What stands out clearly when you interact with the New Testament texts with an open an un-biased attitude, are the very human responses of those depicted in these texts aside from the main character Jesus. The apostle Peter for example disowned Jesus prior to Jesus’ execution. Yet for some reason, after claiming to see Jesus risen, does a complete about-face, to leed the growth of the early church under great adversity and persecution, then later died for the gospel that he would not renounce. There are many quite thoughtful discussions concerning this that are accessible for you to read. I encourage the following links
What has gained my curiosity over time however, which I thought I would be a good discussion point, is the question of ‘what is the potential of a group of people to remain committed to a lie for a lifetime’ (so say over 50 years). That is, if we recreated the events post Jesus on the assumption that all the apostles, (and the many others who believed in him) colluded to make up the story about Jesus (which is a popular theory of the Jesus skeptic), what would be the potential of them remaining committed to a lie together for a lifetime; what would this look like in 6 months time, in a year, in 10 years time, or 50 years after the event? Could a group of people really be committed to a lie for that long? What would the quality of the relationship be along the way?
If we broke down the reason or the motive for the lie, skeptics suggest this was to create a folk legend at a time when Jews were oppressed under the Romans ( however we will look at this a little more closely another time). Some say it was a opportunity to make a dollar, of for other such reasons. What we can agree on however, is if we are saying that the story of Jesus was made up then it is a lie, and that those who created the lie are therefore liars, or individuals with a potential to behave in ways contrary to the ethical and moral standards that underpinned the religious framework they claimed to be devoted to; they were corrupt.
So, for the benefit of our skeptics lets just say, they were corrupt individuals and concerted a lie to make money. The real question then is ‘what is the potential for these corruptible individuals who have concocted and executed a lie in collusion with each, and stay in the lie for a lifetime?’
One method used by law enforcements to convict criminals is the cultivation of informants (people known to criminals – loved ones, friends, those they may have been in contact with). This is simply because what is well known in such circles is that relationships frequently breakdown, and there is usually someone (an ex wife or partner, past acquaintances or friend for example), that would so love to get some revenge. In such circles relationships enemies are frequently made, people get hurt, and friends turn on each other; and they turn each other in. That is the nature of such relationships; and it never lasts long. The article also discusses the flow of recall of a story by those making up a story versus those who actually viewed the story. What was interesting is that liners doe not have the potential for creative application
In an paper that discusses collusion between cartels in the 80s outlined that it was quite common practice for companies to sign agreements to fix pricing and control whole market pricing through collusion. I was surprised to read that this actually occurred. What was even more surprising was that the paper provided recommendations for sustainable collusion. A key point of the paper concerned the reasons why collusion could not be sustained, simply because of the greed of particular members of the cartel (who made other deals on the side), and because of real market influences that forced each party to behave in a manner that was not conducive to sustaining the cartel. It’s really hard to sustain these type of activities with this type of member, over a long period of time. There is no way all 12 apostles could have stayed in the lie for a lifetime if this was the case.
What is more believable is that the 12 men remained committed to a cause for lifelong because something significant occurred that had a life changing effect on each of them, so much so, not one of them disowned their commitment to Christ in their life time which is truly remarkable. This is probably the strongest indicator to support the authenticity of the accounts concerning Jesus and who he was in the new testament text, because nothing in this world could sway the apostles’ steadfast conviction to follow Jesus for a lifetime, and for most of them, not even execution. Jesus was whom he claimed to be and the apostles response to this over their lifetime is one of the best reasons for investigating Jesus thoroughly.
The Gospel that Saves 