Debat : Was Christ Crucified ? Ahmad deedat vs Josh McDowell

CUPLIKAN DEBAT AHMAD DEEDAT DGN JOSH Mc.DOWELL

WAS CHRIST CRUCIFIED?
Ahmed Deedat vs. Josh Mcdowell
THE DEBATE took place in August, 1981, in Durban,
South Africa

THE TOPIC was the question:
Was Christ crucified?

THE PARTICIPANTS
were Josh McDowell and
Ahmed Deedat, the
president of the Islamic Propagation Centre in
Durban, South Africa.

The debate, a transcript of which appears on the following
pages, was divided into three parts:

Opening arguments, 50 minutes.
Rebuttals by each, 10 minutes.
Closing statements, 3 minutes.

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TRANSCRIPT OF THE DEBATE
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******************* OPENING ARGUMENTS *******************

# Ahmed Deedat
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Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. On the subject of crucifixion, the Muslim is told in no uncertain terms, in the Holy Qur’an, the last and final revelation of God, that they didn’t kill Him, nor did they crucify Him. But it was made to appear to them so. And those who dispute therein, are full of doubts. They have no certain knowledge; they only follow conjecture, guesswork. For of a surety, they killed Him not.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. Could anyone have been more explicit, more dogmatic, more uncompromising, in
stating a belief than this? The only one who was entitled to say such words is the all-knowing, omniscient Lord of the universe.

The Muslim believes this authoritative statement as the veritable Word of God. And as such, he asks no questions, and he demands no proof. He says, “There are the words of my Lord; I believe, and I affirm.” But the Christian responds in the words of our honorable guest. In his book, Josh McDowell with Don Stewart in “Answers to tough Questions” on pages 116 and 117, states the Christian’s attitude toward this uncompromising statement of the Muslim. He says, “A major problem with accepting Mohammed’s account is that his testimony is 600 years after the event occurred, while the New Testament contains eyewitness, or first hand, testimony of the life and mini- stry of Jesus Christ.” In a nutshell, the Christian asks how can a man a thousand miles away from the scene of the happening of the crucifixion and 600 years in time away from the happening know what happened in Jerusalem? The Muslim responds that these are the words of God Almighty. And therefore, as such, God knew what had happened. The Christian naturally reasons that, had he accepted this book, the Qur’an, as the Word of God, there would have been no dispute between us. We would all have been Muslims!

We have eyewitness and earwitness accounts of these happenings which are stated for us in the Holy Bible, more especially in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Now, the implication of this crucifixion is this: it is alleged that Jesus Christ was murdered by the Jews by means of crucifixion 2,000 years ago, And as such, the Jews are guilty of the murder of Jesus Christ. We Muslims are told that they are innocent because Christ was not killed, nor was He crucified, And as such, I am given the [mandate] by the Holy Qur’an to defend the Jews against the Christian charge. I’m going to defend the Jews this afternoon, not
because they are my cousins, but simply because justice must he done. We have our points of difference with the Jews –
that is a different question altogether. This afternoon, I will try my very best to do justice to my cousins, the Jews.

Now, in this argument, this debate, this dialogue, I am actually the defense counsel for the Jews, and Josh McDowell is the prosecuting counsel. And you, ladies and gentlemen, are the ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I want you to sit back, relax and at the end of this, give judgment to yourself, to your own conscience whether the Jews are guilty or not of the charge as alleged by the Christians.

Now, to get to the point, as the defense counsel for the Jews, I could have had this case against the Jews dismissed in just two minutes – in any court of law, in any civilized country in the world, simply by demanding from the prosecuting counsel the testimonies of these witnesses, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, And when they are pre- sented, in the form of sworn affidavits, as we have them in the gospels, I could say that, in their original, they are not attested. And the proof – you get any authorized King James Version of the Bible, and you’ll find each and every affidavit begins: “The Gospel according to St. Matthew, the Gospel according to St. Mark, the Gospel according to St. Luke, the Gospel according to St. John.” I’m asking, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what is this “according … according … according”? Do you know what it means? It means Matthew, Mark, Luke and John didn’t sign their names. It is only assumed that these are their work. And as such, in any court of law, in any civilized country, they would be thrown out of court in just two minutes.

Not only that, I can have this case dismissed TWICE in two minutes in any court of law in any civilized country. I said twice because one of the testators in the Gospel of St. Mark, chapter 14, verse 50, tells us that at the most critical juncture in the life of Jesus, all His disciples forsook Him, and fled. ALL. If they were not there, the testimony of those who were not there to witness what happened will be thrown out of court. I said, twice in two minutes, in just 120 seconds flat, the case would be over. In any court of law. in any civilized country in the world.

But where is the fun of it? You have come a long way from far and wide, after all the threatening rains. And now, if we say the case is closed and go home, where is the fun of it? To entertain you, I will accept those documents as valid, for the sake of this dialogue, and we are now going to put these witnesses into the box for cross-examination. And I want you to see where the truth lies.

The first witness that I’m going to call, happens to be St. Luke. And St. Luke has been described by Christian authorities as one of the greatest historians. As a historical book, the Gospel of St. Luke is unique. Now, we get St. Luke. chapter 24. verse 36. I’m going to tell you what he has said – what he has written in black and white. He tells us that it was Sunday evening, the first day of the week, when Jesus Christ walked into that upper room, the one in which He had the Last Supper with His disciples. This is three days after His alleged crucifixion. He goes in, and He wishes His disciples, “Peace be unto you.” And when He said,
“Peace be unto you,” His disciples were terrified. Is that true? We’re asking you. I would like to ask Him, why were the disciples terrified? Because when one meets his long-lost master, his grandfather, his guru, his Rabbi – we Eastern people embrace one another; we kiss one another. Why should His disciples be terrified? So Luke tells us they were frightened, because they thought He was a spirit.

