Why Ben Shapiro found William Lane Craig’s resurrection rationale ‘uninteresting’
iStock/K.E.N.We are just six months away from the projected release date of The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection. Jim Caviezel said it will be the “biggest film in history.” And a columnist for The Washington Times recently highlighted Christ’s resurrection with this candid headline: “The Most Important News Story in Human History.”
Ben Shapiro is a political commentator and an Orthodox Jew. William Lane Craig is a Christian apologist. The two men sat down a few years ago and discussed the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Craig presented “three great independently established facts which are supported by the historical evidence ... After his crucifixion and burial by a member of the Sanhedrin named Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus’ tomb was discovered empty on the first day of the week by a group of his female followers. Secondly, various individuals and groups of people then witnessed appearances of Jesus alive; and finally number three, the original disciples suddenly and sincerely came to believe that God had raised Jesus from the dead despite having every predisposition to the contrary.”
Dr. Craig continued, “The vast majority of scholars have come to accept as convincing the evidence in support of those three facts, not assuming biblical inerrancy or inspiration, but treating the Gospels as ordinary historical documents. You can show, for example, that the fact of the discovery of the empty tomb is attested by at least six independent sources in the New Testament, some of which are extraordinarily early. No scholar denies that individuals and groups saw postmortem appearances of Jesus.”
Ben Shapiro cordially responded that he finds these historical arguments for Christ’s resurrection to be “relatively uninteresting.”
Why so little interest in these verifiable facts of history? At the very least, one would think Ben Shapiro would find this credible evidence intriguing and worthy of investigation. It is illogical for an Orthodox Jew to dismiss the unassailable evidence for Christ’s resurrection as uninteresting and unworthy of serious consideration. There must be something deeper going on here.
Why do you suppose many Jewish people are so quick to write off the well-documented resurrection report concerning the most famous Jew who ever walked on this planet?
One key factor: Many Jewish children are taught that Jesus is the God of Gentile Christians, but certainly not the God of the Jews. In reality, “The Jewish Messiah Didn’t Start a New Religion,” as I explained in a CP op-ed last year.
Rather than encouraging their children to pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in a sincere effort to know the truth about Yeshua (Jesus), Jewish children are taught that Jews do not need Jesus for salvation.
The “cancel Jesus” culture defies logic, especially in light of the mathematical proof that God has provided in the fulfilled Messianic prophecies. And on top of that, “The Messiah’s Critics Couldn’t Produce His Body.”
When children are inculcated with an extreme bias against Yeshua, they find it extremely difficult to break free later in life. As a result, a relatively small number of Jews choose to investigate the Messianic prophecies and the resurrection of Yeshua with an open heart and a curious mind.
Scripture describes the veil which covers the hearts of Jewish people who do not yet know Yeshua as Messiah. “We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:13-16).
The strong evidence for Christ’s resurrection seems uninteresting when a veil is covering your mind. This veil is a supernatural spiritual barrier to belief in Jesus Christ as Messiah. The power of God can demolish this barrier and bring a person to faith in the Savior. The Gospel message rescues Jewish and Gentile captives from the spiritual bondage of unbelief.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentile” (Romans 1:16).
When Yeshua converted Saul on the Damascus road, (Acts 22:1-10) the Lord spoke of Paul's future work as an apostle: “I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:17-18).
Satan’s supernatural power is blinding. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). This is the same fallen angel who tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, (Genesis 3:1-6) and who “afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head” (Job 2:7).
Nevertheless, multitudes of Jews and Gentiles over the centuries have been healed of their spiritual blindness. For example, Jonathan Bernis of “Jewish Voice,” testifies how as a Jewish person he met Christ. And Israeli “Pop Idol” star, Birgitta Veksler, shares how a near-death experience brought her to the feet of her Messiah and freed her from fear.
If you have not yet experienced the grace and love of Yeshua, then I encourage you to open your heart and mind to the historical and prophetic evidence for the Messiah's resurrection, and to the good news of the Gospel.
Yeshua said, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Dan Delzell is the pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Papillion, Nebraska.
