Reasons to Believe the Resurrection is True

24 May Reasons to Believe the Resurrection is True

We have transitioned in this blog series from the five free miracles that modern science asks for and then they’ll explain reality without God, to five key questions that Christians may still have about their faith.

The first key question we looked at last week is, “why is the resurrection so important?” The bottom line for that question is that if the resurrection is true, then everything Jesus said can be trusted. If the resurrection is not true, then nothing Jesus said can be trusted. So everything in the Christian faith rests on the resurrection.

That being true, this week we want to look at reasons we can believe that the resurrection actually happened. I have written of this briefly a number of times recently, but today I want to go a little more in depth on those reasons, to add confidence to Christians that they can trust that the resurrection really happened.

Occam’s Razor

Occam’s razor is a problem-solving principal that states that when faced with more than one explanation for the same problem, the simplest one is most likely the correct one. For example, “when you hear hoof beats think horses, not zebras.”

Applying Occam’s razor to evidence for the resurrection, one would clearly assume that the resurrection actually happened. In fact, if we apply the same principles of historical validation to the resurrection that we apply to any other ancient historical event (the trial of Socrates or the assassination of Julius Caesar), we conclude that the resurrection actually happened.

The only reason someone would not accept the accuracy of the resurrection story is if he had an anti-supernatural presupposition. That is, that person has decided before ever looking at the evidence that a supernatural explanation is impossible.

However, we already looked at the fact that if someone rejects God, he has only done half the job. He must also explain reality without God, which he cannot do. So, their anti-supernatural presupposition toward both science and history has no intellectual credibility.

Three historical truths that validate the resurrection

There are three historical truths that validate the resurrection.

1. The tomb in which Jesus was buried was discovered by a group of women to be empty on the Sunday following the crucifixion.
2. Jesus’ disciples saw someone whom they believed to be the resurrected Christ.
3. As a result of the testimony of these disciples, the Christian church was established and began to spread throughout the world.

Virtually all scholars (Christian and non-Christian) who study the resurrection agree to these three truths, and following Occam’s Razor, we conclude that the resurrection of Jesus is the best explanation for these three occurrences. Let’s look at those three historical events.

The Empty Tomb 

Evidence that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was discovered by a group of women to be empty on the Sunday following the resurrection:

1. The tomb was in Jerusalem – right in the middle of everything. If its being empty that morning were not true, the news of the resurrection would have been squashed like a bug the minute it began to surface. Scholar Paul Althaus writes that news of the resurrection “could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned.”
2. Even the Jewish leaders responsible for crucifying Jesus admitted the tomb was empty (Matthew 28:11-15). This is called “positive evidence from a hostile source,” so it is accepted as genuine.
3. Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimethea, a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court. His stature in Jerusalem was unquestioned. The story of Jesus’ burial was, therefore, unquestioned, and if the tomb had not been empty after His burial, the Roman authorities and/or hostile Jewish leaders could have simply gone to Joseph’s tomb to produce the body.
4. Jesus’ tomb was never venerated as a shrine. In ancient Israel, when respected prophets died, their bones were placed in a tomb which people visited regularly. This was never done at the tomb of Jesus because there was no body (bones) to be placed there.
5. The tomb was discovered by women. In the first century, the testimony of women was considered worthless. If the story of the empty tomb had been made up by the disciples, then, to bolster its credibility, they would have had men make the discovery.

There is no credible evidence or arguments that refute the empty tomb.

The Resurrection Appearances

It is not commonly disputed today that the disciples saw someone whom they believed to be the resurrected Christ. We have their first-hand testimonies in the Gospels. There are three explanations for this fact:

1. They were lying
2. They hallucinated
3. They really saw Jesus

Regarding the possibility of their lying, the disciples were persecuted, beaten and killed for promoting the resurrection of Christ. They would not have endured those consequences for something they knew to be a lie.

Regarding the possibility of a hallucination, no two people have the same hallucination, let alone eleven.

Since they would not have been lying, and because mass hallucinations do not happen, there is only one explanation left: the disciples believed they had seen the risen Jesus because they actually had seen the risen Jesus. So, if we reject the resurrection, we are left with two mysteries that cannot be explained: an empty tomb and the appearances of Jesus after the crucifixion.

The Rise of the Christian Faith

The disciples hid in fear for their lives after the crucifixion. Yet, immediately following the resurrection they were utterly and irrevocably transformed, and began to boldly proclaim the resurrection, despite the cost.

Chuck Colson, former special counsel to President Richard Nixon, went to prison for his role in events surrounding the Watergate scandal which brought down Nixon’s presidency. He later became a Christian, and made this statement regarding the resurrection:

“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible. Nothing less than a witness as awesome as the resurrected Christ could have caused those men to maintain to their dying whispers that Jesus is alive.”                      

The original disciples spread their message of the resurrected Christ, as did hundreds of others who saw the resurrected Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-11).  All these people told their story to people who believed it, who told their story to others who believed it, who did the same. As a result, the Christian faith spread like wildfire to the surrounding world.

Conclusion

So, we see that unless a person has an anti-supernatural presupposition and simply does not want to believe in the resurrection, the evidence of the empty tomb, the resurrection appearances, and the spread of  Christianity to the world – along with the power of Occam’s Razor – compel us to believe and accept with confidence that the resurrection, the event on which the entire Christian faith rests, actually happened.

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