I've had my feet in and out over the years of really starting my journey into the words of Jesus Christ, but haven't fully accepted it. I finished watching [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ4NTdSK5ac] and my mind is blown. Especially the part he says towards the end that "why should god show himself to me if I won't continue banging on the door over and over?"
It's like I've been waiting for proof, but if I knock once or twice, don't get proof and give up, why should god present himself?
I encourage you all to watch this video. For those of us who were on Voat, it says a lot of what we already knew, but he provided sources, citations, photos. It's quite remarkable the work he put into this video.
Anyways, I would like to get myself a bible and I am curious what the most accurate version is?
I am also curious if the words of the bible today can be trusted? Who is to say the satanists didn't take over publication and tweak words, remove verses, etc? This is a legitimate concern of mine.
This is the most serious post I've ever made and I am genuinely looking forward to responses so I can proceed to the next step of this journey.
Claim 3: On the Sunday following Jesus’ crucifixion, this tomb stood empty. This claim is the key to all that follows. If the tomb still contained Jesus’ body, then Christianity could be destroyed simply by producing the body. Any claim of Resurrection dies if Jesus’ body is still dead. But if the tomb lost Jesus’ body, then something happened. If the tomb is empty, then the story doesn’t end at Jesus’ death. On this point, historians of every kind agree overwhelmingly: on Sunday morning, the tomb of Jesus was empty. Jakob Kremer, who specializes in studying the resurrection of Jesus, states clearly: “By far most exegetes hold firmly to the reliability of the biblical statements concerning the empty tomb.” D. H. van Daalen concurs, stating: “It is extremely difficult to object to the empty tomb on historical grounds; those who deny it do so on the basis of theological or philosophical assumptions.” John Warwick Montgomery adds his voice to the chorus: “In 56 A.D. [the apostle] Paul wrote that over 500 people had seen the risen Jesus and that most of them were still alive (1 Corinthians 15:6ff.). It passes the bounds of credibility that the early Christians could have manufactured such a tale and then preached it among those who might easily have refuted it simply by producing the body of Jesus.” Even Jesus’ enemies found no way to deny the empty tomb. In the sixth century, skeptical voices in the Jewish community wrote a treatise called the Toledoth Yeshu, intending to disprove Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Yet they could not deny the death of Jesus nor the empty tomb. Despite their antagonism to Jesus, their work confirmed that Jesus’ body had disappeared and no one could find it. They wrote: On the first day of the week his bold followers came to Queen Helene with the report that he who was slain was truly the Messiah and that he was not in his grave; he had ascended to heaven as he prophesied. Diligent search was made and he was not found in the grave where he had been buried. The Toledoth Yeshu rejected the possibility of Jesus’ Resurrection, inventing an alternate explanation for the empty tomb. They suggested: A gardener had taken him from the grave and had brought him into his garden and buried him in the sand over which the waters flowed into the garden. At first blush, it sounds plausible. Yet the next two claims expose its inability to explain the situation.
Claim 4: Immediately following this, Jesus’ disciples claimed to experience Him alive, risen from death. Many who doubt the supernatural will scoff, proclaiming that no one can rise from the dead. But even historians who scoff at the supernatural agree that the disciples claimed to experience Jesus alive after His death. Gert Lüdemann, a staunch critic of Jesus’ Resurrection, still must admit: “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’s death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.” Even scholars such as David Friedrich Strauss, who vigorously denied that Jesus could be divine, acknowledge that the disciples experienced visions of Jesus alive after His death. In one of the earliest-written letters collected in the New Testament, Paul delineates a list of eye-witnesses who claimed to see Jesus alive in 1 Corinthians 15: [Jesus] appeared to Cephas [Peter], then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:5–8, ESV) As historian April De Conick reflects, this account originates from the “primitive church” – the first believers. The Resurrection appearances of Jesus formed the key witness of the early Christian community: In this regard, Paul’s own firsthand testimony cannot be emphasized enough, because it demonstrates that the first Christian Jews believed that they were recipients of ecstatic experiences both in the form of rapture events and invasions of heaven. History therefore proves this claim decisively. The earliest Christians – the disciples of Jesus and their immediate followers – experienced what they believed to be the risen Jesus appearing to them alive days after His death. This leads us directly to the final claim.
Claim 5: These disciples carried the claim of Jesus’ Resurrection throughout the ancient world, gladly sacrificing their lives to attest to its truth. No one sacrifices their life for a lie. If they are very persuasive, they may be able to convince others to die for a lie. But no one dies for a lie they themselves know to be a lie. People only die for what they believe to be the truth. The disciples of Jesus willingly sacrificed their lives to testify to the reality of Jesus’ Resurrection. On this, the historical witness is prolific and unanimous. C. F. D. Moule of Cambridge University highlights the oddity of this behavior. No previous historical influences account for this kind of behavior. No Jewish apocalyptic literature taught such a thing, nor did any Greek or pagan influences. This belief in Jesus’ bodily Resurrection to new life was entirely unique on the historical scene – unique and powerful. The disciples did not offer it to others as an option, but rather a firm conviction, so deeply believed that they willingly surrendered their lives to attest to its truth. As Moule says, “The birth and rapid rise of the Christian Church […] remains an unsolved enigma for any historian who refuses to take seriously the only explanation offered by the Church itself.” J.N.D. Anderson, the director of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London, agrees, pointing out the absurdity of the disciples’ actions if they were based on a lie. This would run totally contrary to all we know of them: their ethical teaching, the quality of their lives, their steadfastness in suffering and persecution. Nor would it begin to explain their dramatic transformation from dejected and dispirited escapists into witnesses whom no opposition could muzzle.
Consistent Agreement The scholars quoted above represent critical, skeptical scholarship, not the work of believers. When these scholars examine each of the five claims that build the case for the Resurrection, the majority of scholars agree that each claim is true. Critical scholarship agrees: