Welcome to Stand to Reason's hashtag SDRask podcast with Amy Hall and Greg Kokel.

Hello, Amy.

Hello, Greg.

Our first question today comes from Caleb. Would the disciples die

for what they knew to be a lie if they believed that the lie was essential for persuading the world

to morally reform itself for the greater good? Maybe the disciples valued the greater good more than their

own life. This is Richard Carrier's objection.

You know, Richard Carrier, the atheist, so I guess what one would, let me back and put it

this way, maybe, is that a possible reason they might die even they knew, even though they knew it was a lie?

Okay?

And but what one has to do is they have to look at the possible options and ask whether they're plausible in light of all the other circumstances.

Now, what do we know from the historical record?

We know that when Jesus was crucified, these guys were done.

They were hiding, doors locked, lights out, knees knocking, expecting the same thing to happen to them.

All right?

They had no expectation, though they were warned by Jesus himself, that Jesus was

going to rise from the dead. They had no expectation that a massive world movement would result

that created a massive amount of good over the last 2,000 years. They had no expectation of any of that.

They had a Jewish mindset about the Messiah that when the Messiah comes, there would be a chicken

in every pot and a portion of every garage kind of thing. You know, the kingdom would be here.

Their enemies would be defeated. And it turns out their Messiah, or the one they

thought was the Messiah, was the one defeated. Now, the question to Carrier is, does it make sense?

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