Ten Reasons to Believe in the Resurrection of Christ CA206 LESSON 05 of 10 Our Daily Bread Christian University This course was developed by Christian University & Our Daily Bread Ministries. About A.D. 55, the apostle Paul wrote that the resurrected Christ had been seen by Peter, the twelve apostles, more than five hundred people (many of whom were still alive at the time of his writing), by James, and by Paul himself (see 1 Corinthians 15:5 8). Vernon Grounds: The witnesses to the Resurrection are not just a few individuals. You might argue, Well, they were weak minded or they were psychologically susceptible, and, then, so they imagined that He had arisen or that maybe they saw some wisps of fog and decided that these were appearance of Jesus. It might sound fantastic to us, but there is a theory called the hallucination theory. And it s put forth by some very intelligent scholars, and they think that the disciples hallucinated, that they just imagined they had seen Jesus. Paul Cox: There are several ways to approach the resurrection of Christ, it seems to me. One is to take a historical, critical approach and just say, In advance of the evidence, in advance of eyewitness testimony, I ve decided that resurrections don t occur. So no matter what amount of evidence you bring, my mind is already made up. There is no supernatural realm; there s no possibility of a resurrection. So apart from eyewitness testimony, it doesn t matter. It s sort of like walking into a court of law, and the judge calls for a sidebar, and he says, you know, Whatever evidence you bring, it won t make any difference, because I think they re guilty. And, you know, your witnesses right here, the problem with them is they actually believe that. Well, of course they believe it, cause they actually saw it. Now the other approach is to take an inductive approach. That approach says, I ve never seen a resurrection. I m probably not inclined to believe in one. But I m open enough to say, if that s where the evidence leads, then I m willing to believe that a resurrection occurred, because I believe what evidence shows. I don t decide in advance of the evidence, a priori what s true. I decide a posteriori, after I look at the evidence, what s the case. 1 of 5
Mark 16:9 14 (NKJV) According to the New Testament, some of the evidence to be considered is found in the testimony of those who claimed to have seen Jesus alive. Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. Afterward He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Edwin Yamauchi: Now some have tried to argue that these are hallucinations. But again the details do not conform with what we know are the circumstances for hallucinations. The disciples were not longing to see Jesus; they were in despair. And the fact that He appeared to people under so many different circumstances, the fact that they touched and felt Him, the fact that He ate with them, this is not just a ghost or a mirage. Furthermore, the effect of the appearance of Christ, most dramatically later on to Paul, resulting in his conversion, indicates that these are more than just imaginations of writers or imaginations of the people who thought they had seen something. Doug Groothuis: And it s interesting that many of the accounts of the resurrection in the New Testament are based on early Christian hymns and creeds that predate the writing of those books. For instance, 1 Corinthians 15, scholars believe, has an early creed or hymn that Christians used to sing. Because Paul says, I am giving to you what I received. So he s referring to something even older than what he is now then writing. And if he wrote 1 Corinthians sometimes in the 50s A.D., that creed could go back ten to twenty years. So very early after the death of Christ, people are celebrating Him as risen from the dead. Now how could a myth have developed that quickly? How could a myth, a legend, a falsehood, a deception have developed that rapidly and affected that many people and made them that courageous to go out into a hostile situation and turn the world upside down? William Craig: One of the other principal pillars upon which the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus stands is the postmortem appearances of Jesus to various people. From Paul s information 2 of 5
alone in 1 Corinthians 15:3 8, we know that after Jesus crucifixion various individuals and groups of people experienced appearances of Jesus alive from the dead. And this is remarkable, because Jesus just didn t appear to one person, but to many people. He didn t appear just to individuals but to groups of people. He did not appear just at one locale and under one set of circumstances, but at various locales and under different circumstances. He didn t appear just to believers, but to skeptics, unbelievers, and even enemies. 1 Corinthians 15:3 8 (NKJV) One of these enemies was a protector of the Jewish faith named Saul. He was well known for his efforts to expose the messianic heresy of Jesus followers. Then on the road to Damascus, he too claimed to have seen the resurrected Christ. Forever changed by this experience, this former zealot became known as the apostle Paul. Formerly an enemy but now an advocate for the resurrected Christ, Paul wrote to the Greek citizens of Corinth. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. Kerby Anderson: Hundreds of people had seen the risen Christ. He had seen the risen Christ. This is something that Jesus Christ prophesied and was fulfilled. And so we had a lot of evidence, we had prior prophecy, we had the evidence of eyewitness accounts, we have the changed lives of all of those individuals. From a historical point of view, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most verifiable events in history, and as he set forth the gospel, and the defense of the gospel, we see that that the central issue that he focused on, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. William Craig: And so we have this diversity of the appearance traditions that needs to be accounted for by any historian who wants to explain what happened to the body of Jesus. And one of the most important facets of New Testament scholarship is that in recent years, on the basis of Paul s testimony in 1 Corinthians 15, which has been shown to be based on an old tradition, going back to within the first five years after Jesus death, most New Testament scholars today recognize as a historical fact that 3 of 5
various individuals and groups of people did in fact experience postmortem appearances of Jesus alive from the dead. This is no longer a disputed fact. The only question is how do you explain these away? Were they hallucinatory experiences, can you explain them psychologically in some way? That s the question. But the fact that they did experience these postmortem appearances of Jesus is no longer historically a disputed fact. That is part of the historical information that every historian now has to work with. 1 Corinthians 15:14 20 (NKJV) According to the New Testament, not only did many witnesses claim to have seen Jesus alive after His death, but also they staked everything on that claim. Speaking as one of those witnesses, the apostle Paul wrote, If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Ravi Zacharias: If they were up to a lie, and up to mischief, and wanted to somehow save face, why would they have gone the route of a very falsifiable option? By that I mean this: Why did they say His body, that He had a bodily resurrection? They could have gotten away very comfortably by saying He spiritually rose again. And they could have gotten away from it. Do you know why? Because in Jewish belief, when they talk about resurrection, it was only in eschatological, in end-time terms; they weren t talking about present resurrections. So all they could have said was He was the Messiah and He is actually risen again in His Spirit. There would have been no way to prove them false; it would be a kind of belief system that they would just say yea or nay. They said that He physically rose again, which means they could have devastated Christianity by presenting the body. And to me, the fact that the whole group of them were willing to make a claim so astounding that it was something that could be so easily falsified... and think of what would have happened then, once the body had been found. The Romans would have wanted 4 of 5
to find it. The religious authorities would have wanted to find it. Suddenly the average person who wanted to believe something of eternal value would have said, Let s look for the body and see if we can find it. I think that was one of the most concrete evidences. John 20:24 29 (NKJV) Even among the original apostles of Jesus, there was at least one who wanted more than eyewitness reports. A man we now call doubting Thomas wanted a first-hand, physical appearance, concrete enough to both see and touch. But Thomas, called Didymus [the Twin], one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe. And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace to you! Then He said to Thomas, Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God! Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Christ-Centered Learning Anytime, Anywhere 5 of 5