Has Antony Flew read his own book?

In A letter from Flew , Antony Flew is quoted as writing :-

'I would most strongly recommend to you the contribution of the present Bishop of Derby, who offers the most powerful case for the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus which I have ever seen.'

Surely if Antony Flew had read his own book, he would know that NT Wright is the present Bishop of Durham, and has never been the Bishop of Derby.

Flew, of course, also recommends 'The Empty Tomb' by Price and Lowder - and he did so before 'writing' his book, which it seems he cannot even bother to read before answering questions about it.


But the letters confirm that Flew believes in the God of Einstein, which , of course, was merely a synonym for Mother Nature. (Flew remembered the name of Einstein, so he is not entirely forgetful)

What can we be sure of - Jesus or NT Wright?

Matthew 28:17 says ’some doubted’, even after allegedly seeing the resurrected Jesus, and allegedly seeing all the proofs the resurrected Jesus supposedly gave.

NT Wright has no doubts about the resurrection and is living proof that if people really had seen a resurrected Jesus, they would not have had those doubts.

We just have to look at modern Christians like NT Wright, and know that these stories of doubting disciples must be false.

Wright writes ‘Equally, Matthew, like the others, describes a Jesus who comes and goes, appears and disappears, and is doubted at the very end by some of his close and obedient associates….’ (page 646, of the Resurrection of the Son of God)

What was there to doubt, when the risen Jesus had gone out of his way to prove his resurrection?

How can these stories possible be true, if some of his closest and most obedient associates doubted , even after Jesus did everything possible to convince them?

Would Christians burst out laughing if they read stories of the closest associates of Joseph Smith doubting that he had been given scripture to translate into English?

Would they think the whole story was rubbish, if not even the closest and most obedient associates of Joseph Smith were convinced by the alleged 'proofs' that Joseph Smith allegedly gave?

Why then has Wright no doubt , when even some of the closest and obedient followers of Jesus did not find the proofs given by Jesus convincing?

Why doesn’t Wright share the doubts of Jesus closest and most obedient associates?

Wright assures us that Matthew did not mean to imply that there were any splits or disunity. How Wright knows that is beyond me, but if you want to fill a 700-page book , you need an awful lot of speculation to fill up the pages.

Wright announces ‘We can be sure however that this strange comment would not have occured to anyone telling this story as pure fiction….’ (page 643)

Suffice it to say that Wright gives no sources, or methodology, or any way of testing his claim that we can be ’sure’ that it is not ‘pure’ fiction. (If not pure fiction, is it not at least partly fiction?)

How can we be sure? Wright never gives any arguments for his certainty, or any proofs of his ability to think himself into the mind of an anonymous person of 2,000 years ago and know for sure what would have occurred to that anonymous person and what would not have occurred to him.

It is remarkable that Wright thinks it is possible to doubt proofs supplied by the Son of God himself, but we are not allowed to doubt the words of a Bishop of Durham. The pronouncements of the Bishop of Durham can be taken as sureties, while the proofs that Jesus gave were not enough to dispell doubt.

But Wright's certainty is a proof that the stories are false of disciples who see the risen Jesus and then doubt.

Surprised by Hope

Paul hoped that Jesus would return soon.

Nothing fails like Christian hope :-

1 Thessalonians 4 'According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.'

Putting faith in Christian hope is hopeless.

All those early Christians are dead, despite Paul's confidence that they would not die.

Put your faith in Biblical promises, and do not be surprised if your hopes are dashed.

Jesus compares God to a wicked angry king

In Matthew 18, Jesus compares God to a wicked king who acts in anger, and has people handed over to be tortured, even after he claimed to have forgiven them everything.

Here is the story, proving once more that the Bible was written by savage barbarians who saw nothing wrong with people being tortured.

Matthew 18

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."