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| Can a thinking person really believe in Jesus' resurrection? |
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| The hinge of history |
| No resurrection, no Christianity-it's that simple! If you read the eyewitness New Testament accounts of Jesus' life you find that after Jesus' death & burial, but before he rose again, his followers were completely demoralized, emotionally devastated, and in fear for their own lives. As far as they were concerned, all they had based their lives on for 3 years-following this miracle-performing, ethical & spiritual teaching "son of Man" named Jesus-was over. If they could escape the wrath of the chief priests, elders, & Roman over-Lords, they would meekly return home to be fisherman, tax-collectors, or whatever they'd been before. But something happened…something miraculous…something that turned these defeated disciples into an indestructible infantry, God's army that would infiltrate the entire Roman Empire within 30 years. Jesus' early followers staked their faith, and often their very lives on the historic fact of Jesus' resurrection. One of the early leaders of the Christian movement, the apostle Paul, went so far as to state that, "…if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith" (1 Corinthians 15:14). Jesus is the only founder of a major world religion, and Christianity the only major world religion, willing to stake its very existence to the claim that a single historical event-Jesus' resurrection--is true. So, the questions for us 21 centuries later are, "Did Jesus really rise from the dead?", and, "If Jesus did rise from the dead, what significance does that hold for me today?" |
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| Preliminary Observations |
| Trusting NT eyewitness accounts about Jesus |
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| There are 4 books in the Christian "New Testament" which purport to record eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John. Their reliability is discussed more in depth later in this booklet, but let me state here that they are the most reliable, trustworthy documents on the life of Jesus; in fact, they are arguably the most historically reliable documents from antiquity. If you are going to deal with the life of Jesus generally, and with the question of his resurrection specifically, you must begin by dealing with the gospel accounts. How can you ignore the most credible eyewitness information that is available? |
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| Abandoning prior assumptions |
| Most people come to a subject such as the resurrection of Jesus Christ with certain basic assumptions. Specific to the subject of Jesus Christ's resurrection, most Americans come with one of two basic assumptions: either, 1, they believe Jesus rose from the dead but have never really invested any thought or research into the resurrection's historicity, or, 2, they believe Jesus didn't rise from the dead-and perhaps question whether Jesus really was a historical person at all-because after all we're educated, intelligent people who know that once someone is dead & buried they don't come back (except in certain scary movies). The problem with the first assumption-an unquestioning belief that Jesus rose-is that it creates a faith that is easily attacked & weakened. The problem with the second assumption-that dead people don't rise, therefore Jesus couldn't have arisen-is that it is what philosophers call an a priori assumption. That is, you assume a conclusion before investigating the facts. The second assumption also forms the basis of a circular argument (i.e., People don't rise from the dead, therefore Jesus didn't rise from the dead) which wrongly leads people to believe they don't have to take into consideration facts & logical arguments. The reality is that if you're interested in truth, you always must consider fact & reason! To disprove this kind of fallacious argument, all you have to do is prove a single instance where someone did rise from the dead. A compelling case can be made that Jesus did rise from the dead based on fact & reason, but you must abandon the assumption that the resurrection didn't happen in order to consider the issue fairly. |
| C. Many Christians think "The Bible is God's Word, and you should just believe it". Why won't that answer cut it with the unchurched? |
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| Going where the evidence leads |
To approach our topic with any chance of coming to a reasonable conclusion, then, requires a few things of us:
1, that we accept the eyewitness accounts that we have as being reliable,
2, that we set aside our a prior assumptions and approach the topic of Jesus' resurrection with open minds,
and,
3, that we be willing to go where the evidence leads. In other words, are you willing to read evidence & arguments & withhold making a decision on whether or not Jesus rose from the dead? If you're ready & willing, read on! |
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| Resurrection Hypotheses |
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| Theories about Jesus' Death |
Theories about Jesus' Resurrection |
Explanations For Theories |
| Jesus Died |
Jesus Rose |
Christianity |
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Myth |
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Hallucination |
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Conspiracy |
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| Jesus Didn't Die | |
Swoon |
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| Did Jesus die or not? |
| Theory One: Jesus didn't die, he merely "swooned" (fainted from loss of blood) on the cross, and was revived in the tomb |
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| Rebuttal: Jesus died! (see JAMA article, April 1986) |
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1. The Roman soldiers administering Jesus' execution on the cross dealt with death daily & were not easily fooled. Romans were highly efficient & detail oriented-these guys would certainly check to see if Jesus had died before removing him from the cross. Additionally, an escaped prisoner could bring swift & certain punishment-imprisonment or even death--for the soldiers. It was their job to ensure that Jesus died on the cross, & that's exactly what they did. |
