Jason Dollar . Net

I once preached a funeral in which the daughter of the deceased woman came up to me and asked, “How can God take my mother away from me?” What she was essentially saying is that a good and loving God would not allow me to go through this horrible pain in my life.

 Here is how the formal argument unfolds:

1. The nature of God (if He exists) is inconsistent with the existence of evil and suffering.

• He is omnipotent (and has the ability to prevent evil)
• He is omniscient (and knows when evil and suffering will occur and how to stop it)
• He is omnibenevolent (means all loving – He would want to prevent evil and suffering)

2. But there is evil in the world

3. Therefore, God does not exist

How do Christians deal with the problem of evil and suffering? If the argument above is correct, then God does not exist! What do we say to answer this objection to Christianity? There are several responses we could give.

The Open Theism Response. Some have answered the problem of evil by saying that God is not omnipotent nor is He omniscient. They say that God doesn’t have all power and He does not know all things. In fact, they say when bad things happen God is just as surprised as we are. He was just as shocked as the rest of us when the terrorists attacked on September 11, 2001. Evil and suffering is not His fault! If He could stop it, He would stop it! Poor powerless God!

Now sure, the Open Theism response does solve the problem of evil and suffering. But at what price!? If Open Theism is true, then the Bible is wrong. According to the Bible, God knows all things past, present, and future. He is able to create peace and cause calamity. He is never surprised or shocked by anything that happens. So for the biblical Christian, open theism does not work.

Isaiah 45:7 7 I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.

The Freewill Defense. Another and much better way to solve the problem of evil and suffering is called the Freewill defense. This response says that God certainly has the power and the knowledge to prevent evil, but that He has a very good reason not to prevent it. He wants to maintain human freedom. That is, He wants people to make real choices and to live with the consequences of those choices.

God did not create robots. He created people, who are called to obedience. He created people who decide whether they will love God or hate God. But this freedom cannot be real freedom if there is no evil. Think about it, if there was no such thing as evil or suffering, then people could not choose to disobey God. But if they cannot choose to disobey God, then they are not free. Freedom demands both good and evil.

The Freewill Defense gets the job done better than the Open Theism defense. But is it sufficient? I think we have an even better answer to the problem of evil and suffering.

The Greater Goods Defense. This response to the problem of evil and suffering agrees with the Freewill defense that human freedom requires both good and evil in order to have real freedom. But this defense adds that there are many very good things that God loves dearly that could not exist without evil.

One of these things is mercy. God is merciful and God loves mercy. That means He grants relief to those who are suffering in misery. God is glorified in His mercy. But there can be no mercy without suffering. Mercy comes to those who are suffering and suffering is caused by sin and evil. So in order for God to be exalted as a God of mercy, sin and evil must be present.

What about forgiveness? God tells us that He is a forgiving God. But He can’t show us that, unless He actually forgives us of something. But how can He forgive us unless we do something wrong? There can be no forgiveness without disobedience.

We could also add the notion of trust. If there were no situations in life that were desperate, people would be much less likely to trust God. But God values trust and commands people to trust Him. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me” (Psalm 23). That verse could not have been written without a “valley of the shadow of death.”

So there are greater goods that God wants, but that cannot exist without evil and suffering. Thus God allows evil and suffering as a necessary part of bringing these greater things into existence.

This does not mean that we know exactly why certain horrible things happen. We should not make the mistake of claiming we know exactly why God would allow Hurricane Katrina to destroy New Orleans for example. We do not and cannot see all that God sees. But what we do know is that God is bringing good things from bad things (Romans 8:28; Genesis 50:20). He has the ability and the desire to make all things new and set all things right. If you understand this, then you see there is no real problem of evil at all.

Of course some people would agree with this but raise an objection: “Sure, God might allow some evil for a greater good, but there is TOO MUCH evil and suffering in the world to be a good God.”

That is, the level and intensity of evil is much too high for a good God to exist. After all, consider the Holocaust or the number of people who died in the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Could God actually be bringing good out of things that horrible?

But this objection depends on the “noseeum” principle – I can’t see how God might bring good from this, therefore He can’t be bringing good from this. But what if we can’t see all that God is doing? What if we do not have the type of eyes to perceive His kind of big-picture work?

I can see in my fridge pretty well. And if I see that there is no milk, I can be pretty sure that there is no milk. But I do not have the eyes to see the craters on the moon. I can’t say, “I don’t see craters so they must not be there!” Just because I can’t see them doesn’t mean they are not there.

Just because we may not be able to comprehend and understand the ways in which God brings good out of things does not mean that He isn’t bringing good from them.

