Where is the Evidence for Believing Jesus Didn't Die on the Cross?
Where is the Evidence for Believing Jesus Didn't Die on the Cross?
I know Muslims claim Jesus never went to the cross, but of the 45 sources about Jesus within 150 years of his death no one claims that Jesus didn't die the cross, and the bulk of these sources do mention his death on the cross (see Ancient Evidence for the Life of Jesus, The Historical Jesus, and The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary R. Habermas).
How can you come along six centuries later and say the complete opposite of what has been recorded historically? Normally historians focus on the primary sources closes to the timing of the events, so the Qu'ran is given no consideration because it has no evidence and we can't trust any spirit for that would not be prudent. Faith should be backed up by evidence. Test the spirits and "prove all things".
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4.1). If it does not line up with the word of God it is not to be trusted.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1 Thess. 5.21).
How Do Mulsims Refute the Eyewitness Testimony of the Disciples?
The primary sources for what the original disciples believed was that they had seen Jesus alive from the dead, ate with Him, talked with Him, even touched His side where the spear pierced his lungs and heart cavity. They even went to their deaths as martyrs unwilling to relinquish their testimony they had see Jesus alive from the dead after He died on the cross.
The problem I have with Muslims is that clearly the disciples received this impression from Jesus, so does that not leave you in a precarious positoin? As the disciples set up the earliest churches based on the atonement through the death and resurrection of Jesus to be saved by grace through faith and be born-again.
If Jesus didn't lie and the disciples didn't lie then my conscience places me in situation where there is no other option than it must be true Jesus is God, for only God can resurrect Himself after He takes upon himself the sins of the world for forgiveness of sins and gives power over sin by those in Christ having died on the cross to our old man.