The Historical Resurrection Quiz
Posted by DuaneJul 5
Gary Habermas is one of the world’s leading scholars on the resurrection. His website and other published materials (such as his book, The Historical Jesus) are outstanding, being first class resources for anyone facing the “latest” regurgitated challenges to the resurrection and related topics.
But I recently discovered another reason to visit his website; the Historical Resurrection Quiz. The quiz is multiple-choice-based and focuses on the historical sources, challenges and arguments concerning the resurrection. The quiz is broken up into levels of various difficulty, requiring you to attain a particular level of knowledge before moving on the next (more challenging) level. All answers are scored and bonus questions at the end of each round is an opportunity to score more points. I found it to be both fun and educational.
Adam was watching me play the first time through and each time I got one wrong he would provide helpful encouragement such as, “Oh you got one wrong, you’re not a real Christian”. Despite his encouragement, I managed to get to level 8 before I had to stop, so I didn’t quite get to finish the quiz. The questions do get harder with each level, though there is some repetition and “dummy” answer options to help narrow down the choices.
Hint: For those of you who do not prescribe to the fake-it-till-you-make-it school of learning and are actually prepared to research your answers rather than fudge your way through via a series of failed multiple guesses, I believe that the answers to many of the questions can be found in the online articles @ www.garyhabermas.com that Gary and Mike (Licona) used to compile the quiz. In other words, the answers to all the questions are available via free downloadable resources from his site.
Here are a few sample questions from the quiz:
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Why is the Minimal Facts approach effective?
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True or False: If Jesus did not rise from the dead, Christianity is false and we should live accordingly.
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What is the role of evidence in any investigation into Christianity?
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What is the principle of Enemy Attestation?
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What is the Jerusalem Factor argument for the empty tomb?
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What is the Minimal Facts method?
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The fact that Jesus’ disciples sincerely believed that he had risen from the dead and had appeared to them helps to eliminate at least two opposing theories. What are they?
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Regarding the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, what distinguishes the disciples from Muslim terrorists, who also willingly suffered and died for their beliefs?
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Which two Apostolic Fathers report that the apostles were dramatically impacted by Jesus’ resurrection?
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Nine ancient sources attest to the disciples’ claim to have seen the Jesus risen from the dead. These can easily be presented in three categories. What are they?
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How many sources attest to the willingness on the part of the original disciples to suffer and die for their beliefs?
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True or False: The willingness of the disciples to suffer and even die for their beliefs establishes the truth of their beliefs.
By the way, if you answered True for that last one, then you’re not a real Christian. ;)
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5 comments
Comment by @Stormbringer_5 on 5 Jul 2010 at 02:32
I can present the compelling evidence and arguments for the validity of the resurrection, but I certainly do not know phrases like "principle of Enemy Attestation". Those may be useful to full-time philosophers, but I just want to present the facts.
Comment by Duane on 5 Jul 2010 at 11:25
Thanks SB,
I think that these phrases are extremely useful for philosophers and theologians (and for even casual laymen like myself) who are trying to neatly arrange some of the facts into categories from which to draw upon in witnessing to others. This can be done though, without referring to the formal category itself.
For example, I find the "minimalist facts" approach to be extremely helpful and is quite an appropriate phrase for capturing the body of evidence attached to that phrase. But I don't necessarily toss the phrase around in a conversation unless I think the situation calls for it.
I might add though, that some of these categories are fairly well-labelled. The names aren't merely convenient, but often capture the concept quite well.
Comment by Rene Mulder on 5 Jul 2010 at 04:22
Never the less, you might run into people who have problems with exactly those philosophical matters. It helps to equip yourself with all sorts of answers to problems people might have: the more you know, the more you can meet people's objections/questions.
My experience with skeptics is that they have a whole host of objections (usually the typical ones that are easily answered by this quiz for example). One type of argument would not be enough to convince them; though to be fair, NO argument ever seems to convince them :P
It is still a matter of the heart and even if people were to acknowledge that they can't get around Jesus' ressurection, they'd still need to repent of their sin and accept Jesus as their savior and live a changed life.
Comment by Adam on 6 Jul 2010 at 06:42
I think you need to go one step further Rene, from "No arguement ever seems to convince them" to "No arguement will ever convince them unless the Holy Spirit works in them" See 1 Cor 2:14 "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he CANNOT understand them, because they are spiritually appraised."
Comment by RayFalling on 6 Jul 2010 at 09:01
That's what I was aiming at :) Thanks Adam.
Today I had an ugly experience with my collegues. They were mocking the faith again, throwing around nasty jokes and ignorant statements. I didn't know what to do.
There wasn't even room for me to lay a foundation to work from; the mocking just came from all directions, so fast.
When the topic of religion or anything related comes up, things just turn so ugly so fast. I felt quite sad and backed against the wall.
I don't even think my collegues are open for being corrected in their views; and I don't think resurrection evidence is going to change that either.
It was very frustrating that this happened. It isn't the first time either.
Every new collegue I got so far has been somewhat hostile towards Christianity. It's so tiring to be in these situations.
Adressing a skeptic is one thing, but dealing with people who really don't care about knowing the facts is a whole other business. *sigh*
( René )