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| 2. Eyewitnesses saw Jesus' side being pierced, bringing about a sudden flow of "blood & water" (John 19:31-35). Normally, to ensure that the prisoner had died, the soldiers would break a crucified man's legs to make him unable to breathe. The prisoner would quickly be asphyxiated. In Jesus' case, seeing he was already dead, they confirmed his death by thrusting a sword into his side. Modern medicine tells us that once the heart has stopped beating, blood separates into serum & red blood cells. The spear pierced the pericardium-the sac around Jesus' heart-and the separated blood, appearing to the eyewitnesses to be blood & water, came out. Even without the benefits of modern medicine, the Roman soldiers knew that meant that Jesus was dead! |
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| 3. Jesus' body was wrapped in a burial shroud & entombed in a shallow cave with a massive stone-perhaps 2-3 tons-closing him in the tomb. And the Romans posted a guard outside so no one could steal the body. |
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| 4. If Jesus hadn't died on the cross, think of the incredible feats this man who'd been beaten & crucified was able to accomplish: revive himself, remove graveclothes, & then without benefit of food, drink, or medical attention he moved a several ton stone, appearing vibrant & healthy to his totally shocked followers. That may be harder to believe than his resurrection! |
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| 5. Seeing Jesus changed his followers from fearful to fearless. After Jesus' death his disciples were scattered & fearful. After they'd seen the risen Jesus, they refused to back down on their insistence that he'd risen from the dead-even when it cost them imprisonment or death (Acts 4:1-22, 5:17-42, 12:1-19). |
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| For the sake of argument, say Jesus didn't die-then what happened? Where did this miracle-working spiritual teacher go? How did he live? Why was he never heard from again? |
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| 1. There is no credible, historical evidence whatsoever of a "post-swoon" non-resurrected Jesus. |
| 2. Where's his tomb & body? Surely, such a great religious teacher would have died somewhere, & that tomb would hold his remains & would be a shrine to him? The Christian answer is that, there are no remains, no tomb (except an empty one!), no shrine to a fallen teacher…because he died on the cross, rose on the third day, and ultimately ascended into heaven living. |
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| OK, the evidence points to Jesus dying…but is it possible that the resurrection……is a myth? |
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| The New Testament eyewitness accounts were the wrong literary style |
| In ancient times, as is also true even today, myths were written in a very different manner than historical narrative. The
attention to detail, the sober tone, even the descriptions & dialogue of the resurrection accounts in the gospels has far more in common with historical authors like Thucydides & Josephus than with the Greco-Roman or ancient middle-eastern mythologies. The gospel accounts claim to be true, offer evidence to back up that truth, and are written in a way that lends credence to their truth. |
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| Not enough time |
| Myths and legends are developed over time; several generations are required before myths are fully formed. But in the case of Jesus' resurrection, verifiable eyewitness accounts were being written within at least 25 years of the resurrection, possibly even earlier. |
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| No evidence for "non-miraculous" Jesus |
| Those who consider the resurrection a myth often want to "de-mythologize" Jesus' entire life; that is, to remove all the miraculous events as "mythological additions". The problem is that every historical account of Jesus available-even by non-Christian historians like Josephus-include references to miracles he performed. The "Jesus was a good moral teacher, but not a miracle worker" theory just doesn't jibe with reality. |
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| Discovered by women |
| Women were, unfortunately, generally held in low regard in Greco-Roman society. If the disciples had made up a story about Jesus rising from the dead, he would have been discovered first by a prominent man: perhaps Peter, or James, or John. Instead, women see him first. Why make up a story about being found by a lowly woman? Why spread a story like that around, when people might just laugh it off? The only reason to perpetuate a story of being found by a woman would be if that story were true. By the way, the facts of Jesus being born of a woman & his resurrection discovered by a woman show that God has always valued women highly and held them in great esteem-and so should we all! |
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| The trustworthiness of the eyewitness gospel accounts Practical Evidence: |
| The Bible is a book of real stories about real people touched by a real God. The Bible doesn't gloss over people's doubts, struggles, sins, joys, victories, defeats, and faith or lack thereof. See the stories of: |
| Joseph (Genesis 37-50) |
| Hannah (1 Samuel 1-2:11) |
| David & Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11 & 12) |
| Peter (Mark & Acts) |
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| Millions of changed lives: |
| Jesus' 12 disciples, Malcolm Muggeridge & Lee Strobel-2 prominent atheist journalists who, 40 years apart, researched Jesus' resurrection, became believers, and were radically changed |
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| Manuscript (MSS.) Evidence: |
| The Bible has the most manuscripts with the nearest proximity to the date of writing of any ancient book (Chart Adapted from More Evidence That Demands a Verdict): |
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| Author |
Date Written |
Earliest Copy |
Time Span |
# of copies |
| Caesar |
100-44 B.C. |
900 B.C. |
1,000 years |
10 |
| Homer (Iliad) |
100-44 B.C. |
