10 – The second fact: Jesus is alive

Knowing that God is real is not enough. We also must be able to know what God is like. If we cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt what God is like, then one belief about God is as true as any other.

There are many beliefs about what the deity is like. If Baron Samedi, voodoo’s anarchist god of death, is God, then the God of Abraham is not. How can anyone know the truth?

There are more than 4,300 religions in the world. Each of them has its own explanation of how the world came to be and what the meaning of life is. The followers of each religion believe it is true. But only one religious faith – Christianity – is based on a fact that proves beyond reasonable doubt that it is true.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is a fact that proves he was the Son of God, just like he said. God raised Jesus from the dead to validate Jesus’ teaching about what God is like and how he expects us to live. The resurrection of Jesus gives us a factual basis for knowing the truth about God. No other religious tradition can offer anything that remotely resembles proof of its own truth.

By raising Jesus from the dead, God proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Jesus is the one we can trust to tell us what God is like and what is true and just. In Romans 1.4, Paul explains that raising Jesus from the dead was God’s way of powerfully demonstrating that Jesus is his Son. In Acts 17.31, Luke declares that God raised Jesus from the dead to prove that Jesus is God’s choice to reveal the truth about God to mankind.

The truth of Christianity – and its ideas of justice and human rights – stand or fall on whether the resurrection of Jesus actually happened. If God didn’t raise Jesus from the dead, faith in Christ is worse than pointless (1 Corinthians 15).

Some skeptics doubt that Jesus was a real person. They dismiss the Bible accounts of his life as fiction written to justify the existence of the Christian movement. But Jesus is referred to in other historical accounts written by men who had no interest in promoting Christianity.

The most notable of those historians was Flavius Josephus, a Jew who lived in the same century as Jesus. Josephus wrote about the life, miracles, and death of Jesus. He even recorded the matter-of-fact observation that on the third day after his death Jesus appeared to his disciples “restored to life.” Jesus was a real person who lived a life that was amazing to the people of his time.

Many skeptics dismiss the resurrection of Jesus as a legend manufactured by Jesus’ followers to overcome the shame of his execution and “fulfill” his prediction that he would rise from the dead. Because their minds are closed to the idea that miracles are possible, they never bother to consider the factual evidence for the resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus cannot be dismissed as impossible on scientific grounds. At most, good science would only conclude that resurrection is improbable. Science can’t even investigate whether resurrection is possible because science can only study events that can be repeated and observed. There are many mysteries in the world science can’t yet explain.

For that reason, the resurrection of Jesus must be examined as a historical event, using the same standards historians use to study other historical events. As a historical event, the resurrection is better documented than many events in the ancient world that historians take for granted.

The eyewitness accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus were preserved in four books written by Matthew and John, who were close friends of Jesus, and Mark and Luke, who were early followers. Because the resurrection of Jesus was such a world-shaking, life-changing event, his followers carefully preserved those eyewitness accounts and the other writings of Jesus’ earliest followers. Copies of those books were written out by hand, and great pains were taken to be sure each new copy was an exact replica of the earlier one.

More than 5,500 full or partial ancient manuscripts of the Christian New Testament have been found. One partial copy was made about 70 years after the resurrection. Most of the New Testament books were written within 60 years of the resurrection.

Skeptics doubt the New Testament accurately describes the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, yet no other ancient eyewitness account was as carefully preserved as the New Testament. No one doubts Caesar won a great victory in Gaul in 57 BC, yet less than a dozen manuscripts of that account exist, and none of the copies dates closer than 900 years to the actual event.

Even if a skeptic agrees that the New Testament has been preserved with remarkable accuracy, he still may reject the resurrection as a legend. Skeptics offer five basic arguments to support their belief that Jesus was not raised from the dead. None of those arguments can explain away the well-documented fact of the empty tomb:

The disciples stole the body to make it look like Jesus was alive. No, because that would have meant sneaking past the squad of Roman soldiers guarding the tomb, moving a 1,500-pound stone blocking the entrance, and then sneaking the body out past the guards.

The Jews stole the body to keep people from claiming Jesus had come back to life. No, because if the Jews had the body, they would have produced it when the rumors of resurrection began to fly.

Jesus wasn’t dead but revived in the tomb and escaped. No, because a man who had been tortured, crucified, and certified as dead couldn’t have rolled away that heavy stone, fought off the guards, and then presented himself in perfect health to his followers.

Jesus’ body was still in the tomb, and people just looked for him in the wrong tomb. No, because the Jews and Romans would have pointed out the correct tomb to stop the rumors of resurrection.

The visions of Jesus after the crucifixion were just hallucinations. No, because hundreds of people saw him and interacted with him on at least 10 different occasions – one group was 500 people – and they all told basically the same story about what happened in each case.

The fact is, the tomb was empty – and still is. The resurrection of Jesus is a fact of history that everyone must deal with. It was such an incredible, world-changing event that people started counting years all over again – BC and AD signify whether an event happened before or after the birth of Jesus. Skeptics reject the resurrection, not for lack of evidence, but simply because admitting it happened would force them to change the way they live their lives.

Without the resurrection, one religion would be as true as any other. Without the resurrection, no one could know for sure what God is like. Even Jews and Muslims, who say they worship the same God as Christians, have no way of proving that their understanding of God is true. Without the resurrection, no one could know which religious tradition can be trusted to teach us about the nature of God, the meaning of life, and what is true and just. Without the resurrection, it’s all just unproven personal opinion.

The resurrection of Jesus was an actual event in history. Because God raised Jesus from the dead, we know God has power even over death and evil. Because God raised Jesus from the dead, we know Jesus taught the truth. The resurrection is a fact – proven beyond reasonable doubt – that leads us to the truth about what God is like and what is true and just.

Think about it!
If God really didn’t raise Jesus from the dead, how would it change your opinion of who he was? Would you follow the teachings of a man who died thinking he was God?

Get involved!
Ask a Jewish or Muslim friend to explain what he believes about God. Ask how he knows his religion is true and other religions are not.

Next installment
11 – The end of Christian apologetics

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