Let’s try to picture the arrest and death of Jesus from His disciples’ point of view: These mostly rough and tumble guys had walked away from their ordinary lives to follow Jesus. In return, for the next few years, they got to bask in the notoriety of being part of Jesus’ inner circle. When they walked into a new town with Him, they likely did so with a bit of swagger.

Because where Jesus went, He brought the miraculous. Can you just hear these guys saying, “Yeah, I’m just passing through. With Jesus.”

But then Jesus was arrested — and they scurried into hiding, abandoning Him! UNTIL, that is, something miraculous happened, transforming them from quivering cowards into super bold evangelists. Not even repeated threats of death could stop them — a fate that 11 of these 12 men would meet).

Why did they refuse to save themselves? Because now they KNEW that every claim Jesus had made about Himself and God was true.

Jesus “Gets” Our Skepticism

For 40 days after His resurrection, Jesus gave His followers the opportunity to engage with Him in community before He returned to Heaven. He proved Himself in the ways they needed: He ate, drank, and spoke with them. He reminded them of where they had been, and where they were headed. He revealed to them how Old Testament scripture had been fulfilled by His grisly death and glorious resurrection. He even pushed back his sleeves and opened His robes to reveal His wounds to Thomas, the doubter on record who asserted to the other disciples:

“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” ~ John 20:25

Poor Thomas; he has no idea that history has forever pegged him to this moment. But let’s not judge Thomas too harshly; we can be just as bad with our faith requirements. Don’t we use the “I won’t believe it” argument regularly today?

Thomas redeemed himself a week later, when Jesus appeared to the disciples. Jesus gently chided Thomas for trusting more in his eyes than in Jesus’ promises, but it’s clear that Jesus wasn’t judging Thomas for his low moment of faith. Just as Jesus didn’t judge Peter when he faltered in walking on the lake toward Jesus, or when Peter publicly denied Jesus three times after His arrest. Rather, Jesus lovingly lifted Peter from his own shame and self-condemnation. God is ALWAYS all about our restoration to Himself.

Our Creator is generous with His grace when we fail Him. Patiently, He points out to us the mental and emotional roadblocks we put up that stall our choosing to trust Him.

Develop Your Confidence in Jesus!

So what’s it gonna take for you to believe that Christ is who He said He is?

Do we believe that chairs will hold our weight? Yes. Because we’ve tested them. Do we believe that lemons are sour? Yes. Because we’ve tasted them. Can we likewise test the Bible, to KNOW that what it says about Jesus is true? Yes!

Here are some links to blog posts that provide you with truthful, vetted facts about Christ’s resurrection:

~ Resurrection of Jesus: Code Critical
This post explains defines the term “resurrection,” and explains why Jesus’ rising is so significant for us today.

~ Resurrection of Jesus: Pre-Resurrection Facts
This post shows that Christ was verified to be dead before they removed His body from the cross, historical context for Jewish burial practices, and physical details about Christ’s tomb.

~ Resurrection of Jesus: Hoax or Truth?
This post looks at various theories scholars and critics have proposed over the centuries to debunk Christ’s resurrection. Ironically, we can debunk them using logic and science.

~ Is Jesus’ Resurrection Fact? History Weighs In
This post looks at details of the empty tomb, discarded grave clothes, and 12 distinct instances highlighted in the Bible in which Jesus appeared to individuals or groups of people after He rose.

In our next blog post, we’ll look at the hope we have for spending eternity with Jesus.

Do you know God yet? Start your journey with Him today!

You, ultimately, get to decide for yourself if Jesus’ resurrection is fact or fiction. Choose wisely.

In this year-long blog series based on Josh and Sean McDowell’s extensively updated classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, we’re focused on proving to you that the Christian faith is rooted not in fairy tale, but on historical fact that confirms that Jesus lived, was crucified by the Romans, died on the cross, and resurrected.

In this post we’re honing in on four facts that validate His resurrection: the empty tomb, the left-behind grave clothes, post-resurrection appearances by Jesus, and lack of opposing Jewish refutation. If you missed our earlier three posts on the resurrection topic, you can view the first post here.

Post-Resurrection Facts

The Empty Tomb

Jesus’ body was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin — the ruling body of Jews who ensured Jesus’ crucifixion.

It is highly unlikely that the Gospel writers would fabricate this detail, given the hostility the early Christians would have felt toward these Jewish leaders. They must have thought, “How the heck did this happen?!” But in asking for Jesus’ body, Joseph — a secret follower of Jesus — put his reputation and social standing in jeopardy to provide Jesus with a proper burial.

Assisted by Nicodemus, a fellow member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph helped to fulfill Jewish prophecy about Jesus uttered hundreds of years prior: “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:9).

The Gospels also tell us that, among His followers, it was the committed group of women who first noted the empty tomb. The fact that the women brought spices to anoint Jesus’s body clearly shows us that they did not expect Jesus to beat death. But they were surprised to see the stone rolled aside when they reached the tomb.

Why does the testimony of the women help to validate the historical truthfulness of the empty tomb? Because at the time of Jesus, in first-century Mediterranean culture, women weren’t considered credible eyewitnesses, given their low status in the eyes of the courts. One of them, Mary Magdalene, had been previously possessed of seven demons before Jesus healed her. For that reason, she, perhaps, would have been viewed as the least reliable witness among them.

Women: The First Evangelists

The fact that the Gospel writers acknowledge that women — not men — were the first to proclaim Jesus’ resurrection shows us that the writers weren’t interested in embellishing the story to make it more palatable to contemporary readers. (Gals, don’t you love that God refused to be boxed in by cultural norms of the day?)

Hearing the women’s eyewitness account, Peter and John found their courage and ran to see the empty tomb for themselves. Just as fast word spread that the tomb was, indeed, empty. This common knowledge explains why there is no mention of people continuing to view Jesus’ tomb site as a place of religious worship, though the practice was common at tombs of other prophets and holy persons in Jesus’ time.

Imagine the consternation among the Jewish authorities. Here they thought they’d rid themselves of the Jesus “problem,” but the “problem” refused to quietly die. Ironically, these Jewish leaders knew, from the eyewitness accounts of the terrified soldiers, that a supernatural resurrection had occurred. Yet they stubbornly refused to acknowledge and receive Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.

Their flimsy story about the disciples stealing Jesus’ dead body might have held up if Jesus wasn’t repeatedly seen, alive and in full possession of His mind and body, meeting with people. 

The Grave Clothes

The Bible tells us that Peter and John were the first disciples to spot the abandoned burial clothes: At that, Peter and the other disciple went out, heading for the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and got to the tomb first. Stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in. Then, following him, Simon Peter came also. He entered the tomb and saw the linen cloths lying there. The wrapping that had been on his head was not lying with the linen cloths but was folded up in a separate place by itself. The other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, then entered the tomb, saw, and believed (John 20:3-9).

Have you ever wondered why Jesus’ grave clothes were left behind? It’s such an interesting detail. If grave robbers took Jesus’ body, what would be their purpose in laboriously removing the spices-laden burial clothes (75 pounds of myrrh and aloes) from Jesus’ lifeless, mutilated body? Body snatching isn’t a leisurely activity — it’s a quick, clandestine activity.

The abandoned grave clothes, then, serve as yet one more detail, clearly orchestrated by God, that factually support the truth of Jesus’ resurrection.

Numerous Appearances by the Resurrected Jesus

> The Bible gives us 12 distinct instances in which Jesus appeared to individuals or groups of people after He rose:

> Mary Magdalene: see John 20:11-18 — saw, heard, touched Jesus

> Women leaving the tomb: see Matthew 28:8-10 — saw, heard, touched Jesus

> Emmaus disciples: see Luke 24:13-19 — talked with Jesus

> Simon Peter: see Luke 24:34 and 1 Corinthians 15:5 — saw, heard Jesus

> Disciples without Thomas: see Luke 24:36-43 — saw, heard, touched, Jesus ate with them

> Disciples with Thomas: see John 20:24-29 — saw, heard, touched, saw wounds of Jesus

> Disciples at the Sea of Galilee: see John 21 — saw, touched, Jesus cooks for them

> Disciples on a mountain in Galilee: see Matthew 28:16-17 — saw, heard Jesus

> Disciples: Luke 24:50-52 — saw, heard Jesus

> 500 believers: 1 Corinthians 15:6 — saw, heard Jesus

> (Jesus’ half-brother): 1 Corinthians 15:7 — saw, heard Jesus

> Paul: Acts 9:3-6 — saw, heard Jesus

To both the women and the disciples, Jesus appeared in a physical, resurrected body — not in a spirit form lacking physical matter, as the “lost” Gnostic gospels would have us believe. The disciples touched Jesus’ wounds, spoke with Him, and even ate with Him. There was no way the disciples would later be convinced that they were merely hallucinating. Because they interacted with Jesus in the flesh, they were able to fully support the claim that Jesus lived.

Jesus was not just a spirit, and the term “resurrection” is not just a figure of speech. Jesus appeared to his disciples in His human body, though it now possessed supernatural attributes. Jesus could, for example, appear and disappear at will.

