great faith! The men who wrote it also would say that
they
declared the risen Jesus to the
women,
who were the ones hiding for fear of the Jews. And, of course, if the story was a concoction, no disciple, at any time, would have been portrayed as doubting (especially after Jesus had risen).

In short,
we don’t have enough faith to believe that the New
Testament writers included all of those embarrassing details in a made-up
story.
The best explanation is that they were really telling the truth—warts and all.

2. T
HE
N
EW
T
ESTAMENT
W
RITERS
I
NCLUDED
E
MBARRASSING
D
ETAILS AND
D
IFFICULT
S
AYINGS OF
J
ESUS

The New Testament writers are also honest about Jesus. Not only do they record self-incriminating details about themselves, they also record embarrassing details about their leader, Jesus, that seem to place him in a bad light. Jesus:

is considered “out of his mind” by his mother and brothers (his own family), who come to seize him in order to take him home (Mark 3:21, 31)

is not believed by his own brothers (John 7:5)

is thought to be a deceiver (John 7:12)

is deserted by many of his followers (John 6:66)

turns off “Jews who had believed in him” (John 8:30-31) to the point that they want to stone him (v. 59)

is called a “drunkard” (Matt. 11:19)

is called “demon-possessed” (Mark 3:22; John 7:20, 8:48)

is called a “madman” (John 10:20)

has his feet wiped with the hair of a prostitute (an event that had the potential to be perceived as a sexual advance—Luke 7:36-39)