The following is a question I received and my response:
QUESTION-
"Could the prophesies from the old testament have been fulfilled not only
intentionally by Jesus, but a wider organization as well? I know this
sounds ridiculous, but I was bothered by the possibility
that Jesus could have been part of a larger conspiracy to fulfill the
prophesies and appear as the Messiah. If there was a hypothetical
organization, and it's members included Mary and Joseph, couldn't they
have chosen to go to Bethlehem to fulfill the prophesy
of the Messiah's birth? Additionally, this secret organization was
cult-like, then Jesus might have been willing to give his life to
support the goal of the organization. Finally, a piece of strong
evidence in favor of the resurrection of evidence is that he
not only appeared to his disciples, but that he was perfectly healthy,
leading them to believe in him and spread the news of his resurrection,
even though they would die for it. But what if the disciples were all
part of the organization as well? Then they
might have made up the appearance of Jesus, and if they were members of
this hypothetical organization/cult, they might have had incentive
enough to die for spreading the message. Is it also possible there was
simply a Jesus look-alike? I know this sounds ridiculous
and it's definitely a conspiracy theory, but it has been bothering me,
and I'd love if you could address it. Thank you."
ANSWER-
Thanks for your question...and I must admit it does sound a little far
fetched! It's certainly possible that such a scenario could have
happened, in a logical and physical possibility sense. But, there is
really no evidence to suggest that it did. Whenever
we think about historical events we can always let our imaginations run
wild and conjecture about any number of possibilities. But, we should
reign in our imaginations with logic, evidence, and in the case of
scripture, the leadership of the Holy Spirit. If
we do that, it will keep us from being troubled by outlandish
possibilities.
Regarding the conspiracy you imagine in your question, I think you will
see if we apply some critical historical discipline, it crumbles rather
quickly. First, your imagined conspiracy seems to contain the idea of
intentionality on the part of Jesus and possibly
others who would be choosing to do certain things intentionally in order
to fulfill Old Testament prophecies. You
should not be troubled by the idea of intentionality. In fact, we can be
quite confident that Jesus did certain things
intentionally to fulfill OT prophecies. Scripture (Mat 5:17) tells us
this explicitly! Jesus, being God incarnate, inspired the prophets to
write what they wrote, he obviously knew what was intended and knew why
he came - it was to fulfill the prophecies that
he himself caused to be proclaimed. He told the religious leaders that
the Old Testament scriptures in which they search for eternal life
testify of him (Jn 5:39). So we see clearly that Jesus would be expected
to "intentionally" fulfill the Old Testament prophecies.
That certainly should not trouble you.
Secondly, what about others who may have also been intentional in their
activities to fulfill prophecy. We have no indication that any of the
others had such intentionality. In fact, prior to Jesus' resurrection,
all scriptural evidence indicates that his followers,
family, and others did not realize the true nature of his messiahship.
Specifically, they did not expect or anticipate a suffering servant
Messiah who would suffer and die a vicarious death for the atonement of
sin. The idea of Messiah as a suffering servant
may not have been completely absent prior to the post-resurrection
understanding of Jesus by his followers, but it is greatly debated among
scholars that such an idea existed at all. And it is almost certain,
that no idea of a Messiah who would die a vicarious,
atoning death existed prior to Christianity. This is strong evidence
that the followers of Jesus would not have expected anything like what
Jesus indeed was, a Messiah who would willingly sacrifice himself as a
vicarious sin offering to the Father on behalf
of his people. This, of course, would make it untenable that they were
involved in a conspiracy to "fulfill" Old Testament prophecy in such a
manner as to make Jesus appear to be the Suffering Servant of Isa 53 as a
divine/human, Messiah who would suffer for
the atonement of sin. Because there is no evidence that this
understanding existed until after the resurrection of Jesus! It took a
radical, transformational event to change the thinking of Jesus'
followers in order for them to understand this new revelation
of Messiah as One who would suffer for them and die as the atonement for
their sin.
And thirdly, that leads to the final element of your concern. Could the
disciples have been part of a conspiracy to fake the death and
resurrection of Jesus? This objection has been around from the
beginning! In fact, it is referenced in the New Testament itself,
see Mat 28:13-15. There is a reason this objection has not ever gained
much of a following. It is because it is not very plausible. As noted
above, Jews of the day did not expect such a Messiah as Jesus. Instead,
they expected an anointed servant of God with
special abilities who would come and deliver Israel and establish an
earthly kingdom in which Israel would be preeminent under the rule of
Messiah. Obviously, a suffering, dying, resurrecting, and ascending to
heaven type of Messiah whose rule was in the hearts
of mankind, and would be for Gentiles as well as Jews, was a
total non sequitur! If they were going to concoct a conspiracy in order
to establish a successful cult or organization, this is definitely NOT
the one they would concoct! Additionally, why
would they concoct a conspiracy that would ensure their own persecution
and death? This would be utterly counterproductive. Further, if the
disciples were in on the lie, then why sustain the lie in the face of
persecution and death? You said, "they might have
had incentive enough" to die for the lie...but what could that have
been? This in fact is one evidence for the validity of the resurrection
itself, that the actual resurrection of Jesus provides the powerful
incentive that would be needed to face persecution
and death - not only for themselves but also for their families. They
lost everything of worldly value - ostracized, persecuted, loss of
reputation, and ultimately death and the probable destruction of their
families. The actual resurrection of Jesus which
validated his teaching about who he was, the kind of Messiah he was, and
provided the hope of eternal life with him in glory, would be the
incentive needed for what the disciples did. It seems inconceivable that
they would have endured all that for a known lie which they themselves perpetrated!
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