From the writings of Clement of Rome and Irenaeus, we know that the core elements of the Christian faith were established by the end of the first century, some 60-70 years following the death and reported resurrection of Jesus. I indicated in my previous post that though this is early testimony in terms of ancient history, there are more ancient documents that communicate these truths.
Tag: historical accounts
The bodily resurrection of Jesus lies at the heart of Christian theology. If the body of Christ did not rise from the dead, the Christian faith means nothing. Since belief in the resurrection relies on the evidence, it’s worth our time as either believers or skeptics to evaluate the quality of the evidence.
As I noted in a previous post, the Old Testament contains a strong Messianic undercurrent. In the first century, the men who followed Jesus of Nazareth claimed He fulfilled the predictions of Moses, Samuel, and those prophets who followed. The antiquity of these documents and the faithfulness of their transmission down through the centuries assure us that the disciples of Jesus did not alter the prophecies in order to fit Jesus. The number of instances where these Scriptures predict the life events of Jesus rules out the probability of coincidental fulfillment.