How could you actually believe Jesus rose from the dead?

Introducing the “minimal facts”

Read Luke 1:1-4, Acts 26:24-26

Minimal facts — The majority of scholars, including non-Christians who don’t believe the Gospel accounts are inspired, agree on some basics (you can always find a PhD who doesn’t, but the majority do):

Jesus of Nazareth claimed and seemed to be a healer and exorcist Jesus died

Jewish and Roman sources from the 1st C

Jesus was buried Jesus’ tomb was found empty

Jesus’ disciples believed he was resurrected

He supposedly appeared to multiple people in multiple locations at multiple times (500+, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote to Corinth)

Jesus’ disciples’ lives drastically changed

Ignatius in 110 wrote 7 letters about the suffering of the apostles, Tertullian did the same and told readers they could check his sources in the public records

James and Paul converted as a result of a belief in his resurrection

Paul went from killing Christians to suffering as one

But did he really come back to life?

C.S. Lewis — liar, lunatic, or Lord

Read 1 Cor. 15:19 — Pascal’s Wager falls short

Even if you don’t believe that the Bible is “inspired”, you can look at it as a largely trustworthy historical document (for example, Acts 13-28 contain 84 facts that have been confirmed by extra-biblical historical or archaeological findings)

The arguments against

5 most common arguments against the most common “minimal facts”

The disciples stole the body

This has been discarded by scholars for well over a century

Why? “Liars make terrible martyrs”

Terrorists die because they genuinely believe what they’re doing is true. The difference is the apostles died not for something taught to them from hundreds of years prior, but something they witnessed with their own eyes just a few years before

Someone else stole the body

No one can explain who stole the body or give evidence for it

An empty tomb wouldn’t have convinced Paul to convert

The empty tomb alone didn’t even convince most disciples — it took the tomb being empty and then Jesus appearing to do it

They went to the wrong tomb

Also doesn’t account for the appearances of Jesus

The tomb seems to have been well known—anyone could’ve gone to the real tomb to squash the whole thing

Instead the Jewish leaders said the body had been stolen

He never actually died to begin with

The problem with this view is that people didn’t survive crucifixion

It was common to break their legs to speed up their death, but they didn’t do so because they saw Jesus was already dead

It was also common to pierce their side with a spear to guarantee death, which they did

Then you have to believe that this mutilated man rolled away the stone from the inside, found his disciples, and convinced them—not that he needed urgent medical care—but that he had died and was alive and well

The disciples taught a parable, and the next generation ran with it

Based on Orisis?

No…Robert Price was a professor who doubted Jesus even ever existed (how?) who said that view is “untenable.”

The stories that are actually closer myths arose 100-200 years later

It doesn’t explain how the tomb was empty

It doesn’t explain how Paul genuinely believed he met Jesus

It doesn’t explain how the enemies of early Christians (like Paul) responded (as if Christians believed it was historical fact)

It didn’t take time to arise…they had a well stated creed which Paul cited in 1 Corinthians roughly 20 years after the resurrection

The disciples saw him, but just hallucinated or were delusional

This view is becoming less common as psychologists are realizing that hallucinations happen individually, not in groups (the most recent scholarly book on the subject skipped group hallucinations because there’s no recorded evidence)

Group illusions (no physical body) do happen, but that’s not what the disciples claimed

“But, there’s no recorded evidence of someone coming back to life”

It still doesn’t account for the tomb being empty

It doesn’t account for Paul who was not grieving, which might’ve caused hallucinations

The problem with opposing arguments

The best way to argue against is to combine arguments, because many of them only address certain things (hallucination only addresses appearances of Jesus not the empty tomb; stealing the body only addresses the empty tomb but not the appearances)

The problem with combining is that it isn’t how probability works (A 50% chance of a coin landing heads doesn’t become 100% for landing heads twice, it becomes 25%)

Not to mention, some of the opposing theories counter each other, so they can’t be combined…The disciples couldn’t steal the body if he never died to begin with

None of them make sense of OT prophecies

300+ prophecies of the Messiah

Peter Stoner, astronomer and mathematician at Westmont College Chances of these 8 were 1 in 10^17, for just 48 it was 1 in 10^157

It took over a millennia for Jews to read Isaiah 53 any differently

Not to mention the fact that people could fact-check the eyewitnesses

Even when liberal scholars think none of them were written by eyewitnesses, they agree that all were composed within one lifetime of Jesus’ death

Mark was written in less than one generation

You could go fact-check everything!

If we’re not biased against the supernatural (and we shouldn’t be based on morality, the uncaused cause, etc.), a resurrected Jesus is the best explanation

Here’s why it matters

For the rational thinker on campus who wants evidence, you can hold to and hold out your faith that is based on real reason and real historical evidence. They can find a faith that is reasonable.

For the spiritual thinker on campus who wants something they can feel, you can hold to and hold out a faith that can bring them peace in a way that horoscopes can’t. They can find a faith that is powerful.

For the Christian on campus who needs a reminder, you can hold to the promise of the resurrection.

Read 1 Cor. 15:19-26, 2 Timothy 2:11