BONUS | The Facts Confirm Jesus’ Resurrection. Here’s the Reason People Still Deny It | Wes Huff

>> Well, I think so much for joining us again.

Okay, you've been all over the place. I follow you on Instagram on X. It seems like you've been traveling the world. I saw you on Diary of a CEO where you got to share the gospel. So I just want to hear a little bit from you.

I'm sure the audience does too.

“What has that been like getting to share the gospel with these huge audiences?”

Yeah, I've been very privileged to be able to get around and people in venues where the gospel and the reliability and truthfulness of the Christian faith might not otherwise be communicated. So I'm just very humbled and appreciative of continually being asked to do things. It might seem like I'm doing a lot of actually trying to mitigate my schedule as much as possible. And I'm saying no to a whole lot of things.

But I actually just got back yesterday from a trip in Washington, D.C. I was leading a group through a VIP tour of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Museum of the Bible. And then my colleague Andy Stiger with the Paul Jetics Canada. We did a couple of talks there. So, yeah, busy.

Took my family, which was great. We were able to run around Washington, D.C.

And introduce my Canadian children to some American history, which is always fun.

So, yeah, did you get to play at that little play area at the Museum of the Bible? Oh, yeah, that's great. That's the best. That's the best.

We've done that, too. Also, yes, social media really does kind of seem to amplify and multiply. All the places we go and things we do people say all the time. Oh my gosh, you're traveling constantly. Like, I'm actually not.

Social media makes it seem like that. But same kind of thing.

“You have to be super selective in what you do.”

But you're doing a great job. So, I'm just very grateful for your apologetics and your boldness and sharing the gospel. I want to get into the resurrection, because this is coming out right before, right on Easter weekend.

We haven't quite decided yet. And I want to hear from you. What do you think is the best evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus? Yeah, you know what? I'm really fan of looking at some of the two-step approach.

That the gospels go back to the eyewitnesses and through that content and the context lies. Lies are ruled out, right? So, if it goes back to early eyewitness testimony, then the accusation of embellishment and this adding of something like the resurrection.

After the fact, I think really doesn't stand up to scrutiny. It seems that the gospel authors get the details right. The small details, things like geography and name correlation and even plant life in some instances. And so, if they get the small details right,

I don't think it's that big of a leap to say that they get the big details right.

“And then, ultimately, I think that what we're dealing with,”

if we are dealing with eyewitness testimony, which I think is very well-attested too, is that we have these testimonies of these early disciples of Jesus. And either the disciples were deceivers. They were deceived or they were telling the truth. And I think when you start to stack up the evidence of what's going on,

I don't think they were deceivers. I don't think they were deceived. And I do think that everything points to their life radically

changing in a powerful way because they encountered their rabbi getting murdered

and then rising from the dead. Yeah. What do you make of this accusation that the gospel of Mark, it's the oldest account of Jesus' life? And I've heard Muslims and people just skeptical of the resurrection say that Mark didn't originally include Jesus' resurrection.

Therefore, it must have been something added later. Yeah. So there is what's called a textual variant issue with the longer ending of Mark. If you go to the very end of your gospel of Mark, you'll see that if you're reading a modern translation like an ESV or an NIV or an NLT,

that there will be a citation notes saying something to the effect of that the earliest manuscripts in the most reliable manuscripts do not include that last sort of section in chapter 16. I think that is actually true. However, I don't think that means that the resurrection isn't there. It's obviously there. Before that instance, you have the women showing up to the tomb

and they encounter an angel who says, "Why are you looking for the living amongst the dead?" Jesus is not here. He is risen. And so I think there are some questions, there's some sort of ancient noise about the different versions of the longer ending of Mark that we have. However, at chapter 16 verse 8, it ends and says that the women

were scared until no one and I personally think that's where Mark meant to leave it off. In that, well, they obviously told someone because Mark is writing it down, but also I think Mark is being purposeful and he's saying, "What are you going to do with it?" This is too good not to tell somebody, "Don't be like those women, go out and

or the resurrection that you think people miss? That as you're reading these accounts stand out to you, either is something that adds veracity to the stories or just

