There are many convincing arguments for the resurrection of Jesus. Many
of them go back to the New Testament and the early church fathers, but
most of the arguments are rebuttals of the historical-critical method
from the 19th century. Some of these arguments will be the focus of this
post.
Today is Palm Sunday. It was a week that began with Hosannas and ended with a crucifixion and resurrection. What a monumental week! It changed the course of world history and split time in two. On Good Friday, Jesus was beaten, mocked, crowned with
thorns, spit upon, blasphemed, and nailed to a cross to suffer an
excruciating death. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world -- once, and for all who believe. He is the blood on the door
post that protects those within. But Sunday was coming.
At this time of year, many non-Christians are interested in the claims of Christ since much of the world is focused on Him. Some of them want to know what was claimed by Jesus, and if it is true. It is true, of course, and this post will cover a few of the reasons why.
The Bible teaches us that Jesus is the Son of God. He was crucified, and He died for our sins. He was resurrected from the dead, and He lives today at the right hand of the Father in heaven as our intercessor. Around AD 30, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, and that was during the reign of the Roman emperor, Tiberius; he reigned from AD 14 to AD 37.
After dying on the cross, Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea who was a prominent Jewish leader and is believed by some to have been either the cousin or uncle of Jesus -- which could explain why he could go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus after the crucifixion. Early on Sunday, after Jesus' crucifixion, several women who had followed Jesus; including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and Salome all went to the tomb of Jesus intending to anoint His body with spices and ointments. They wondered, as they went, who would roll away the stone for them. When they arrived, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, and the tomb was empty. They feared something had happened to the body of Jesus, and that it had been stolen and taken somewhere. Instead, they were about to learn that Jesus was alive and had risen from the dead.
Of course, there are many skeptics, and there have been a lot of theories put forth to explain away the empty tomb. If you can afford it, I recommend this course. The Resurrection of Jesus. There are three different options. I took the basic course.
Some of the objections that skeptics have put forward over the years are that Jesus didn't even exist. He was just a myth, and if He did exist, what proof is there that He was crucified? However, evidence for the existence of Jesus comes from many different historians of the 1st and 2nd century. There are at least a dozen and a half ancient sources -- in addition to the New Testament -- that confirm the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. Some of the writers who wrote about Jesus are Josephus and Pliny the Younger.
The Talmud refers to the life of Jesus, His teachings, His crucifixion and resurrection. Several secular historians wrote about Jesus. Cornelius Tacitus was a 1st and 2nd century Roman historian who lived through the reigns of over half a dozen Roman emperors. He is considered one of the greatest historians of ancient Rome. Tacitus verifies the Biblical account of Jesus' execution at the hands of Pontius Pilate who governed Judea from AD 26 to 36 during the reign of Tiberius. Here is what he wrote, "Christus, the founder of the Christian name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius, but the pernicious superstition repressed for a time, broke out again. Not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also."
This passage affirms the Biblical account, and reveals that Jesus did exist; Jesus was the founder of Christianity; Jesus was put to death by Pilate; Christianity originated in Judea with Jesus, and Christianity later spread to Rome through the Apostles and evangelists. The pernicious superstition that it talks about is widely believed to be Jesus' divinity and His resurrection.
There are many more quotes from 1st and 2nd century historians. There are quotes from Pliny the Younger, who tortured and executed Christians, and there are quotes from Josephus, who was a first century historian of both priestly and royal ancestry. Josephus was born only three years after the crucifixion of Jesus; so he was a credible witness to the historicity of Jesus. If you watch the video, "The Jesus of Testimony" you will find many scholars discussing these evidences.
Jesus did exist, and His followers taught his divinity, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection from the beginning of the movement. These are not myths that cropped up over time. So evidence for the life of Jesus comes from many written documents. Ignatius was a church leader, and a pupil of the Apostle John. He lived only 70 years after the crucifixion of Jesus; he was an early source. Ignatius was martyred for his faith in Jesus. Before he died, Ignatius wrote this about Jesus, "He was condemned; He was crucified in reality and not in appearance, not in imagination, not in deceit. He really died and was buried and rose from the dead."
That was written early on -- long before most people believe myths could have successfully cropped up.
