What’s coming up on the Deeper Waters Podcast on 11/28/2015? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
It’s a universal agreement among New Testament scholars that the disciples and others were convinced that they had seen the risen Jesus, but what was the nature of these appearances? Are we dealing with something like Jedi Jesus where Luke Skywalker sees old mentors of his around a fireplace but he can see right through them? Are we dealing with something being just in the head like a hallucination? Are we talking about something that is an altered state of consciousness? In order to address this, I’m having on the show Dr. Phillip Wiebe, author of the book Visions of Jesus. So who is he?
Here is some biographical information on Dr. Wiebe as well.
He is married to Shirley and they are parents of two children and grandchildren of four. He got a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Adelaide in South Australia in 1973. Starting in 1972 he was a philosophy professor at various universities in Manitoba and ending in 1978. From there, he went on to Trinity Western University in Langley, BC. He is not only the author of the above-mentioned book but also of God and other Spirits, and Intuitive Knowing As Spiritual Experience. He has also spoken on this topic in Oxford, Harvard, Chicago, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Eugene (Oregon), Tacoma (Washington), Burlington (Vermont), Lublin Catholic University (Poland), and Leeds (UK). He has also given more than 55 lectures on the Shroud of Turin and is a member of the Vancouver Shroud Association. He is a member of the Ascension Anglican Church in Langley, BC.
In Wiebe’s research, he compared the resurrection appearances of Jesus to those that take place in altered states of consciousness and found that they did not match. We’ll be talking with him about this claim and the implications that follow from it. How is it that these appearances are so different from the visions that people see in altered states of consciousness? What about the possibility of something like cognitive dissonance going on? What about the group appearances and what about the appearances to people like James and Paul who were skeptical of the Christian movement?
If these were not hallucinations then, what are we left with? Does this mean that the apostles and others necessarily did see the bodily risen Jesus or could it have been something else? How can we best use this information when we make our case for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead? Could we say that perhaps these appearances would have turned out differently if the people back then had known about modern science?
As listeners of the show and readers of the podcast known, the resurrection of Jesus is one of my favorite areas to talk about and I’m certainly looking forward to this conversation on the appearances of the risen savior. Again, I will just be getting back from out of town so please excuse if there are any delays in getting this podcast out to you. I will be trying to do my best.
In Christ,
Nick Peters
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