Silence of the Jewish Authorities

The Jewish leaders could not adequately explain the empty tomb. From our modern perspective it appears that they fumbled the ball in coming up with a good rebuttal. Seriously? The best they could do was suggest and spread the fictitious tale that the disciples took Jesus’ body?

But don’t miss this fact: at no time do we have record of any disciple, when arrested and disciplined by the Jewish authorities, being charged with grave robbery. The silence of the Jewish authorities is as significant as the testimony of the early Christians that Jesus lived.

The church was founded on Jesus’ resurrection; disproving it would have destroyed the whole Christian movement. Yet the Jewish authorities focused their efforts on post-event intimidation: threatening, beating, flogging, imprisoning, and even killing the disciples when they refused to give up their faith.

Jesus’ Resurrection: the Core of Christian Belief

The bottom line: The world-changing impact of the empty tomb can’t be underestimated — not in Jesus’ time and not in ours.

Sean McDowell puts it this way:

Christianity was a movement begun by Jews in Jerusalem not because they were all tired of Judaism and wanted to invent something new. It was birthed because they experienced such a life-changing experience interacting with Christ. No evidence exists that the earliest Christians considered the resurrection secondary; rather, the centrality of the resurrection in the earliest creeds, which pre-date the New Testament books (for example, Romans 1:3-4, 4:24-25; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; 1 Corinthians 15:3-7) shows just the opposite — that the resurrection, its historical reality, itself grounded faith in Jesus as Messiah.

Let’s remember that the disciples in the Gospel accounts were slow to believe that Jesus was alive. They are not portrayed as poster children of amazing faith. That is believable: the disciples experienced the same issues of faith that you and I face. Will you choose to believe in Jesus’ resurrection? For you, is it fact or fiction?

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean McDowell’s recently revised apologetics classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. We are certain this fully updated and expanded resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you, and strengthen your faith by answering the toughest questions tossed to you by skeptics. Know what you know, because it’s true. But share this truth with LOVE!

If you’d like to start from the first blog post in this series, click here: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?.

The resurrection of Jesus is critical to the Christian faith; without it, we don’t have a foundation for believing that Jesus is God.

Skeptics argue that the resurrection of Jesus isn’t provable. But is that true? Let’s look at some important pre-resurrection facts that definitively say otherwise.

Jesus’ Death Certified

The Romans were master executioners. Their go-to form of killing those they deemed to be criminals was crucifixion. The Romans were the principle utilizers of this barbaric form of torture for more than five centuries. They apparently learned the practice from the Carthaginians, then rapidly developed a high degree of efficiency and skill with it. By the time of Jesus, they had perfected it.

Why is it important to stress that they were experts at crucifying people? Because some critics (and the writers of the “lost” Gnostic gospels) assert that Jesus wasn’t really dead when He was removed from the cross. The suggestions is that Jesus merely “fainted.” 

Sorry, no; both biblical and secular historical accounts say He was certified as dead. In fact, the soldiers did not have to break Jesus’ legs to speed up His death, as was customary with crucifixions. By piercing His side with a sword, they confirmed His death. Pontius Pilate required a centurion to confirm Jesus’s death before he allowed Joseph of Arimathea to take possession of Jesus’ body for burial.

Is it possible to withstand brutal floggings and crucifixion, and still live?

There is only one example, in the writings of the Roman historian Josephus, of a person surviving crucifixion. Josephus does not tell us how long his “former acquaintance” hung on the cross, or whether he, like Jesus, endured forty torturous lashes before being crucified. Josephus tells us only that he was able to use his influence to get this person taken off his cross while still alive, and to ensure that the man received the best medical care Rome could provide.

Historical Context for Jewish Burial Practices

Typically, burial took place on the day of death or, if death occurred at the end of the day or during the night, the following day. Joseph of Arimathea bravely asked Pilate for Jesus’ body, seeming to be motivated by a concern for the observance of the Jewish law that dictates that a body be buried within 24 hours. But Jewish law prohibits burial on the Sabbath and festivals. So Jesus had to be buried before sundown on Friday; waiting until after sundown on Saturday would have exceeded the 24-hour limit. Scholars confirm that the details recorded by biblical writers are consistent with known customs and normal practices of that time and place.

Some critics argue that the Romans did not allow crucified criminals to be buried. Not so, say historians. Nor is there anything irregular about the Gospels’ report that a member of the Sanhedrin requested permission to give Jesus a proper burial in keeping with Jewish burial practices.

Paul confirms the burial story in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5. There is conclusive evidence that Paul drew from material predating his writing that can be traced to within three to eight years of Christ’s death. The burial is told in a simple and straightforward manner, and no conflicting tradition about the burial story exists. Nor are there early documents that refute the burial story as presented in the Gospels. It is highly unlikely that Christians invented the story of Joseph of Arimathea burying Jesus’ body, as some critics assert. Why would early Christians make a hero of a member of the very court responsible for Jesus’ death?

First Century Tombs and Archeology/Joseph’s Tomb

Archeology has provided helpful insight into the tombs in and around first-century Jerusalem. Scholarly and public attention has focused almost exclusively on the rock-cut tombs that surround the ancient city of Jerusalem. Most of Jerusalem’s rock-cut tombs are not display tombs, but relatively modest, with an undecorated entrance and a single burial chamber with a loculi. Because of the expense associated with hewing a burial cave into bedrock, only the wealthier members of Jerusalem’s population could afford rock-cut tombs.

The Stone

What kind of stone was placed at the entrance to Jesus’ burial tomb? Square stones were commonly used in Jesus’ time to seal cave tomb entrances. They fit much like a cork in a bottle: one end of the blocking stone stone fit snugly into the entrance while the other end, like the top of a cork, was somewhat larger on the outside.

But three of the four Gospel writers say the stone was “rolled back,” implying that the stone was round. Writes archeologist Amos Kloner: “Of the more than 900 burial caves from the Second Temple period found in and around Jerusalem, only four are known to have used disc-shaped (round) blocking stones. … The handful of round blocking stones from Jerusalem in this period are large, at least four feet in diameter. They occur only in the more elaborate cave tombs, which had at least two rooms or, as in one case, a spacious hall.”

Don’t miss this point: Our Lord was buried in a grave created for a person of significance. God’s hand was even in that detail.

Scholars believe the massive stone, estimated to have weighed between 1.5 and 2 tons, could be rolled down a slanted grove to cover the entrance. Although it would be easy to close the tomb, it would take at least several men to roll the heavy stone away from the entrance to remove or steal the body. The large stone would have provided additional security at Jesus’ gravesite, which the Jewish authorities wanted, to ensure that Jesus’ disciples couldn’t easily steal His body.

The Guard

The Gospel of Matthew (27:62-66) provides the context and narrative for the requesting and posting of the guard. As the passage shows, the Pharisees and chief priests clearly do not believe Jesus will resurrect from the dead. Rather, their motivation for requesting the guard was to deter the disciples from making the claim that He resurrected on the third day.

Were the guards Jewish temple guards or Roman soldiers? Writes New Testament scholar Michael Wilkins, “Since they had no authority to post guards around a burial site of a criminal executed by Roman authorities, the religious officials had to ask Pilate for a contingent of guards. … The Jewish officials were not allowed to use the troops except for the purposes the Roman governor authorized. This explains why the guards will later go to the temple authorities to report Jesus’ resurrection rather than to Pilate himself.”

Too, if the guards were Jewish, they would not have been worried about Roman punishment for failing to keep Jesus’ body secure in the tomb. 

Matthew’s Gospel (28:2-4, 11-15) states that guards’ great fear and their effort to get help in order to account for the missing body. The narrative of the Gospel is impressive: seeing the angel of the Lord roll back the stone on that Sunday morning was so frightening that it caused the highly trained soldiers to become “like dead men.” They knew they were about to face extreme punishment, if not death, from their superiors for failing to keep the body entombed. But their necks were saved when the guards and Jewish authorities collaborated — each for their own vested purposes.

The Jewish authorities had only two choices open to them: admit that Jesus rose, or peg the disciples as looters of His body. Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t also appear to the Jewish leaders? Or perhaps He did, but the Gospel writers weren’t privy to the details of any such visits. 

The Resurrection of Jesus is Real

Was Jesus a real, historical person? Absolutely. Did Jesus die on the cross? Absolutely. Was Jesus’ body buried in a tomb before it went missing? Absolutely. Did Jesus resurrect and interact with both crowds of people and his beloved disciples? The Bible says yes, numerous times.  So we get to choose whether or not we will believe it as truth.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ disciples quickly desert Jesus during His arrest, and remain largely in hiding during His trial, execution, and in the early days following His resurrection. Can you say, “Jesus picked some big chickens?”

Without Jesus, the disciples become dejected, and lost direction and focus. Some even return to the work they did before Jesus called them. Others, hiding behind locked doors, are paralyzed by their fear. But then … BAM! Something BIG got their attention and redirected their focus.

There’s no getting around the fact that something incredible motivated Jesus’ disciples, strengthening their faith and transforming them from quaking cowards to roaring lions! From unfocused to wholeheartedly focused on sharing the good news of Christ’s resurrection — even as these disciples recognize that their own death may be the penalty. (Scripture does tell us that all but the disciple John were martyred for their faith in Jesus’ resurrection.)

