Christian apologist, Lee Strobel, was at one time an aspiring journalist for the Chicago Tribune. As a devout atheist, Strobel was extremely distraught when his wife became a committed Christian. Hoping to bring his wife to her senses, Strobel set out on an investigative journey to disprove Christianity.
Not sure exactly where to begin, Strobel reached out to a Christian co-worker to find that one Jenga block that he needed to remove in order to bring down Christianity. “The resurrection”, his co-worker replied. “Christianity rises and falls on the resurrection. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then Christianity is nothing but a house of cards.” Strobel’s co-worker then laughingly warned him that he would be responsible for the truths that he uncovered, and he was absolutely right (as Strobel found out).
The truth is that if Christ didn’t rise from the dead then Christianity is a farce and should be avoided like the Black Plague. But… if Christ really did rise from the grave then everything that Christ said is true. His claims about being God are true. The Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ are true, His teachings on salvation, heaven, hell, judgment, etc. are all true and one day He will stand before us as our judge. If Christ rose from the dead then every individual is responsible to bow before Him as Lord of all. Needless to say that this is an important issue. So did Jesus really rise from the dead?
Just to give a full disclosure, I am a Christian pastor. The Lord saved me as a 14 year old boy and I’ve never gotten over that day. I know that He is alive for the simple reason that a dead savior could never do what Christ has done for and in me. I’ve been to Israel. I’ve been in the empty tomb, but I didn’t have to travel 6,000 miles across the ocean to be convinced that Christ rose from the dead.
With that being said, we as Christians aren’t dependent upon subjective experience to prove the claims of our faith. Nor do we promote a blind faith that causes us to put our trust in fairytales. The fact that Christ rose from the dead is an objective historical reality, one in which all of human history revolves around. For the remainder of this article, I wish to put forth the evidence for Christ’s resurrection.
Throughout the centuries there have been great arguments for the reality of the resurrection. Multiple witnesses reported, and in many cases recorded what they saw even on pain of death. The disciples ran scared on crucifixion day and yet all of them but John were brutally murdered for preaching Christ (John himself was burned in hot oil and exiled to Patmos). What changed them? What did they see? Secular historical sources such as Josephus recorded that Christ appeared alive after the crucifixion. And let’s not forget that much to the chagrin of the Romans and the Sanhedrin, that the body was never found.
While all of these are great arguments, my aim is to examine the arguments that attempt to explain these things away. Sometimes the greatest arguments for a particular position are the arguments against that position. Let’s take a look at what humanist and atheist historians and scholars say about the resurrection and see if they can bear the burden of proof that the resurrection of Christ didn’t happen.
In my opinion, one of the greatest lines of argumentation for the resurrection of Christ is known as the “Minimal Facts” argument. This argument was made popular by noted Christian scholar, Gary Habermas. Habermas is considered to be one of the world’s contemporary experts on the resurrection of Christ (see the link below the see the debate between Habermas and Flew). Habermas and the minimal facts argument seeks to answer the question, what do the antagonistic experts believe about Christ and the resurrection. In other words what do Christian and atheistic experts agree upon? Once we find where the common ground ends, then we can really get to the nuts and bolts of the disagreements. Below is a list of the minimal facts that virtually all experts of every stripe agree upon;
1. Jesus died by Roman crucifixion.
2. Christ was buried, most likely in a private tomb
3. Soon afterwards, the disciples were distraught and seemingly hopeless.
4. Jesus' tomb was found empty soon after His entombment.
5. The disciples had experiences that they believed were actual appearances of the resurrected Christ.
6. Due to these experiences, the disciples’ lives were thoroughly transformed. They were even willing to die for their beliefs.
7. The proclamation of the resurrection took place very early, from the beginning of church history.
8. The disciples’ public testimony and preaching of the resurrection took place in the city of Jerusalem, where Christ had been crucified and buried shortly before.