When Joseph was sitting in prison after Potiphar’s wife had framed him, he had no way of knowing that God was about to raise him to the height of Egyptian political power. He had to walk through the dungeon first.

When people say that there is too much evil and suffering in the world for a good God to exist, they betray a misunderstanding of who God is and what kinds of things He does. His mission is to honor and glorify Himself above all and He even allows evil and suffering (and sometimes lots of it) to bring that mission to completion.

Why Does Anything Exist At All?

Look around you. What do you see? Of course, no matter where you are while reading this, you can name a thousand things: a wall, a tree, a butterfly, the sun, the moon, a house, a computer, a book, etc. But you do see something, right? There are “things” of all kinds all around you.

But why is there something and not nothing? Please forgive the double negative, it may not be good grammar, but it is on purpose. It helps us think carefully about this question. Why do things exist instead of nothing? How does something come out of nothing? How do things come into existence at all? Where did they come from? Did things just pop into being from nothing like popcorn? But that cannot be right because popcorn does not pop into being from nothing. Popcorn pops into being from something else, namely, raw kernels. And the raw kernels come from cobs of corn, which come from corn stalks, which come from seeds planted in the earth. But where did the earth come from?

The logic is clear – things don’t come into being by themselves. Someone or something must have caused those things to be there or else they would not be there. This truth gives rise to the Cosmological Argument for the existence of God. It states that God is the first cause that causes everything else to exist. Here is the formal argument:

1. Every contingent thing has a cause.
2. There cannot be an infinite regress of causes.
3. Therefore, there must be a first cause.
4. This first cause is either matter and energy or God.
5. The first cause is not matter and energy.
6. Therefore, the first cause is God.

Okay, if you are not familiar with this, you are probably rolling your eyes and trying to figure out why you are wasting your time reading this book. If this is you, press on! You can get this! If you have studied apologetics or philosophy before, you are familiar with this argument and hopefully want to understand it better. Either way, let’s work through each step carefully.

Every Contingent Thing has a Cause

Without going into a great amount of detail as to how it happened, you know that your parents caused you to exist, right? But did someone cause them to exist as well? Yep, their parents caused them to exist.

But guess what? Your grandparents also had parents. And their parents had parents who also had parents who also had parents. Every person who has every lived was caused to live by someone else. This is called a causal chain. One person caused another who caused another and so on.

It might help to think about a train. Suppose you drive up to a railroad crossing and you see all the train cars going by one-by-one. They are all attached to each other and they are all causing each other to move, so they make up a causal chain.

Now, notice the word contingent in the premise above. A contingent thing is something that requires something else for its existence. It is a dependent thing, a thing that must have a cause. A beautiful painting is contingent upon a skillful painter. A flying airplane is contingent on air, fuel and pilot (assuming it is not remote-controlled).

As you will see momentarily, not everything is contingent. But if something is contingent, then it has a cause which brings it into being. But these causes can’t go back forever.

There Cannot Be an Infinite Regress of Causes

Causes and effects can go back for a long time. Remember your parents and their parents and their parents and so on. Well, we could just keep on going with that. Your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents had parents. And your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents had parents. And on and on we could go.

Or could we? Can this causal chain just keep going back forever? Or does this regress of causes ever stop? Is there a point where you get to your very first parents who themselves had no human parents?

Think about the train again. You see five cars, then ten cars, then thirty cars, then fifty cars, then seventy-five cars, then ninety cars go by – and you are frustrated because you are late for work! Can this train be a never-ending train?

Is it possible for you to sit in your car at the railroad crossing and watch the train go by every day, week after week, month after month, year after year, without ever coming to an end (or beginning)? Of course not! An infinite, never-ending regress of causes is impossible.

The same is true with the existence of the universe. The earth was caused to exist, since it is a contingent thing, but what caused it to exist? Galaxies were caused to exist, but what caused them to exist? In other words, what was the very first thing that ever existed that caused everything else to exist? This leads us to the first major conclusion of the Cosmological Argument:

Therefore, There Must Be a First Cause

To most people, this seems to make a lot of sense and is the natural conclusion of the first two premises. At some point you have to have parents who are your first parents who have no prior human parents (Adam and Eve we’ll say). The train at some point must end. There must be a cause (the engine) that is making all the other cars move.

The universe has to have a first cause too. There has to be some type of “engine” that is driving and causing everything else to exist. It is important to note that whatever this first cause is, it must be both uncaused and eternal.

What does it mean to be uncaused? It means that the first cause could not have been caused by anything or anyone else (including itself). Logically, it must have no cause at all. This first cause just is. It would necessarily be an ever present eternal being or substance. Something like this would appropriately be called It Is, or perhaps more appropriately I Am.