I’m only quoting what he said. And you can verify in your own Bible at home. They were frightened, they were terrified because they thought He was a spirit. I’m asking Luke, did He look like a spirit? And he says no. I’m asking all the Christians of the world again and again, of every church and denomination, this master of yours, did He look like a spirit? And they all say no. Then I say, why should they think that man is a spirit when He didn’t look like one? And everyone is puzzled – unless Josh can explain. Every Christian is puzzled. Why should they think the man is a spirit when He didn’t look like one? I will tell you. The reason is because the disciples of Jesus had heard from hearsay that the Master was hanged on the cross. They had heard, from hearsay, that He had given up the ghost. In other words. His spirit had come out: He had died. They had heard from hearsay that He was dead and buried for three days. All their knowledge was from hearsay, because as I said at the beginning (Mark, chapter 14, verse 50), your other witness says that at the most criti- cal juncture in the life of Jesus all His disciples forsook Him and fled. All! They were not there.

So, all the knowledge being from hearsay, you come across a person who you heard was dead for three days. You assume that He’s stinking in His grave. When you see such a person. naturally, you’re terrified. So Jesus wants to assure them that He’s not what they’re thinking. They are thinking that He has come back from the dead. A resurrected, spiritualized body, so He says – I am only quoting what Luke says – He says, “Behold My hands and My feet.” Have a look at My hands and My feet, that it is I, Myself. I am the same fellow, man, what’s wrong with you? Why are you afraid? He says, “Handle Me and see. Handle Me and see. For a spirit has no flesh and bones, as you see me have.” A spirit: indefinite article “a.” A spirit, any spirit, has no flesh and bones, as you see me have. So, if I have flesh and bones, I’m not a spirit: I’m not a ghost: I’m not a spook. I am asking the English man – the one who speaks English as his mother tongue – since I have flesh and bones. I’m not a spirit: I’m not a ghost: I’m not a spook. I say. is that what it means in your language?

I say, you Afrikaner, when a man tells you that, does it mean that he’s not what you are thinking? That is, he is not a spirit, he is not a ghost, he is not a spook. And everybody responds “yes.” If a man tells you a spirit has no flesh and bones, it means it has no flesh and bones. As you see, I have these things, so I’m not what you’re thinking. You are thinking that I was dead, and I have come back from the dead and am resurrected. If a spirit has no flesh and bones, in other words, he’s telling you that the body you are seeing is not a metamorphosed body. It is not a translated body; it is not a resurrected body. Because a resurrected body gets spiritualized. Who says so? My authority is Jesus. You say, “Where?” I say Luke, you look again – chapter 20 in verse 36. What does he say? You see, the Jews were always coming to Him with riddles; they were always asking Him, “Master, shall we pay tribute to Caesar or not? Master, this woman, we found her in the act. What shall we do to her? Master …” Again and again. Now, they come to Him and they ask Him, it says. “Master,” Rabbi in the Hebrew language, “Master, we had a woman among us, and this woman according to a Jewish custom, had seven husbands.” You see, according to a Jewish custom, if a brother of a man dies and leaves no offspring. then the man takes his brother’s wife to be his own wife. And when he fails the third brother does likewise, and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth, and the seventh.

Seven brothers had this woman as a wife. but there was no problem while on this earth because it was all one by one. Now, they want to know from Him that at the resurrection, in the hereafter, which one is going to have her, because they all had her here. In other words, there will be a war in heaven, because we believe that we will all be resurrected simultaneously. All together. at one time. And these seven brothers wake up at the same time. and they see this woman and every one would say, “My wife! My wife!” and there would be a war in heaven between the brothers for this one woman.

So they want to know from Him which one is going to have her on the other side. Luke. chapter 20, verse 36. Check it out. In answer to that. Jesus said about these resurrected men and women, “Neither shall they die anymore.” In other words, “Once they are resurrected, they will be immortalized.” This is a mortal body. It needs food, shelter, clothing, sex, rest. Without these things mankind perishes. That body will be an immortalized body. An immortal body, no food, no shelter, no clothing, no sex, no
rest. He says neither shall they die anymore. For they are equal unto the angels.

In other words, they will be angelized. They will be spiritualized; they will be spiritual creatures; they will be spirits! For they are equal unto angels and the children of God. Such are the children of the resurrection – spirit! He said “A spirit has no flesh and bones, as you see Me have.” In other words, “I’m not resurrected.” And they believed not for joy and wonders – Luke 24 again. What happened then? We thought the man was already dead, perhaps stinking in His grave. And they believed not for joy – overjoy – and they wonder what hap- pened? So He says, “Have you any broiled fish and a honeycomb here, meat – something
to eat?” And they gave Him a piece of bread and He took it and ate it in their very sight. To prove what? I’m asking ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what was He trying to demonstrate? What? “I am the same fellow, man; I am not what you are thinking, I have not come back from the dead.”

This was Sunday evening after the alleged crucifixion. Let’s go back. What happened in the morning? Your other witness, John, chapter 20, verse 1, tells us that it was Sunday morning, the first day of the week, when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus. I’m asking John, why did she go there? Or, let’s put another of your witnesses on the stand, Mark, chapter 16, verse 1. Mark, tell us – why did Mary go there? And Mark tells us, “She went to anoint Him.” Now, the Hebrew word for anoint is ‘massahah’ from which we get the word messiah in Hebrew and masih in Arabic. The root word for both Arabic and Hebrew is the same. Massahah means to rub, to massage, to anoint.

I’m asking, do Jews massage dead bodies after three days? And the answer is no. I say to you Christians, do you massage dead bodies after three days? Do you? The answer is no. We Muslims are the closest to the Jew in our ceremony of law. Do Muslims massage dead bodies after three days? The answer is no. Then why would they want to go and massage a dead, rotten body after three days? Within three hours, you know that rigor mortis sets in, the hardening of the cells, the rotting of the body, fermentation from within. In three days’ time the body is rotten from inside. Such a rotting body when you massage it falls to pieces.

Why would she want to go and massage a dead, rotten body unless she was looking for a live person? You see, according to your witnesses, from only reading, she must have seen signs of life in the limp body as it was being taken down from the cross. She was about the only woman who, with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, had given the final rites to the body of Jesus. All his other disciples had forsaken Him and fled. They were not there. So if this woman had seen signs of life, she was not going to shout, “There, He’s alive! He’s alive!” – to invite a sure death.

