What Does the Death of the Apostles Prove?
Often times people will point out that the Apostles died for their faith. This is offered as evidence for the proof of the Gospel, after all, who would die for a lie? The immediate counter-argument is that there are many people who die for a lie. From time to time we hear of cultists (e.g. Jonestown) who commit suicide. They often sincerely believe in their group and are willing to give their lives for those beliefs, even though many of us would serious question their beliefs. What about radical Jihadists who are willing to give their lives for their beliefs? Christians would disagree with their truth claims and yet they are willing to give their lives.
The issue is not simply whether or not people will give their lives for their beliefs. The issue with the Apostles is that they were witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. They died, not because they believed in the resurrection, but because they witnessed it and knew it to be true. It is one thing for me to believe that the desk chair in the pastor’s office at First Baptist Church Meaford is red. It is another thing for me as the current pastor, sitting in that chair, to know that it is red. What we have to take into account with the Apostles is: Why did they give their lives, when they were in a position to know whether or not Jesus did rise from the dead. The only logical explanation is that they knew the resurrection to be true from their own eyewitness experience.
Yes, Excellent Stephen. This helps us deal with the claim the muslim extremists have done the same thing as the apostles. Appreciate it,
Pastor Adam Barton
Akron, Ohio
Thanks Adam. It is an important distinction.
What is the evidence that the apostles died for their belief in the resurrection?
Again back to 1 Corinthians 15 we find that belief in the resurrection of Jesus was central to the message of the Gospel. That was the Gospel that was preached by the apostles. The apostles died for their faith and their preaching. If they knew the resurrection to be false, they could have easily lived a quiet life somewhere. As for the specific accounts of their deaths, some are found in Acts and the others are spread throughout the writings of the early church fathers.
Actually, there is very little record of the activities of the apostles or their deaths in the writings of the early church fathers. Most of the martyrdom traditions arise centuries after the fact.
By the church fathers, I do not mean just the narrow definition of the apostolic fathers but all those up to Nicaea. However, even early we have James in Acts and James the brother of Jesus in Josephus. In other writings we have Peter and Paul and I have recently come across something about John’s death.
Nicea was 323 A.D. That’s 250 years after almost all the apostles would have died. Josephus does narrate the death of James, however, he says nothing to indicate that it had anything to do with Jesus’ resurrection.
Except the information that we can piece together is that it was the resurrection that turned James from being a skeptic to being the leader of the Jerusalem church.