Last night.
I dreamt I was troubled and anxious about something or other, even though I’m not aware of being this way in reality.
In the dream, a couple of people drop by to console me. One of those people is my dad. He asks what’s wrong, listens and offers advice. He’s concerned and wise, positive and supportive. I have no doubt this is my father; he looks and sounds like him, but he’s an idealised version of him. I’m dimly aware in the dream that he’s behaving differently from the way he would in life – we rarely had heart-to-heart talks – but I’m so grateful for the help he’s offering, and it’s good to feel close to him.
In reality, my father died over ten years ago. I’m not sure I was aware of this in the dream or perhaps I just ignored it. I certainly ignored the way he was acting slightly out of character; I just was glad to see him again. I woke this morning feeling invigorated by the time spent with him (or the illusion of time spent with him) and with other friends who appeared in the dream to offer support.
I don’t for minute believe that the father I experienced in my dream was really my dad, returned from wherever he’s been these last ten years to offer words of comfort. My real dad has been nowhere for the past decade. He ceased to be in 2007. The version of him in my dream was a construct of my own mind, made from memories, wishful thinking and – okay, I admit it – a glass or two of wine. He was an image of how I’d like my dad to have been, perhaps – not that I give that much conscious thought. Nevertheless, this version of him is evidently buried somewhere in my head, waiting to be resurrected when the dream circumstances are right.
This is what it must surely have been like for those few individuals who, in visions and dreams, experienced Jesus after his death. In their grief and turmoil, the need to embrace the dream version of their friend must have been overwhelming. They would have persuaded themselves it really was him, communicating with them from beyond the grave. The fact one or two others had a similar experience can only have reinforced the compulsion to believe: ‘You saw him too? Then it must really have been him.’
It wasn’t, of course. What those who witnessed the risen lord experienced was, as Paul suggests in Galatians 1.16, a creation of their own minds, constructed from religious fervour, wishful thinking and a powerful need to believe.
From this, all else followed.
rejectingjesus, 
It’s like that verse after Jesus crucifixion where the disciples say something to the effect of ” we thought this was the Christ who would bring salvation to Israel”. They so wanted it to be true that they had to make it so in a totally different way, and based it on dreams and feelings of his current spiritual presence. It’s no different than having a conversation with a dead loved one.
And the Jesus people talk to now is pure imagination/fiction since nobody alive today ever knew him just as Paul never did either.
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Absolutely, David. And for me the evidence of this is all there in the bible itself – the preponderance of dreams and visions, the dream-like quality of Jesus’ post-mortem appearances, Paul’s acknowledgement that his ‘revelation’ was in his head, his talk of Christ as a spirit, the feeling early believers had that Jesus was among them as they gathered together. None of these suggest a resurrected body. I’m convinced that idea came much later, when the gospels were being written.
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