Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Nothing but a Hallucination
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A massive, group hallucination of a man walking and talking. Really? That's how you want to explain away the resurrection?
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01:Let's look at the unbelieving responses now to the resurrection. I'm going to talk about three theories. There's others, but these are the main ones that have been popular down through history. We'll start by turning to Matthew chapter 28. Alright, Matthew 28, verse 11. This is called the theft theory. The idea, of course, is that the disciples stole the body, and because the body wasn't there, they then made the claim that, well, he must have risen. So this is called the theft theory. It's the oldest of all the theories about what uh what happened to the body of the Messiah. So Matthew 28, verse 11, let's just walk through it. Now, while they were on their way, these are the guards, some of the guard came into the city, that's the city of Jerusalem, and they reported to the chief priests all that had happened. So these are the Roman guards. Remember, they set a guard. They requested a pilot, hey, you know, the Jews said, Hey, can you set a guard there? Because they said he's going to rise. We want to make sure that doesn't happen. So can you set a guard? And they did, right? So these are soldiers, Roman soldiers. And now, of course, resurrection's already taken place. These guys come in to report to the chief priests all that had happened. Meaning, if you look back in the context, they must have reported, well, I mean, there were these guys here who were angels. The stone rolled away. I mean, body's not there. They had to have reported these things to the chief priests. Now they didn't go to their Roman superiors, they went to the chief priests, which would have been the Sadducees, which is very interesting. I mean, do the Sadducees believe in resurrection? No. So that's very interesting. They had to go to them, right? And so they make this report, which obviously must have contained things related to resurrection. Verse 12, and when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers. What do you always follow? Is there anything new under the sun? I mean, these backroom deals are going on in our political echelons all the time, folks. Because it is all about the money. Wasn't there a very popular uh talk show host who used to say this type of thing a lot before he passed away? So always follow the money. And here it is, it's all about money. Now they give him a large sum of money because the soldiers are gonna have to admit tacitly that they were derelict in their duties, right? I mean, they failed, which they would have been in a lot of trouble with their Roman superiors. And so, first thing that they do is they say, hey, we're gonna we're gonna give you a lot of money. A little money wouldn't have done it. Okay, but a lot of money would have got them to admit dereliction of duty. And they said, You are to say this. Here's the story. His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. So that's the theft theory. And um, this is a story they're supposed to tell their Roman superiors. Now, obviously, you're admitting we totally failed in our duties. But hey, here's the thing. Does this story sound realistic? Um, first of all, how do you know the disciples came and stole his body if you were asleep? How do you have any clue what happened if you were asleep? Since by nature, you know nothing that's going on if you're asleep. And if you did know what was going on, so much that you can tell us, why didn't you stop him? So this story is, on the face of it, a silly and ridiculous story. Verse 14, and if this should come to the governor's ears, we will win him over it, we will keep you out of trouble. And we already know that um those Jews in leadership at the time of Christ had quite a bit of influence and sway over people like Pilate. You know, you can read it and see that they were quite influential with him and could kind of get their way if they worked, and so worked with him. And so they promised, hey, we'll we'll keep you out of trouble. Here's a large sum of money. Okay. And then verse 15, they took the money and they did as they had been instructed. And this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day. What day? To today? Well, no, the day that Matthew was authored, probably 80-50. But that's going to be about, you know, 17, 18 years or so after these things happened. And this is the primary story on the street, right? What happened to the body of Jesus? Where is it? Not in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea anymore. Where is it? Oh, well, the disciples stole it. So that is the earliest story, but it's, again, to emphasize, it's an unbelieving response to the resurrection. We have to stop this idea that he was actually raised from the dead. Um, so you know, I've been through most of these points that are here on the screen, just describing it. And um, here's the other thing, just point five here. How likely is it the disciples would risk moving the stone, which would obviously make a lot of noise, and steal the body when it's guarded by Roman soldiers? I mean, what are the odds that you would try something like that? Absolute silliness. Okay, and if they did, would they then take the time, as the Roman guards are right outside, let's assume, asleep, and fold the face cloth up and they're nicely set aside. I mean, is that is that what robbers do? Or are they in a hurry to flee the scene? So, anyway, follow the money, right? That's the first uh unbelieving response to the resurrection. Uh now this was noticed early on, so this is a quote from John Chrysostom in the fourth century A.D. He says, For it indeed, even this establishes the resurrection. I mean, this silly story. For this is the language of men confessing, hey, the body wasn't there. When therefore they confessed the body was not there, but the stealing of it is shown to be false and incredible, as it is, by their watching it, Roman soldiers watching it, by the seals on the stone, and by the timidity of the disciples. I mean, are they really going to do that? The proof of the resurrection, even hence, appears incontrovertible. So even from the earliest days in the church, this was uh known to be, you know, basically a ridiculous story that was spread. But will do people believe ridiculous stories? Okay. Next point. The second theory is known as the hallucination theory. And don't need to say much about that other than, you know, it's the idea that those who claim to see the resurrected Christ were actually having hallucinations. And in their hallucinations, they thought they saw uh the resurrected Christ. Um there's no this this has been going on for centuries, this idea. But, you know, hallucinations by nature are individual events. If you take or have some hallucinating agent in your body, uh, you may have hallucinations, but you're not going to share them with the person sitting next to you, even though they may have hallucinating agents in their body. They'll have their own hallucinations, but they're not shared experiences. Um hallucinations also we know happen to certain kinds of people or tend to happen to certain kinds of people, usually paranoid people and schizophrenic people. And uh, of course, Christ didn't appear to just paranoid and schizophrenic people. I mean, he appeared to all different kinds of people, uh, none of those of which seemed to be paranoid or schizophrenic. Uh, because these even these people typically disbelieved it when they first heard of the resurrected, right? They weren't they were like, no, that's people don't come back from the dead. That's right, right.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with him. If you found this podcast to be uh useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.