The Resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of
the Christian faith. Without it, the whole building collapses. If Jesus is not
raised, we are wasting our time. If Jesus died, and that was it, then “your
faith is in vain and you are still lost in your sins” (1 Corinthians
Do we just have to take the Resurrection of Jesus on faith, or is there good scientific and historical evidence for it?
Sources:
The New Testament is built around the
Resurrection – every book and letter shouts of faith in the risen Jesus. It was
all written by people who were convinced the Resurrection had happened: either
they were eye-witnesses themselves, or they had met other eye-witnesses and become
convinced.
The
Gospels are the key. These are the books which recount Jesus life, death and
resurrection in detail. The Gospels all agree that Jesus died and rose from the
dead – that’s why the 4 writers felt compelled to write about Jesus.
The fact that there are
4 Gospels, and not 1, is important. 4 identical accounts would look like a fix,
1 account only would be shaky. But 4 accounts which all differ in various
details looks genuine. If there was some
conspiracy between the gospel writers, they would have made sure their accounts
agreed.
The
New Testament itself was all written between 50 and 90AD, within 60 years of the life of
Jesus. Earliest fragments of the NT have been found that date to 120AD. With
other literature of the time (e.g. Roman), the earliest finds date to centuries
later. The archaeological evidence is sound.
If the resurrection was
a myth, a legend invented by Jesus followers, then it would need a much longer
gap from the life of Jesus to the creation of the written accounts. What’s
more, the 1st century was a culture well practiced in memorisation,
and passing on accurate details.
We can therefore take
the stories of the resurrection as genuine history, rather than a legend.
b)
Other literature:
Several non-Christian texts from the 1st
century mention Jesus, his life and death, and some mention the resurrection
stories. So the basic facts of Jesus life, teaching, death and resurrection are
confirmed by sources outside the Bible.
What
Happened?
Here
is what we know:
V
Jesus
was arrested
V
He
was tried and sentenced to death,
V
He
was executed by crucifixion.
V
He
was buried in a tomb
V
When
his followers went to pay their respects 2 days later Jesus body was missing
from the tomb.
V
Many
of Jesus followers then claimed to have seen Jesus alive, including some people
(like
V
The
early church was founded, by the disciples, on the belief that Jesus was risen
from the dead, and that he was therefore God’s chosen one.
Science
is based on this principle: the theory that best fits the facts is the one most
likely to be true. So what best explains these facts? Is it that Jesus was
raised from the dead, or something else?
Here are the other explanations that
people have offered
a)
Jesus didn’t die: he
fainted on the cross, then revived in the tomb and escaped.
But:
Ø
the
Romans were experts at crucifixion, and by the time he got to the Cross Jesus
had already been beaten and flogged, and lost a lot of blood.
Ø
The
spear in Jesus side (John
Ø By some fluke, even had Jesus survived the cross, he would be in no state to escape his embalming bandages, roll aside a massive stone, overpower a group of soldiers and appear to the disciples in a way that convinced them of his resurrection. A month in intensive care would have been more appropriate
b) Someone stole the body, which explains why it wasn’t at the tomb. But: who?
- The disciples went
to prison and death for the sake of the Gospel. If they had stolen the
body, then they would have known all along that the resurrection was a
fake. You don’t die for a lie. They didn’t steal it.
· The Jews or Romans would have produced the body as soon as stories of the Resurrection began to circulate, to quash the stories. But they didn’t. So, they didn’t steal it either.
c) The disciples were all hallucinating: they thought they’d seen the risen Jesus, but they hadn’t.
But:
V
Firstly,
they were in no condition to hallucinate. Though Jesus had taught them about
his resurrection, none of them believed him, and they all ran away. They were
finished. Hallucinations tend to be wish-fulfilment, but psychologically this
seems very unlikely with the disciples
V Secondly – too many
hallucinations. They were in all sorts of places, and all sorts of times, to
all sorts of people. The Bible reports 550 different eye-witnesses. This is
just too many people to have the same delusion.
V Again, if they had been
hallucinating, Jesus would still have been dead. But where was his body? It
would have been a simple matter to produce it, but nobody did.
3 Burning Questions
1. What actually happened to the disciples?
A ragtag bunch of fishermen, revolutionaries and
civil servants, whose leader had died as a criminal, suddenly began preaching that
Jesus was alive. Within a matter of weeks they had thousands of followers. They
change from a defeated and scattered group to a powerhouse of prayer, preaching
and community life.
One writer has said that for such a change to
happen, it would have needed an event with the power of a nuclear explosion.
It must have taken something amazing to do
this. The best explanation is the one the Bible gives – that they met Jesus,
risen from the dead.
What’s more, since then millions of Christians
have met Jesus personally, and had their lives transformed by him. The risen
Christ is still at work today, in our lives and in the lives of countless
others across the world.
2. Who was raised from
the dead?
The
man God raised from the dead wasn’t just anyone:
Ø
Jesus
spoke of himself as ‘one’ with God,
Ø
He
claimed the right to reinterpret God’s ancient laws
Ø
He
forgave people their sins – something only God can do.
Ø
He
spoke of himself as ‘the way’, and ‘the light of the world’.
In other words, Jesus claimed to be unique, he
claimed to be God, and he called people to follow him. When God raised Jesus from the dead, it was God’s seal
of approval on everything Jesus said and did. The resurrection is God’s
endorsement of Jesus words and claims, and God’s demonstration of his power
over death and sin.
3. So what?
The
resurrection of Jesus means that:
V
Jesus
is who he said he was; God in human flesh, the Lord and Saviour of the world.
The only right response to this is to obey and follow him.
V
Jesus
is God’s unique messenger. No other founder of a world religion has been raised
from the dead. Through the Resurrection,
God points to Jesus as the true Way to himself.
V God has acted decisively in history through Jesus, and at the end of history we will all be judged on our response to Jesus.
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