Jon Topping

Which Early Church theologians held to annihilationist eschatology? What did they say about the mortality or immortality of the soul, and how did it affect their view of hell? Here we’ll look at Athanasius, Justin Martyr, Theophilus, Tatian, Irenaeus, Ignatius, and Augustine.

Because Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the council of the Sanhedrin, he ends up strengthening the historical reliability of different aspects of the story of the burial of Jesus Christ. However, scholars like Bart Ehrman try to downplay his importance, even to the point of denying the story altogether. But this type of skepticism doesn’t match with what we know about history.

Skeptics will argue that, if crucifixion victims weren’t buried, then Jesus probably wasn’t either. We’ll look at the historical sources showing the fate of crucifixion victims, the sorts of exceptions that were made, and whether Roman and Jewish history lines up with how the Gospels describe what happened to Jesus’ body after He was killed.

We take a look at a couple of the most popular Jesus Mythicists; Richard Carrier, and Robert Price.