Why? Well, if the first cause has a cause, then it is not the first cause. If something created it, then it is not the first cause. This means that the first cause, whatever it is, must by necessity be uncaused and thus eternal. Eternal because if it is uncaused, then there was never a time when it did not exist and never a time when it will not exist. If there was a time when it did not exist, but it does exist now, then it was caused. In fact, that is what it means to be caused – to not exist and then to exist. But the first cause was not and could not have been caused at all. So if it is uncaused, it is also eternal.

This means the first cause must have no beginning and no ending. It must be what philosophers call a necessary being. Without it, nothing else exists. You might call it the First and Last or maybe even the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8).

Remember above when we were talking about the word contingent? A contingent thing is a thing that depends on something else for its existence. We stated that not everything is a contingent thing. Actually, the first cause is the only thing that is not contingent. It stands alone as the only thing in the universe that does not depend on something else for its existence since it is uncaused and eternal. It cannot be born and it cannot die. It cannot be created and it cannot be destroyed.

Now, this is where our illustrations about parents and trains break down and quit working. Your parents can go back a long way and you can have first parents, but Adam and Eve are not eternal beings because they too had a beginning. Something brought them into being, even if it wasn’t “human” parents. They cannot be the first cause, even though they are the first human parents.

On the train, of course, the source of the movement of all the cars is the engine. The engine might be called the first car, since it propels the other cars, but the engine is a contingent thing too. It requires fuel in order to operate and an architect and builder to put it together, so it is a caused thing as well. It might be the first car, but it cannot fulfill the role of first cause. But what, or who, can fulfill the role of first cause? The answer can basically be reduced to two options.

This First Cause Is Either Matter and Energy or God

This premise is given in a dilemma form. This means it presents only two options for the first cause. But to be fair, there is another possibility that people have considered, but it is filled with problems. Let’s take a brief look at this view.

The Matrix Briefly Considered

Some say that all of reality is nothing but an illusion. These people fight the logic of the first cause argument with the simple denial that there is a first cause at all. They do this by holding to the belief that in reality there is nothing at all.

A modern illustration of this belief was presented in the movie The Matrix. A little kid dressed in Hindu garb gazes at a spoon that bends in his hand like melting wax. He informs the lead character, Neo, that he could bend the spoon with his mind because the spoon wasn’t really there. Some folks actually believe that! But this option – officially called pantheism – is filled with logical and philosophical problems and will be refuted in chapter 11.

Sure, it is possible that we are all living in the matrix. It could be that we all are not really here, but rather we are actually in a cold, dark room somewhere, unconscious, with our brains hooked into a master computer that is feeding our minds mere images of the world. This scenario is logically possible and it does make for a good story, but we have no real reason at all to believe that it is true. In fact, everything we sense and see tells us just the opposite. The word is a real, material place.

Back to Reality

So this brings us back to the idea that the first cause is either matter and energy or God.

What if we say that it is matter and energy? There are many, many people who hold to this option or some form of it. They are called Naturalists. Some believe that matter and energy, which is essentially viewed as different forms of the thing substance, caused itself to exist, while others assert that it simply always has existed (that it is eternal). Still others hold that humanity just cannot know how it got here. Yet regardless of their viewpoint, the unifying belief is that matter and energy is ultimately all that there is.

Now when we say matter what are we talking about? The most basic known form of matter is the atom and the particles and energy that make it up. Atoms, of course, form into molecules, which form into bigger substances such as water, dust, rocks, and ultimately planets, stars and galaxies. The naturalist believes that the universe is only made up of these material things. This stuff, understood as a complete whole and described as matter and energy, is the first cause. Famous naturalist Carl Sagan once said, “The universe is all that is or ever was or ever will be.”[iii]

The First Cause Is Not Matter and Energy

But there are many problems with naturalism. Those who hold that matter is self-caused have a really big problem. Self-causation is utterly illogical and impossible. In order for something to cause anything, it must first exist. But if it does not exist, it cannot cause anything at all to happen. If it cannot cause anything at all to happen, then it certainly cannot cause itself to exist. This option simply cannot work. But the idea that matter and energy is eternal is also highly problematic. It is difficult to conceive of atoms and other material entities as never having a beginning. It takes a great deal of blind faith to believe such a thing, especially since there isn’t any evidence for it.

Another obvious problem with naturalism is that it cannot explain the presence of life. Life does not come from non-life. Even if it were accepted that matter and energy is eternal, it is obviously not personal. How do dirt and dust give “birth” to the complex and living systems which make up the human body, or even the simplest cell? Life only comes from life. The naturalist is reduced to believing that the entire universe is the product of unguided and unintelligent non-life. Somehow, he believes, life sprung into being from this non-life and non-intelligence gave rise to intelligence.

