Andrew Loke > Quotes

“Paul says in this passage (v. 6) that most of the five hundred are still alive, inviting any reader to check the truth of the story by questioning the eyewitnesses. He could never have done this and gotten away with it, given the power, resources and numbers of his enemies, if it were not true.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“It may be the case that God exists but He does not provide a necessary proof because He wants to give humans the space to make free choice with regards to faith, but this does not imply that He did not leave behind any evidence to let people know about his revelation in history.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Gnostic and Islamic escape hypotheses, which propose that God did a miraculous act to cause someone to be crucified in Jesus’ place,”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“If this week I put a thousand pounds in the drawer of my desk, add two thousand next week and another thousand the week thereafter, the laws of arithmetic allow me to predict that the next time I come to my drawer, I shall find four thousand pounds. But suppose when I next open the drawer, I find only one thousand pounds, what shall I conclude? That the laws of arithmetic have been broken? Certainly not! I might more reasonably conclude that some thief has broken the laws of the State and stolen three thousand pounds out of my drawer. One thing it would be ludicrous to claim is that the laws of arithmetic make it impossible to believe in the existence of such a thief or the possibility of his intervention. On the contrary, it is the normal workings of those laws that have exposed the existence and activity of the thief. (Lewis 2001,”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“In Luke 24:1–53, Jesus’ resurrection, all of his appearances, and his ascension to heaven are narrated as though having occurred on that Sunday. That Luke compressed the events in this manner is clear, since in the sequel to his Gospel, Luke says Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of forty days before ascending to heaven (Acts 1:3–9).”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“That the use of synagogues was Paul’s missionary strategy for a long time is confirmed by Paul’s own recollection of how often he suffered under Jewish discipline (five times he had received 39 lashes [2 Cor. 11.24]), for it is difficult to imagine that Paul would have been punished and persecuted if he avoided synagogue communities and lived solely as a gentile among gentile populations (Dunn 2008, pp.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Wright (2008, p. 58) explains, If the disciples simply saw, or thought they saw, someone they took to be Jesus, that would not by itself have generated the stories we have. Everyone in the ancient world took it for granted that people sometimes had strange experiences involving encounters with the dead, particularly the recently dead. They knew at least as much as we do about such visions, about ghosts and dreams—and the fact that such things often occurred within the context of bereavement or grief. They had language for this, and it wasn’t resurrection.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Wolfhart Pannenberg (1987, p. 135) concludes, The historical solidity of the Christian witness [to the resurrection] poses a considerable challenge to the conception of reality that is taken for granted by modern secular history. There are good and even superior reasons for claiming that the resurrection of Jesus was a historical event, and consequently, the Lord himself is a living reality. And yet there is the innumerable repeated experience that in the world the dead do not rise again. As long as this is the case, the Christian affirmation of Jesus’ resurrection will remain a debated issue, in spite of all sound historical argument to its historicity.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Because miracles are far less probable than routine historical events (volcanic eruptions, sinking ships, assassinations), the evidence necessary to justify beliefs about them must be many times better than that which would justify our beliefs in run-of-the-mill historical events. But it isn’t. The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is simply not as good as that which historians normally require of events that happen with greater frequency.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“God maintains a delicate balance between keeping his existence sufficiently evident so people will know he’s there and yet hiding his presence enough so that people who want to choose to ignore him can do it. This way, their choice of destiny is really free.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“In his more recent writings, Ehrman (2014, p. 149) has conceded, ‘it is in theory possible even to say that Jesus was crucified, and buried, and then he was seen alive, bodily, afterward.’ However, he insists, What is not a plausible historical conclusion is that God raised Jesus into an immortal body and took him up to heaven where he sits on a throne at his right hand. That conclusion is rooted in all sorts of theological views that are not widely shared among historians, and so is a matter of faith, not historical knowledge.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“unlike other figures of the past, Jesus has in every age exerted too powerful an influence on all sorts of people and still makes too strong a claim on everyone. Thus, we cannot have an unbiased historical record of him or an unbiased historian assessing the record, and therefore the historical-critical project is completely undermined (Kähler 1892/1964, pp. 92–95).”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“the case for the resurrection of Jesus is far stronger than claims of resurrection in other religions and that it can withstand scrutiny.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“The silence of the early written Jewish sources in refuting the resurrection can therefore be explained by the fact that they thought they could not refute it convincingly (it is interesting to note that Jewish polemic that the disciples stole the body is reflected in Christian sources).”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Elementary psychological considerations tell us that the early Christians could scarcely mention such intriguing events … without being able to elaborate on them… . A preacher can begin with an outline but he cannot go on forever repeating mere outlines.