The cornerstone of Christianity is the resurrection of
Christ – if it happened, Christianity is true; if it didn’t, it isn’t.
The interesting thing is, this earth-shattering,
life-changing belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead can be shown by two
simple facts. The facts are:
1.
Jesus died
2.
The disciples were with Jesus
Let me switch the order of these facts and consider them in
isolation.
The disciples were
with Jesus
Let’s imagine we were presented with nothing but the
historical accounts that deal with the appearances of Christ to the disciples
after His resurrection, and had no records of anything that happened before.
What do we have? We have multiple, independent accounts that the disciples were
with Jesus. It is clear that the accounts in the Gospels are independent – this
is why people so often try to point out contradictions between them. Clearly
these independent writers didn’t get their material from a single source
(because they all give very different details), and obviously they didn’t just invent
their accounts (because they all report the same event). These are independent
accounts of the same event.
We have the sermon summaries in the book of Acts. Luke
records a summary of the preaching of Peter in Acts 2 and in Acts 10 in which
he testifies to having been with Christ, even eating meals with Him (Acts
10:41).
We also have the eyewitness testimony recorded in 1 Corinthians
15. In this chapter Paul recounts the gospel he preached (vv. 3-7) which lists
the apostles as seeing Christ. He says that these apostles were preaching this
very same message (v. 11). Paul is telling the Corinthians something they
already knew – the apostles claimed to have been with the Lord.
Paul also says the Lord was seen by more than 500 witnesses
at once, and that, at the time he wrote, most of them were still alive. The
Cambridge New Testament scholar, C. H. Dodd, points out, “There can hardly be
any purpose in mentioning the fact that the most of the 500 are still alive,
unless Paul is saying, in effect, ‘The witnesses are there to be questioned.’”[1]
Another factor to bear in mind is that their reported time
with Jesus transformed them. They were prepared to give their lives for their
testimony that they had been with the Lord – they didn’t make this up and they
weren’t in it for what they could get out of it.
Hundreds of earnest eyewitnesses, multiple locations,
independent sources – the evidence is abundant and clear – the disciples were
with Christ. Based on the historical evidence alone, no one would ever question
this.
Let’s now look at that first fact:
Jesus died
Again, there is multiple, independent attestation that Jesus
died by crucifixion. It’s recorded by Christian and non-Christian sources, and
the testimony is so overwhelming that the radically sceptical New Testament
scholar, John Dominic Crossan, said, “That [Jesus] was crucified is as sure as
anything historical can ever be.”[2]
The equally sceptical scholar, Robert Funk, said in a “Jesus
Seminar” videotape that the crucifixion was the “one indisputable fact” that
neither Christians nor their opponents could deny.
Bart Ehrman, the agnostic New Testament textual critic,
said, “One if the most certain facts of history is that Jesus was crucified on
orders of the Roman prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate.”[3]
One startling truth
If these two facts were about two different people, they
would never be queried. The problem people have is that these two facts are
about the same person. The one who
died is the one who was then seen by His disciples over and over again.
This leads people to dismiss the facts, not on the basis of
the evidence but on the basis of their worldview. There is one (and only one)
explanation that fits the facts, and it’s the explanation the disciples gave – He
is risen.
Rather than question the facts, why not question your heart?
Why are you resistant to this truth? What is it that stops you from accepting
the obvious – the God revealed by Christ has vindicated Him by raising Him from
the dead?
Is it because of the implications? If Christ is risen then
He is who He claimed to be, and we need Him as our Saviour or we will face Him
as our judge.
The implications of accepting the truth are daunting, but
what about the implications of rejecting it?
[1] C.
H. Dodd, “The Appearances of the Risen Christ: A Study in the Form Criticism of
the Gospels,” in More New Testament
Studies, University of Manchester, 1968, p. 128, cited in William Lane
Craig, On Guard for Students, A Thinker’s
Guide to the Christian Faith, David C Cook, 2015, p. 217.
[2]
John Dominic Crossan, Jesus, A
Revolutionary Biography, HarperCollins, 1991, p. 145, cited in John C.
Lennox, Gunning for God, Why the New
Atheists are Missing the Target, Lion Hudson, 2011, loc 3662.
[3]
Bart Ehrman, The New Testament: An
Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, Oxford University
Press, 2011, pp. 261-262.
