What proof is there to support the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Let me just say, there is a lot to be said about this topic, possibly thousands of books have been published detailing the various proofs.
But in keeping with the theme of this series, “One Minute Answers to Skeptics’ Top Forty Questions”, I will “try” to keep it as short as possible (in hopes, no promises) to leave room for additional discussion and comment.
To help you remember (at least in English), I will focus on the five proofs found in this acronym: R.I.S.E.N.
1. The RISE of Christianity in Jerusalem
It is an accepted historical fact that the Christian faith (a religion built upon the preaching of the resurrection of its leader) originated in approximately A.D. 32/33 right in the very city of Jerusalem where Jesus was publicly crucified and buried.
Now, this in itself is a good piece of evidence that the resurrection actually occurred. Why?
Because a message calling people to repent and put their faith in a risen man could never have gained any substantial following amongst the Jews if the tomb had not actually been empty and had the Jewish people not seen Jesus alive after His crucifixion.
The message of a risen man, could not have been maintained for even a day in Jerusalem if the grave was still occupied.
Remember, Jesus’ disciples did not run off to Athens or Rome to preach that Christ rose from the dead (where the facts could not be verified).
They went right back to the city of Jerusalem where they would have been quickly exposed and disproved—if what they were teaching was false.
The critics could have said, “Hey! Here is the grave and here is Jesus’ body!”
That would have squashed the whole movement, and Christianity would never have spread.
But that never happened!
And not only did Christianity originate there in Jerusalem, it thrived there!
Luke, whose writings have been confirmed by numerous extra-biblical writings and archaeological discoveries, tells us that on fifty days after Jesus resurrected, 3,000 people believed the first post-resurrection sermon preached just a few minutes’ walk from the tomb (Acts 2:41).
Lukes credibility in the first century would have been immediately discredited if his estimates weren’t accurate.
By Acts 4:4, Luke declares there were 5,000 believers comprising the early Christian church in Jerusalem.
That would be considered a mega church, even today.
And there were more converts coming in!
In Acts 6:7, Luke says the number of disciples “continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem.”
Apparently, by that point, they lost count!
And not only did Christianity originate and flourish in Jerusalem, it went on to triumph over a number of competing ideologies and eventually overwhelm the entire Roman Empire.
Historians say there were around thirty million Christians by the early fourth century.
Let me give you an example that may help you understand why the RISE of Christianity in Jerusalem is such compelling proof of the resurrection.
Do any of you remember what happened in Nara, almost a year ago, on Friday, July 08, 2022?
Former Prime Minister Abe was assassinated.
Of course, the news was broadcasted all around the world, to millions, perhaps even billions of people in just a matter of minutes.
Question for you. How hard would it have been, in the weeks following that tragic event, to convince people that Abe-san truly did die on Friday but came back to life on Sunday?
Pretty much impossible, right? You might convince a few people, but you’d have an incredibly hard time convincing hundreds of people.
Why?
Because people would have to see him with their own eyes before ever even considering the suggestion that he came back to life.
And it was no different 2,000 years ago.
Yet, in the days immediately following Jesus’ crucifixion (a crucifixion verified by Roman and Jewish historians outside the New Testament), thousands of Jewish people who lived in Jerusalem knew Jesus had died, and suddenly were convinced that He had risen from the grave.
How does one explain this?
The critics have some theories, and I’ll respond to them, but we believe the best explanation is . . . THE RESURRECTION.
People had seen Jesus!
Acts 1:3 says that Jesus “presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 15:3:3-7 Paul the apostle said, For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
That’s how you explain more than 5,000 people joining the church in Jerusalem within such a short time of Jesus’ crucifixion.
Hundreds of reliable people were testifying that they had personally seen and heard the Risen Christ.
The miracle-working Messiah, who so many had already become familiar with, conquered death!
So, the first like of reasoning proof that Jesus rose from the grave is the sudden RISE of Christianity in Jerusalem.
SKEPTIC: “Hold on a second, Joseph. Islam came on the scene 600 years after Jesus and grew rather quickly!”
Well, yes it did. But Islam’s growth had nothing to do with people witnessing anything miraculous.
The Quran itself makes it clear that Muhammad was not a miracle worker.
How did Islam manage to spread so rapidly?
It is an undeniable fact of history that Islam spread by way of the sword, military conquest. People either converted or died.
This is far different than the spread of Christianity.
Christianity spread over the first three centuries through the simple preaching of the gospel, calling upon people to repent from their sins and place their faith in a resurrected Savior.
