hakeem wrote:
If Jesus was a known false then it cannot be explained how he was worshiped as the Son of God, the Logos, the Lord from heaven and God Creator.
There could not be people in the time of Pilate hoping to see the son of man coming in the clouds when they saw that he did not resurrect if he did live, was killed and dead for three days!!
Regarding the first assertion, my thinking is that Jesus could not have been known as a false prophet until c. 150 CE, after everyone from his time had died and apparently did not see the "son of man" coming on the clouds of heaven (assuming that Josephus' sign was not Jesus, and I don't know any Christians who think that it was).
Regarding the second assertion, I suppose it's debatable whether the resurrection was "spiritual" or physical in early Christianity. Paul at least thinks it is "spiritual" in 1 Cor. 15:35-44:
But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body ... So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
As far as seeing the resurrected Jesus goes, it appears to have been confined to his followers in Mk. 16:6-7:
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”
This is presumably in reference to Mk. 14:27-28:
Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
And Paul says that not "everyone" saw the resurrected Jesus in 1 Cor. 15:3-8:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
But I think the idea of the "son of man" coming on the clouds of heaven is another matter and I reckon it would have been seen by "everyone," like Josephus' sign, regarding which he says, "I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals."
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.