The resurrection of Jesus was real and life-changing for these men. That should get OUR attention.

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean McDowell’s recently revised apologetics classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. We are certain this fully updated and expanded resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you, and strengthen your faith by answering the toughest questions tossed to you by skeptics. Know what you know, because it’s true. But share this truth with LOVE!

If you’d like to start from the first blog post in this series, click here: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?.

Does the Resurrection of Jesus Really Matter?

Yes! If Jesus didn’t rise, we have no foundation for our faith. If we’re gullibly basing our lives on a fairytale, we sure are wasting a lot of time trying to resemble a person who had the crazy idea He was God!

Let’s chat briefly about why it is Code Critical that Jesus lived, died, and resurrected, just as He promised He would.

It takes some of us years before we finally stop asking every “But….What if….How” question our minds can dream up about the validity of Christ’s resurrection. And that’s okay.

But we do need to get to the point where we can release our needing every T crossed and every I dotted before we can step out in faith. Some people have a really hard time wrapping their heads around the cross and resurrection. And not just nonbelievers.

Case in point: A Christian friend recently admitted that she’s “okay” with God — mostly because she sees Him as safely distant — but that she still can’t trust the whole “Jesus loves us so much that He had to die thing” because it feels way too personal. We struggle withe the pain and shame of the cross, until the day we are able to fall in love with the sacrificial love it represents.

What is Resurrection?

What, exactly, do we mean by “resurrection”? Are we understanding the term in the same way that people living at the time of Jesus did?

In his groundbreaking historical analysis of the resurrection, leading bible scholar and theologian N. T. Wright explains how the word was used and meant to persons living in the ancient world, whether or not they believed in the possibility of it:

This basic tenet of human existence and experience is accepted as axiomatic throughout the ancient world; once people have gone by the road of death, they do not return. … “Resurrection” was not one way of describing what death consisted of. It was a way of describing something everyone knew did not happen: the idea that death could be reversed, undone, could (as it were) work backwards. Not even in myth was it permitted.

For Wright to point out that “not even in myth was it permitted” emphasizes the uniqueness of the resurrection of Christ in an ancient world that accepted so many startling supernatural events in its stories. Wright points out that various ancient cultures all knew what the word meant, but there was no consensus regarding its reality. Pagans, Jews, and Christians, he shares, all understood the Greek word anastasis. “Some Jews affirmed it as a long-term future hope; virtually all Christians claimed that it had happened to Jesus and would happen to them in the future,” adds Wright. “‘Resurrection’ meant embodiment; that was equally so for the pagans who denied it.”

In both the Old and New Testaments, at least ten individuals were raised from the dead. In the Old Testament people were raised by the prophets Elijah and Elisha. The New Testament records that Jesus, Peter, and Paul raised people from the dead. But were they resurrected like Christ? No. When viewed through the lens of Christ’s resurrection, we’d have to say they were merely resuscitated.

They lived out the remainder of their lives in the same ho-hum human bodies in which they had been birthed. Jesus was resurrected with a body that was recognizably His own, yet radically transformed. The quality of their resurrection pales in comparison to the resurrection Jesus experienced.

The Significance of the Resurrection

So why is Jesus’ resurrection so important to Christianity?

Because if Jesus was *just* a good teacher, and not our Risen Savior, nothing about our faith really matters.

Christ’s empty tomb was a necessary condition for the specific way in which the early Christians understood the event. That is, as an actual, historical event. Had Jesus’ body remained in the tomb, the early Christians would not have considered Jesus resurrected. Apologist Norman Geisler puts it like this:

If Christ did not rise in the same physical body that was placed in the tomb, then the resurrection loses its value as an evidential proof of His claims to be God (John 8:58; 10:30). The resurrection cannot verify Jesus’ claims to be God unless He was resurrected in the body in which He was crucified. That body was a literal, physical body. Unless Jesus rose in a material body, there is no way to verify His resurrection. It loses its historically persuasive value. The truth of Christianity is based on the bodily resurrection of Christ.

Adds philosopher Douglas Groothuis:

Of all the world’s religions Christianity alone purports to be based on the resurrection of its divine founder. No other religion or worldview makes such an audacious and consequential claim. … The resurrection of Jesus is at the center of the Christian worldview and Christian devotion. The Gospels do not end with the death of Jesus but speak of an empty tomb, of His appearances, and of a commission by the risen Jesus.

As Paul asserts in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19, without the resurrection we lose redemption for our sin, and we lose all hope that life extends past our final exhale of breath. Paul concludes that, “If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.” How foolish, indeed, to align ourselves with Christ, if His claims about His deity hadn’t been confirmed by eyewitnesses.

Pinchas Lapide, an orthodox Jew and Israeli historian, notes:

Without the experience of the resurrection, the crucifixion of Jesus would most likely have remained without consequences and forgotten, just as were the innumerable crucifixions of pious Jews which the Romans carried out before Jesus, during the lifetime of Jesus, and up until the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70….Thus the Christian faith stands and falls not with Golgotha, the infamous “place of the skull,” where thousands of Jesus’ brothers were murdered cruelly by Roman mercenaries, but with the experience “on the third day” after the crucifixion, an experience which was able to defuse, to refute, and even to make meaningful this death on the cross for the community of disciples.

Do Discrepancies Invalidate The Resurrection?

Some people have an aversion to believing in Christ’s resurrection because they see that the New Testament narratives do not match each other 100 percent. They conclude that these “discrepancies” indicate that the Gospels are largely made-up stories.

Yet scholars argue that it is the minor differences in the tellings of the Gospel story that indicate authenticity, not substantial error. Says philosopher Douglas Groothuis, “If each account perfectly mirrored the rest, this would likely be a sign of collusion, not accurate history told from differing (but equally truthful) perspectives.

Retired Los Angeles Police Department cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace, a former atheist turned apologist who is a recognized authority in evaluating eyewitness testimony, asserts:

If there’s one thing that my experience as a detective has revealed, it’s that witnesses often make conflicting and inconsistent statements when describing what they saw at a crime scene. They frequently disagree with one another and either fail to see something obvious or describe the same event in a number of conflicting ways. The more eyewitnesses involved in the case, the more likely there will be points of disagreement.

Wallace adds that any “discrepancies” in the Gospels are simply divergent recollections that can be pieced together to get a complete picture of what occurred.

Mark, he shares, is far more passionate and active in his choice of adjectives. Three of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) contain blocks of identical or nearly identical descriptions, perhaps because of common agreement of important parts of the narrative. But John’s account attempts to fill in the details not offered by the prior witnesses. John makes little effort to cover the same familiar ground.

Wallace’s point: small discrepancies need not line up perfectly, as long as the overall story of Jesus’ resurrection holds together.

Scholars haven’t relied solely on the Gospel tellings of the resurrection. A historical approach to scholarly research, you see, examines witnesses living at the time of an event, or living soon enough after it to hear firsthand accounts. Scholars have scoured the written testimony of early church leaders — among them Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr — to capture their view of the resurrection.

Here’s the gist: Clement focuses upon familiar daily and seasonal happenings (the rising and setting of the sun; the crop cycle) as parallels of Jesus’ resurrection and the future resurrection we shall each experience. Ignatius speaks of the resurrection as a permanent source of inner strength. Polycarp, in his Letter to the Philippians, encourages believers to endure persecution in view of the power of the resurrection. And Justin Martyr reminds believers that because of the resurrection, our spirits will live on for eternity, even as our earthly bodies become dust.

Living Out the Resurrection of Jesus

It is because of His resurrection that we can raise the roof with heartfelt worship. If just a man, we could only credit Jesus with being an amazing spiritual leader. But if we claim Him to be the resurrected Son of God, we can entrust to Him our messy lives — and our future hope of being with Him forever.

As we wait for that day, let’s keep our feet firmly on the ground and model the sacrificial love that Jesus displayed. I leave you an excerpt from Max Lucado’s lovely book, Facing Your Giants:

Who is a mediator but one who stands in between? And what did Christ do but stand in between God’s anger and our punishment? Christ intercepted the wrath of heaven. Something remotely similar happened at the Chungkai camp. One evening after work detail, a Japanese guard announced that a shovel was missing. The officer kept the Allies in formation, insisting that someone had stolen it. Screaming in broken English, he demanded that the guilty man step forward. He shouldered his rifle, ready to kill one prisoner at a time until a confession was made. A Scottish soldier broke ranks, stood stiffly at attention, and said, “I did it.” The officer unleashed his anger and beat the man to death. When the guard was finally exhausted, the prisoners packed up the man’s body and their tools and returned to camp. Only then were the shovels recounted. The Japanese soldier had made a mistake. No shovel was missing after all.

Christ took our punishment to offer us hope. His sacrifice begs us to ask: Can we love each other like that? Having been forgiven, can we also forgive? Having feasted at the table of grace, can we also freely share? With the Spirit’s help, YES!

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean McDowell’s recently revised apologetics classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. We are certain this fully updated and expanded resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you, and strengthen your faith by answering the toughest questions tossed to you by skeptics. Know what you know, because it’s true. But share this truth with LOVE!

If you’d like to start from the first blog post in this series, click here: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?.

