A) INTRODUCTION.

B) SUBSTANTIAL REASONABLE DOUBT.

C) THE MOST COMPELLING EVIDENCE.

D) TO THE TESTIMONIES.

E) TO THE THEORIES.

F) FINALLY.

 

 

A) INTRODUCTION

 

 

“And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”  First Corinthians 15:17.  This is the bottom line of Christianity.  Without the resurrection all hope is gone and everything you believe about Jesus, God, and the Christian life, is a lie.  If we cannot trust the Scriptures in any aspect, seven days of creation, world-wide flood, crossing of the Red Sea, Jonah caught-up in the belly of a large fish, etcetera, then this most important Doctrine throws out Christianity as viable.

 

Once you establish Jesus as an historical personage then any arguments against the resurrection become overwhelmingly convincing.  Therefore, please see my Bible Study:  “Christ In Secular History.”

 

All historians agree that Christ existed; that He was crucified; and that He was buried.  Keep in mind that crucifixions were public events, designed as a deterrent for others.  That would mean that they would be placed in a well-traveled area such that most would be witnesses of it.  Plus, the crucifixion took place during “Passover,” where hundreds of crowds and Jewish people from various regions and countries over the known globe would be present.  And since Jerusalem comprises a very small area of property, it would be really stretching it to believe most of these crowds had no idea what was taking place (see Luck 24:17-19).

 

There are only 260 Chapters in the New Testament.  Yet there are over 300 passages that speak of, or allude to, the physical bodily resurrection of Christ.  See the promise (given 24 times) of John 14:19.

 

 

B) SUBSTANTIAL REASONABLE DOUBT

 

 

1) Not many -- if any -- will die for a lie.  Unless family and money are involved.  No money was offered to any of the witnesses in order to have them recant their testimony.  Except for Judas, who did recant!

 

2)  The FACT of CHANGES in the lives and testimonies of all of the disciples and many followers of Christ -- many from cowards to martyrs.

 

3) Being murdered wouldn’t count.  But being killed for their verifiable evidence and testimonies; loss of family (Even Christ’s Own family rejected Him; Mark 3:20-21; John 7:5); loss of friends; crucified; stoned; impaled; flayed; beheaded; hung upside down; flogged to death; fed to lions; the list goes on-and-on.  Why would a person do this if it was all for just one big lie?

 

4) Worldly governments, peoples, etcetera, attempting by any means possible to shut up individual testimonies of a risen Christ.  In other words, the opposition lying to avoid or silence the truth is usually a great indicator that what you are hearing (testifying of) is truth.

 

5) If any non-substantiated evidence could have been given to refute the resurrection of Christ, it surely would have come out of the city of Jerusalem, where the followers were giving testimony that Christ did rise from the dead.  However, only lies (like the soldiers were asleep; Mat. 28:13) were given for proof against the event.  Sound like a conspiracy?

 

6) Had the body of Christ not risen, the Roman guard could have just presented it and silenced the testimonies of the followers of Christ immediately.  Thus, the second lie in secular history, that the body was stolen away; leading to the third lie; that Christ did not die at all (medically impossible after the “blood [mixed with] and water” John 19:34, came forth from Christ’s body).

 

7) The arguments by the hundreds have come about throughout the ages that Jesus was not really dead.  However, it is well established (and you don’t hear of this argument any more) that the Roman guard surely knew how to kill someone and knew whether or not they were dead.  Also, there is no historical record anywhere of anyone surviving a Roman crucifixion.  By the way, to argue about most or any of these arguments, stem on the FACT, based upon scholars even using such arguments, that Jesus was and is an historical figure.

 

8) Only the Muslim world still teaches that Jesus did not really die.  They silence their followers (brain washed) the same way the Sadducees and Pharisees silenced the testimony of those raised from the dead after the resurrection of Christ (Mat. 27:52-53).

 

9) The testimony of “women” in those days was not acceptable in a court of law.  For the Biblical writers of that day to be giving credit to “women” as discovering the empty tomb (Mat. 28:1 & 5-10; Mark 16:1-5; Luke 24:1 & 9-10; John 20:1-2), let alone seeing Him risen (Mat. 28:9-10; Mark 16:9; John 20:14-18), is remarkable evidence for the reliability of the events in question.

 

 

C) THE MOST COMPELLING EVIDENCE

 

 

There have been martyrs throughout the ages.  All one need do is make Christ a martyr and carry on with whatever His teachings were.  It is when you make the claim that your personage was God, or a god, then you step upon ground that is sacred.

 

There is no phycological motivation to invent a resurrection narrative in the Judeo-Christian line of thinking.  There is no reason to make up a resurrection story, since Jews of the first century (with exception of the Sadducees; Acts 23:6-8) )already believed in a general resurrection of the dead.  They could just simply carry one Christ’s teachings.

 

By Contrast, to venerate this Person, to exonerate Him, to bring Him up to the position of being “The God,” there is no phycological reason to do that unless it actually is true that He actually rose from the dead.  Not even Jesus’ Disciples expected Him to actually die upon the cross (Mat. 16:22; Mark 8:32; 9:31-32).