In fact, it was the Christians who were often put to death for their faith!
And that leads me to a second line of evidence for the resurrection, the “I” in our acronym R.I.S.E.N. . . .
2. The INCREDIBLE Persecution and Deaths Endured by the Disciples
When Jesus was arrested and led away to be crucified, the Gospels tell us His disciples . . .
- fled in fear (Matthew 26:56)
- went into hiding (John 20:19)
- lost hope (Luke 24:21)
A short time later, we read that something amazing happened.
These same fearful men went through a dramatic transformation.
Within a few weeks of Jesus’ crucifixion, these same men were standing face to face with the people who had crucified their leader, boldly telling them to repent and that Jesus was alive! (Acts 2:36-38).
To prevent this belief from spreading, the same authorities who had Jesus crucified . . .
- threatened the disciples
- flogged them
- beat them
- imprisoned them
- and forbade them to speak the name of Jesus (e.g., Acts 4:16-18, 5:28)
So what did the disciples do? They told the authorities, “We must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).”
There are times when it is right for Christians to stand up to government officials and disobey their mandates.
For example, when government officials would:
- try to prevent us from doing something God has commanded us to do
- seek to force us to do something God has commanded us not to do
The early disciples knew this. And they told the officials that! “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
I love their courage and commitment to get the gospel out! But their courage had a cost.
Flavius Josephus, Eusebius, Tertullian, and other independent extra-biblical sources record for us that many of Jesus’ earliest followers, including the apostles, suffered intense persecution and even death for their on-going belief and preaching that Jesus was Lord and was risen from the dead.
We are told in these extra-biblical sources that . . .
- Matthew was slain with a sword in a city of Ethiopia
- Mark died in Alexandria, in Northern Egypt after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city.
- Luke was hung to death upon an olive tree in the land of Greece
- John was tortured and banished to the Island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9)
- James, the brother of John, was beheaded in Jerusalem (Acts 12:2)
- James the Less (as he’s called in Mark 15:40) was thrown from a pinnacle of the temple
- Philip was hung up against a pillar at Heiropolis in the province of Phrygia
- Bartholomew was flayed alive
- Andrew was bound to a cross and left to die
- Jude was shot to death with arrows
- Matthias (the apostle chosen to replace Judas) was first stoned, and then beheaded
- Barnabas was stoned to death by the Jews at Salonica
- Paul, after a variety of tortures and imprisonments, was finally beheaded in Rome
- Thomas was run through the body with a spear in east India
- Peter was crucified upside down in Rome
What these men endured to get the gospel out is pretty sobering isn’t it?
Is it reasonable to think these men invented Jesus’ resurrection? I find that difficult to believe.
But someone might say, “People invent stories about crazy things all the time!” Yes they do, for some sort of financial gain or to get out trouble.
But what the early Christians said about Jesus, didn’t get them out of trouble or result in any kind of benefit. What these men said and wrote about Jesus got them in trouble.
What they received was rejection, persecution, torture, and martyrdom. Hardly a list of perks!
Next, the S in our acronym: R.I.S.E.N.
3. The SHIFT in Beliefs and Practices by Thousands of Jews
Shortly after Jesus’ death, thousands of Jews in Jerusalem and the surrounding region began abandoning at least five cherished beliefs and practices.
The beliefs and practices they abandoned had been taught to them from childhood by their rabbis and parents.
They were beliefs and practices that had given them their national identity and allowed them to be accepted by society.
They were beliefs and practices that had even given them a supposed right standing with God. What beliefs and practices did thousands of Jews begin to abandon?
A. The Practice of Bringing Sacrifices to the Temple
Thousands of Jews, whose families had for centuries been going to the temple to sacrifice animals as a way of having their sins covered, suddenly stopped!
Why? What would explain such a major shift in behavior?
They realized that Jesus was “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36).
They realized that all of those Old Testament sacrifices were “only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1)—a foreshadowing of what God would accomplish through His Son’s death.
They heard of the veil that had been ripped miraculously from the top down there in the temple (Mark 15:38).
They remembered that Jesus had told them that the temple was even going to be destroyed (Matthew 24:2; Luke 19:44).
And so they realized things had changed.
They realized they were living under a new covenant with God—the one Jesus had told them about on the eve of His crucifixion (Luke 22:20).
If they were mistaken, abandoning the sacrificial system would jeopardize their well-being socially and spiritually.
