Today, I wrap up my summary of the most prevalent theories that skeptics use to explain away the resurrection of Jesus. After I mention the seventh and perhaps most widely used theory, I want to add a few of the reasons that I have confidence in the resurrection of Jesus as a historical fact.
Theory 7: Early church made up the story
This is the current position of most modern day skeptics as well as most members of the Jesus Seminar (an academic religious think tank). It actually combines elements of several of the previous theories, but like all the others it stumbles over several hard facts. First, what happened to the body? If it remained in the grave the Jewish leaders would have known it and used it to debunk the early Christian movement. Besides that, how do you explain the unanimous testimony of the eye witnesses that Jesus rose from the dead? Would all of those men and women be willing to suffer and in many cases die for a lie? It takes far more faith to believe this theory than it does to believe the straightforward testimony of the eye witnesses.
Now, let me share several reasons why I believe Jesus rose from the dead. In preparing this material, I have leaned heavily on the Scriptures, plus the works of Josh McDowell (Evidence That Demands a Verdict and More Than a Carpenter), John Warwick Montgomery, Peter Kreeft, Lee Strobel, and others. I believe the evidence for Jesus' resurrection to be compelling, but I realize that evidence alone is not sufficient to bring individuals to faith in Christ. I leave that between God and you.
1. He predicted he would rise from the dead
Because he was the Son of God, he knew about his coming death in Jerusalem . But he also knew about his resurrection. In John 2:19-22 he said that he would be raised in three days—although the disciples did not understand it at the time. In John 10:17-18 he plainly said he had the power to lay down his own life and then to take it back up again. At the moment when Peter declared, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God," Jesus told his disciples for the first time that he must go to Jerusalem, that he would be put to death, and that he would be raised to life on the third day (Matthew 16:21). Anyone can predict his own resurrection; only the Son of God can fulfill such a prediction.
2. Jesus really died
Now this might seem to be stating the obvious but you can't have a resurrection unless you first have a dead man. No one could have survived what Jesus suffered. The Romans were experts at killing. Everything they did to a victim was calculated to make him suffer unbearable pain and then die an agonizing death. He was dead when they took him down from the cross.
3. His body was prepared for burial and then buried
Jewish burial customs of that day involved a complex mixture of spices and resin that, when placed between the layers of the grave clothes hardened to produce an impenetrable shell. The primary purpose, of course, was to keep robbers and animals out, but in this case it has the additional purpose of keeping the dead man inside. It also prevented unpleasant odors from spreading. The total weight of the winding cloth with the spices and resins would be 75-100 pounds.
The gospel writers note that Jesus' body was taken down and hurriedly prepared for burial in the last few moments before sundown since Jewish law forbade touching a dead body on the Sabbath. He was buried in a newly hewn tomb provided by Joseph of Arimathea. He and Nicodemus, along with the women, prepared the dead body for burial. Afterwards Pilate ordered the tomb sealed and then placed a squad of soldiers in front of the stone as a precaution against mischief of any kind.
Although it is not often noticed, the gospel writers actually give quite a few details regarding the handling of the body and the preparation for burial. The only possible conclusion must be that Jesus was in fact actually dead on Friday evening.
4. The disciples didn't expect a resurrection
In my mind this is one of the most telling points. Even though Jesus had repeatedly predicted his resurrection, somehow that truth simply failed to sink in. Either they didn't understand it, or they didn't want to think about what it implied (Jesus' death), or they forgot it in the emotion of watching him die. All four gospels make it clear that before the crucifixion, none of the disciples understood Jesus' references to the resurrection.
5. The women saw him first
In our modern culture we don't appreciate the significance of the fact that the women came first to the tomb. No first-century writer would have put the women at the tomb first because women weren't considered reliable witnesses. The only reason to say that the women saw him first is because that's what actually happened. No one would have made up such a strange (to the culture of that time) detail.
6. The Eleven (remember Judas was dead) did not believe it at first
Not only did the disciples not expect a resurrection, Luke 24 makes it clear that the eleven remaining apostles didn't believe the first reports from the women. Discounting them as unreliable, they decided to check the tomb for themselves (John 20). The disciples went into hiding after Friday because they feared for their own safety. The last thing they expected on Sunday morning was a resurrection. In the beginning, it wasn't just Thomas who doubted. None of them believed the early reports and all of them had to be convinced over and over again that Jesus had risen from the dead.
7. The Jewish leaders tried to cover it up
Why try to cover up the resurrection if the body is still in the grave? The cover-up and the payoff only make sense if a resurrection occurred. Otherwise, they just bring out the dead body of Jesus and it is all over.
8. The stone was rolled away
Josh McDowell goes into this at some length. First, the stone itself was three to six feet in diameter and weighed two to five tons. It took several strong men to roll it into place. Second, the New Testament uses several prepositions that indicate that the stone was not just rolled away; someone picked it up and physically moved it. Third, the seal on the stone could only be broken by a Roman official. Anyone else caught breaking the seal would be put to death.
Who rolled the stone away? The disciples? The Roman guards would have stopped them. The Jewish leaders? They would have no reason to do so, besides they had a vested interest in keeping the body in the tomb. The Romans? Not likely. They had no motivation. And who would risk death to do such a thing? Who rolled the stone away? God did, because he's the one who raised Jesus from the dead.