Another objection to Jesus is that even if He did exist, He never claimed to be God, and the accounts of miracles and His resurrection were just myths that developed over time. Critics claim He never claimed to be the Messiah. If anything, He was a compassionate person, and He was a very charismatic man; He was a great leader, teacher and prophet, but He wasn't God. However, there is evidence that Jesus did say and was everything that His followers claimed Him to be. He claimed to be the Messiah, and we see that in John 4:16-26. He claimed that He came from heaven. We see that in John 8:21-30. Jesus claimed to be eternal. We see that in John 8:52-59. He claimed that He was equal to God. We see that in John 10:24-39. He claimed He was the savior of the world who would die for forgiveness of sins; and He claimed that He would rise from the dead on the third day. We see that in many different places, but one is Matthew 26:26-32. So, since He claimed all of these things, how can anyone say that He was a great teacher or a great prophet? If He wasn't what He claimed to be, then, as C.S. Lewis put it, He was a liar and a lunatic -- not a great teacher and prophet.
Jesus performed many miracles. Today, there are numerous accounts of scientifically-verified miracles. (See Miracles: 2 volumes: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts by Craig S. Keener.) These modern-day miracles lend support to the Bible's miracle claims. We see in the New Testament that Jesus had power over nature. He was able to restore life. We see that He raised Jairus' little girl; He raised the widow's son, and He raised Lazarus from the dead. The miracles of Jesus were performed in public, and even His enemies couldn't say that these things weren't happening. They acknowledged that they were happening. All they could do to turn people away from Jesus was to say that He performed miracles through the power of Satan. So here we have hostile testimony to the miracles of Jesus; and in a court of law, hostile testimony is very powerful. When you have the enemies of Jesus admitting that He performed miracles, that's pretty good evidence that He really did perform miracles. The leaders dismissed Jesus' miracles as demonic, but they did admit that He did them.
Another claim made by skeptics is that Jesus' followers made this all up. They claim that this is all a myth, and that after Jesus died, His followers invented this great plan to deceive the whole world. His followers convinced people into believing that Jesus was the promised Messiah; that He fulfilled scripture, and that He was the son of God and rose from the dead. This was all just a fairy tale created by these followers of Jesus. I don't know what they expected to get out of it if the gospel is not true. Every one of them suffered or died for this, and not one of the disciples ever denied these things.
We know that people will die for what they believe. We saw that clearly on 9/11/2001 and numerous times since then. People will die for what they believe is true or to protect a loved one, but how likely is it that people will die for a known lie, (one that won't protect anyone and might actually endanger them), and do so with bravery and joy? The disciples weren't these brave liars who wanted to deceive the whole world. After the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, they fled in fear of their lives. They cowered behind locked doors. They scattered and ran. Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. But, after the disciples saw the risen Jesus, their lives were completely transformed. They went out from that day forward and began to change the world. They left their former lives, and they endured everything imaginable. They were persecuted. They were imprisoned. They suffered enormously. They were hungry. They were tortured. They were put to death.
As most of us know, Peter was crucified for his faith, and tradition says he was crucified upside down. Andrew was severely scourged and hung on an x-shaped cross. It was two days before he finally died. Bartholomew was beaten, cut, and crucified head down. Several of the disciples were martyred for their faith except possibly the Apostle John, but he was tortured and imprisoned for his faith. Dr. Gary Habermas and Dr. Mike Licona point to historical accounts that may prove even the Apostle John died for his faith. Drs. Habermas and Licona certainly agree that Paul and James were martyred for their faith and, most likely, the apostle John as well. If that is correct, then the three leading figures of the early church died for their faith.
Former journalist, Lee Strobel, makes the following point: "People will
die for their religious beliefs if they sincerely believe they are true,
but people won't die for their religious beliefs if they know their
beliefs are false." The disciples knew if what they taught was true or
not. They'd lived with Jesus for three years. They knew if they had seen
the risen Jesus, and they knew if they had stolen the body. The fact
that they went to their deaths proclaiming that they had seen the risen
Jesus, and that He was God made flesh, proves that they at least thought
they had seen the resurrected Jesus and that His resurrection proved
His divinity. As many apologists have written, it is difficult to
believe the disciples would have consented to torture, imprisonment and
death for a lie. Especially since they were religious men and thought
they would face God at death. If they had stolen the body of Jesus,
someone would have confessed under torture at some point. If they had
blasphemed the God they believed in with a concocted lie, they would
have wanted to confess that at some point before dying, but none of them
ever did that.
Another objection is that the witnesses were unreliable because they
were followers of Jesus. They weren't impartial. However, there were
hundreds of witnesses. Paul was not a believer at first. He persecuted
the church before he was transformed on the road to Damascus by the
risen Jesus. James, the brother of Jesus, did not believe before Jesus
was resurrected. During Jesus' ministry, James thought Jesus was crazy.
