It is, I suppose, one definition of “faith” that it does not require physical evidence to survive or even flourish. The question is what happens to faith in the face of inconvenient evidence — hypotheses that, for one reason or another, don’t fit. And the answer appears to be, “not much.”

With those words, Ted Koppel closed out the Discovery Channel special, The Lost Tomb of Jesus: A Critical Look. If you’re not familiar with The Lost Tomb of Jesus, it is a documentary that claims that the tomb of Jesus has been found with Jesus’ remains — along with those of his wife (Mary Magdalene, they say) and son.

Does it surprise you that Mr. Koppel’s comments trouble me more than what I saw in the documentary? Read on…

The Good

Even before it aired, the documentary drew heavy fire — and from what I’ve read, very little support. It was criticized pretty soundly by believers and nonbelievers alike. In response to this, The Discovery Channel brought out Ted Koppel to explore the criticisms. The “Critical Look” program featured archaeologists and theologians who critiqued the documentary according to their respective specialties, with the documentary’s filmmakers present for the discussion. One of the theologians is someone I don’t know well, but whose name I recognize and whom I know to be respected by people I respect: Darrell Bock of Dallas Theological Seminary. The other two were a Catholic priest and a lady I know nothing about.

For the most part, I was pleased with most of Koppel’s program. The sound-bite nature of television made it impossible to really explore the substance of the scholars’ objections, but the message got across: there are serious problems with the methodology — and even the logical integrity — of what was offered in The Lost Tomb of Jesus.

The Bad

OK, there wasn’t anything really bad in the Koppel program. I was mildly disappointed, however, by the theologians’ response — but only mildly. Mr. Koppel asked Dr. Bock, point-blank, whether the documentary threatened the Christian faith. Dr. Bock correctly affirmed that it did, but in my mind, he didn’t go far enough in explaining why. There was some discussion around the fact that Christians must believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, but the point never really got made with the power it deserves.

After the fact, it’s always easy to say how one might have done it better — especially if you’re not the one who did the doing in the first place. I don’t want to be the “know-it-all critic” who’s always got a stone to throw. What follows here just represents what I found myself wishing they would say while I was watching the program.

I wish they would have made the point that Christianity is falsifiable. That is, you can prove it to be false. Paul even spells it out in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19:

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Far from being a weakness, the fact that Christianity stands or falls on the facts of history is a profound strength. The culture needs to hear that, and I lament the fact that it wasn’t declared more clearly.

The Ugly

The one point that really registered with me like nails on a chalkboard was the Catholic priest’s insistence that (my summary now) his faith was immune to what the facts had to say. He was basically unwilling to admit that even if the claims of the documentary — that Jesus never rose from the dead, among other things — proved to be true, that his faith would be invalid. (This, I think, is what gave impetus to Mr. Koppel’s closing remarks.)

This is not orthodox, biblical, Christian faith. Biblical Christian faith is about trusting that the Gospel is true. If the Gospel turns out to be false on any of its central points — and the bodily resurrection of Christ is #1 — then there is no reason to trust the Gospel, and faith in Christ becomes worthless.

What is worse, this “blind faith,” “don’t-bother-me-with-the-facts” sort of position strips Christianity of its most compelling feature: its truth! It makes it easy for those outside the church to dismiss Christianity. While Ted Koppel stopped just short of doing that, his concluding remarks (see above) were headed in that direction.

The Bottom Line

Christianity is true if and only if its claims correspond to the way things really are. Blind faith does not honor God — rather, what honors God is to make much of the fact that He bolted the Gospel to events and facts in history. He could have just waved His hand and said, “just believe!” — but He didn’t. He bled, died, and rose again so that we may know that the Gospel is true.

I’ll close with another quote — this one from Greg Koukl, who will be speaking here at Grace Fellowship on April 14 and 15:

If Christianity stands or falls on the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection, as the Apostle Paul said, then Christ’s followers have no liberty to retreat behind blind faith or hide behind an angry scowl.

No, if you’re a Christian you shouldn’t run, whine, scream, or have a religious tantrum. Instead, you should be thanking the Discovery Channel for giving you the chance to step up to the plate and knock this softball out of the park.