 

Even the fragment of the “Dead Sea Scrolls,” “4Q285,” confirms the belief system of the Jewish population of the times, containing the description of a Messianic figure that would lead a war of judgment and cleansing of the land of Israel.  No one was looking for a sacrificial Savior.

 

This is why Judas did not understand, nor want this type of Messiah.  Thus, there was no reason to make up this type of narrative that God died, was buried, and rose again (1Co. 15:1-3).  Plus, when you have hostel witnesses that testify of seeing Jesus alive after He was confirmed dead (Paul/Saul of Tarsus), that is a change of character, not dying for a lie.

 

Lastly, what is the motivation for the Disciples to make up such a concocted story?  Did they want to invite persecution, mistreatment, exclusiveness, and even execution?  By the way.  Many will hold on to a lie as long as they can,  By contrast, name a few who will purposely “die” for that lie.  Therefore, what motivation is there for this Biblical truth unless it actually happened?

 

 

D) TO THE TESTIMONIES

 

 

Think about this.  If you wanted proof of the resurrection of someone you knew, what would you want to have happen in order for you to believe?

 

You would want to TALK TO THEM = See Matthew 28:9-10 & 17-20; Mark 16:12 & 14-18; Luke 24:17 & 19 & 24-25 & 36 & 38-49; John 20:15-17 & 19-23; 21:7 & 10 & 12 & 15-22; Acts 1:3; First Corinthians 15:5-8.

 

You would want to TOUCH THEM = See Matthew 28:9; Luke 24:39; John 20:17 & 27-29.

 

You would want to SEE THEM UP CLOSE, not from a distance = See Matthew 28:9-10 & 17-20; Mark 16:12 & 14-18; Luke 24:17 & 19 & 24-25 & 36 & 38-51; John 20:19-23 & 25; 21:1 & 7 & 10 & 12 & 15-22; Acts 1:3 & 22; 3:15; 10:40-41; 13:31; First Corinthians 15:5-8.

 

You might want to EAT WITH THEM = See Luke 24:30 & 43; John 21:12-13.

 

You could rely upon the testimony of 500 people at once seeing Him; and most of them are still alive to tell of it (under pain of persecution for their testimony) = See First Corinthians 15:6.

 

That when you did see your friend, that His body had not seen corruption = See Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:27; 13:35.

 

 

E) TO THE THEORIES

 

 

First of all, it is a well-established fact that the crucifixion of a Jewish martyr took place in the first century.  The first excuse used is the empty tomb; in that His Apostles stole the body away while the Jewish guards slept (Mat. 28:13).  However, all anyone had to do was produce the body and this fallacy would have quickly gone by the way side.

 

The “Swoon Theory,” is that Jesus really didn’t die, but He fell unconscious.  However, when appearing to the Disciples, they would not have claimed that He rose from the dead, but would have called for an ambulance and got Him straight to the hospital.

 

The “Vision Theory,” proposes that sightings of Jesus were just visions; often just because of grief or bereavement.  However, other than the supposed sightings of the “Mother Mary,” by proponents of the Roman Catholic church, there is no (NONE) historical documentation of a mass of people claiming to have seen Jesus in a vision.  By the way, many sceptics could have Jesus appear to them personally and they still would refuse to believe.  There is SO much evidence that the Bible is one hundred percent true, yet most refuse to believe the evidence.  Evidence alone, without the conviction of the Holy Spirit, will not suffice.  Think about it.  Is hallucination enough to make the Disciples, and or the followers of Christ, die for it?

 

There are many others, but these are the most prominent to this day.

 

 

F) FINALLY

 

 

Even the Muslim “Qur’an” acknowledges that Christ was resurrected (all-be-it, that He never really died) as found in “Yusuf Ali,” 4:157-158:  “That they said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah’ -- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not--nay, Allah raised him up to himself.”  I bring this up because, although untrue, it still testifies that Christ was an historical figure.  See my Bible Study:  “Christ In Secular History.”

 

According to Roman law of the time, there was to be “Capital punishment for anyone moving a body from a tomb with wicked intent.”  “Rescript,” from Claudius Caesar (c. A.D. 40’s).  In an interesting side note, this law specifically mentions “sepulcher-sealing stones,” which, by-the-way, are only found in Israel.

 

As mentioned above, in those days, women’s testimonies were not acceptable in a court of law.  Therefore, if you were going to fake a resurrection testimony, why would you have women see the resurrection before anyone else (men).  See Mark 16:9 (Mat. 28:1; Mark 15:47; Luke 24:10; John 20:1 & 11 & 16).

 

Even all the sceptics and scholars at least believe or acknowledge that these testimonies are of people who believe and are certain of what they are testifying to.

 

The Fact that Jesus raised others from the dead, and none in His day disputed that FACT, proved that someone could be raised from the dead.  See Matthew 9:22 (same event in Mark 5:42; Luke 8:55) Luke 7:15; John 11:44.  And the FACT that the leadership wanted to kill Lazarus (John 12:9-11), so that his testimony could not be published about of his resurrection, is very telling.

 

Why would one spend their entire life attempting to disprove the resurrection of a nobody?  Think About It:  Why are sceptics more concerned about disproving the Resurrection of Jesus then Christians are about proving it?  Finally, a little “Common-Sense” would be well used occasionally.