Three days later, she goes in, and she wants to anoint Him. And when she reaches the sepulchre, she finds that the stone is removed. The winding sheets are inside. So, she starts to cry. I’m asking, why was the stone removed and why were the winding sheets unwound? Because for a resurrected body you won’t have to remove the stone to come out. For the resurrected body, you don’t have to unwind the winding sheets to move, This is the need of this physical body. This mortal body. Because a poet tells us, “The stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage,” For the soul, for the spirit, these things do not matter. Iron bars or walls. It’s the need of His physical body. Jesus Christ, according to the Scriptures, was watching her from wherever He was, not from heaven, but from this earth.

Because this tomb, if you remember, was privately owned property belonging to Joseph of Arimathea. This very rich, influential disciple had carved out of a rock a big, roomy chamber. Around that chamber was his vegetable garden. Now, don’t tell me that this Jew was so generous that he was planting vegetables five miles out of town for other people’s sheep and goats to graze upon. Surely he must have bought his laborers quarters. Or for people who looked after his garden, or perhaps his country home where he went with his family for holidays, on the weekends.

Jesus is there and He watches this woman. He knows who she is and He knows why she’s there. And He goes up to her. He finds her crying. So He says, “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” I’m asking, doesn’t He know? Doesn’t He know? Why does He ask such a silly question? I’m telling you, this is not a silly question. He’s actually pulling her leg, metaphorically. She, supposing Him to be the gardener – I’m only reading you evidence as it is given. She supposed Him to be the gardener – I am asking, why does she suppose He’s a gardener? Do resurrected bodies look like gardeners? Do they? I say, why does she suppose He’s a gardener? I’m telling you, because He’s disguised as a gardener. Why is He disguised as a gardener? I say, because He’s afraid of the Jews. Why is He afraid of the Jews? I say, because He didn’t die. And He didn’t conquer death. If He had died, and if He had conquered death, there’s no need to be afraid anymore. Why not? Because the resurrected body can’t die twice. Who says so? I say the Bible. What does it say? It says it is ordained unto all men, once to die, and after that, the judgment. You can’t die twice.

So, if He had conquered death, there would be no need to be afraid. He’s afraid, because He didn’t die, So she, supposing Him to be the gardener, says, “Sir, if you have taken Him hence, tell me where have you laid Him to rest?” To relax, to recuperate, not where have you buried Him. “So that I might take him away.” I alone .- one woman a frail Jewess. Imagine her carrying away a corpse of 160 pounds, at least, not 200 like me. A muscular carpenter supposed to be a young man in the prime of His life, at least 160 pounds. And another 100 pounds’ worth of medicines around Him, John, chapter 19, verse 9. That makes Him 260.

Can you imagine this frail Jewess carrying this bundle of a corpse over 260 pounds, like a bundle of straw, like a super-woman in the American comics? And take Him where? Take Him home? Put Him under a bed – what does she want to do with Him? Does she want to pickle Him? What does she want to do with a rotting body. I ask you?

So Jesus – the joke has gone too far – says, “Mary…”The way He said “Mary,” she recognized that this was Jesus. So, she wants to grab Him. I’m asking why. To bite Him? No! To pay respect. We Eastern people do that. She wants to grab Him. So Jesus says, “Touch Me not,” I say, why not? Is He a bundle of electricity, a dynamo, that if she touches Him she will get electrocuted? Tell me, why not? I say because it hurts, You give me another reason why not, “Touch Me not for I am not yet ascended unto My Father.” Is she blind? Can’t she see the man is standing there beside her? What does He mean by “I’m not gone up” when He is here? He said, “I am not yet ascended unto My Father.” In the language of the Jew, in the idiom of the Jew. He’s saying, “I am not dead yet.”

The problem arises: who moved the stone? How could she get to Him; who moved the stone? And the Christians are writing books upon books. One is Frank Morrison, a rationalist lawyer, He writes a book of 192 pages and he gives six hypotheses, At the end of the 192 pages, when you are finished, you still haven’t got the answer. Who moved the stone? And they’re writing books upon books: who moved the stone? I can’t understand why you can’t see the very obvious. Why don’t you read your books: These gospels, you have it in black and white in your own mother tongue. This is an anomaly that you read this book in your own mother tongue.

The Englishman in English, the Afrikaner in Afrikaans the Zulu in Zulu. Every language group has got the book in their own language. And each and every one is made to understand the exact opposite of what he is reading. Exact opposite. Not just merely misunderstanding.

I want you to prove me wrong. I’m telling you … I’m only quoting word for word exactly as your witnesses have said it. Preserved it for us in black and white. I’m not attributing motives to them. I’m not saying that they are dishonest witnesses. I’m telling you. Please read this book of yours once more. Remove the blinders, and read it again. And tell me where I’m not understanding your language. You Englishmen, or you Afrikaners, you Zulu. You come back to me and if you feel that at the end of the talk. our honored visitor has not done justice to the subject, you call me – to your Kingdom Halls or to your school hall or anywhere you want to discuss it further with me. I am prepared to come. Who moved the stone? I’m asking. It’s very simple – they’re talking about 20 men required. It is so huge, it needed a superman from America to move it. One and a half to two
tons. I’m telling you, please read Mark and Matthew and he tells you that Joseph of Arimathea alone, put the stone into place. One man – alone. One man! If one man can put it into place, why can’t two persons remove it, I ask you? Now, all those happenings – you know that this was prophesied. It was ordained. And all the stories about what happened afterward – I’m telling you that Jesus Christ had given you a clear cut indication of what was going to happen. And that’s also preserved in black and white in your testimony in the Gospel of St. Matthew, another of your witnesses, chapter 12. verses 38. 39 and 40. The Jews come again to Jesus. with a new request.

Now they say. “Master, we would have a sign of Thee.” We want You to show a miracle to convince us that You are the Messiah we are waiting for. You know, something supernatural like walking on the water, or flying in the air like a bird. Do something, man, then we will be convinced that You are a man of God, the Messiah we are waiting for. So Jesus answers them. He says, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. But there shall be no sign given unto it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth.” The only sign He was prepared to give them was the sign of Jonah. He has put all his eggs in one basket. He didn’t say, “You know blind Bartimaeus, I healed him.

