On a recent episode of Joe Rogan’s Podcast, he interviewed Christian apologist Wesley Huff who gave evidence for the existence and resurrection of Jesus. Rogan questioned the apologist about the possibility of miracles, the evidence for the resurrection, whether it is possible that Jesus didn’t die, and why Huff believes that Jesus was not merely a moral teacher.
Rogan started by asking the theologian “So what is your personal belief when it comes to the resurrection? What do you think happened?” Wesley Huff is the Central Canada director for Apologetics Canada, holds a Master of Theological Studies from Tyndale University, and is currently working on a Ph.D. in New Testament at the University of Toronto’s Wycliffe College.
Huff replied “Well, I always say that, when people ask me about the miracles in the Bible, “I say, ‘Well, you know, if the first miracle happened, if…nothing became everything, then Jesus turning water into wine…’” Rogan interjected ”That’s an easy one. That’s a party trick.” Rogan continued to say “That is nothing compared to the birth of the universe, but we’re convinced at the creation of the universe, and we’re very skeptical at other miracles.”
While Rogan said this skepticism is “very odd.” Huff agreed “I do think there’s an inconsistency there.” Rogan directly asked, “So what is your personal belief when it comes to the resurrection?” The apologist stated “So as a historian, I do think it is a historical question. You have a guy who objectively lived, he objectively died, and then individuals close to his inner circle claim that they see him not dead.”
Rogan admitted that this was “This is a highly unusual activity.” He added “It’s hard when you’re dealing with illiterate populations. You’re dealing with thousands of years of time. You’re dealing with an oral tradition, and then you have us sitting here talking about it in 2024.” He stated, “It’s very difficult for anybody who thinks of themselves as an intelligent person, who’s secular, to even entertain the possibility that someone died and [came] back to life.”
“You’re right in terms of all of these ancient conventions and the ways that things were spread around, but the gospels are written in the lifetime of the eyewitnesses, and they’re written in this period of time where you have groups of individuals who could have fact-checked those things,” Huff clarified. He went on to say that“ ..Paul says that 400 people saw him all at once.”
“These are written within a time period when you have people who would have seen Jesus’ ministry, who were there, say at something like the feeding of the 5,000,” said the apologist, “who could have been able to verify or debunk some of these things that are being said.” He described that before they started preaching, the apostles were “a bunch of scared guys,” Huff explained. “Jesus wasn’t the only messianic figure who arose and claimed to be the Messiah. There were a number of individuals, both prior to and after Jesus, but they die, and the movement dies with them.”
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He explained that there were accepted conventions for how biographies were written during that period in history. This can be seen in authors like Quintilian, Lucian, and Josephus, “who are all these very prominent ancient biographers and writers of history,” Huff said. Luke follows their style when he writes in his gospel that he’s interviewing eyewitnesses and writing “an orderly account.” He stated “And so he’s saying, you know, I’m going to use these methods that are expected as good history of my day.”