In the early Church, when one Christian would greet another, often he would say: “He is risen.”
And the other would respond, “He is risen indeed!”
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest fact in human history. Yet throughout the centuries to our present time, skeptics have argued against the historical reliability of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Recently, well-known atheist Richard Dawkins said, “Accounts of Jesus’s resurrection and ascension are about as well-documented as Jack and the Beanstalk.”
Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing Rene Lopez, author of the new book The Jesus Family Tomb Examined: Did Jesus Rise Physically? I was surprised when Rene told me about his background. His life used to be like an episode of Miami Vice. Back in the 1980s, he could well have been one of the bad guys on that show---selling drugs, using violence, robbing people, etc. Today, he is a Ph.D. candidate, pastor, and author. When I interviewed him about the resurrection of Jesus, he mentioned that part of the reason he believes in the resurrection is because the power of the resurrected Christ in his own life. If Jesus could change someone like himself with his 30+ arrests and make him a new man from the inside out than He could walk out of the tomb. Rene tells his story in his scriptureunlocked.com website and is currently working on a book about his conversion. When I first met him, I had no idea about his criminal background, nor would I have known had he not told me.
Rene says this about Dawkins’ notion that the resurrection of Jesus is about as historical as Jack and the Beanstalk: “The fact that somebody can say that the Resurrection is unfounded is totally unwarranted….the gospels are more reliable accounts in ancient history than any other document we have, before and after.”
Dr. Sam Lamerson of Knox Theological Seminary says this: “There are so many pieces of evidence for the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that if we reject the truth of the Resurrection, I believe, we must then become total historical agnostics and reject virtually everything that we know about ancient history, because it is my belief after studying these accounts for years that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most certain event in the history of mankind; that there is no ancient historical event that is more certainly testified to both by number of witnesses and by evidence than the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Before we explore evidence related to the resurrection, we first have to begin with our sources of information about Jesus. Some super-skeptics today even question if He lived. Author Dr. Gary Habermas, Liberty University, notes: “once we assess how many sources we have for Jesus, Christian and non-Christian and archeological, inside the New Testament, outside the New Testament, once we ask the question: how many sources do we have for Jesus? I think it’s clear that Jesus is one of the most mentioned figures in ancient history.” Amazingly, the historical evidence for Jesus of Nazareth is just as well-founded as the same for Caesar Tiberius (the ruler of Roman when Jesus performed His ministry). This is astounding---that the same level of historicity would be found for an itinerant rabbi traversing about the hillside of subjugated Israel versus the empirical leader of the entire Roman Empire. It is only anti-Christian bias that would lead anyone to doubt the historicity of Jesus.
Back to the resurrection. Suppose the resurrection of Jesus were examined in a court of law. Suppose the resurrection were put on trial? Is the historical, bodily resurrection of Christ----fact or fiction? Sam Lamerson says, “I have no reason in the world to doubt that if the Resurrection of Christ were put on trial, it would win beyond any reasonable doubt …any non-biased judge would say, ‘The evidence is clear, the… the witnesses are clear, this is a historically clear fact, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ actually did happen and was seen by eyewitnesses, and those eyewitnesses are telling the truth when they say that they saw Jesus Christ raised from the dead.’”
Let’s consider some of the evidence for the resurrection of Christ. We begin with the empty tomb. Dr. Paul Maier, Western Michigan University: “Now, we often overlook the empty tomb. But I think the empty tomb is very important. Because that is something that an ancient historian can get at.” As Dr. Habermas points out, “Most scholars seem to think, I would say, that the fact that women reported the empty tomb is the best reason to believe it, 'cause it’s not a scenario anybody would make up.” The empty tomb was a fact of history.
Another piece of evidence for the bodily resurrection of Christ deals with the first eye-witnesses and the first to testify they had seen Him risen from the dead. Rene Lopez observes, “if the resurrection was to be a hoax, you would never use women to validate something like the resurrection if you wanted to lie about it, because in the 1st century, according to the rabbinic writings, a woman’s testimony was as valid as a thief’s.”
Furthermore, the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus appeared to 500 people at one time after his resurrection. Many of these were still alive at the time Paul wrote that. He basically encourages his readers to go talk with them.
Another reasons Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead is that the whole movement began in Jerusalem. Dr. Maier points out: “Where did Christianity first begin in terms of the organized proclamation that Jesus rose from the dead? Only one place on earth, Jerusalem. There, least of all, could Christianity ever have gotten started if the moldering body of Jesus of Nazareth were available any time after Sunday morning. That would have been a wooden stake through the heart of Christianity. There wouldn’t have been a Christian church ever organized.”
Perhaps THE most compelling evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is the change of the disciples. Just as Rene was changed, so also were changed. He points out: “In the gospels, you have the disciples running scared. They were all hiding, and overnight you have them then making a radical turnaround and then going before the authorities and proclaiming the very Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Dr. Lamerson points out: “According to early church history, those 12 disciples all met horrible deaths except for John. Judas, of course, went out and committed suicide. But of the remaining 11, every one of them, except for John, met a martyr’s death. That is, they were killed because of the fact that they continued to preach the Resurrection of Jesus Christ….They died because they knew that Jesus really had risen from the dead in history.”
We close with Rene Lopez’s observation that Christianity itself would have died, along with its founder, if it all ended at the cross:
Christianity would have died if Christ had not risen from the dead. There’s no possible way to explain the growth of the church, the overthrowing of Rome that no other power could’ve overthrown, but yet the blood of the martyrs actually overthrew Rome by the power of the Resurrection and adopted, actually, the faith above all other religions at the time the day espoused. That in itself must be answered by the critics today.