You know that woman with issues who had been bleeding for years. She touched Me and she was healed. You know, I fed five thousand people with a few pieces of fish and a few pieces of bread. You see that fig tree. I dried it up from its very roots.” Nothing of the kind. “This is the only sign I will give you, the sign of Jonah.” I’m asking, what was that sign?

Well, go to the book of Jonah. I brought the book of Jonah for you – one page by God – it is only one page in the whole Bible. This is the book of Jonah. Four short chapters. It won’t take you two minutes to read it. It’s hard to find the book because, in a thousand pages, to find one page is difficult. But, you don’t have to go there. If you went to Sunday school. you will remember what I’m telling you. I’m telling you that Jonah was sent to the Ninevites. You know, God Almighty told him, “Go to Nineveh,” a city of 100,000 people. He was to warn them that they must repent in sack-cloth and ashes; they must humble themselves before the Lord. Jonah was despondent because these materialistic people -worldly people – “They will not listen to me. They
will make a mockery of what I have to tell them.” So instead of going to Nineveh, he goes to Joppa. That’s what this one-page book tells you. He went to Joppa and was taken aboard a ship – he was going to Tarshish. You don’t have to remember the names.

On the way, there’s a storm. And according to the superstitions of these people, anyone who runs away from his master’s command, who fails to do his duty, creates a turmoil at sea. So, they begin to question in the boat, who could be responsible for this storm. Jonah realizes that as a prophet of God, he is a soldier of God. And as a soldier of God, he has no right to do things presumptuously on his own. So he says, “Look, I am the guilty party. God Almighty is after my blood. He wants to kill me, so in the process He’s sinking the boat, and you innocent people will die. It will be better for you if you take me and you throw me overboard. Because God is really after my blood.”

They say, “No, man, you know, you are such a good man. Perhaps you want to commit suicide. We won’t help you to do
that. We have a sys- tem of our own of discovering right from wrong,” and that is what they call casting lots. Like heads or tails. So, according to the system of casting lots, Jonah was found to be the guilty man. And so they took him, and they threw him overboard.

Now I’m going to ask you a question. When they threw him overboard. was he dead or was he alive? Now, before you answer. I want you to bear in mind that Jonah had volunteered. He said, “Throw me.” And when a man volunteers, you don’t have to strangle him before throwing, you don’t have to spear him before throwing, you don’t have to break his arm or limb before throwing. You agree with me?

The man had volunteered. So when they threw him overboard, what does your common sense say? Was he dead or was he alive? Please, I want your help. Was he dead or was he alive? Alive. You get no prize for that – it was too simple a question. And – astonishingly the Jews say that he was alive, the Christians say he was alive and the Muslims say he was alive. How much nicer it would be if we would agree on every other thing.

We all agree that he was alive when he was thrown into that raging sea. And the storm subsided. Perhaps it was a coincidence. A fish comes and gobbles him. Dead or alive? Was he dead or was he alive? Alive? Thank you very much.

From the fish’s belly, according to the book of Jonah, he cries to God for help. Do dead men pray? Do they pray? Dead people, do they pray? No! So he was alive. Three days and three nights the fish takes him around the ocean. Dead or alive? Alive. On the third day, walking on the seashore, I’m asking – dead or alive? Alive. What does Jesus say? He said, “For as Jonah was.” Just like Jonah. “For as Jonah was, so shall the Son of Man be,” referring to Himself. How was Jonah – dead or alive? Alive. How was Jesus for three days and three nights in the tomb according to the Christian belief? How was He? Dead or alive? Dead.

He was dead according to our belief. In other words, He’s unlike Jonah. Can’t you see? He says, I shall be like Jonah and you are tell- ing me – there’s one thousand two hundred million Christians of the world – that He was unlike Jonah. He said, I will be like Jonah, you say He was unlike Jonah. If I was a Jew, I would not accept Him as my Messiah. I am told in the Qur’an that Jesus was the Messiah. I accept. He was one of the mightiest messengers of God – I accept. I believe in His miraculous birth. I believe that He gave life to the dead by God’s permission. And He healed those born blind and the leper by God’s permission. But if I was a Jew, according to the sign that He has given, He failed. Jonah is alive – Jesus is dead. They are not alike. I don’t know in what language you can make them alike – that they are like one another. So the clever man. you know, the doctor of theology, the professor of religion, he tells me that I don’t under- stand the Bible.

Your Bible, I don’t understand. Why don’t I understand the Bible? He says, “You see Mr. Deedat, Jesus Christ is emphasizing the time fac- tor.” Note, He uses the word “three” four times. For Jonah was three days and three nights. so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights. He uses the word “three” four times. In other words, He’s emphasizing the time factor – not whether He was dead or alive. I’m tellinq you that there is nothing miraculous in a time factor, Whether the man was dead for three minutes or three hours or three weeks, that’s not a miracle.

The miracle, if there is one at all, is that you expect a man to be dead and he’s not dead. When Jonah was thrown into the sea, we expect him to die. He didn’t die, so it’s a miracle. A fish comes and gobbles him – he ought to die. He didn’t die, so it’s a miracle. Three days and three nights of suffocation and heat in the whale’s belly, He ought todie: he didn’t die. It’s a miracle, it’s a miracle because you expect a man to die and he didn’t die.

When you expect a man to die, and if he dies, what’s so miraculous about that? I ask you, what’s miraculous about that? If a gunman took a gun and fired six shots into the heart of a man and he dies, is that a miracle? No. But if he laughs it off. if he is still alive and walking with us and if, after the six shots tear his heart to pieces, he laughs: ha ha ha ha — he’s alive. So we say it’s a miracle. Can’t you see? The miracle is when we expect a man to die and he doesn’t die. When the man who is expected to die, dies, it’s no miracle.

We expect Jesus also to die. For what He had been through, if He died, there is no miracle. There’s no sign. If He didn’t die, it’s a miracle – can’t you see? So He says, “No, no. It is the time factor.” Drowning men clutch at straws – drowning women do the same. He says, “No. it’s the time factor.” I say, did He fulfill that? He says, “Of course, He fulfilled that.” I say, how did He fulfill it? Look, it’s very easy to make statements. HOW did He fulfill it? I say, watch. When was He crucified, I ask you? The whole Christian world says on Good Friday. Britain, France, Germany. America, Lesotho. Zambia – in South Africa we have a public holiday – every Christian nation commemorates Good Friday. I am asking, what makes Good Friday good?