And yet thousands of Jews began to do that very thing. And they didn’t stop there.
Thousands of Jews began to change . . .
B. Their Sabbath Day Worship From Saturdays to Sundays
For the Jews, the Sabbath was not only a day they were to rest from physical labor, it became a day when they would meet together in the synagogue, worship God together, and study the Scriptures.
They had been doing it on the seventh day of the week (Saturdays) for some 1,500 years!
But now, almost over night, thousands of Jews began meeting on a new day—the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2), a day they began to call “the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10).
Why did they call it “the Lord’s Day”?
Because that was the day of the week Jesus rose from the dead (Matthew 28:1).
So, thousands of Jews, including the disciples, said, ‘Let’s start meeting on that day in commemoration of our risen Lord!’
And the Book of Acts (chapter 15) says they even opened their gatherings to Gentiles!
These Jews who made up the early church believed that the coming of the Messiah, along with His death and resurrection, cleared the way for a new relationship with God.
One that was based, not on bringing sacrifices to the temple or on keeping the Mosaic law, but on the sin-bearing, life-giving help of a resurrected Savior.
The fact that so many Jews were willing to abandon their previous beliefs and practices is a third evidence that Jesus’ resurrection really took place!
Now, obviously, a lot more could be said about this, but we have to move on to the E in our acronym: R.I.S.E.N.
4. The EVIDENCE for the Trustworthiness of the Bible
The resurrection isn’t some mythological story written by some ancient poet, no!
The Resurrection has been passed down to us by way of historically accurate, trustworthy eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life in the first century A.D..
This collection of documents making up the New Testament has been confirmed by:
- extra-biblical, secular historical writings
- dozens of archaeological discoveries
- and more
Extra-biblical historical sources have confirmed more than a hundred details recorded about Jesus in the New Testament.
For example, consider the writings of Flavius Josephus.
He was a Jewish historian working for the Roman empire in the first century AD.
He mentions more than a dozen individuals written about in the NT Gospels, including John the Baptist, Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas, and Jesus.
Notice what Josephus writes about Jesus:
“At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good and was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them after his crucifixion and that he was alive . . . ” Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3:63-64
Here in this one quote we have verification that Jesus . . .
- was a real person
- was known to be virtuous
- had many followers
- was put to death by Pilate
- was proclaimed to be alive after His death
Moving on quickly to the FIFTH and final reason we can be confident Jesus rose from the grave, the N in our acronym: R.I.S.E.N.
5. NONE of the Skeptics’ Theories for the Empty Tomb Are Convincing
Even skeptical scholars today acknowledge that the tomb of Jesus was empty.
As I mentioned earlier, there is no way Christianity could have spread if Jesus’ tomb was still occupied.
The Roman authorities or Jewish leaders could have just gone to the tomb and paraded the body around downtown Jerusalem for everyone to see and squashed the whole movement.
So, the tomb was empty.
That’s widely acknowledged by historians today. But critics have come up with other theories to explain the empty tomb . . . none of which is convincing.
Let’s briefly consider a few of their theories.
A. The Jesus-is-a-Myth Theory
Some critics of the Bible say “The reason why the tomb was empty is because He never even existed.
The whole story about Him being a real person was made up by some clever deceivers back in the first century.”
But the “Jesus is a myth” theory has gained a lot of momentum as of late on the Internet.
Well, the idea that Jesus never existed is unfounded! Why?
In addition to the 27 New Testament documents that tell us about Him, there are a wealth of extra-biblical sources that mention Him.
Did you realize that?
Jesus is referred to by more than 30 authors outside the Bible within 150 years of His life, including:
- Flavius Josephus
- Cornelius Tacitus
- The Jewish Talmud
- Suetonious and more
The evidence proves that Jesus was a real historical person:
With ‘respect to Jesus, we have numerous, independent accounts of His life, sources that originated in Jesus’ native tongue, that can be dated within just a few years of his life . . .
Historical sources like that are pretty astounding for an ancient figure of any kind . . . The claim that Jesus was simply made up falters on every ground.
So, the “Jesus is a Myth” theory utterly fails as an explanation for the empty tomb. Surely, He did exist!
A second theory to explain the empty tomb is the . . .
B. The Stolen-Body Theory
This theory suggests that the tomb was empty in Jerusalem because Jesus’ disciples stole His body.
But the “stolen-body theory” raises some difficult questions:
How could the disciples have stolen the body?