9. The angels testified to the resurrection
To the Jewish mind, angels always signified a special message from God. In the Old and New Testaments angels were sent by God to announce very important events. In this case the angels announced the most important event of all time—the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
10. The grave clothes were still in place
When John wrote his version of the Sunday morning events, he includes the fascinating note that when he and Peter entered the tomb, they found the grave clothes lying in place with the linen head cloth folded next to it. Evidently the spices and resins had hardened into the shape of Jesus' body, leaving the appearance of a cocoon after the butterfly has escaped. How do you explain that fact? Grave robbers would have taken the body without unwrapping it or they would have unwrapped it and thrown the winding sheets to the side. No one steals a body and then re-wraps the grave clothes. I believe that when Jesus rose from the dead he literally passed right through the grave clothes leaving behind the linen wrappings just as John and Peter found them.
11. The tomb was empty
It's interesting to note that all the contemporary witnesses agree on this fact. The disciples, the Jewish leaders, and the Romans all knew that the tomb was empty. It's true that each group viewed the fact differently but no one disputed the basic assertion that on Sunday morning Jesus was no longer in the tomb.
12. No one ever found his body
Again we come back to the fundamental issue. No one has ever produced his body. If anyone—anyone at all—had produced the dead body of Jesus, the entire Christian movement would have gone the way of so many other short-lived religions across the centuries. No one has ever found the body of Jesus and no one ever will. Skeptics simply can't answer the question, "What happened to his body?" This is the ultimate unanswered question. No one throughout 2,000 years of history has provided a credible answer to that question. In the Holy Land you can start in the north and dig to the south or start in the east and dig to the west. You'll find bones everywhere you dig, but you won't find the bones of Jesus because they aren't there.
13. He appeared to many people
Taking the gospels together with 1 Corinthians, you get a list like this: First to the women, then to Peter and John, then the disciples on the road to Emmaus, then to the disciples in the Upper Room, then to the disciples and Thomas one week later, then to the disciples in Galilee . And somewhere along the way he appeared to 500 people at once. There were other appearances as well that we cannot date precisely. Taken together, the list is impressive enough that it cannot be cavalierly dismissed as wishful thinking. Writing some 30 years later, Paul commented that most of those who saw the risen Christ were still alive and ready to testify to what they had seen.
14. He showed his wounds to Thomas
When Jesus appeared to Thomas a week after the resurrection he offered the ultimate apologetic proof. Spreading forth his hands, he said, "Touch my wounds. See for yourself." When Thomas saw the wounds, he knew at last that it must be true.
15. He ate with the disciples
Luke 24:42, 43 tells us that Jesus ate broiled fish in the presence of the disciples. A ghost doesn't eat fish. Neither does a dead man.
16. He stayed with them for 40 days
Forty days is a long time. If Jesus had only appeared once or twice, we might be tempted to discount it as a hopeful vision. But Jesus "showed himself alive" according to Acts 1:1-3 by "many infallible proofs." He stayed long enough to convince all his followers that he had indeed come back from the dead.
17. The disciples were utterly transformed
Here is one of the most remarkable facts surrounding the resurrection. Whereas before that Sunday the disciples were unsure, timid, doubting, and in general a lackluster bunch, afterwards to a man they were utterly, radically and completely transformed. Suddenly these timid souls became first-century Billy Grahams, totally dedicated to spreading the good news to anyone who would listen. Persecution didn't stop them, opposition didn't faze them, hatred didn't intimidate them, hardship didn't slow them down, the threat of martyrdom didn't intimidate them. To a person they became dynamos of Christian evangelism. In the words of the Bible, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. These were the ones who turned the world upside down. What made the difference? I submit that the only possible answer is that they met the risen Christ and he changed their lives forever.
18. The early Christians all believed he had been raised
This is nothing more than a simple historical observation. All the early Christians—without exception—believed that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. The Jewish Christians believed, but so did the Gentiles. Wherever the gospel went, it produced converts who joined in proclaiming the risen Christ.
19. The resurrection was the centerpiece of their preaching
It's interesting to read the accounts of the early Christian sermons from the book of Acts. They all centered on the truth of Jesus' resurrection. Today, we tend to focus more on the death of Christ, but it was not so in the beginning. The first Christians understood that without the resurrection, the crucifixion had no meaning.
20. The Eleven died testifying to the reality of the resurrection
Church history tells us that of the eleven original disciples (not counting Judas) plus Paul, all died violent deaths for their faith in Jesus, except for John, who spent his final years imprisoned on the island of Patmos . Beyond that, thousands of Christians, men and women, died in the various Roman persecutions. Why would men and women die for a myth or a legend? Why would the apostles die for Christ if they knew he had not risen from the dead?
21. Today over one billion Christians unite to proclaim that Jesus Christ is alive
Today we join with Christians around the world to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. We stand in a long line of believers who proclaim with the angel, "He is not here, for he is risen, just as he said."
All of that has been said just to say this, the greatest question of all time is simply this, "Where do you stand regarding Jesus?" There is more than enough evidence for those who choose to believe. And there is room to doubt for those who care to do so. At some point, you have to make up your mind one way or the other. What will you choose?
