Welcome to the new-and-improved KingDavid8.com! I finally have all of the contents from my old site transferred here, so everything should be working properly. Please let me know if you find any "dead links". My pages also have boxes where readers can leave comments and criticisms, so don't be shy.
This website is mostly aimed at providing arguments and evidence for the non-Christian, the Christian who may be struggling with what he or she believes, or those Christians who are interested in reaching out to others.
My opinions may contradict what other Christians believe, but many of my arguments are also based on arguments given by a variety of Christian sources. I especially owe a debt of gratitude to the writings of Glenn Miller, J.P. Holding, Paul Maier, Grant R. Jeffrey, Lee Strobel, and Gerald Schroeder.
Please feel free to borrow ideas or arguments of mine (since many of them were not mine to begin with). I do ask that if you quote from my site directly, to please credit me.
Does Martyrdom Prove A Belief To Be True?
Many Christians, myself included, believe that the willingness of Jesus' early followers to face martyrdom rather than deny Him is evidence that the Jesus story was true.
However, many skeptics point out that other faiths, like Muslims, Buddhists, and even extremist faiths like the Branch Davidians, were willing to die for their faiths. So does this willingness make their beliefs true as well?
The difference is that the earliest Christians were in a position to know for a fact whether Jesus was resurrected or not. If Jesus wasn't resurrected, then it's very unlikely that they could have mistakenly thought He was, and been so sure that He was that they would die rather than deny it. People of the other faiths aren't in such a position. They either believe in things that happened centuries ago, or things that they didn't personally witness.
Willingness to die for their beliefs is, no doubt, evidence that they honestly believe in what they claim. The difference is that, with the earliest Christians, they were in the unique position of knowing whether it was true or not.