Why the Resurrection Matters

Christians believe the resurrection is true, and that historical accounts of it have provided adequate evidence to certify it as a real event. Why is the resurrection so important? Because without it, our faith has no basis. The apostle Paul suspends the weight of Christianity on this single thread: If Jesus has not been raised, then our faith is worthless; and we are to be pitied above all men (1 Corinthians 15).

Fortunately, heaps of historical evidence support Jesus’ claim that He would beat death. 

Most scholars agree that Jesus was an actual historical person crucified by the Romans. What some take issue with are the supernatural and theological implications of the resurrection. So they’ve come up with naturalistic (anti-supernatural) theories to try to explain the resurrection.

Let’s look at three of these alternate theories: the Apparent Death (Swoon) Theory, the Theft (Conspiracy) Theory, and the Hallucination Theory, to see if they adequately explain away the resurrection.

Apparent Death Theory

This theory, which emerged in the late 1700s and evolved through various liberal German theologians, posits that Jesus did not die on the cross, but only appeared to die. A modern version of this theory was popularized in The Passover Plot, a 1960s book by Hugh Schonfield.

Details of the Theory

This theory states that Jesus merely fainted on the cross, from pain, shock, and loss of blood. He was removed from the cross, alive but unconscious, and placed in the tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish leadership. Jesus supposedly revived at some point, in part because of the coolness of the tomb. Despite not having access to desperately needed medical care and nourishment, Jesus then supposedly managed to unwrap His dressings by Himself and then, in the total darkness of the tomb, locate and roll away the mammoth stone that sealed the tomb entrance. And then, still unnoticed by the guards, Jesus supposedly walked a significant distance, on feet punctured by the cross nails, to rejoin His disciples and declare Himself the risen Lord.

>>>Response

Serious scholars don’t support this theory because it fails to account for the known facts. Evidence, both historical and medical, argues against the possibility of survival. We have at least ten reasons to be confident that Jesus did, in fact, die on the cross:

• The nature of His injuries. He was brutally whipped, beaten, and crowned with deep thorns, all of which resulted in enormous blood loss and tissue damage. He collapsed while carrying His cross beam (approximate weight to be believed around 100 pounds) to the crucifixion site.
• The nature of crucifixion virtually guarantees death from asphyxiation. In an attempt to bolster their view, skeptics cite the historian Josephus, who describes an extremely rare case in which one person survived crucifixion, overlooking the fact that his account describes three crucifixion victims who were alive when taken down, but two of which died shortly thereafter, despite receiving excellent Roman medical care.
• The piercing of Jesus’ side, from which came “blood and water” (John 19:34), indicating serum separated from clotted blood, gives medical evidence that Jesus had already died.
• Jesus said He was in the act of dying while on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
• The Roman soldiers, well trained executioners, were charged with making sure He was dead before taken off the cross. When they went to break Jesus’ legs, to hasten His death, they found Him already dead.
• Pilate summoned the centurion to make sure Jesus was, indeed, dead before surrendering the body to Joseph for burial.
• Jesus’ body was wrapped in about a hundred pounds of cloth and spices, and placed in a tomb that was sealed with a massive stone. From inside the tomb, Jesus would have had no way to leverage the stone to roll it away, let alone push it back enough to slip past it.
• Medical experts who have studied the circumstances surrounding the end of Jesus’ life have concluded that He did actually die on the cross, most likely from a combination of factors: hypovolemic shock, exhaustion asphyxia, and even acute heart failure.
• Christian historians from the 1st and 2nd centuries, such as Tacitus and Josephus, recorded Jesus’s death in their writings.
• The earliest Christian writers after the time of Christ, such as Polycarp and Ignatius, verify that Jesus died on the cross.

In his article, A Lawyer Examines The Swoon Theory, Texas attorney Joseph “Rick” Reinckens satirically unpacks this theory. Just a snippet: “Jesus has been whipped, beaten and stabbed, is hemorrhaging, and hasn’t had any food or drink for at least three days. Does He just push the stone open enough to squeeze through? No, He pushes the stone door COMPLETELY out of the way!!!”

The theory asserts that Jesus got past the guards undetected — and then somehow traveled seven miles to Emmaus, to rejoin His disciples. Again, let’s look at Jesus’ physical condition, to decide if this sounds feasible:

• Jesus would have had nothing to eat or drink for more than two days, as it has been over 48 hours since the Passover meal.
• Jesus would have been severely dehydrated from losing massive amount of blood and fluids.
• Jesus’ entire body would have been a pulpy mess, because of the severe beatings and scourging by the Roman guards.
• The gaping wound in His side, from being pierced by the Roman guard’s sword, would have likely perforated a lung and/or Jesus’ heart.
• Jesus crumpled under the weight of the crossbeam as He made His way to the crucifixion site. Yet now He manages to roll aside a tomb stone that scholars estimate weighed more than 400 pounds?

If Jesus had managed to get Himself to His disciples, are we to believe that they viewed Him, in His near-death state, to be their triumphant, risen Lord? And consider this: if Jesus had survived the crucifixion, why would His disciples create the idea of His resurrection? Would they not have thumbed their noses at Rome more by simply stating that Rome’s best efforts at torture were no limit to Jesus, the man and Messiah from Galilee?

If it crossed your mind that Jesus could have healed Himself in the tomb — as historical records tell us that He healed so many others — ask yourself why He would do so. If He didn’t die, His own predictions about Himself were untrue. If He didn’t die, His promises to us are, as Paul states, worthless. 

Theft Theory

The oldest of the naturalistic alternative theories, this theory comes in different forms. The first form is that the disciples stole the body from the sealed and guarded tomb, and conspired to teach that Jesus had resurrected. The second form is that grave robbers stole the body, and when Jesus’ disciples discovered the theft, they decided to tell everyone that He resurrected.

The great historian Eusebius (A.D. 314-318) was the first to argue that it is inconceivable that such a well-planned and thought-out conspiracy could succeed. Eusebius satirically imagined how the disciples might have motivated each other to take this route: Let us band together to invent all the miracles and resurrection appearances which we never saw and let us carry the sham even to death! Why not die for nothing? Why dislike torture and whipping inflicted for no good reason? Let us go out to all the nations and overthrow their institutions and denounce their gods! And even if we don’t convince anybody, at least we’ll have the satisfaction of drawing down on ourselves the punishment for our own deceit.

Details of the Theory

This theory originates back to the time of the resurrection itself. It was first recorded by Matthew (28:11-55), when the chief priests told the Roman guards to concoct the story that Jesus’ disciples had stolen His body while they slept. (Hmm….how would they know that, if they were asleep?) Justin Martyr also recorded this early theory in his writings around AD 165, as does Tertullian, who was born in AD 150. One of the leading proponents of this theory today is mythicist Richard Carrier, who believes the resurrection to be an invention later adopted as church doctrine.

Richard Carrier’s Empty Tomb Hypothesis
Theory #1: Growth of a Later Legend

Carrier believes the most probable and plausible cause of the empty tomb story presented in the Gospels is that over time a legend grew that Jesus did, in fact, physically rise, not just spiritually. Carrier himself believes that Jesus was raised bodily, but that His earthly body continued to rot in its tomb. He also believes that Mark created the idea of the empty tomb, which Luke and Matthew then copied in their Gospels. Mark, he asserts, viewed the empty tomb as symbolic, not historic. He further asserts that several parallels exist between Mark’s gospel and Orphic doctrines, and that “Mark’s empty tomb story mimics the secret salvation narratives of the Orphic mysteries, substituting Jewish-Messianic eschatology for the pagan elements.”

Carrier also suggests that Mark employs a “Reversal of Expectation” motif. This is the idea that what the reader is expecting to happen in the narrative is suddenly reversed by the author in order to surprise and confound the audience. He states: The parables of Jesus are also full of the reversal of expectation theme, and Mark appears to agree with the program of concealing the truth behind parables. And so, the empty tomb is probably itself a parable, which accordingly employs a reversal of expectation as its theme. … This program leads him to “create” thematic events that thwart the reader’s expectation, and an empty tomb is exactly the sort of thing an author would invent to serve that aim.

>>>Response

First, the idea that the empty tomb is a late invention layered over the Christian system one or two generations later completely ignores the evidence that the church, from its inception, preached the risen Jesus. And this teaching took place in Jerusalem, the very site of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.

Theory #2: Theft

Carrier puts forth this second theory: that Jesus was put in the tomb on Friday, but that the Roman guards weren’t posted until Saturday morning, giving robbers or disciples plenty of time to steal Jesus’ body. He also suggests that the Roman guards quite possibly took two bribes — one from the robbers, and one from the Jewish leaders — after the guards reported the empty tomb.

Asserts Carrier: There is simply nothing improbable in an empty tomb being the result of theft, which then is linked with or even inspires (by leaving the suggestion of an ascension or escape in people’s minds), independent reports of appearances, especially appearances of a visionary kind, such as that which converted Paul.

>>>Response

The disciples were so terrified when Jesus was arrested, they scattered and went into hiding. Even Peter, who swore he would die with Jesus, if necessary, denied knowing Jesus three times. The theory that Jesus’ disciples (or someone else) stole the body fails, when we consider that the disciples were doing all they could to go radio silent.

