Just Don’t Want to Believe

As Dave Hunt has pointed out, “the Bible doesn’t waste its time ‘proving God’s existence.’ It starts out, ‘In the beginning, God created,’ and bluntly declares, ‘The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God’ (Psalms:14:1(To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
See All...; 53:1).

Quite simply, one must ignore a great deal of evidence, and treat unfairly what evidence is left, in order to deny that Jesus existed. Michael Grant, a Classical Greek and Roman historian (no great supporter of evangelicals) notes that there is more evidence of Jesus’ existence than there for many historical figures - but no one would consider them mythological (Grant, Michael. Greek and Roman Historians: Information and Misinformation. London: Routledge, 1995).

Yet, despite a sufficiency of evidence, many will simply choose not to believe the scriptures. This is both irrational and inconsistent with the rules that govern the rest of human affairs. Consider the following:

“Behind the call for additional non-Christian witnesses to the existence of Jesus is the refusal to accept the testimony of the four writers we do have. Should we reject the four because they are not forty? The silence of the imaginary majority cannot overthrow the clear testimony of the few. This demand for other witnesses reminds me of the anecdote about a man accused of theft. At his trial the prosecuting attorney brought forward four witnesses who saw him commit the crime, while the defense attorney introduced as evidence fourteen persons who did not see him do it. Needless to say, the man was found guilty! “ (Harris, Murray. "References to Jesus in Early Classical Authors." Gospel Perspectives: The Jesus Tradition Outside the Gospels. Sheffield: JSOT, 1985).