So the Christian says, “Christ died for our sins, That makes it good.” So He was crucified on the Good Friday. He says, yes. Yes. I say, when was He crucified – morning or afternoon? So the Christian says in the afternoon. How long was He on the cross? Some say three hours, some say six hours. I say, I am not going to argue with you. Whatever you say, I accept. You know, when we read the Scriptures, they tell us that when they wanted to crucify Jesus, they were in a hurry. And they were in such a hurry that Josh tells us in his book, The Resurrection Factor, that within some 12 hours, there were six separate trials. Six trials He went through.

These things only happen in films. These sort of things – six trials in 12 hours from midnight to the next morning and on, only take place on films. But I believe whatever you tell me. Whatever you tell me, I accept. So the Jews were in a hurry to put Him up on the cross. Do you know why? Because of the general public. Jesus was a Jew. The general public loved Him. The man had healed the blind and the lepers and the sick and had raised the dead. He had fed so many thousands of people with bread and fish. He was a hero, and if they discovered – the general public – that their hero’s life was in danger, there would have been a riot. So, they had a midnight trial. Early in the morning they took Him to Pilate. Pilate says, “He is not my kettle of fish – take Him to Herod.” Herod says, “I’m not interested – take Him back to Pilate. And hurry, hurry, hurry.” And they held six trials within 12 hours. Six. As if they had nothing else to do, but I believe what you tell me. They succeeded in putting Him up on the cross, according to your witnesses.

According to your witnesses. But as much as they were in a hurry to put Him up, they were in a hurry to bring Him down. You know why? Because at sunset on Friday, at six o’clock, the Sabbath starts. You see, the Jews count the days, night and day, night and day. We Muslims count our days, night and day, night and day. Not day and night. We count night and day. Six o’clock, our day begins in the evening. So, before sunset, the body must come down because they were told in the book of Deuteronomy that they must see to it that nobody is hanging on the tree on the Sabbath day. “That thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.” So quickly, quickly, they brought the body down and they gave Him a burial bath, and they put a hundred pounds of medicine around Him. And they put Him into the the book of Deuteronomy that they must see to it that nobody is hanging on the tree on the Sabbath day. “That thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.” So quickly, quickly, they brought the body down and they gave Him a burial bath, and they put a
hundred pounds of medicine around Him. And they put Him into the sepulchre. Not a grave – a sepulchre. A big, roomy chamber above ground. So it’s already evening. From three o’clock in the afternoon, for whatever you do, the details are given in Josh’s book. Burial baths normally take more than an hour. You read the details about how the Jew give a burial bath to the dead. That takes more than an hour itself. But let’s say they succeeded in doing all these things in a hurry, hurry. You know they were in a hurry. Six trials in 12 hours. Now they put Him into the sepulchre.

By the time they put Him in, it’s already evening. So watch – watch my fingers. Friday night He’s supposed to be in the grave. Watch my finger. Saturday day, He still is supposed to be in the grave. Am I right? Saturday night, He still is supposed to be in the grave. But Sunday morning, the first day of the week, when Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb, the tomb was empty.

That’s what your witnesses say. I am asking – how many days and how many nights? You remember, I said, supposed, supposed, supposed… You know why? Because the Bible doesn’t say actually when He came out. He could have come out Friday night. The Bible doesn’t say how He came. So, Friday night, Saturday day, Saturday night. I’m asking, how many days and how many nights? Please, if you can see, if your eyes are not defective, tell me how many? How many do you see? Right! Two nights and a day. Look at this. Is it the same as He said, for as Jonah was three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights? Three and three. Look at this: two and one. Please tell me now it means the same thing.

I want to know what you are reading. I want to know what you are reading in your own book! The man is telling you that what is going to happen will be like Jonah. And the sign of Jonah is a miracle. And the only miracle you can attribute to this man, Jonah, is that we expected him to die and he didn’t die. Jesus – we expect Him also to die. If He died, it is not a sign. If He didn’t die, it is a sign.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Can you see, the people have been programmed. We all get programmed
from childhood. When I went to America, and spoke at the University in San Francisco, I said you people are brainwashed. I told them, “You are brainwashed.” Of course, I could afford to talk to them – the American will take it. He is the almighty. You know, great guy. He can take it. So I said, “You people are brainwashed.” So one American, a professor, interjected, “No, not brainwashed – programmed.” I said, “I beg your pardon – programmed.” So, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I hope, by the time this meeting is over, you will be re-programmed into reading the book as it is, and not as you are made to understand.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen

# Josh McDowell
————————————————————

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Mr. Deedat, and
the wonderful people of this city, and this country of South
Africa, I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of
this symposium on Islam and Christianity’s view of the
crucifixion and the resurrection.

In preparation for this, I didn’t realize that I would
be dealing with so many different theories on the
crucifixion from the Islamic viewpoint. I found out, first
of all, that the majority of the Muslims throughout the
world hold to the substitutionary theory. That in Surah
number 4, in the Qur’an, a substitute, another person, was
placed in Christ’s position on the cross that Jesus was
removed and taken to heaven.

In other words, it was someone else. But then, I found
such a diverse opinion among Muslims. Some Muslim writers
say that it was a disciple of Jesus who was placed on the
cross in His stead. Another Muslim writer, Tabari, quoting
Ibn Ishaq, said it was a man by the name of Sargus, or
Sergius, who was placed on the cross. Another Muslim writer
by the name of Baidawi, said it was a Jew named Titanus who
was placed on the cross. Another, Ath-Tha-‘labi, says it was
a Jew named Fal Tayanus, who was placed on the cross. And
still another Muslim writer. Wahb ibn Munabbah, said it was
a Rabbi of the Jews, Ashyu, who was placed on the cross.

Then, others feeling that it might be a little unfair to
put an innocent man there, say, well, it must be Judas
Iscariot who was placed on the cross. Now, Mr. Deedat might
be able to correct me, but I do not believe there is any
evidence whatsoever in the Qur’an for that. There are in
some of the sects. earlier than Islam, references to that.
But I always wondered, why did God have to have a
substitute? Why couldn’t He have simply taken Jesus then?