Should we believe that they suddenly found the courage to not only steal Jesus’ body, but to then boldly go around telling their contemporaries that Jesus had resurrected? Though Jesus had told His disciples repeatedly that He must die and rise, a bodily resurrection was an entirely new concept for their Jewish thinking. They didn’t “get” it until the risen Jesus appeared and spent the next 40 days with them. Only then were they emboldened to grab their megaphones and lustily shout the good news — whatever the consequences. 

Peter wasn’t convinced by the empty tomb. Neither was Mary, the first to reach it. She simply assumed His body had been moved. And we all know what it took to turn doubting Thomas into believing Thomas: placing his own hands on Jesus’ wounds. The Jewish leaders tacitly acknowledged that the tomb was empty. Why else would they have paid the Roman guards to make up the story about Jesus’ body being stolen?

And let’s not forget yet another clue that grave robbers didn’t take Jesus’ body: the left-behind grave cloths. Supposed body snatchers — whether disciples or unknown persons — would hardly have taken the time to unwrap Jesus’s body to leave the burial linens behind. Myrrh, one of the spices placed within the burial cloths, would have made removing the cloth extremely slow and tedious, as it would have cleaved to both the linens and Jesus’ body. What robber has time for that? Certainly not timid disciples.

Jesus left the linens behind as a big, bold statement: I have resurrected!

Hallucination Theory

Is it possible that people just thought they saw Jesus? Science has proved that hallucinations are entirely subjective, as they occur within individuals, not among groups of people. So how do we account for hundreds of people simultaneously seeing Jesus, and the 11 disciples interacting with Him as a group? We can definitely eliminate hallucination.

Says Peter Kreeft: “Hallucinations usually happen only once, except to the insane. This one returned many times, to ordinary people. Five hundred separate Elvis sightings may be dismissed, but if five hundred simple fishermen in Maine saw, touched, and talked with him at once, in the same town, that would be a different matter.”

Details of the Theory

The Hallucination Theory asserts that the many people who saw Jesus in His resurrected body just imagined doing so. Atheist and New Testament theologian Gerd Ludemann asserts that Peter’s vision was psychologically prompted. Peter, he says, saw a vision of Jesus because of his suffocating feelings of guilt, and his intense desire to have Jesus back and leading the disciples. As a result, states Ludemann, Peter “saw” Jesus and thus made it possible for the other disciples to “see” Jesus as well. He adds that Paul, feeling remorse for so viciously attacking the church, converted to Christianity with the same zeal after seeing an hallucination of Jesus. “Paul’s vision of seeing Christ was merely a dream,” says Ludemann, which, “reinforced by enthusiasm, was contagious and led to many more visions, until we have an ‘appearance’ to more than five hundred people.”

>>>Response

This theory, arguably the most widely held naturalistic theory for the resurrection, lacks the most evidence support for its case. Hallucinations are a poor explanation. Hallucinations do occur, but only to individuals. Because hallucinations are entirely subjective, multiple people do not simultaneously experience them. And persons experiencing a hallucination do not feel they have direct or voluntary control over the experience. We know from historical sources that the people who saw Jesus were in total control of their reaction to Him.

Philosophers Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli offer these reasons why the Hallucination Theory cannot be considered a reliable naturalistic explanation for the resurrection:

• There were too many witnesses who saw Jesus — and at the time of Paul’s writing, he asserted that most of the 500 who saw Jesus were still alive, and could be questioned as to what they experienced. If untrue, Paul’s enemies would have called him out on this.
• These witnesses are qualified sources. They had firsthand knowledge of the facts.
• The 500 saw Christ together, at the same time and place. This is way more remarkable than 500 private “hallucinations” at different times and places.
• Hallucinations last typically for a few seconds or minutes. This “hallucination” (Jesus) hung around for 40 days!
• This “hallucination” (Jesus) returned many times, to ordinary people.
• As we previously stated, hallucinations happen to individuals. They are not a shared experience.
• When Jesus first appeared to His disciples, they thought He was a ghost. He had to eat something to prove He was not. The resurrected Christ ate with His disciples on at least two occasions.
• Jesus allowed His disciples to touch him. Doing so helped the disciples to believe He was real, and not a “vision.”
• His disciples saw the empty tomb for themselves. If Jesus’ body would have still been there, they would not have believed Him risen.

To suggest that early followers of Christ were duped into believing Jesus lived because of mass hysteria is crazy talk. People might get emotionally invested for a period, but to stick with a belief, they really have to believe it. Christianity has flourished because a real relationship with Christ produces just that: an ongoing connection that devoted Christians savor too much to forfeit.

Our Conclusion: Jesus Lives!

While a single alternate theory might be capable of explaining just one piece of evidence, none of the alternate theories can account for all the historical evidence that points to the truth of the resurrection. And simply stitching together various alternate theories fails to give skeptics what they want: a purely naturalistic explanation of the effects and facts.

Given all that we know about the resurrection as a historical event, we can have confidence that it also was a supernatural event that shook the very gates of hell. Skeptics can, and likely will, argue otherwise until they reach their last breath. But to anyone who has personally experienced Jesus, and chosen to accept Him as Lord, their arguments fall flat.

Christianity requires faith — but not blind faith. As we’ve shown you in the 21 blog posts we’ve posted so far in this year-long series, we can base our faith on the avalanche of historical evidence that serves to validate the claims of Christ, the Church, and the Bible.

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean McDowell’s recently revised apologetics classic, Evidence That Demands a Verdict. We are certain this fully updated and expanded resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you, and strengthen your faith by answering the toughest questions tossed to you by skeptics. Know what you know, because it’s true. But share this truth with LOVE!

If you’d like to start from the first blog post in this series, click here: Apologetics: Apologizing for Believing in God?.

In this post we examine and debunk three resurrection theories developed by skeptics.

Few skeptics deny the essential events — the trial, the crucifixion, the burial, the guards, the Roman seal, and the empty tomb — because historical evidence strongly supports them. Instead, they focus on suggesting that these events don’t mean that a dead man came back to life. Their attitude can be summed up as, “There has to be some other explanation.”

Some critics have suggested that the apostles only convinced themselves they saw visions of Jesus because they were mentally distraught over His death. Others speculate that people were able to interact with Jesus after His crucifixion because He hadn’t really died. Still others postulate that Jesus’ disciples made up the resurrection, just because they could. Let’s examine, in more detail, these resurrection theories to see if they hold any merit.

The Swoon Theory (also called the Resuscitation Theory)

The Swoon Theory, first proposed in 1828 by H. E. G. Paulus, a German theologian and critic of the Bible, claims that Jesus did not die. Rather, suggested Paulus, Jesus merely fainted on the cross, from pain, shock, and loss of blood. Jesus was then mistakenly buried alive.

Let’s back up a second and go over the known historical facts of the resurrection:

>> Jesus was beaten to bloody shreds by the whip used by the Roman guards.
>> Jesus was so weak after His torture that He couldn’t carry the patibulum of His cross to the crucifixion site.
>> Jesus had spikes driven through His wrists and feet and hung bleeding for six hours.
>> The Romans thrust a spear deep into Jesus’ side, confirming beyond doubt that Jesus was dead.
>> Jesus was prepared for burial according to exacting Jewish custom. His body was encased in wrapped linen and spices.
>> Jesus was then entombed, and a massive, heavy rock was rolled across the tomb entrance.
>> A unit of highly trained Roman guards vigilantly guarded the entrance — knowing they would be punished if Jesus’ body disappeared.

The Swoon Theory suggests that the cool, damp air of the tomb somehow revived Jesus after three days and He decided to exit. Despite not having access to desperately needed medical care and nourishment, Jesus supposedly managed to unwrap His dressings and then, in the total darkness of the tomb, locate and roll away the mammoth stone sealing the tomb entrance. And then, still unnoticed by the guards, Jesus supposedly walked away, on feet punctured by the cross nails, to rejoin His disciples. The most significant problem with this theory is that it greatly underestimates the severity of Jesus’ wounds. Historical sources confirm that Jesus was horribly tortured—and confirmed dead by several sources before He was removed from the cross.

In his article A Lawyer Examines The Swoon Theory, Texas attorney Joseph “Rick” Reinckens unpacks this theory. A snippet of his must-read: “Even in His weakened condition, in a quiet private cemetery, Jesus manages to push back the stone door without any of the guards noticing! Why go half-way? Jesus has been whipped, beaten and stabbed, is hemorrhaging, and hasn’t had any food or drink for at least three days. Does He just push the stone open enough to squeeze through? No, He pushes the stone door COMPLETELY out of the way!!!”

Adds J. Hampton Keathley, III, a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and a pastor: “If Christ had only swooned, He still would have still been half dead. A great deal of time would have been needed for recuperation. In His weakened condition He could not have walked the seven miles on the Emmaus road. It would have been impossible for someone who had only resuscitated from the agonies the Lord endured with the beatings and crucifixion to so quickly give the impression that He was the Conqueror of death and the grave, the Prince of Life.”

Could the Roman soldiers have been asleep? Is that how Jesus supposedly made His sneaky escape? 