“something theologically significant. That's a really good question. I think”

you know what I always find interesting about the crucifixion account is that the gospel

authors are very purposeful to make sure that the audience understands that Jesus was truly dead and that that matters and that when Jesus prophesies and the people want things like miracles and he says, "You're just going to get the miracle of Jonah." The sign of Jonah, just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights so the son of man will be in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. It's really interesting that if you go back to the story of Jonah

in the book of Jonah in the Old Testament, Jonah's prayer from the belly of the Great Fish was he says, "I cry out from the depths of Sheol." What is Sheol? Sheol is the realm of the dead.

There's actually a string of interpretation with an ancient Judaism that Jonah was actually dead

in the fish and that when he was spat up he was resurrected. Now it could mean you know he's in the depths of despair. It's like he's in the place of the underworld. He might as well be there

“because he's in the bottom of the ocean and the belly of a fish. But I think you know it's interesting”

to look at that that the ancient Jews probably would have understood Jesus. I mean if they understood him correctly which they continually don't do but if they'd understood him correctly saying, you know I'm going to be dead. I'm going to be really dead and then something radical is going to happen. Just as Jonah is then put onto the shore to preach the good news to people who are

undeserving of it. I'm going to be the better Jonah. I'm going to come and I'm going to do it and

I'm not going to be running from God. I'm going to be fulfilling what God has actually planned. But you know on top of that Ali I think it's really interesting after that that in all four gospels in Matthew 26 in Luke 15 in John 19 and in Mark 15 you have this instance of pentacost where the Holy Spirit is just a few weeks after Jesus' crucifixion it comes on them and then you have the martyrdom of Stephen which is a warning shot for the disciples. Now they know it's costly.

One of their own has died for this proclamation and then what do they do? They go back to Jerusalem. They go back to Jerusalem and they proclaim the good news of the kingdom. Now Jerusalem that's like ground zero. That's where this whole thing happened. It's so interesting to me that they go back to the place where Jesus was crucified where there would have been eyewitnesses who would have seen his body dead hanging on a cross and yet that's where they go to proclaim this news.

Knowing that friends of theirs have lost their lives for this message. Knowing that people would have been able to say we know where the tomb is right that Joseph of Vermitha a guy apparently he's buried in his family tomb. There's so much at stake here and yet the disciples know that there's too much not at stake to not preach this message. If they were lying if they were to seaming people go out into the broader country side. Go to the places where people would not have

“been able to say hey wait a minute Jesus I saw Jesus die and so I think just the the”

concreteness of Jesus truly died that's a historical fact. This historical character this Jewish itinerary Rabbi he was dead he was crucified on a Roman cross the Romans know exactly how to do that very very well and then he appears to disciples alive again that's a historical question dead buried uh oh see in alive what do we do with that how do we answer that historically and I think there needs to be given an account for the disciples actions afterwards they saw something and it

completely radically changed their world and the reason why it's important for us to emphasize that Jesus really died some people may not know that that's a claim that skeptics will make that Jesus didn't really die that he came close to death on the cross and that I guess maybe he was in a coma or he was just chilling in the grave for three days and then he felt better and he decided I don't know to move the stone away or something and then walk out of the grave to try to deny this kind of

miracle of the resurrection but I remember you talking about this on Jo Rogan that if there's one thing that the Romans were really good at it was crucifixion and making sure that people suffer and die right yeah it's true there are skeptics sometimes called the swoon theory that argue that Jesus survived the cross and then somehow recovered in the tomb I've heard Muslims articulate it by saying he recovered in the cool of the tomb as if you know it's such a restorative place in a

evidence academically or even I think honestly it's a radical minority position that Jesus

“survived crucifixion because all of the evidence you basically have to throw out all of the historical”

and all of the medical evidence about what we know happens within a Roman crucifixion every Roman guard centurion soldier who is responsible for Jesus's death would have been on the hook if he did not die and their lives would have been forfeit and so this is not something that Roman soldiers you know just do glibbly the Romans crucified hundreds of not thousands of people they were very very good at they didn't invent the process of crucifixion but they certainly

then made it what it was they kind of brought it into its fullness and as a torture mechanism and device but it was it's it's it's it's foolish at best to posit that Jesus did not die on the cross

