Could Jesus Rise From the Dead?

April 6, 2018

Strong and Courageous

How could Jesus rise from the dead?

Since we have just completed the Easter holiday, I would like to zero in on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and his appearance to many different people living at that time. Many theologians describe the resurrection as the virtual lynchpin of Christian understanding. Without this event occurring, Christianity is futile.

It sounds impossible right? Everyone knows that dead men do not rise back up into life. Therefore, this particular Christian doctrine had to be made up as a legend, long after the actual death of Christ took place. Well that is what some people think.  They think that Christianity is a fairy tale that has no factual basis.  Hmm… well not so fast cowboy.

I would be first to admit that for a man to rise from the dead would be quite incredulous; however, Jesus was no ordinary man. The only way for this to be possible would be if he were more than just a mortal man, he had to be divine in order for this resurrection to take place. That is exactly what the gospels and the book of Acts explains in the New Testament.

Concerning the idea that this event was made into a legend, by Christians hundreds of years after the death of Christ does not hold up under historical evidence as to when the New Testament books were actually written. We have more physical evidence of the texts of the New Testament than any other ancient documents in existence. A vast majority of scholars concur that the documents were written within the time period very close to the time of Jesus’ death. These were eyewitness accounts.

Actually, if I were an attorney, I would be delighted in representing this particular case in a court of law. My client would win.

There have been no adequate alternative explanation for the historical event of the resurrection other than what is written in the bible. The idea that he didn’t really die , he only swooned is not cogent. He was stabbed through the heart by a spear. The Roman soldiers’ lives depended on Jesus actually being dead. Another hypothesis was that the body of Jesus was stolen. Not likely, as Roman soldiers and a large stone guarded the tomb. They were instructed by the authorities to lie that the body was stolen in order to save their own lives.

More importantly, there are multiple accounts of Jesus actually appearing in bodily form to people after he had died. This occurred on at least eleven times over a period of six weeks. He appears to individuals, small groups of people and on one occasion appears to over 500 people at the same time.  While it is possible for a single person to have a hallucination about this, it is not possible for multiple numbers of people to have the same illusion collectively.

In conclusion, there is a lot of evidence to support Jesus’ existence, his death, burial and resurrection and Christians believe that he is the son of God.

Links:

Dr. Gary Habermas, leading expert on the resurrection.

Lee Strobel, on the resurrection.

Dr. Mike Licona, brilliant scholar on the subject.