100-44 B.C. |
500 years |
643 |
| Aristotle |
100-44 B.C. |
100-44 B.C. |
1,400 years |
49. |
| New Testament | 100-44 B.C. |
100-44 B.C. |
0 |
24,000 |
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| Internal Evidence for the gospels trustworthiness: |
| No major disagreement in 66 books written over 1500 years, in 3 languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek), by dozens of (inspired) human authors. |
| Primary source New Testament evidence, see: |
| Luke 1:1-3 |
| 2 Peter 1:16 |
| 1 John 1:3 |
| Acts 2:22 |
| John 19:35, 20:30-31, 21:24 |
| External Evidence for the gospels trustworthiness: |
| The Early Church Fathers (Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus) |
| Flavius Josephus 1st. Cent. A.D. Jewish historian. |
| Archaeological evidence repeatedly bears out the accuracy of Biblical accounts of history. This is not the stuff of myth, but of reality! |
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| …was a conspiracy by the disciples? |
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| * Disciples' character transformation. |
| If Jesus' resurrection really was a conspiracy, how do you explain the radical change in the disciples from fearful to fearless? If, as some charge, the disciples stole Jesus' body and made up the resurrection, how do you explain their willingness to be imprisoned, tortured, and even killed rather than deny that Jesus rose? To put it another way, would you be willing to die rather than recant something you knew to be a lie? |
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| * The story is too detailed ; |
| The more detailed a lie becomes, the more difficult it is to maintain the lie. That's something we all learned as kids! Yet if the disciples conspired to fake Jesus' resurrection, than dozens of people made up multiple post-resurrection appearances-recalling vivid details & conversations by Jesus in different times & locations without contradicting one another. |
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| * No one broke the conspiracy. |
| Watergate conspirator & former White House Aid Charles Colson, who later became a Christian & founded the world's largest prison ministry (Prison Fellowship), has said that Watergate is instructive to him in disproving the conspiracy theory. He says that the most committed people he had known to that point in his life-the Nixon White House staff-broke their conspiracy very quickly once the story was blown wide open. Colson notes that if the disciples were conspirators, not one of them ever broke the conspiracy. Given the pressure of imprisonment, torture, & execution combined with the passing years, it is inconceivable to Colson that the disciples did not genuinely believe that Jesus rose from the dead. |
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| * There was no motive for the disciples to lie. |
| The disciples were so utterly defeated by Jesus' death, there was no reason for them to lie. Plus, what would it gain them? Not riches or fame, but poverty, notoriety, & pain! Generally speaking, for there to be a conspiracy, there must be a profit motive-whether financial or otherwise-for the conspirators. The disciples had no such motive |
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| * Why didn't the Jews & Romans produce the body?! |
| Jesus was dead & buried, the tomb sealed, and a guard posted. Obviously, the disciples couldn't have taken his body. So, when the disciples started publicly speaking about Jesus' resurrection mere weeks following his crucifixion, why didn't the authorities just produce the body, nipping the conspiracy in the bud? The answer is, they didn't have the body, because Jesus was alive! |
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| …Was just a vision or hallucination the disciples had? |
| * The Nature of Hallucinations |
| It's interesting that this theory only became prominent beginning in the 1960's on American University campuses-about the same time that hallucinogenic drugs were being experimented with on a large-scale basis. The fact is, any psychologist will tell you that the nature of hallucinations is highly individuated. For example, if 4 people ingest a hallucinogenic substance, they will each have a different hallucination. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that 500 people saw Jesus after he had risen from the dead-most of whom were still living when he wrote. In a way, he was saying, "don't take my word that Jesus rose-talk to these folks". Given the nature of hallucinations, how likely is that all 500 of these folks had hallucinations of seeing Jesus alive, in different times & settings? Not very! |
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| * The Nature, Number, & Quality of the Resurrection Accounts |
| John's gospel lists 4 post-resurrection appearances (1 to Mary, 3 to disciples); Matthew lists 2, Mark recounts 4, Luke tells of 4. In each case, the accounts of the ring of truth: there is doubt & disbelief, shock & amazement, fear, & spontaneous worship. There are so many accounts, with so much detail, in such varied settings-there's just no way these things were hallucinations! |
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| As I see it, the only way to not believe Jesus rose from the dead is to willingly disbelieve every shred of available evidence. Jesus is the unique Son of God, who died & rose again to pave the way for you & I to have a relationship with God His Father. Won't you pray & receive this gift of new life & forgiveness today? If you've already received him, won't you take time to praise for the precious gift of love, acceptance, and forgiveness? |
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| Bibliography/For Further Study |
| Antiquities, Flavius Josephus. |
| Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Josh McDowell. |
| Give Me An Answer, Cliff Knechtle. |
| More Evidence, Josh McDowell. |
| More Than A Carpenter, Josh McDowell. |
| Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Kreeft & Tacelli. |
| The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, F.F. Bruce. |
| St. Paul the Traveler and Roman Citizen, William Ramsay. |
| The Bearing of Recent Discovery On The Trustworthiness of |
| The New Testament, William Ramsay. |
| The Case For Christ, Lee Strobel. |
