14 Evidences For The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ

JESUS’ EXISTENCE. That Jesus was a historical 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.