They also have to admit that ultimately there is no real purpose or meaning at all in the universe! After all, if human beings are mere accidents who will soon be extinct, nevermore to be remembered, then nothing we do in life really matters in any kind of significant way.

Even if a person goes on a murderous rampage and kills fifty people, it doesn’t really matter ultimately. Even though these horrible actions might affect the people he kills and the families of his victims for a long time, it still will not be significant ultimately. And even though these actions might affect the killer himself (say he is put to death for his deeds), it still will not matter ultimately.

Think about it. Will anybody care about the killer or his victims when the human race ceases to exist? In 700 billion years, long after the sun and solar system have run their courses and are gone forever, who will care about this murderer and his horrible deeds? If the naturalist is correct, then nobody will care. Because there will be nobody at all in 700 billion years to care. But people know that what we do matters. We know that love is right and unjustified killing is wrong and that all of our actions have real and ultimate meaning.

Naturalism is a position that is not acceptable to billions of people. Even if mainstream science is dominated by people who believe that matter is the first cause, it cannot be accepted and must be declared false. This of course leaves us only one viable option:

Therefore, The First Cause Is God

The first cause must be uncaused and eternal. God is uncaused and eternal. He has no beginning and no ending. Most children wonder about this. “Who made God?” is the question. The answer is nobody. He did not even make himself. He is not self-caused (again, that is impossible), but rather he is uncaused.

How can this be? If everything has to have a cause, what was it that caused God? But let’s be clear here: the naturalist must assert that matter and energy is uncaused just like the Christian must assert that God is uncaused. Just because we cannot explain how God is eternal does not negate the fact that there must be something that is eternal. We may not be able to explain the eternality of God, but without it we can explain nothing else. The crux of the Cosmological Argument is the necessity of a self-existent entity to justify the existence of the universe.

The first cause must also be alive and intelligent, since it brings into existence things that are alive and intelligent (look in the mirror). God is alive and intelligent and we could see why he might desire to create other life and other intelligence. On every account, God is a much better explanation of the first cause than matter and energy.

Limits of the Cosmological Argument

We must stress the limits of the Cosmological Argument. It really is powerful and effective in showing the extreme high probability of God’s existence, but it does not distinguish between false gods and the real God. A Muslim or a Mormon could also use this same argument, but neither the Muslim god nor the Mormon god is actually God. They have constructed false gods and worship them instead of the one true God.

This is why the Bible is vital to the apologetic process! The trustworthy word of God is used by the Spirit of God to show us that the first cause is not just any old god, but rather the one and only true God of the Old and New Testaments. Jesus Christ came to verify this fact by dying on the cross to reconcile sinners and rising from the dead.

Just remember, we cannot use only one defense of our faith, but we must have an arsenal of reasons for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God is one arrow in our quiver, but it is not the only one.

[i] Kelly James Clark, “Without Evidence or Argument: A Defense of Reformed Epistemology,” Calvin College, http://www.calvin.edu/academic/philosophy/virtual_library/articles/clark_kelly_j/without_evidence_or_argument.pdf (accessed September 29, 2008).
[ii] The word cosmological comes from the Greek word cosmos, meaning the totality of the universe as a harmonious whole.
[iii] Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980.

Copyright 2009 Jason Dollar and Bradley Pinkerton

This is chapter 3 of the book Contend: A Survey of Christian Apologetics on a High School Level

 

The greatest moment in baseball folklore was sealed in history by the greatest player of the game: Babe Ruth. The fate of his team’s entire season depended on how he performed against one of the league’s best pitchers. At a time as important as this, he still had the audacity to point to the spot in the stands where he claimed he would hit his home run.

How he would have been mocked and ridiculed by everyone, and how cocky and incompetent he would have seemed, had he failed. But we all know how the story turned out. He has been the undying idol of the baseball world, because he did exactly what he claimed he would do. He backed up his claim with action that supported it.[i]

How do Christians back up their claim that Christianity is reasonable and true? In particular, how do we show it is true to those who do not believe that it is? It is one thing for us to be personally convinced that Christianity is true because of our own experiences with God, but it is another thing for us to faithfully demonstrate this to others. It is one thing to point at the fence and make a claim, but it is another thing to hit the homerun.

To be sure, we are justified in sharing our experience with unbelievers. We love telling others about how God made his way into our hearts and changed us. The Apostle Paul also shared his testimony as a way of showing others the love of Christ.[ii] He let others know what kind of man he was before Christ saved him – a ruthless murderer – and how his life was totally changed on the road to Damascus. Our personal testimonies are powerful witnesses of the existence of God and salvation through Christ.