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“when my son was very young I completely supported his weight by holding his hands above his head and walked along side of a swimming pool while he walked on the water. The fact that billions of people have not walked on water does not influence the probability that my son did.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“The historian’s job is to tell the stories of memory in a way that most plausibly accounts for the mnemonic evidence. With this in mind, the historical Jesus is not veiled by the interpretations of him. He is most available for analysis when these interpretations are most pronounced. Therefore, the historical Jesus is clearly seen through the lenses of editorial agenda, theological reflection, and intentional counter-memory.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“This examination of the instruction given concerning oral traditions, of the controls exercised … brings out the fact that the traditions were often transmitted from one generation to the next by a method laid down for the purpose, and that in many societies without writing particular attention was paid to careful preservation and accurate transmission of these traditions. (Vansina 1965,”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“One might ask whether God could have done a miraculous act to cause someone to be crucified in Jesus’ place; this is the Islamic escape hypothesis often attributed to the Quran (Surah 4:157–8) and Gospel of Barnabas 217. Habermas and Licona (2004, pp. 184–185) object that both of them were written centuries after the time of Jesus and thus are of dubious worth as historical sources concerning Jesus.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“it is solved in a very curious way indeed, for this solution is saying, in effect, that what really happened is what is not narrated by any of these Gospels: for none of them mentions two angels! This way of interpreting the texts does so by imagining a new text that is unlike any of the others, so reconcile the four to one another. Anyone is certainly free to construct their own Gospel if they want to, but that’s probably not the best way to interpret the Gospels that we already have. (Ehrman 2014, pp. 134–135)”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“No, of course we must agree with Hume that if there is absolutely ‘uniform experience’ against miracles, in other words, they have never happened, why then they never have. Unfortunately, we know the experience against them to be uniform only if we know that all the reports of them are false. And we know all the reports are false only if we know already that miracles have never occurred. In fact, we are arguing in a circle. (Lewis”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Here is the point: just as the fictional account of the Titan does not undermine the reality of the sinking of the Titanic, fictional accounts of dying and rising gods would not undermine the historical reality of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The presence of parallels alone proves nothing about borrowing or the historicity of Jesus.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Licona elaborates: The manuscript support for our present critical Greek text of the New Testament is superior to what we have for any of the ancient literature. As of the time I am writing this chapter, there are 5,839 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. A dozen or so of these manuscripts have been dated to have been written within 150 years of the originals, and the earliest (P 52) has been dated to within ten to sixty years of the original. In contrast, of the nine Lives of Plutarch … only a few dozen Greek manuscripts have survived. The earliest of these is dated to the tenth or eleventh century, or roughly eight to nine hundred years after Plutarch wrote them.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Creeds are designed to be concise so that they can be easily memorized and communicated to others. If the ‘simplicity’ of the creed in 1 Corinthians means that Paul is unaware of the miraculous events surrounding Jesus’ resurrection, then the simplicity of the Nicene Creed (fourth century AD) should mean that the writers are unaware of the Gospel narratives. (Wood 2008)”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Romans were disgusted by the early Christians’ refusal to pay homage to the Roman gods by offering sacrifices, which was seen as threatening the stability of the state (McDowell”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Luke agrees with the tradition in placing the appearance to Peter chronologically prior to the group appearance to the disciples. ‘The fact that the name Peter is used in Luke 24:12 while Simon is used in 24:34 again points to different sources or traditions.’ The appearance to the Twelve in 1 Corinthians 15:5 is clearly narrated by Luke and John.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Zevi, a seventeenth-century Jewish teacher who claimed to be Messiah but who converted to Islam after he was captured by hostile Muslim forces. Instead of abandoning their beliefs, a number of Zevi’s followers rationalized how he had only ‘temporarily converted’ or was ‘destroying Islam from within.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“the gospel accounts of Jesus’s translation and reappearances have the form of a historical report that mentions real places in apparently real time. If in a general way the Gospels’ authors were influenced by Greek mythography, then they were specifically imitating those who put it into historical form.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“Jesus is just one among many folktales claiming resurrection from the dead or people taken to heaven. Such tales abound in various ancient cultures; examples include tales concerning Osiris, Romulus, and Asclepius (Carrier 2009, pp. 87–88). In the Buddhist tradition the sixth-century monk Bodhidharma was said to have been seen carrying his sandals and walking home after he died and was buried, and when his disciples opened up his grave the body was supposed to be missing. Additionally, there are various similarities (virgin birth, resurrection, etc.) between the stories of Jesus and the deities of other religions such as Mitra, Krishna, etc., even though these religions affirm different theologies from Christianity.”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach

“our first Gospel is Mark; it records the ‘fact’ that the tomb was empty, but strikingly, no one is said to come to believe that Jesus was raised because of it… . The same view is advanced in the Gospel of John. Ehrman,”
― Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach