He went by the name "Mulch" or "Munch" - I can't quite remember, but we had a very spirited but good natured conversation about the Gospel. I challenged him about the resurrection of Christ and asked him to give an account of how the tomb was emptied. He had an answer, here it is, are you sitting comfortably?
He claimed that Jesus had a twin brother, and either the twin was crucified and Jesus appeared to His disciples telling them He was risen, or Jesus was crucified and the twin appeared telling them he was Jesus - there you go, problem solved.
I couldn't believe my ears! I told Mulch / Munch never to accuse Christians of having blind faith or of believing things for which they have no evidence, because this was the most blatant example of blind faith - there is absolutely no evidence to support his position, and loads of evidence to demolish it, yet he believed it, not only without evidence, but in spite of evidence! I don't want to waste time beating a theory that is already dead, but just a moment or two of semi sensible thought on this matter will expose the nonsense of it - why did no one at the time think of this? Remember, the people the Lord ministered amongst knew His family (Matthew 13 v 55, 56; Mark 6 v 3; John 6 v 42), would they not have thought about the twin when the story of a resurrection started circulating? Would it not have been obvious?
Another consideration (again, sorry for stating the obvious and insulting your intelligence), would His mother not have known there was a twin? Yet she was with the apostles as they proclaimed His resurrection (Acts 1 v 14).
Also, I'm guessing James, the Lord's brother would have known about the twin. Remember James wasn't a believer during the Lord's ministry (John 7 v 5) but saw the risen Christ and went on to become a pillar in the church at Jerusalem (read Acts 12 v 17; 15 v 13-21; Galatians 1 v 19; 2 v 9; James and 1Corinthians 15 v 7). Would it not have occurred to him that he hadn't seen Jesus' twin since this whole resurrection story came about?
It's also a bit extreme for this twin to have got his hands, feet and side pierced in an effort to convince the disciples he was his twin. He went through that pain, then had somehow convince them that they saw him ascend to heaven to go into hiding some place and never be seen again while the disciples went out and risked their lives, wasted their lives and gave their lives for this lie.
Much more could be said on this, but nothing more needs to be said. It is evidence of the fact that people don't reject the Gospel because of reasons of the mind, they reject it because of rebellion of the will. They will grasp at anything, no matter how foolish, if they think it will justify their unbelief. What reasons do you have for not bowing before the Lord and receving Him as Saviour?
