What if they found the bones of Jesus?

Recently there has been a claim that the bones of Jesus and his family have been found. Sounds crazy, but I wonder if our response to this kind of news is appropriate. If you want to read more about the claims being made, click here. My purpose is to consider what would be an appropriate response.

So often when I hear things like this I immediately write them off. I ignore them and pretend they don't exist. Those things sound so completely ridiculous to me that I have a hard time giving them any credence at all. What if those bones really belonged to Jesus? How would we respond? Some of you probably don't want to read on at this point, but I promise I will make it worth your while if you hang in there. If those bones belonged to Jesus wouldn't we be intellectually obligated to renounce our faith in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15)?

As Christians who believe in the Bible we ask those who do not believe in Jesus to consider the possibility that he is the God-Man, that he lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead. We ask people to consider truths outside of what they would normally even consider yet we are not willing to do the same.

I ask the question again, what if the bones of Jesus were found? If this claim could be substantiated would we not be compelled to give up our faith? Certainly we would be compelled to do that very thing. We must consider the evidence for this kind of claim. We must not simply disregard it or ignore it. We should take at least a few minutes to examine the evidence. In the spirit of intellectual integrity.

This does not mean we must accept these claims. We should consider them honestly if we expect others to consider our truth claims honestly. When we consider them we should be careful not to do so looking for a reason to dismiss them.

Fortunately these kinds of claims usually have significant faults and can be dismissed after careful consideration. If you want to read a short response to these particular claims click here.