It is unfair and ridiculous to say that none of them were reliable. In
addition, there was no evidence from the opposition. The opposition
never produced a body. If they had stolen the body, they would have
pointed it out immediately, and how could the disciples have ever gotten
near the tomb to remove the body in the first place? There was a guard
on it. The guards weren't going to assist the disciples. Besides all of
that, the disciples were cowering in locked rooms in deep despair at the
death of Jesus. They didn't remove the body. Even though Jesus had told
them repeatedly what would happen, they neither believed Him nor
understood what He was talking about. They were not even expecting a
resurrection, so faking one would not have occurred to them. They were
in enough trouble already.
John Warrick Montgomery points out that in AD 56 Paul wrote that over
500 people had seen the risen Jesus and that most of them were still
alive. It passes the bounds of credulity that the early Christians could
have manufactured such a tale and then preached it among those who
might easily have refuted it simply by producing the body of Jesus. Yet
no one ever produced the body of Jesus. There were several witnesses of
the resurrected Jesus, and as I said, there was no evidence from the
opposition. The greatest weapon against these early eyewitnesses would
have been if someone had produced the body of Jesus, but that never
happened. It never happened because Jesus was no longer dead. The dead
body didn't exist. Jesus had risen from the dead, and forty days later,
He ascended into heaven bodily. There was no way the authorities were
going to find His body or His remains anywhere. Not then and not now. He had risen. He was not buried in the wrong tomb and then moved. Such a ludicrous theory does not account for all of the post-resurrection appearances.
The silence of those who opposed Christianity, while Jesus' followers
preached about the empty tomb, only affirms the fact that the tomb
really was empty. If you want to discredit Christianity, you have to
explain the empty tomb and the post-resurrection appearances -- not complain about the eye witnesses. There is
no plausible explanation for the empty tomb and post-resurrection appearances except the resurrection of
Jesus. As I've already said, the disciples couldn't have stolen Jesus'
body. They couldn't have gotten past or bribed the guards. Plus, at some
point, they would have confessed to stop all of the suffering that
occurred as a result of their teaching.
The Jewish leaders certainly wouldn't have stolen Jesus' body. They
wanted it kept in that tomb. Besides, if they did have the body, they
would have produced it to stop Christianity in its infancy. The fact
that the guards weren't killed is further evidence that there had been a
conspiracy. The Jewish leaders talked the guards into claiming that the
body had been stolen by the disciples while they slept, and then the
Jewish leadership took steps to save the guards lives. If the guards
truly had slept, how would they have known the disciples had stolen the
body? If they had really failed in their duty by falling asleep, thereby
allowing the body to be stolen, why weren't they executed as a result?
That was Roman law. Yet they weren't put to death; so as I said, that
points to a conspiracy to hide the truth. And the truth was, Jesus had
been resurrected, and that's why the tomb was empty.
Another claim made by skeptics is that the resurrection was a myth, and
that it developed much later and wasn't even taught by the early church.
They claim that Christianity just began as a moral and philosophical
movement, and the resurrection of Jesus was just a later myth rather
than an early historical reality. They claim that none of the early
followers even believed that Jesus had risen from the dead. That's not
true either. There is evidence to suggest that the resurrection was an
historical event. Just look at some of the writings of the 1st and 2nd
century historians. Those historians knew that the early disciples
preached that Jesus had been resurrected, and they had preached that
from the beginning.
In addition to the writings of those historians, you see evidence for
the resurrection in the practices of the early church. These practices
of the early church celebrated the resurrection. Jesus' followers were
baptized when they first believed, and then they would gather together
to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Baptism is a celebration of the
resurrection. By going underwater, the believer is remembering the death
of Jesus, and by being brought up out of the water, the believer
identifies with Jesus rising to new life. They were all baptized early
on -- from the very beginning of the movement.
In the Lord's Supper, believers eat bread and drink wine. That's a
memorial to the suffering and the death of Christ, as Jesus requested
before He died. The scriptures suggest that the Lord's Supper is a time
of joy, and there is joy because believers recognize that with the
crucifixion there is death, but with the resurrection, there is eternal
life for everyone who believes. So that's more evidence that the
resurrection was an historical event in the church. Baptism and the
Lord's Supper would not have been carried out in the early church if the
resurrection had not been a central component of the Christian faith
from the very beginning.