Peter Kreeft, a popular writer of Christian philosophy, theology and apologetics, says no way: “The story the Jewish authorities spread, that the guards fell asleep and the disciples stole the body is unbelievable. Roman guards would not fall asleep on a job like that; if they did, they would lose their lives. And even if they did fall asleep, the crowd and the effort and the noise it would have taken to move an enormous boulder would have wakened them.”

This resurrection theory only works if we ignore facts. We can cross it off the list of possibility.

The Hallucination Theory

The Hallucination Theory asserts that the many people who saw Jesus in His resurrected body just imagined doing so. It’s important to note that hallucinations come from within a person, not outside a person. Meaning hallucinations are entirely subjective.

Science tells us that, generally, only particular kinds of people have hallucinations: persons who are paranoid or schizophrenic, or people under the influence of drugs. The New Testament tells us, however, that all kinds of people saw Jesus after His resurrection. Different ages, different occupations, different backgrounds, different viewpoints.

Dr. Gary Habermas observes: “These different individuals in each of these circumstances would all be candidates for hallucinations really stretches the limits of credibility.”

Says Peter Kreeft:

“Hallucinations usually happen only once, except to the insane. This one returned many times, to ordinary people. Five hundred separate Elvis sightings may be dismissed, but if five hundred simple fishermen in Maine saw, touched and talked with him at once, in the same town, that would be a different matter.”

Adds Dr. Michael Licona, a professor of theology: “Hallucinations are like dreams. They are private occurrences … You could not share an hallucination you were having with someone any more than you could wake up your spouse in the middle of the night and ask him or her to join you in a dream you were having.”

Hallucinations do not cause people to change or create new beliefs. The fact that many people chose to believe in Jesus, after talking with Him and touching His wounds, also helps to refute this theory. Hallucinations are an individual event. If 500 people have the same hallucination, that’s a bigger miracle than the resurrection.

We can cross this resurrection theory off the list of possibility as well.

The Conspiracy Theory

The fact that the Bible tells us that lots of people saw Jesus, over a 40-day period, helps us to debunk this final theory. The Conspiracy Theory suggests that Christ’s disciples simply stole His body and fabricated the resurrection story.

The great historian Eusebius (A.D. 314-318) was the first to argue that it is inconceivable that such a well-planned and thought-out conspiracy could succeed. Eusebius satirically imagined how the disciples might have motivated each other to take this route:

“Let us band together to invent all the miracles and resurrection appearances which we never saw and let us carry the sham even to death! Why not die for nothing? Why dislike torture and whipping inflicted for no good reason? Let us go out to all the nations and overthrow their institutions and denounce their gods! And even if we don’t convince anybody, at least we’ll have the satisfaction of drawing down on ourselves the punishment for our own deceit.”

Chuck Colson, special counsel to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal in the 1960s, knows full well how difficult it is to keep a conspiracy together. Says Colson:

“I know how impossible it is for a group of people, even some of the most powerful in the world, to maintain a lie. The Watergate cover-up lasted only a few weeks before the first conspirator broke and turned state’s evidence.”

Adds Paul E. Little, author of Know What You Believe: “Men will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie.”

We can cross this resurrection theory off the list of possibility.

Take Action

Isn’t it interesting that people are able to believe a theory full of holes, but are unable to believe the truth! Jesus’ disciples — though they faced horrendous persecution and all but one was martyred — never renounced their belief in the resurrection of Jesus. I’ll go out on a limb here and say it’s because they knew the resurrection to be true. We can trust the radical transformation of Jesus’ early followers, because we can clearly see the Holy Spirit in action today working to transform our lives, as well. 

Take the Easter Challenge: with whom can you share God’s amazing love? Can you invite someone to church on Easter Sunday? Who might you influence to get to know Jesus personally?

> > > Order Your Copy Today: The Resurrection and You

In this blog post exploring the validity of the resurrection of Christ, we invite you to consider the factual, historical evidence that gives believers certainty that Jesus rose from death, as He promised! Let’s look at five important facts of the empty tomb, and why the Roman Guards and Jewish leaders chose to cover up the truth of Jesus’ resurrection.

In the blink of an eye, on the third day of entombment, something amazing happened: Jesus beat death to live again! No other empty tomb holds such significance.

Critics Refuse to Believe the Empty Tomb

This is the part of the resurrection story that critics really don’t believe. Some have objected to the empty tomb story by claiming that it was development of legend or an apologetic device, rather than historical fact. But one of the most compelling evidences showing that the empty tomb story is true is that its emptiness was discovered first by women.

This is significant because in Jesus’ time, women held very little power or authority. In fact, except in rare cases, Jewish law precluded women from giving testimony in a court of law. So if the resurrection accounts had been manufactured, as critics claim, women would NEVER have been included as being the first witnesses. Common sense tells us that the best reason the women were reported as holding that honor, is because it was the truth of what happened.

These women were brave, but the Bible tells us that Christ’s male disciples weren’t. Most scurried to hide as Jesus faced His darkest hours. Yet the Jewish leaders credited these men with possibly possessing enough courage to try to steal Jesus’ body, in order to circulate the rumor that He had risen.

So the Jewish leaders took extra precautions: they ensured that Jesus’ burial site, a new, unused tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, was guarded by a unit of highly trained Roman soldiers. This guard unit, of four to 10 men, knew they faced severe punishment — even death — if Jesus’ body went missing under their watch. So to think these soldiers didn’t take their orders seriously, and diligently police the tomb around the clock (some would have slept while others held watch), is preposterous.

The ruthlessness of Roman soldiers was well-known and feared. Yet the Bible tells us that these seasoned soldiers fainted from terror as God’s chosen angel appeared and rolled the multi-ton stone away from the tomb entrance. What a scene! I like how the bible commentator Matthew Henry put it: “The angel’s sitting upon the stone, after he rolled it away, shows a secure triumph over all the obstructions of Christ’s resurrection. There he sat, defying all the powers of hell to roll the stone to the grave again.”

Who knows if those soldiers, despite taking the bribe the Jewish leaders gave them to keep quiet, became believers? Or when the shock passed, did they, like many critics, simply refuse to believe what they had experienced?

Many theories have been put forth to discredit the resurrection. One of the earliest theories asserts that the tomb site of Jesus was unknown. I have to scratch my head at the stupidity of that one. Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, clearly knew where his own tomb was, as did Nichodemus, who helped Joseph to prepare Jesus’ body for burial.

The guards also clearly knew the tomb’s location, as did the priests. Even the women who approached the tomb three days later and found it empty knew its exact location — as did the disciples who ran to see it for themselves upon hearing the women’s story. The secrecy plot has so many holes it doesn’t hold water!

Important Empty Tomb Facts

Let’s recap five important facts of Christ’s resurrection. You might include the facts as you share the Good News with friends and family this Easter season.

#1: The Roman Seal was Broken: The seal represented the full power and authority of the Roman empire. Anyone seeking to steal Jesus’ body would have been very aware that in doing so they were taking on Rome. Would Jesus’ disciples have dared to do so? No way! They were confused and afraid, and most were in hiding. Even Peter, who swore he’d be willing to die for Jesus, denied knowing Christ three times before the crucifixion!

#2: The Stone was Rolled Away: The first thing that impressed the people who approached the empty tomb that morning was the unusual position of the massive stone that has previously covered the tomb entrance. Not only had the heavy stone been rolled away, but it had been rolled up an incline. The Greek word for roll is kulio. In his Gospel, Mark added the preposition ana — which means “up or upward” — to the word to explain the position of the stone. So anakulio can mean “to roll something up a slope or an incline.”

In his Gospel, Luke used the same root word kulio, but added a different preposition, apo. Apo can mean, according to Greek lexicons, “a separation from” or “distance from.” Apokulio, then, means to roll one object from another so that it is “separated some distance from it.” John, in chapter 20 of his Gospel, used a different Greek verb, airo, which means to “pick something up and carry it away.” Bottom line: Jesus’s disciples, if they had found the courage to steal His body, wouldn’t have wasted the time or energy to move the stone so far away — particularly if they were also having to fight off the Roman soldiers.

#3: The Graveclothes Remained: Jesus was gone, but His graveclothes bore witness to His resurrection! If you recall from the last blog post, Jesus’s dead body was wrapped in linen cloth containing aromatic spices mixed with a gummy substance called myrrh. The myrrh would have adhered closely to Jesus’ body, making it almost impossible for anyone stealing Jesus’ body to remove the linen. As Reverend Michael Green says, “No grave robbers would have been able to enact so remarkable a thing. Nor would it have entered the robber’s head. He would have simply taken the body, graveclothes and all.” Indeed!

#4: The Guards Were Paid to Keep Silent: The Jewish leaders immediately understood they had a problem. Not only could they not produce Jesus’ missing body, but they needed to quickly hush the live witnesses! So they bribed the soldiers with a good chunk of change, and promised them protection should Pilate seek to punish them for failing to guard the tomb. Obviously, the Jewish leaders must have inspected the tomb and realized that the guards were telling the truth. Why else would they cover for the guards and pay them money to spread the lie that they fell asleep?

