14 Evidences Of The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ
individual is granted by virtually all historians and
is supported by ancient Christian, Jewish, and
pagan sources. Yet modern skeptics often feel
that their best strategy for denying the evidence
of his resurrection is to deny that he even
existed.
JESUS’ DEATH. The most popular counter to the
Resurrection in non-Christian and heretical beliefs
is to deny that Jesus died on the cross (e.g., this
is the position of Islam). However, historians
regard the death of Jesus by crucifixion as
ordered by Pontius Pilate to be as historically
certain as any other fact of antiquity.
CRUCIFIED MESSIAH. Crucifixion was a horrible,
shameful way to die, so much so that it would
never have occurred to anyone in the first century
to invent a story about a crucified man as the
divine Savior and King of the world. Something
extreme and dramatic must have happened to
lead people to accept such an idea—something
like his rising from the dead.
JOSEPH’S TOMB. All four Gospels agree that
Jesus’ body had been buried in the rock tomb
owned by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the
Jewish high council (the Sanhedrin). This is an
unlikely Christian fiction, because Christians
blamed the Sanhedrin for their role in having
Jesus executed.
WOMEN WITNESSES. The four Gospels all agree
that the first persons to find the tomb empty
were Jewish women, including Mary Magdalene.
It is very unlikely that anyone would make up
such a story, since women’s testimony was
devalued compared to men’s and since Mary
Magdalene was known as a formerly demon-
possessed woman. If the empty tomb story were
fiction, one would expect that Joseph of
Arimathea, already identified as the tomb’s owner
and a respected male leader, would be credited
with the discovery.
ANCIENT THEORIES. The earliest non-Christian
explanations for the origin of the Resurrection
belief (mentioned in John and Matthew) were that
the body had been taken from the tomb—either
moved to another burial place or stolen to fake
the Resurrection. These explanations conceded
three key facts: Jesus died; his body was buried
in Joseph’s tomb; the tomb was later found to be
empty.
TOMB WAS GUARDED. Critics routinely dismiss
Matthew’s story about the guards being bribed to
say that they fell asleep, giving the disciples
opportunity to steal the body (Matt. 28:11-15).
But Matthew would have no reason to make up
the story about the guards being bribed except to
counter the story of the guards saying they fell
asleep (see v. 15). Either way, the guards were
there: the body had been in the tomb, the tomb
had been guarded, and the body was no longer
there.
PAUL AND LUKE’S INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTS.
Paul’s list of resurrection witnesses in 1
Corinthians 15:5-7 coincides with Luke’s account
at several points, but in wording and in what is
included Luke’s account is clearly independent of
Paul. For example, Paul calls Peter by his
Aramaic nickname “Cephas,” not Simon or Peter;
he refers to “the twelve,” Luke to “the eleven”;
Luke does not mention the appearances to James
or the five hundred. Thus Paul and Luke give us
independent accounts of the appearances they
both mention.
CLOPAS AND THAT OTHER GUY. Luke gives the
name of one of the two men on the road to
Emmaus who saw Jesus (Clopas) but not the
name of the other man. If he was making up
names he would presumably have given both of
the men names. The fact that he identifies only
one of the two men by name is best explained if
that man, Clopas, was the source of Luke’s
account. In short, this fact is evidence that the
account came from an eyewitness.
BROTHER JAMES. Although Luke does not
mention the resurrection appearance to James
(the Lord’s brother) mentioned by Paul in 1
Corinthians 6, Luke does report that James had
become a leading member of the apostolic group
(see especially Acts 15:13-21). Since Jesus’
brothers had rejected Jesus during his lifetime
(John 7:5), Paul’s reference to Christ appearing
to James is probably based on fact.
JOHN’S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT. The author of
the Gospel of John emphatically states that he
was an eyewitness of the death of Jesus, of the
empty tomb, and of resurrection appearances of
Jesus (John 19:32-35; 20:2-9; 21:7, 20-25). Either
he sincerely had these experiences or he was
lying; appeals to legend or myth are out of the
question here.
ANCIENT SKEPTICISM. Luke reports the
skepticism of the men disciples the morning the
tomb was found empty (Luke 24:22-24), and John
reports Thomas’s skepticism about Jesus’
resurrection (John 20:24-26). These accounts
(see also Acts 17:32; 1 Cor. 15:12) demonstrate
that the perception of ancient people as gullible
hayseeds who would believe any miracle story is
a modern prejudicial stereotype.
PAUL’S CONVERSION. Paul was a notorious
persecutor of the early Christians prior to his
becoming an apostle. His explanation, that Christ
appeared to him and called him to faith and the
apostolic ministry, is the only plausible
explanation for his 180-degree change. Moreover,
Paul’s experience was entirely independent of the
experience of the other apostles.
PAUL’S GENTILE MISSION. Paul’s encounter with
the risen Jesus did not result merely in him
accepting Jesus as the Jews’ Messiah. Instead,
he saw himself, a trained and zealous Pharisee,
as commissioned by Jesus to take the good news
of the Messiah to uncircumcised Gentiles. The
fact that Paul embraced such a calling against
his former passionate beliefs and training makes
any appeal to hallucination or delusion
implausible.
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