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really goes back to a lack of desire to submit to price authority because if Jesus really did do all of these miracles if it really was a virgin birth if he really did rise from the dead then he's more than just a moral teacher making suggestions for the patterns of your life or giving you good principles that you can take or leave like if he really did all of these things if he really defeated that then what he says stands and there's a consequence for not submitting to that

and really I mean the history of the world is people grappling with that and not wanting to let go of our sin in light of Jesus' authority would you agree with that? I would and you know what we see even skeptics within the New Testament themselves coming to terms with the evidence it Thomas at the end of John's Gospel John 2025 says unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails and

place my fingers into the marks of those nails and place my hands into his side I will never believe

this is a skeptical kind of reaction in John chapter seven it says that not even Jesus' own brothers believe him and then we have Paul writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 113 through though formerly I was a blasphemer of Christ Paul says a persecutor in insulin an unimponent he says but I've received mercy because I have had acted ignorantly in my unbelief it's interesting that word we translate as unbelief is actually the same word that we would translate as not trusting not putting faith in and so

we see even in the New Testament itself examples of skepticism and doubt of what's going on I think sometimes people look at this and they say oh that's you know two thousand years ago these were just ignorant people this is what C.S. Lewis calls chronological snobbery you know that we would believe at least something like the virgin birth well you know what Mary's objection to the angel was hey I know how babies are made I failed a minimum requirements for having a baby how can this be she says

that's a scientific objection these weren't stupid people they knew exactly how the world works sure they had more of a supernatural understanding of things but just because it was a few thousand years behind us doesn't mean they were dumb and I think the same goes with the resurrection

“they weren't dumb Thomas knew that dead people don't rise from the dead and that's why it's”

amazing and what do you think the significance is this is just a question that popped into my mind of

Jesus maintaining his wounds because even if he had resurrected bodily he could have healed himself he

Thomas he still did have the nail holes in his hands why do you think that is yeah that's a really interesting observation isn't it that Jesus had at least some degree of

“the physical marks of the crucifixion I think what's probably going on there is that you know”

John's letters he says that God is love and if love is degraded ethic then the greatest example of the greatest ethic is self-sacrifice and there's something very profound about the son of God who stepped off his throne in eternity and lived a simple life in humanity and going to the cross

voluntarily as the second person of the Trinity taking on our depravity then in eternity as the

eternal God man in glory having the physical representations of that particular event I think it's it's meant to be a reminder to us that for all eternity Jesus is going to bear the marks of the glorification of the Godhead how God is truly glorified the cross wasn't the contingency plan it was a mistake God didn't create people and go oops they were belt what am I gonna do no in both Peter's letters and in Revelation it says that before the foundations of the world were laying

the lamb was slain this was the plan all from the beginning that the God who is the example of love is going to then exemplify that in the greatest possible ethic which is self-sacrifice and Jesus

does that willingly hey man what do you think the significance is of the resurrection of the bodies

of believers I mean we read that this is necessary for us to believe it's necessary for us to believe in the resurrection of Jesus or else our faith is just foolishness it's not anchored on

“much but we also have to believe that we are going to be resurrected one day and I think that's a”

passage that confuses a lot of Christians it's not like preached about or talked about a lot because a lot of people are confused about it but obviously this concept of bodily resurrection is really important within Christianity why do you think that is it's a sign of restoration Ali it's a sign that when Jesus says you know I'm making all things new in the book of Revelation that that's a promise that we understand that the world was not created to be the way that it is that it was created good

we see that very first pages of the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible

