Christians who accept the Bible (especially the New Testament) as an inspired text will have to deal with the fact that there are some major problems between St. Paul’s view of history and the Gospel of Matthew’s view of historical events. Ironically, the dogmatic historical certainly of Paul and that of the First Gospel puts yet another nail into the coffin of Christian absolute truth and its holy theology.
Hmmm....wonder what McCall means by "First Gospel"? Does he hold to Matthean Priority? Oh well. Let's see if he can substantiate his charges.
Paul’s View of Events:
“ . . .that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve (τοῖς δώδεκα).” (1 Corinthians 15: 4 – 5)
Matthew’s View of Events:
“So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.” (Matt. 27: 5)
Comment:
However, contrary to the Gospel of Matthew, Judas had already hanged himself well before Jesus was even crucified, thus leaving only eleven apostles. So how could there be still have been twelve apostles as Judas was dead and Matthias was not yet chosen: “Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.” (See: Acts 1: 23 -26)
Now where does any of the Gospels say that Matthias was not one of the people who were with the eleven when Jesus showed them He was alive. One of the qualifications to be an Apostle was that you had to be an eye witness to the risen Christ and on top of that Matthias was not the only one outside of the eleven who fit the criteria to be apostle. Paul was counting Matthias as on of the twelve. (See Acts 1: 15 - 26). Obviously, McCall did not read enough or closely.
Paul’s View of Events:
“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. / / But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.” (1 Corinthians 15: 20 & 23)
Matthew’s View of Events:
“The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (Matthew 27: 51b – 53)
Comment:
Paul had no knowledge of these dead saints who beat Jesus at his own resurrection game. So the Christian believer is faced with the hard dilemma of either accepting the Matthean view of historical proofs or Paul’s major Christian eschatology. Either Matthew is caught in a lie, or Paul does NOT know what the hell he’s talking about . . . or likely both!
Well at least, McCall is admitting Matthew is right. But so is Paul. Resurrection is more than just coming back to life. It means that you never die again. It means getting a transformed body. McCall should recognized this given that he just quoted 1st Corinthians 15 above. Jesus is the only recorded case of someone being Resurrected. Everyone else in the Bible who was brought back from death later died. McCall is making category errors...again. Added to that we must not forget that these people would not have been dead for that long so of course Jerusalem's inhabitants would have recognized them. If you had been wealthy or fortunate enough to have been buried in a tomb, of course your loved ones would have dug up your bone and put them into an ossuary and the tomb recycled for someone else according to customs at the time. Therefore we know that the people who had been raised from the dead, like Lazarus but not like Jesus, would not not have been for a very long time if they were walking out of tombs. .
Debunking Christianity: Two Places Where St. Paul’s Theology Totally Contradicts The Gospel of Matthew’s Credibility
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