#5: Christ Was Seen by Many: We know that Jesus appeared to the women, and His disciples, numerous times. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes: Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, He was seen by more than 500 of His followers at one time, most of whom are still alive. Says New Testament scholar C. H. Dodd, “There can hardly be any purpose in mentioning the fact that most of the five hundred are still alive, unless Paul is saying, in effect, ‘the witnesses are there to be questioned.”

Why is it so easy for us to discredit the obvious? In the next blog post, we’ll examine and debunk other theories that have been put forth to discredit Christ’s resurrection.

Thought to Ponder

Even the Israelites, who saw so many of God’s miracles first-hand, found it easy to doubt and discredit God. So should we be surprised that some critics simply refuse to believe that Jesus, as God in human form, could die and rise again? God is the great I Am. He holds the past, the present, and the future in His mighty hands. You and I are called to love God — and each other — because He first loved us. Until we each can, with humble gratefulness acknowledge and accept the gift of the cross, we shall have trouble fully loving and following God.

Take the Easter Challenge: with whom you can share God’s amazing love for us? Who can you invite to church on Easter Sunday? After just reading about what Jesus did for you and me, are you moved to know him personally today?

> > > Order Your Copy: The Resurrection and You

In this post exploring the validity of the resurrection of Christ, we invite you to consider the factual, historical evidence that gives believers certainty that Jesus died and rose from the dead, just as He promised. In our last blog post we focused on the crucifixion details, including the fact that Pilate demanded confirmation of Jesus’ death before he ordered Jesus pulled off the cross. 

Let’s look at how Jesus’s body was prepared for burial, and some of the extra precautions the Jewish leaders took to ensure that Jesus’ disciples couldn’t steal His body.

Yes, Jesus Really Died

Last week we covered the details of the torture that Jesus was forced to endure both before and after Pontias Pilate, governor of the Roman province of Judea from 26-36 AD, ordered His crucifixion. We know that Jesus had severe lacerations on his torso from being flogged. We know that Jesus had extensive head and facial wounds and swelling, from being beaten and having a sharp, thorny crown jammed onto his head. And we know that Jesus had puncture wounds in his feet and wrists from the nails that held him to the cross. His body also suffered a large puncture wound, after a thick spear was thrust into His side to confirm His death.

Yet some critics say that Jesus wasn’t really dead. Rather, he supposedly “swooned.” Says Pastor Greg Laurie, “The swoon theory is one of Satan’s oldest lies concerning the resurrection. This theory proposes that Jesus did not rise from the dead, because He never really died. Instead, Jesus went into a deep coma or ‘swoon’ from the severe pain and trauma of the crucifixion. Then, in the cool atmosphere of the tomb, Christ revived, somehow escaped the strips of cloths that were wrapped tightly upon Him, and then appeared to His disciples.”

As Laurie adds, the swoon theory flies in the face of facts. As we mentioned in last week’s post, the Romans guards were experts at crucifixion, and death was the only outcome that interested them. They confirmed Jesus’ death before Pilate released Him.

Laurie drives Jesus’ death home with this:

“Some time ago I read a local advice column that featured a reader’s question about the resurrection. The reader asked, ‘Dear Uticus, Our preacher said that Jesus swooned on the cross and then His disciples nursed Him to health. What do you think? Signed, Bewildered.’ Uticus responded, ‘Dear Bewildered, Beat your preacher with a cat-o’-nine-tails thirty-nine times. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours. Run a spear through his side, embalm him, and put him in an airless tomb for thirty-six hours and see what happens. Sincerely, Uticus.'”

Laurie concludes that some people choose to believe the theory NOT because it’s plausible, or logical, “but because it’s something to hang their doubt on.” Bottom line, Jesus’ body was a physical mess. Every inch of His dead body testified to the excruciating pain of His undeserved mistreatment.

Jewish Burial Customs

As Jewish law prevented a crucified person from hanging on the cross during a Sabbath, a dead body had to be removed and buried before day’s end. So as the Sabbath drew near, the Roman guards considered breaking the legs of Jesus and the two thieves hanging next to him, to hasten their deaths. Finding Jesus already dead, they removed his body from the cross upon Pilate’s order. His body was immediately transported to the new, unused tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

Mentioned in all four Gospels, Luke tells us that Joseph was part of the Sanhedrin, the group of Jewish religious leaders who demanded Jesus’ death. But Luke also records that Joseph opposed this decision, as he secretly followed Jesus. In John we learn that Joseph boldly asked Pilate for Jesus’ body, despite the risk to his social standing. Historical sources confirm that Joseph provoked both Roman and Jewish elders with his request, eventually spending time in prison.

Nicodemus, another Jewish leader who secretly believed in Jesus, stepped up to help Joseph prepare Jesus’ body for burial. The exacting Jewish process started with placing Jesus’ sheet-covered body on a board so it could be bathed with lukewarm water. A.P. Bender, in a Jewish Quarterly Review article, states that the burial cleansing was so thorough, that even Jesus’ nails would have been cleaned and cut with a particular kind of pin, and His hair specially arranged. Jesus would then have been clothed in grave vestments made of white linen. Women would have sewn the linen without knots, which were prohibited.

Starting at Jesus’ feet, the two men would have wrapped Jesus’ body in linen cloth, placing aromatic spices mixed with a gummy substance called myrrh between the folds. The Jewish writer Josephus recorded that when King Herod died, more than 500 servants were needed to carry the spices used for his burial! For Jesus, it is estimated that at least a hundred pounds would have been used.

Jewish custom dictated that Jesus’ torso be wrapped to His armpits. His preparers would have then placed Jesus’ arms straight alongside His body, before wrapping more linen cloth around Him, to the neck. A separate cloth was wrapped around His head. As the gummy myrrh would have adhered so closely to Jesus’ body, it would have been difficult by this point for anyone to remove the linen cloth. And yet the Gospels record that the burial cloths were found in the empty burial tomb — neatly folded! 

Added Security Precautions 

We know that archaeologists have determined that rock tombs were used for burials during the time of Jesus. Each tomb had a groove, or trough, cut into the rock in front of it, which served to effectively seal the tomb closed as the stone was rolled into place at the entrance. Tomb stones were large, averaging a weight of two tons or more. So if Jesus’ disciples had tried to remove His body — as Jewish leaders feared they might — Jesus’ followers would have found it quite difficult to roll the stone away from the entrance. Gravity, not just the stone’s weight, would have been against them. As would have been the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb.

As it was advantageous to both the Jewish and Roman leaders to remove the political problem of Jesus, Pilate willingly agreed to the stationing of Roman soldiers at the tomb. After the guards had inspected the tomb, they would have rolled the stone into place. They would have then stretched a cord across the stone, fastening the ends with sealing clay. The clay was stamped with Pilate’s official signet, verifying that Christ’s body was protected against vandals by nothing less than the power and authority of the Roman Empire. Anyone trying to move the stone knew they were incurring the wrath of Rome by breaking the seal.
How do we know that the guards were highly trained Roman warriors, not just Jewish temple guards?

Because when Jesus did rise three days later, as He promised, it was to the chief priests that the soldiers ran for protection. The soldiers understood, only too well, that it was Roman practice to severely punish soldiers if their prisoners went AWOL. The Jewish leaders not only promised their protection against Pilate, but gifted the soldiers with a bribe for not owning up to the truth: that the Roman guards saw an angel as bright as lightning come down from heaven and roll the stone away before they fainted in terror.

Ponder This

Ironically, despite all of their precautions and duplicity, none involved in this pivotal moment of human history could prevent the sharing of the Good News! We still tell it today, because it is true! Christ Jesus lives!

In the next blog post, we’ll look at the empty tomb. And soon we celebrate Easter. Take the Easter Challenge: with whom you can share God’s amazing love for us? Who can you invite to church on Easter Sunday? After just reading about what Jesus did for you and me, are you moved to know him personally today?

> > > Order Now: The Resurrection and You

Apologetics Booklet Examines Factual Evidence of the Death and Rise of Jesus Christ.

In this blog post exploring the validity of the resurrection of Christ, we invite you to consider the factual, historical evidence that gives believers certainty that Jesus did rise from the dead, just as He promised! 

Let’s look at the crucifixion details of Jesus’ torture and death. Is it possible, as some assert, that Jesus wasn’t really dead when His body was removed from the cross?

No, and we can know this with certainty for several reasons.

First: The Romans were experts at crucifixion. Though they didn’t invent it, the Romans used crucifixion extensively because it worked so well as a deterrent. All who came upon a Roman crucifixion quaked at suffering a similar fate, because this form of torture was gruesome, degrading, and led to an intensely painful death. The Roman statesman Cicero called crucifixion “the most cruel and hideous of tortures.”

Second: The Jewish leaders were well aware that Jesus had predicted His own resurrection. Fearing that His followers might take extraordinary measures to make it appear that Jesus’ claims proved true, they took equally extraordinary precautions to ensure that Jesus died. They then had His body sealed in a tomb under heavy Roman guard.

Third: Even minus the guards, it would have been difficult for Jesus’ followers to remove the massive stone sealing the tomb’s entrance. Typically, to close the tomb, a heavy stone of perhaps several thousand pounds would be rolled down a groove, at a decline, to settle in front of the entrance. To remove the stone, many men would have had to roll the stone backward at an incline. Yes, the stone was rolled away, but not by human effort.