That would have required sneaking past an armed and trained detachment of Roman soldiers, breaking the Roman seal that was put upon the stone (Matt. 27:66), then moving a two-ton stone away from the entry to the tomb without being detected.
Certainly, the Roman guards that Pilate put on guard at the tomb (Matt. 27:65) to prevent this kind of thing from happening would have heard something and quickly put an end to the attempted thievery.
Roman soldiers were highly trained in the art of defense and killing.
I find it hard to believe that the disciples who fled in fear when Jesus was arrested (Matt. 26:56) would risk their lives trying to steal a dead body from the very people who executed Jesus just three days earlier.
Another difficult question “the stolen-body theory” brings up is this: Why would the disciples steal Jesus’ body?
What benefit would come to them for doing that?
Is it reasonable to believe the disciples stole Jesus’ body only to suffer for preaching a message they contrived? I have a hard time believing that!
And if they had a dead body on their hands, how were they able to convince thousands of people he rose from the grave?
Maybe prop him up for a press conference, but answer all the questions for Him?
That obviously wouldn’t work. So, I find “the stolen-body theory” unconvincing to say the least.
We all know that conspiracies often fall apart when there are too many conspirators and the people involved face real threats if they don’t recant.
Yet, we don’t have a single, ancient record of any of the disciples ever recanting when that was often the goal of the people who were persecuting Christians.
Which makes the Stolen-Body Theory highly unlikely.
C. The Hallucination Theory
This theory suggests that the early Christians were hallucinating and only thought they had seen Jesus alive after His crucifixion.
Well, this theory is not convincing, either.
Hallucinations (for non-drug users) are very rare.
And the things people see and experience while hallucinating are wildly different.
You never hear of a large group of people having identical hallucinations.
So to suggest that hundreds of Jewish people (not known for their drug use) had similar hallucinations about seeing and interacted with a resurrected Savior, is very problematic.
And another problem with the hallucination theory—if the disciples were just hallucinating, the religious leaders and Roman authorities could have dragged Jesus’ body out of the tomb and exposed the fact.
But they could not do that, because the tomb was empty.
Which brings us to…
D. “The Resuscitation Theory”, or “The Swoon Theory”.
Put simply, this theory states that Jesus did not actually die during the Crucifixion.
Rather, he simply “swooned” and fell unconscious while hanging from the cross.
Later, while he was in the tomb, he recovered from his injuries, resuscitated, broke free from the head to toe linen cloth wrapping and moved the one-and-a-half to two-ton stone away from the entrance?”
This is a highly unlikely theory in many ways.
But let me just focus on just one key point of proof that Jesus wasn’t faking it and that He really did die.
Notice the apostle John’s eyed witness account there at the cross.
In John 19:34-35 he said, “But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.”
“blood and water came out.”
Medically, we know the sustained rapid heartbeat caused by hypovolemic shock causes fluid to gather in the sack around the heart and around the lungs.
This gathering of fluid in the membrane around the heart is called pericardial effusion, and the fluid gathering around the lungs is called pleural effusion.
This explains why, after Jesus died and a Roman soldier thrust a spear through Jesus’ side, piercing both the lungs and the heart, blood and water came from His side just as John recorded in his Gospel.
Now, John was either so clever that he included some little-known biological fact that nobody would discover for 1800 years or he just reported what he saw.
And as a result, we have a good piece of hidden science that confirms that Jesus actually died of cardiac arrest and was dead at the point of the body being taken off the cross.”
Medically, it was impossible for Jesus to have survived the ordeal on Good Friday.
Now why do you suppose there are so many attempts to discredit the resurrection?
Because, the entire gospel message of Jesus Christ rests entirely on the resurrection.
In 1 Corinthians 15:17-19 Paul explained that “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep (physically died) in Christ have perished (spiritually died). 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ (with no hope of being resurrected to eternal life), we are of all men the most pitiable.
Why the most pitiable? Perhaps because, at least when Paul wrote this, Christianity wasn’t socially acceptable or politically correct.
To follow Christ may have meant the loss of everything most people hold dear; family, friends, community, career, even their very life.
So if Christ is not risen, then yes, Christians “are of all men the most pitiable” to have sacrificed so much in vain.
“But!
1 Corinthians 15:20a
“But now Christ is R.I.S.E.N from the dead…!”
And this phrase has been celebrated and used as a greeting for over 2,000 years on Resurrection Sunday all over the world.
“Christ is R.I.S.E.N!
and the response is…
“He Has R.I.S.E.N Indeed!”
Amen?
Amen!