9. The gospel message centered upon preaching about the death and resurrection of Christ.
10. Sunday became the primary day for Christian gathering and worship.
11. James, the brother of Jesus, was a skeptic until he had an experience in which he thought he saw the resurrected Christ.
12. The Apostle Paul was a great persecutor of Christians until he also had an experience in which he believed that he had an encounter with the resurrected Christ and was converted.
At this point I want to reiterate that these historical facts are agreed upon even by atheist scholars and historians. The disagreement comes in the explanation of these things. For the Christian the answer is very simple; Christ did indeed rise from the dead. The reason that the disciples were willing to die for what they believed is because they saw the resurrected Christ and though their detractors might take their heads, they weren’t going to change their minds. The reason that the resurrection was preached even in the earliest days of the church is because Christ actually rose from the dead. An urban legend would have taken much longer to spread. The reason that Christians worship on Sunday is because that’s the day that the empty tomb was found. This is seen even in the book of Acts. Again, for the Christian the answer is easy. But what about the skeptics? How do they answer these things? Below is a list of common explanations of the minimal facts without the resurrection ;
1. The Hallucination Theory- This states that the disciples were in such a state of distress after the crucifixion that they had mass hallucinations of the resurrected Christ. People really do experience hallucinations during times of heavy, prolonged stress (usually assisted by drugs, dehydration, etc.). The problem with this is that hallucinations aren’t a shared experience. People don’t share hallucinations anymore than they share dreams. No one has ever woken up in the morning, turned over to their spouse and said, “what do you think about that dream that we had last night?” It takes a lot of faith to believe in a mass hallucination event.
2. The disciples went to the wrong tomb. This is silly, but it’s made even more silly by the fact that the simple way to silence this would have been for the Romans and Jews to go to the real tomb. Just produce the body of Jesus and all of this goes away.
3. The Swoon Theory. This is the idea that Christ actually didn’t die on the cross, but was merely unconscious. Sometime after Jesus was entombed He came too. Uno, because the Romans didn’t know how to kill people. This also doesn’t explain how a severely injured Christ could have escaped from a sealed tomb with Roman guards and a stone door that weighed over 3,000 lbs.
4. The Disciples Stole the Body. Again, this can’t account for how the disciples got past between 16 and 35 highly skilled Roman soldiers who were literally guarding this tomb with their life. This theory also fails to explain what motivated the disciples to opt for the perks of torture and death.
5. The Body Double Theory. This is the idea that it wasn’t actually Christ that died on the cross, but a body double. The term “grasping at straws” really comes to mind with this one. One can’t help but laugh when thinking about the miracle involved with trying to find a volunteer for such an endeavor. Yet again, produce the body of the body double and all of this goes away.
I’m not kidding when I say that this is the best that they’ve got. These are the great theories that explain away the resurrection of Christ. Not only are they pitiful, but all of these theories acknowledge the fact that the tomb is empty. This brings us to the crux of the whole matter; the tomb is empty, what are you going to do about it? Will you ignore it and live life as if there is no God, steadily marching towards your death. Or will you be humbled before the King of kings and Lord of lords?
The simple gospel message is this. We have all sinned against God and violated His holy law. As a Holy God and righteous judge, He must punish sin. Sin has to be punished. Yet this Holy God in His love sent His Son, Jesus Christ, the Second person of the Godhead to this earth. The Creator entered into His creation through the womb of a virgin. As the God-Man, Christ lived the perfect life that we could never live, satisfying the just demands of God’s law. When Christ was on the cross He bore our sin. God the Father poured His wrath upon Christ for our sin. Christ was punished for the bad things that we have done. And the good news of the gospel is that if we would just repent of our sin and the illusion of our own goodness, and put our faith in Christ that He would forgive, cleanse and save us from our sin and cloth us in His righteousness. This is the greatest story ever told and it’s true. Christ is risen! The tomb is empty! And life is worth the living because He lives. Happy resurrection weekend everyone.
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