Others will say – and this is not what the majority of
Muslims believe – that Jesus died a natural death some years
after the crucifixion and the alleged resurrection. In other
words, “Hazrat Isa,” Jesus is dead! This is a more recent
development in Islam. And I’m always wary of recent
developments.

It was started mainly by a man by the name of Venturini,
who said Jesus really didn’t die on the cross – He just
swooned or passed out, then was put into a tomb and
resuscitated. This is also the theme of the Ahmadiyas, a
radical sect of Islam. One of their main doctrines,
established by their founder and allegedly their prophet,
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, it is a part of the doctrine of
Qadianism.

Some will say to be crucified means to die. Therefore,
Jesus wasn’t crucified because He did not die on the cross.
I’m not quite sure how they got that definition. What I need
to do is this: present the facts to you, as I have been able
to document them in my books, and then let you, as fair
minded, intelligent people, make up your minds. The
background for the points I’m going to make is that when I
was in the University, I wanted to write a book against
Christianity. I wanted to refute it intellectually. The last
thing I wanted to do was become a Christian. But after two
years of research and spending a lot of money and time, I
discovered facts – not only facts that God has stated in His
Holy Word, the Bible, but facts that are documented in
sources in history. Men and women, these are some of the
facts that I found as I tried to refute Christianity and I
couldn’t.

The first fact I found is that Jesus was not afraid to
die. In fact, He predicted His own death and resurrection.
He said, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.” He said to
His disciples, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered up
to the death. And they will deliver Him to the Gentiles to
mock and to whip and to crucify Him. And on the third day He
will be raised up” (paraphrased from Matthew 17:22-23).

In another place He began to teach them that He had
discovered many things. And then He said He’d be rejected by
the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, He would
be killed, and He added that after three days, He was to
rise again (Matthew 20:18, 19).

In Matthew 17, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is
going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will
kill Him, and He will be raised again on the third day.”

The second thing I learned as I studied the life of
Jesus Christ is that Jesus was willing to die. In Matthew
26, He said, “My Father, if it is possible, let this Cup
pass from Me.” But what a lot of people leave out is the
context of what Jesus said. He said, “Yet not as I will, but
as Thou wilt, Father” (Matthew 26:39).

Now Jesus did not hide Himself. He is very clear about
where He is. It says in John 18 that He went to the place
where they usually found Him. He didn’t want to hide from
the authorities. He knew what was going to happen. In John
18, verse 4, it says, “Jesus therefore. knowing all the
things that were going to come upon Him.” He knew it! And He
was ready for it. In Matthew Jesus says, “Don’t you
understand, I could call on twelve legions of angels to
protect Me?” But He said, “I want Your will. Father.” and
God answered His prayer and let Him fulfill “the will of the
Father.” Jesus said in John 10: “The Father loves Me because
I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one has
taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own
initiative.” You have to remember – Jesus being the God-Man,
came as God the Son, the eternal Word, to take the sins of
the world upon Himself. The Holy Bible (I Corinthians 5:21)
says that He, God, made Jesus sin for us, and, if you can,
imagine the agony that the eternal Word, the Son, was going
through at that time.

The third fact that I learned is that the Jews were not
guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I was very
surprised. Mr. Deedat, that you needed to be the defender of
the Jews. There are Muslims and Christians that have gotten
that distorted all through history. Jesus said in Matthew
20. verses 18 and 19, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and
they will condemn Me to death. and will deliver Me over to
the Gentiles, to mock and whip and crucify Me.” Jesus said,
“I lay down My life.” If anyone was guilty, Jesus was. He
said, “I have the power to lay it down, I have the power to
take it up.”

Also, Mr. Deedat, I feel that both you and I are
responsible, because the Bible says,”For all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). It was our
sins that drove Jesus Christ to the cross.

The fourth fact that I learned is that the Christians
are called to an intelligent. intellectual faith – not a
blind faith. I was quite surprised when I read in the little
booklet, What Was the Sign of Jonah? by Mr. Ahmed Deedat,
that over one thousand million Christians today blindly
accept that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. I’m a little
confused, because really, Mr. Deedat, you read from the
Qur’an and you said you accept it, you don’t need facts, you
don’t need any evidence. You simply accept it and then
you’re saying that Christians, because they accept what God,
Yahweh, has revealed through the Holy Bible, that Jesus is
the Christ, that because we accept that, we do it blindly.
I’m amazed, because in the Muslim book, the Qur’an, it
states that one of the titles given to Jesus is “al-Masih.”
I believe it is referred to 11 times that way. The Muslim
translator of the Qur’an into English, Yusuf Ali, translates
the Arabic here as “Christ” in the English translation. So,
why are we accused of being blind in accepting Jesus as the
Christ?

In my country, one of the greatest legal minds that ever
lived – the man who made the university of Harvard famous –
was Dr. Simon Greenleaf. He became a Christian through
trying to refute Jesus Christ as the Eternal Word and the
resurrection. Finally, after trying to do it, he came to the
conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of
the best established events of history, according to the
laws of legal evidence administered in the courts of
justice.

C.S. Lewis, the literary genius of our age, was the
professor of medieval and renaissance literature at Oxford.
He was a giant in his field. No one could question his
intellectual capabilities. He became a believer in Jesus
Christ as his Savior and Lord when he tried to refute the
reliability of the New Testament and he couldn’t. And he
said, “I was one of the most reluctant converts, but I was
brought to Jesus Christ because of my mind.”

Lord Caldecote, the Lord Chief Justice of England, a man
that held the highest offices that anyone could hold in the
legal systems of England, said, ” … as often as I have
tried to examine the evidence for Christianity, I have come
to believe it as a fact beyond dispute.”

Thomas Arnold was the headmaster of a major varsity and
university for 14 years. He is an historian and the author
of the famous three- volume series, the History of Rome. He
said, “I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which
is proved by better and fuller evidence than the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Dr. Werner von Braun, the German scientist – the man who
immigrated to my country – was one of the creators of the
American Space Program. He said he never really became a
scientist until he came to know Jesus Christ personally as
Savior and God.