God creates the world and it's good and he continually says it's good it's good it's good and then for the thick people in the original audience at the very end it says and it was very good it's a reminder that this is this world it's it's marked by sin but it was meant for so much more and that's going to be restored we're going to see how God makes all things new and Ali we're not spirits that have a body we are fully physical and spiritual and there's that there's something about that

about the way that we live our life here about the way that we treat our health about the way that we treat those around us that I think we need to not forget that the hope the goal is not just a float away and be some sort of ethereal spirit in the clouds we are meant to in like our resurrected savior have a physical body a glorified body which means something that exemplifies the beauty of the creation in the way that God originally meant it to be just to

end this conversation can you talk a little bit about heaven and also the new heaven and the new earth for those who might not know maybe they're exploring Christianity I mean that is the hope of victory that we have that is claimed through Jesus' death and resurrection so I think it's good for people to have a picture of what that hope actually looks like yeah I think we often have this understanding that the our end goal is to get to heaven that we die and we leave this mortal coil and that's it

and we we're trying to escape that's actually an ancient pagan idea the ancient platonic philosophers and the nostics believe that the physical was bad and the spiritual was good and that our spirits

“are really trapped in these meet prisons and the goal is to get away from this all and that's why”

when you look at Paul's preaching on Mars Hill they're tracking with him in the in the area obvious at that that place that meeting place for philosophers to speak in public they're tracking with them pretty well until he drops the word resurrection and then and then there no then they start saying he's crazy he's drunk because that is their understanding right that that that you are meant to be a spiritual ethereal being and that you are limited by this physical body and I think

and what you know you see within the Old Testament in the hope of the resurrection is that all of the created order is going to be aligned and made new and restored and that's going to be beautiful the same beauty that we marvel at when we see a sunrise when we see the mountains when we see the ocean when we just look at creation and it just sings to us of God's glory that's going to be restored to what it was meant to be we're going to be in awe once again at mountains at stars at

oceans at valleys at you know forests at deserts these things are going to continue to bring us into

“awe in eternity because God is going to resurrect us in a body that is I think although I don't”

know exactly probably analogous to something that we have your on earth but much much better much much more just what it was meant to be but heaven Ali heaven is the layover it's it's going to be a

great layover it's going to be amazing layover but it's not going to be the end goal we can still

hope in heaven for the restoring of all things for when as a reader revelation heaven and earth come together and we dwell with God and he is the presence that gives us that hope and that restorative newness I'm really looking forward to it and I have to continue to remind myself because it's so easy to forget this is a promise it's not an if it's not a maybe Ali you and I are going to stand in the new heavens in the new earth and we are going to glorify our God and our risen Savior in a way

that I don't think we can ever fully understand but I'm looking forward to it and something like Easter as Paul says that's the first fruit it's just this little taste it's like a taste test for

“a meal that we can't even imagine how good it's going to be amen amen I think it will feel”

something like although you know we really can't fully even comprehend what it will feel like to step to the other side of eternity and heaven and the uniting of heaven and earth but a week maybe earthly analogy is you know when you've been traveling as as you have for the past couple of days and just and that didn't the most stressful travel days that you've ever had and you don't even realize it but you're holding tension in every part of your body or immune system is shutting down

your worn down your aggravated and then you finally get home you get to sleep in your own bed that

night all the tension is released you feel restored and I just imagine that is a small taste of what it will be like in heaven we don't even realize the weight and the burden of sin are own sin and the sin of the world that we are carrying through this life and to feel just the relief of the freedom from sin and the effects of sin forever I think we can't even imagine the joy that we will experience in that moment and as you said it's not just an escape from the

bad things of this world it's about glorifying God forever and that's where we find our joy but it is a gift also that we will get relief from the sin that has been binding us for so long and you're right we see that in the resurrection that death couldn't hold him that sin can't hold us and that we get to defeat death with Jesus in eternity by going to heaven and spinning forever with him that analogy he had a little too close to home after traveling for a number of hours with four kids

and getting home last night but you're exactly right exactly what I feel I know exactly how you feel well West thank you so much you are a blessing to the body of Christ and I am so incredibly grateful for just how God has equipped you and how you are using those gifts to serve the body so thank you so

much always a pleasure to be on in chat thanks Ali thank you

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