Evidence for the Resurrection

As followers of Christ our whole faith and truth rest on the belief of Christ being raised from the dead. When you became a true believer in Christ your belief hinged on believing Jesus rose from the dead.

Romans 10.9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Believing God raised Jesus from the dead is part of our faith. However, since the time of Jesus’ resurrection, there have been many doubters in Jesus’ resurrection and many have given reasons as to what could have happened to the body of Jesus.

Today, there is little doubt around the world that Jesus did not exist. The evidence for His existence is irrefutable from almost every scholar and historian (Believer or not). But what about the resurrection, is there evidence for the resurrection? Yes.

What happened to Jesus’ body? (5 of the most dominate beliefs to date. There are other beliefs, but these are the most discussed).

Fainted

This theory holds that Jesus did not completely die on the cross, He merely fainted.

Based on the accounts of Scripture, the Roman Guards had already noticed Jesu was dead before they were about to break His legs. In seeing He was dead, they trust a spear into His side, to which water and blood poured out. Without going into great detail, this was because Jesus had finally died, succumbing to the fact that His lungs had filled with water. One would not note this fact if it were not true.

Roman Soldiers were experts at killing, it was in their job description. Not only this, Roman Soldiers were very disciplined to follow the rules of their governing authority. Failure to do so, would result in discipline, including flogging and/or death. They reported to Pilate that He was dead.

Twin brother

A silly theory, but there is no evidence that Jesus had a twin brother

Everyone Hallucinated

One could make this argument if it were one person. But, for everyone to hallucinate the same thing would be impossible. Hallucinogens do not work in that fashion.

Disciples Stole His body and lied (Biggest theory, still circulated today).

If a group of people lie about an event, eventually one will confess, especially when faced with torture or even death. As we will see later, not one disciple steered from the truth, even in the face of death.

Matthew 28.11-15

Unbelieving Jews today mainly regard Jesus as having existed. Other than that, they downgrade Him to being a type of lunatic and zealot. They do not take responsibility for his death and blame the Roman Empire, they do not believe He was the Son of God, and certainly do not believe He rose from the dead. And anything written about Jesus has been corrupted by Christians, even to this very day.

He rose from the dead

We are going to look at four reasons to believe the resurrection did, in fact, happen:

Women

If you were a writing about one you believed was God and was raised from the dead you would not use women to strengthen your argument. Women, in the 1st century were not regarded as credible witnesses. Margaret Manning Shull, who works with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries notes two places were this is accounted for.

The Jewish Historian, Josephus Flavius, and the Talmud both record, “But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex...since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, or fear of punishment.”

The Talmud also states, “Any evidence which a woman [gives] is not valid (to offer).... This is equivalent to saying that one who is Rabbinically accounted a robber is qualified to give the same evidence as a woman."

Wrong Tomb Theory

It is also believed the women went to the wrong tomb. If you had a child you watched be beaten, crucified, and buried, do you think you would forget where it was, a couple days later?

There is no evidence or support for this theory.

Disciples willing to die for the truth

Would you be willing to die for a known lie? Even contrary, most would lie about the truth to live. Most of the disciples experienced horrible deaths because they truly believed Jesus rose from the dead and they were willing to die for it. The only record in Scripture is about James, the brother of John. Everything else is early church tradition. Christianity.com, gotquestions.org, and other Church History sources note the following:

James, son of Zebedee, brother of John (Acts 12.2) - Put to death by King Herod, most likely be beheading

John - Only Apostle to be known to die of old age. Tradition does note he was through into boiling oil at some point in his life, but was miraculously saved.

Matthew - Killed in Ethiopia by sword

James (Brother of Jesus) - Was thrown from the southeast pinnacle, 100 feet, when it was discovered he did not die, he was clubbed to death. (This is presumably the same place Satan took Jesus when he tempted Him)

Bartholomew - Whipped to death

Philip - Either natural causes or Crucifixion

James, son of Alpheus - Was Sawed into pieces (Which happens to be his apostolic symbol)

. Andrew - Crucified on an x-shaped cross

Thomas - Killed by a spear in India

Matthias - Stoned and Beheaded

Jude - Killed by arrows in Ararat

Paul - Tortured and beheaded by Nero

Peter - Crucified upside down, an allusion to Jesus’ prophecy in John 21.18. Presumably Peter said he did not feel worthy to be crucified in the same manner as His Lord.

Eye Witnesses

1 Corinthians 15.1-11 (over 500) Biggest evidence

Acts 2.29-33.

Remember, the New Testament is a collection of letters which had been copied many times over and then many years later collected and put together in what is now known as Scripture (Or Bible). There was no collusion on the part of the writers, they wrote what they saw and heard.

Outside sources

Early Church Fathers mention Jesus Resurrection

The Jewish Historian Josephus Flavius

The Roman Historian Tacitus notes this:

Nero fastened the guilt ... on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of ... Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome.

The “mischievous superstition” is referring to Jesus’ resurrection.

The belief of Jesus being resurrected from the dead does hinge on faith, for without that belief, as Paul said, your faith would be null.

The evidence for Jesus being resurrected has been shown to be a valid and reasonable belief, without faith. The witnesses and truth bare witness to His resurrection. And let us not forget why He rose from the dead. It was not to create some new religious believe, be worshipped, or stir up strife. Jesus said, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20.28).

He also said, “Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10.15-16).

Jesus chose to be beaten, crucified, and die so that you may live. In His resurrection, He would become the firstborn of the dead. He did this all out of love.

I leave you with a quote from 1 John (Which I encourage you to read), 1 John 4.7-10 (NET) says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love. By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

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