The fifth fact that I discovered was the historical
accuracy of the Christian Bible. The Christian New Testament
is exceptional in its reliability and trustworthiness and
survival down through history. It is unrivaled in manuscript
authority. A manuscript is a hand-written copy over against
a printed copy. Men and women, of the Christian New
Testament alone, there are more than 24,000 manuscripts. Not
versions of the Bible, Mr. Deedat, manuscript copies. Men
and women, the number two book in all of history in
manuscript authority and literature, is Homer’s Iliad, with
643. The number two book in the whole of history in
manuscript authority.

Then, Sir Frederick Kenyon was a man who was second to
no one in the ability and the training to make authoritative
statements about manuscripts of literature in history. The
former curator and director of the British Museum, he said,
“The last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have
come down to us as they were written now has been removed.
Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books
of the New Testament may now be regarded as finally
established.”

The point: there are some people who do not have an
historical perspective of literature, who try to make an
issue out of the fact that the writers of the four accounts
of the gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, never signed
their names. Please, men and women, we need to go back
through history and see how they did it then.

First of all, the manuscripts were so well-accepted as
being authoritative, with everyone knowing who wrote them,
they did not need names placed on them. You might say it was
the writers’ way of not distracting from the purpose of
making Jesus Christ the central issue. Also, the work of
these authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, went through
the apostolic age. They went through the test of the
apostolic period of the first century to confirm their
accuracy, authenticity and reliability. Other people,
through limited reading and absence of any type of research,
say that the documents of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are
hearsay because the writers were not eyewitnesses of the
events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus
Christ.

The people who say that will often appeal to Mark 14:50.
They say that within two minutes they could dismiss the
argument because Jesus’ followers all left Him and fled. So
therefore, everything was hearsay. Men and women. this line
of reasoning ignores common sense in the facts of the case.
For example, read just the next four verses. It says this:
“And Peter followed Him.” You see, they left Him in a group,
but they came back individually – immediately, Mr. Deedat.

Verse 4 says: “And Peter followed Him at a distance.” He
went right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was
sitting there with the officer. Can you imagine? With the
officers, and warming himself. In Mark 14, it says, “And
Peter was below, in the courtyard.” Men and women, if you
have studied the Scriptures, you’ll realize that Mark, in
his gospel, was writing down all the eyewitness accounts of
Peter. Peter was right there. Then we go to John 18, verse
15: “And Simon Peter was following Jesus, and so was another
disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest and
entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest.” John
19:26, “When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the
disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His
mother, ‘Woman, behold your son.’ ” They were eyewitnesses.
They were there.

About being permissible in a court of law. In most legal
situations, you have what can be referred to as an ancient
document rule. Now, you have to go to law to substantiate
these things. Dr. John Warwick Montgomery is a lawyer and
dean of the Simon Greenleaf School of Law, and a lecturer at
the International School of Theology and Law in Strasbourg,
France.

He said that the application of the ancient document
rule to the documents of the New Testament (especially the
four gospels) – this is a head of a law school speaking –
“Applied to the gospel records, and reinforced by
responsible lower (textual) criticism, this rule would
establish competency in any court of law.”

The greatest eyewitness testimony is not found in the
gospels. It is found in I Corinthians, the epistle by the
apostle Paul, chapter 15, and was written in A.D. 55 to 56.
I have yet to find a reputable scho- lar who would deny
that. Paul says (now it’s 20 years earlier, right after his
conversion – he had met with the leaders. He had met with
James, the brother of Jesus in Jerusalem), that the
tradition was passed on to him that there were over 500
eyewitnesses of the resur- rection. If you take that into a
court of law, give each eyewitness just six minutes, that
would make 3,000 minutes of eyewitness testi- mony, or 50
hours of eyewitness testimony.

However, that’s not the key point here. That was the
tradition handed down to him, what he had examined
personally. But Paul says then, the majority of them are
still alive right now. Not when the tradition was passed
down, but right now. Men and women, Paul was saying, “If you
don’t believe me, ask them.”

Also, many people overlook the fact that when the
message of Jesus Christ was presented by the apostles and
disciples, and the New Testament was shared, present in the
audience were hostile and antagonistic witnesses. If they
would have dared to depart from the truth of what was said,
there were hostile witnesses to correct them immediate- ly.
In a court of law that is referred to as the principle of
cross- examination. They did not dare to depart from the
truth. Also, apart from the Bible, you have several extra
biblical secular sources.

One, a man by the name of Polycarp, was a disciple of
the apostle John. He writes in his works. going back almost
2.000 years ago, “So firm is the ground upon which these
gospels rest, that even the here- tics themselves would not
undermine it.” They had to start from what was presented and
then develop their own heresy. Because even then, they could
not say, Jesus didn’t say that. Jesus didn’t do that then…
they couldn’t do that. So, they had to start with what He
said, and develop their own heresy.

The conclusion of many scholars is a tremendous
confidence in the Christian Bible. Mr. Millar Burrows was on
the staff of Yale University. one of the most prestigious
universities in my country. He said. “There is an increase
of confidence in the accurate transmission of the text of
the New Testament itself.” Dr. Howard Vox, a researcher and
archaeologist, said, “From the standpoint of literary
evidence, the only logical conclusion is in the case where
the reliability of the New Testament is infinitely stronger
than any other record of antiquity.”

The sixth fact that I discovered was that Christ was
crucified. What does the historical, reliable record show?
It is clear, not only from the Christian’s biblical
historical record, but also from secular sources, which are
documented in the back of my book, Evidence That Demands a
Verdict, that He not only predicted His death by
crucifixion, but that He was actually crucified. Jesus said
that He would be whipped and delivered over to be crucified.
And then. in John 19:17. 18, “They took Jesus therefore, and
He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the
Place of a Skull…. There they crucified Him, and with Him
two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.”