Fourth: Researchers have uncovered that twelve reliable, non-Christian sources, dated approximately 20 to 150 years after Jesus’s crucifixion, record that Jesus died. One of the sources, Cornelius Tacitus (AD 55-120), is considered by many to be the greatest ancient Roman historian.

Details on the Torture

The four Gospels share details of the crucifixion of Jesus. These include the public flogging Jesus first had to endure. Romans typically used the flogging to hasten the victim’s death. The whip, made of leather throngs of various lengths, was interwoven with sharp, jagged pieces of bone and lead. With every lash, these bits of bone and lead ripped Jesus’ back to shreds.

As a 1986 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association records, “As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissue. Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.”

The Jews limited their floggings to 40 lashes. The Pharisees, with their obsessive legalism, would limit their lashes to 39 so that if they miscounted they would not be guilty of breaking the law. The Romans had no such limitations. The floggers inflicted whatever pain they felt like giving. Infection set into the open wounds also immediately.

We know that Roman soldiers then shoved a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, causing even further bleeding and dehydration. The soldiers also spit on Jesus, and beat Him with a rod. In his article highlighting the medical aspects of the crucifixion, Dr. Mark Eastman says, “Jesus had not drunk since the night before, so the combination of the beatings, the crown of thorns, and the scourging would have set into motion an irreversible process of severe dehydration and cardiorespiratory failure. All of this was done so that the prophecy of Isaiah would be fulfilled:

I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Isaiah 50:6.

In his article, Crucifixion — The Physical Suffering of Jesus, Jeremy Myers says, “Most artists do not even come close in depicting what Jesus looked like after all of this torture. He was probably the most inhuman looking thing you’ve ever seen. The prophet Isaiah wrote of the Messiah:

“They shall see the Servant of God beaten and bloodied, an object of horror; so disfigured many were astonished. His face and His whole appearance were marred more than any man’s, one would scarcely know it was a person…” (Isa 52:14).

As the Gospels tell us, Jesus repeatedly faltered as He struggled to carry the heavy crossbar — the horizontal beam of the cross called the patibulum — as He made His way to Golgotha. A centurion forced Simon of Cyrene to carry the heavy beam for Jesus.

Details on the Crucifixion

Finally reaching the crucifixion site, Jesus had to endure even more agonizing pain as long metal nails were driven into His wrists (considered part of the hand in the language of Jesus’ day) in order to hold Him to the cross. The nails, most assuredly, came into contact with the median nerve. For His feet to be pierced with nails, the guards twisted Jesus’ legs into an unnatural and painful position.

The Romans knew that once the victim was finally hanging from the cross, it could take hours for Him to die. As He fought off suffocation, He was forced to take the next breath by laboriously pulling himself up by His wounded hands and feet. “The pain was absolutely unbearable,” observes Dr. Alexander Metherell, PhD. “In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe; they had to invent a new word: excruciating. Literally, excruciating means out of the cross.”

Adds Myers, “When air is so precious, and each breath so painfully won, He still uses that breath to communicate with people who are near. The first sentence, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, is ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.’ In my mind, this is one of the most remarkable statements in all of Scripture.”

Jewish law prohibited a crucified person from hanging on the cross during Sabbath. So to hurry the process, Roman soldiers could decide to break the leg bones of the victim. The Bible tells us that the legs of the two thieves crucified with Christ were broken, but the soldiers did not need to break Jesus’ legs because they observed that He was already dead (John 19:32-33). Scripture tells us that it took Jesus six hours to die after being put on the cross.

Pilate demanded certification of Jesus’ death before allowing His body to be removed from the cross. Only after four Roman executioners certified that Jesus was indeed dead, did Pilate give the order for His body to be removed. The executioners felt certain that Jesus was dead because when a great spear was thrust into Jesus’ side, both blood and water flowed out (John 19:34). Had Jesus been alive when the spear entered His body, strong spouts of blood would have emerged with every beat of His heart.

Jesus was dead. The Bible says it. Documented history proves it.

In the next blog post, we’ll look at the burial procedures used to prepare Jesus’ body to exacting Jewish customs.

Thought to Ponder

By trying so hard to prevent any kind of fraudulent later claims that Jesus was resurrected, His enemies did us the great favor of providing powerful evidence. In truth, the fact that Jesus was killed is as certain as any event recorded in history. 

Have you ever wondered if any of the Roman soldiers, Jewish leaders, or people in the crowd chanting for Jesus’ crucifixion were among those who saw Him in His resurrected form?

Here’s one thing we do know, based on everything Jesus taught: if their paths did cross, Jesus offered them His unending forgiveness and grace. That, my friends, is the Good News! We can do nothing to separate ourselves from God — except choose to turn our backs on Him.

We are about to celebrate Easter. Take the Easter Challenge: with whom you can share God’s amazing love for us? Who can you invite to church on Easter Sunday? After just reading about what Jesus did for you and me, are you moved to know him personally today?

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean’s 64-page booklet, The Resurrection and You. We are certain this little booklet will be an effective evangelism tool for you this Easter season. Order your copy!

Apologetics Booklet Examines Factual Evidence of the Death and Rise of Jesus Christ

How does one go about finding a true answer to the question of whether Jesus did or didn’t rise from the dead?

A critical historian would check out the validity of the records of witnesses, confirm Jesus’ death by crucifixion, go over the burial procedures, and confirm the reports of the empty tomb and Jesus being seen alive on the third day—and then consider possible alternative explanations of the event.

In this, our first of six blog posts exploring the validity of the resurrection of Christ, we invite you to consider the factual, historical evidence that gives believers certainty that Jesus did rise from the dead, just as He promised!

Whatever one believes about Christ rising from the dead, everyone has to admit that something significant happened on that morning—something so dramatic that it completely changed eleven men’s lives, enabling them to willingly endure abuse, suffering, and in many cases, death.

Some people say they can’t believe the Bible because it contradicts itself. But does it really?

We have to remember that the Gospels were written by men who all experienced Jesus differently. Though each tells the same story of Jesus’ death and rise from death, details in their accounts differ, because of their perspectives and chosen narratives. Luke, for example, used a technique called “telescoping,” which compressed time to simplify the telling. But in John’s gospel, we are shown that the events occurred over a longer period of time.

Do apparent discrepancies in the Gospels undermine the Bible’s historical reliability?

Well, we have to ask if these details are contradictions—or just differences. Statements may differ, yet not be contradictions.

If you and I were to witness a person’s motorcycle accident, for example, what are the odds that we would later tell the evening news reporters the exact same details? Sure, we would get the overall story right: the motorcyclist was nicked by a car, spun into oncoming traffic, but amazingly survived after being tossed into a huge bale of hay on the side of the road.

Beyond that, my version to the news reporter would probably deviate from yours, based on my vantage point and my personal perspective. Perhaps only I noticed that as the motorcyclist landed on the haystack, the startled couple who had been kissing behind it screamed and fled, because they were embarrassed! In your version, you might mimic the words the motorcyclist shouted as he was launched airborne—words I didn’t happen to catch. Only the third witness, who got a good view of the rider’s Harley, could share how the bike flipped sideways, skidded, and smacked a stop sign so hard that the sign bent and grabbed the bike—like a praying mantis nabbing dinner.

Do our apparent discrepancies undermine our reliability as witnesses?

Not at all, as long as we truthfully retell what did, in fact, happen. The same is true for the Gospels. Most scholars now agree that the genre of the Gospels is ancient Greco-Roman biography. This genre allowed the authors the same kind of flexibility in reporting that you and I use in our everyday conversation.

The late New Testament scholar John Wenham said this: “It now seems to me that these resurrection stories exhibit in a remarkable way the well-known characteristics of accurate and independent reporting, for superficially they show great disharmony, but on close examination the details gradually fall into place.” Adds Sean McDowell, “As my dad puts it, ‘The fact that Jesus was killed is as certain as any event recorded in ancient history. We have to reject any theory that tries to explain the resurrection by saying that Jesus somehow survived His ordeal, appeared to His disciples as a bleeding wreck, and convinced them to tell people He had risen.’”

What event transformed the disciples from defeated, cowering persons in hiding to bold evangelists? The resurrection! Why were they willing to spread the Good News despite being beaten, imprisoned, and threatened with martyrdom? The resurrection! Jesus died, rose, and so impacted his followers with his defeat of death that they couldn’t stop sharing the amazing story. What gives us peace and strength today to share the Good News? The resurrection!

Let’s take this journey together!

We are about to celebrate Easter. So in the next few blog posts, we will look at the exacting crucifixion and burial details, as well as the eyewitnesses (many of them large crowds to whom Jesus appeared collectively), to prove the case that Jesus did, indeed, live, die, and rise as our resurrected Lord. It is our hope that by Easter you will know that you know that your faith in Jesus is built on the solid foundation of truth. Take the Easter Challenge: be thinking about a person with whom you can share the Good News! Invite them to church Easter Sunday!

This blog post highlights Josh and Sean’s new 64-page booklet, The Resurrection and You. We are certain this quick-read resource will be an effective evangelism tool for you this Easter season.

Encourage your friends to start their journey with Jesus!