We also see evidence that these things were taught from the beginning in the early creeds. 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 is considered to be a very early creed. The argument is that the creed, which was passed onto Paul about 3 years after the cross, goes back to within weeks or months of the cross. That's the faith that was delivered from the beginning. There are several early creeds in the New Testament. Gary Habermas goes into great detail on these early creeds in numerous videos at YouTube.
Some critics have questioned the importance of the resurrection. They
have asked why it should matter if Jesus rose from the dead or not, and
that is what this weekend points to: The importance of the death and
resurrection of Jesus -- the man who claimed to be God.
The physical resurrection of Jesus is important because if it is true --
that Jesus rose from the grave after claiming divinity -- then
Christianity is true.
Christianity is based on a resurrected Christ not a dead Jesus, and
since Jesus did rise from the dead -- bodily -- then it is reasonable to
believe that everything Jesus claimed is true.
If what Jesus claimed is true, then He died for the sins of the world
and one receives eternal life only by believing in Him. That's why it is
important. In fact, it is the most important event in history. The
Apostle Paul told skeptics at Athens that God wants all people to repent
because there is a set day of judgment, and He will judge the whole
world by Jesus. God has given proof of this by raising Jesus from the
dead. The resurrection is proof that Jesus is who He said He was and
that the Word of God is reliable. If what Jesus said is true, we need to
take these things very seriously.
Whether Jesus rose from the dead is of great importance. It is the most
important event in history, and it is the most important subject anyone
can ever consider.
The following will be somewhat repetitive, but I want to end with two quotes from my book Gehenna Revisited. Here is the link where you can get a copy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XPVBKQ4
"The gospel message is that Jesus is the Son of God; that He died on a
Roman cross for the sins of the world, and He was resurrected from the
dead three days later. If those things are true, and there is good
evidence that they are, then Christianity is true.
"Almost all of the original disciples died proclaiming the gospel
message, and they were all in a position to know if what they taught was
true. They knew if they had witnessed countless miracles and seen the
resurrected Jesus, and they knew if they were lying. It is impossible to
imagine anyone would endure years of abuse, imprisonment, torture and
death for a known lie and do it with such unwavering bravery and joy.
Tradition says they were “excommunicated, starved, flogged, stoned,
crucified, disemboweled, beheaded, boiled in oil, and fed to lions.”
People lie for some benefit, and those aren’t the benefits liars are
looking for. As a general rule, people lie to avoid those sorts of
things.
"Prophecy in the Bible proves God inspired those who wrote it and that
it is true. An abundance of manuscripts and textual evidence proves what
we have today is what was originally written down. Even though there
are historical, scientific, archaeological, and philosophical arguments
for the Bible, it is prophecy that God points to for His evidence, and
prophecy is what convinces me. Hundreds of Bible prophecies have been
fulfilled, many by Jesus, with startling accuracy, and many more have
been fulfilled in my lifetime.
"We can trust the Bible. We can trust what it says about the past; we
can trust what it says about the future; and we can trust what it says
about our eternal destinies."
End of first quote.
"This man we call Jesus divided history into two. Claims are made about
Him and by Him that have never been made about or by anybody else. He is
on the lips of billions daily, who either praise Him or blaspheme Him.
Few have had such a powerful impact on history, or the personal lives of
countless millions, as Jesus of Nazareth. He never did any of the
things that usually garner praise, yet millions of songs and poems,
books, essays, and artwork have centered on Him. Who is this Jesus? He
deserves careful consideration. If you haven’t seriously asked, please
do. Who is this Jesus? Can He really give eternal life? Is He really the
Savior of the world? Is He your Savior?
"Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me.” He is the only one who paid the
penalty for your sins, which is death. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of
sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord.” That is why Jesus is the only way. Only He died for your
sins. Only He rose again to give you eternal life. Nobody else did that
for you.
"Peter said in Acts 4:12, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for
there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved.”
"Romans 10:9 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
"If you have never accepted Jesus as your savior, then I hope you consider this prayer.
"The Sinner’s Prayer
"Father, I know I am a sinner and my sins have separated me from you. I
want to turn away from my sins and turn toward you. Please forgive me
and fill me with your Holy Spirit and create a new person in me. I
believe that your son, Jesus Christ, died for my sins. I believe He was
resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus
to become the Lord of my life. I pray your Holy Spirit gives me the
desire and the power to do your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus’
name I trust and pray, Amen."
I wish you all a happy Palm Sunday, a blessed Holy Week, and a joyous Resurrection Sunday!
