You raised a number of thoughtful questions to consider, questions I couldn't answer with just a few sentences.
Yes, you're getting to what I'm saying and perhaps we can examine it further. Fortuitously, we can examine this video, find the people involved and the local news did actually call the hospital, where they found no death certificate. Unfortunately, we can't do this with Jesus Christ. However, this is not entirely the point of what I'm trying to say.
I get what you're saying; it would be nice to have video evidence to examine. However, even videos can be fabricated. Conversely, there are many events in ancient history that we can verify confidently today. Jesus' crucifixion is recorded in
the Gospels as well as by Josephus (
Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18:3:3), Tacitus (
Annals 15:44), Lucian (
The Death of Peregrine, 11–13), and
Mara bar Serapion. John Dominic Crossan, resurrection skeptic and co-founder of the Jesus Seminar, was right when he wrote, "Jesus' death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be" (
Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, p. 145, quoted online
here).
Could it be that although Jesus was crucified, maybe He somehow survived His execution?
A 1986 study from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found such not to be the case: "Modern medical interpretation of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead when taken down from the cross."
Unlike with the person from South Africa, it's clear Jesus really died.
Let's just assume, for arguments sake, this was real. The dead guy was resurrected and he was actually dead.
Does this mean either one of them is god, god-did-it and everything they say henceforth or prior is now is truth?
Please, answer this question.
This is a good question, so let's back up. Now in this hypothetical scenario, we have a preacher who claims to be working for God. He claims he can prove it by raising someone from the dead. Suddenly, he does everything in the video, and the dead guy arises. I'd be skeptical, so let's say we check the records and discover that the dead man was put to death by electrocution. I would say first off that it would contradict what we know about how nature works: that dead people don't rise. Therefore, the cause must be outside nature.
But what
is the cause? It's not like a miracle can come with a label telling us. Or can it? Again, if this person claimed God was with him and that he could raise someone from the dead, and suddenly, against nature, this happens--I mean, what better way could God confirm He was with someone? So my answer would be that yes, God did it.
What would you conclude in this scenario?
It's not incompatible, but we need to go through a few stages first. We have to assume it was actually Jesus that witnesses saw. I say assume because sometimes eye witness testimony is not reliable or accurate. For instance, people still see Elvis.
Elvis? Actually, back when I did
a debate with the admin of edeb.com, he also brought this up. Such can be explained by Elvis' many
impersonators running around. Are you suggesting that maybe someone was impersonating Jesus? Surely you don't think this could have convinced skeptics like then-church persecutor Saul, do you?
Maybe you're referring to the non-skeptics who knew Jesus better. In the debate, however, even my opponent conceded that "the
less somebody knew Jesus, the more likely they are to have been convinced by an impersonator" and that "impersonation is considerably easier to do if you're
not a close associate of the person being impersonated" (emphasis added).
I don't know if that's where you were going; Edeb8's admin posited it, anyway. Regardless, the idea fails to explain most, if not all, of the named resurrection witnesses recorded in
1 Corinthians 15:3-8.
We have to assume Jesus was dead, because this was the ancient world and medicine was, well, not good. Some people are by mistakenly buried alive
Premature burial - Wikipedia.
This isn't a baseless assumption but rather is grounded in what it means to be crucified; let's just say Jesus wasn't slapped on the wrist.
Again, "Modern medical interpretation of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead when taken down from the cross."
We also have to assume there was no fabrication in the story.
Neither is this assumed. Virtually all of even secular scholarship accepts Jesus' crucifixion as fact. Again, Jesus Seminar co-founder
John Dominic Crossan said Jesus' crucifixion is "as sure as anything historical can ever be."
Bart Ehrman, North America's leading resurrection skeptic, rated it something "we can say with virtual certainty about Jesus."
Furthermore, in the words of Germany's leading resurrection skeptic, Gerd Lüdemann, “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’s death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ” (
What Really Happened to Jesus, pg. 80, quoted online
here).
None of the story's key elements are challenged.
So, let's assume this was all accurate and Jesus was really dead. Let's say Jesus was really dead for three days, or whatever, and he was somehow resurrected(btw resurrection already implies someone else did it, which is problematic). I don't see how the only logical explanation is god.
(I think you're confusing
resurrection with
raising when you say it "implies someone else did it." Even then, God [the Father] raising Jesus isn't "problematic" but Scriptural [
1 Thess. 1:9-10].) To say you "don't see how the only logical explanation is god" implies you could see one or more alternative explanations. What might those be? Sorry for keeping you waiting.