Let’s follow through what actually happened. First of
all, it points out that Jesus was whipped by the Romans.
What did that mean? The Romans would strip a person down to
the waist and would tie him in the courtyard. Then they
would take a whip that had a handle about a foot and a half
long. At the end of the handle, it had four leather thongs
with heavy, jagged bones or balls of lead with jagged edges,
wound into the end of the straps. A minimum of five. They
would be different lengths. The Romans would bring the whip
down over the back of the individual and all the balls of
lead or bone would hit the body at the same time. and they
they would yank the whip down. The Jews would only permit 40
lashes. So they never did more than 39 so they wouldn’t
break the law if they miscounted. The Romans could do as
many as they wanted. So, when the Romans whipped a Jew, they
did 41 or more out of spite to the Jews. And so he had
probably at least 41, if not more, lashes.

There are several medical authorities that have done
research on crucifixion. One is a Dr. Barbet, in France, and
another is Dr. C. Truman Davis, in the state of Arizona in
my country. He is a medical doctor who has done meticulous
study of the crucifixion from a medical perspective. Here he
gives the effect of the Roman flogging:

“The heavy whip is brought down with full force again
and again across (a person’s) shoulders, back and legs. At
first, the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as
the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutalleous
tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the
capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spur- ting
arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles.
The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises,
which the others cut wide open. Finally, the skin of the
back is hanging in long ribbons, and the entire area is an
unrecognizable mass of torn, bleed- ing tissue.”

Other sources I have documented said that sometimes the
back is literally opened up to the bowels within. Many
people would die just from the whipping.

After the whipping they took Jesus out to the execution
area and drove spikes into His wrists and His feet. It says
that late that Friday afternoon they broke the legs of the
two thieves hanging with Jesus, but they did not break His
legs. Now, why did they break someone’s legs? When you are
prostrate on the cross, or hanging there, they bent the legs
up underneath and drove the spike through here. When you
died by crucifixion, often what would happen is you would
die from your own air. The pectoral muscles would be
affected and you could not let your air out. You could take
it in, but could not let it out.

And so, you’d hang there and suffocate, you would push
up on your legs to let the air out, and then come down to
take it in. When they wanted to bring about the death
immediately, they broke their legs and they couldn’t push
up, and they would die. Jesus’ legs were not broken. As the
Holy God, revealing His Holy Word in the Bible, points out,
Jesus had died. Men and women, if they had broken His legs,
He would not have been our Messiah. He would not have been
the Eternal Word, because God, Yahweh in the Old Testament,
prophesies in Psalms that His legs would not be broken. His
bones would not be broken. Men and women, He was fulfilling
what God, Yahweh, had already revealed would take place.

The next fact that I discovered was that Christ was
dead. That’s the seventh fact that I discovered, Men and
women, in John 19:30, Jesus willed Himself to die, That’s
why He didn’t take so long, He came to die. He said, “I lay
My life down.” And in John 19, He said, “It is finished,”
and He bowed His head and He gave up the Spirit, He willed
Himself to die, Now, in John 19, verse 34 (Mr. Deedat, in
his booklet, has referred to it as ‘Evidence That Jesus Was
Not Dead’) you have reference to the blood and water.

He was on the cross and they’d already acknowledged Him
being dead, but they thought they’d give a parting shot, as
you would say, They took a spear, and thrust it into His
side. Eyewitness accounts said blood and water came out
separated, Mr. Deedat, in his book, appealed to this
phenomenon as evidence that Christ was still alive, He
supports this in his writing, by an appeal to an article in
the Thinkers Digest 1949, by an anesthesiologist. I was able
to acquire medical research by various people in this area.

I have time to share just two of the findings. First,
from a scholastic viewpoint: many medical and university or
varsity libraries that once carried this journal, no longer
do so. It is considered by many in the medical field to be
not only out of date, but behind the medical times.

Second, from a medical viewpoint: A wound of the type
inflicted on Jesus, if the person were still alive, would
not bleed out the wound opening, but bleed into the chest
cavity, causing an internal hemorrhage. At the aperture of
the wound, the blood would be barely oozing from the
opening, For a spear to form a perfect channel that would
allow the blood and serum to flow out the spear wound is
next to impossible. The massive internal damage done to a
person under crucifixion, and then being speared in the
heart area, would cause death almost immediately, not even
including what happens with the details of a Jew’s burial.

At the State of Massachusetts General Hospital, over a
period of years, they did research on people who died of a
ruptured heart. Normally, the heart had 20 cc’s of
pericardial fluid. When a person dies of a ruptured heart,
there is more than 500 cc’s of pericardial fluid, And it
would come out in the form of a fluid and clotted blood.
Perhaps this is what was viewed at that time.

The Jewish burial would have been a final death blow. Mr.
Deedat says in his book, page 9, in “What Was the Sign of
Jonah”? that they gave the Jewish burial bath, plastered him
with 100 pounds of aloe and myrrh. Now, going through
whipping, where the back is almost laid open, having your
arms and feet pierced, being put on a cross, having a spear
thrust in your side, being taken down and then plastered
with 100-some pounds of spices of cement consistency – it
would call for a greater miracle than the resurrection to
live through that,

Then, the severe discipline of the Romans. Pilate was a
little amazed, and I would have been too, that Christ had
already been dead, or that they had come and asked for the
body, So, he called a centurion in. And he said, “I want you
to go and confirm to me that Jesus is dead.” Now men and
women, this centurion was not a fool. He was not about ready
to leave his wife a widow.

The centurion would always check with four different
executioners. That was Roman law. There had to be four
executioners. They did that so in case one man was a little
lax, the other one would catch him in it, And you would
never have all four lax in signing the death warrant.
Discipline was severe with the Romans.

For example, when the angel let Peter out of jail in
Acts 12 in the New Testament, Herod called in the guard and
executed them all – just for letting one man out of jail. In
Acts 16 in the Christian New Testament, the doors had been
opened up in the jail for Paul and Silas, their chains had
been loosened, and the moment the guard saw they were freed,
he pulled out his own sword to execute himself. And Paul
said, “Wait a minute!” You see, that guard knew what would
happen, He would rather die by his own sword, than be
executed by the Romans.

Then Christ was dead. Flavius Josephus, the Jewish
historian, records that when he went into Jerusalem in A.D.
70 when Titus was destroying it, he saw three of his friends
being crucified. They had just been put up there. They had
been whipped and everything. He went to the commander of the
guard and he said, & Muallaf since 1999