But the unbeliever might want more. He might say, “I’m glad you had an experience with God, but I have not. Can you give me other reasons that I should believe Christianity is true?”

It is our desire to show you that not only can we know that Christianity is true, but that there are also many ways we can reasonably show it to be true.[iii] Before we get there, here’s a little story.

 

 

LeBron James and Reasonable Faith

 

Suppose LeBron James and I (Bradley) are both on the basketball court shooting hoops together. Suppose he says that he is about to jump and rotate three hundred and sixty degrees in the air, and then slam-dunk. I would reply, “Okay, I believe you can do it.”

This is an example of faith. I used the word believe which means faith. It is faith because it has not happened yet. If it had already happened and I saw LeBron do it, then it would be sight, not faith. When things are in the future, we must have faith if we believe they are going to happen.

But in this case my faith is a reasonable faith. Why? Because, hello, this is LeBron James! He is 6’8” tall! He is arguably the best basketball player who has ever lived! For crying out loud, they call him The Chosen One! So even though I must exercise faith in order to believe that he will do a three-sixty, it is obviously a reasonable faith, based on good and valid grounds.

But let’s suppose that LeBron successfully performs his dunk and walks back over to me. There I am, standing on the court with a confident swagger, bouncing a basketball. I look up at him (way up) and say, “Nice dunk, Chosen One, now it is my turn!” 

Well, anybody who knows me knows that I can’t play basketball at all. I repeat – I have no skills on the court. When I jump as high as I can, I can barely touch the rim. So when I say I am about to do a three-sixty, it is not reasonable to believe that it will ever actually happen. I have never shown that I can dunk before and I am not tall enough to dunk if I wanted to. 

Sure, I can have faith! Yes, I can believe that somehow a strong wind will blow through the gym at the precise moment I leap for the hoop and carry me up to the basket, twisting me in a full circle as I go. Sure, I can believe that. But that is NOT a reasonable faith. That is called blind faith. There is a major difference between reasonable faith and blind faith!

Our faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he rose from the dead is not blind faith. It is reasonable faith. It is reasonable because he has proven himself. His life, his words, and his deeds are the most convincing apologetic arguments that the world has seen. When it comes to showing that Christianity is true and reasonable, the first place to look is the heart of Christianity – Christ Jesus himself. He is the most amazing and incredible person who has ever lived.

 

 

But Some Say Jesus Never Existed

 

There is a small group of extreme radicals who have proposed the Jesus-myth hypothesis. This is the view that Jesus of Nazareth never actually existed, but was a created legend, invented by the apostle Paul and other early church leaders, apparently to manipulate their followers. Earl Doherty, author of The Jesus Puzzle[iv] and Robert M. Price, a member of the Jesus Seminar,[v] are two of the most prominent individuals holding this extreme view. Additionally, a recent independent documentary called The God Who Wasn’t There, written and directed by Brian Flemming, takes this unsupportable position.

It should first be noted that the vast majority of historians and other experts of the life of Jesus strongly disagree with these radicals. Even those who are not Christians are convinced, at the very least, that Jesus of Nazareth was a real person. They just do not believe he was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. But to deny that he ever existed is to go against a mountain of evidence that speaks clearly to the contrary. To say that Jesus was merely a myth is like claiming that George Washington was a myth.[vi]

But how do we know Jesus really existed? There are numerous historical writings that speak of Jesus as a real person, both inside and outside the Bible. Some of these are from his friends and some of these are from his enemies. Many of these sources were written very close to the time of Jesus’ life. This fact argues heavily against the Jesus-myth hypothesis, since there were many people still alive at the time of the writings who would have known about Jesus first-hand, and some who would have known him personally. These people provide historical checks and balances. The following is a list of many of the historical sources that prove that Jesus actually existed.

 

Christian sources

 

The New Testament is a collection of books written by Christians to convince people to become Christians. No doubt, it is Jesus-friendly. But even still, the books of the Bible do recount history, and a telling of history can be either verified or falsified. In the case of the gospels and epistles of the New Testament, the best evidence shows that the apostles were not making up stories, but were writing actual accounts of the life of Jesus.

The Bible is not one book written by one person. It is a collection of books written by many different people. Therefore, the individual books of the Bible constitute independent witnesses of the history recorded inside the Bible. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and the writer of Hebrews are all in agreement that Jesus Christ was an actual person. His life is described in detail in these sources. Plus, it is clear that several passages in the New Testament are based on sources that are dated even earlier than the New Testament documents themselves.

For example, biblical scholars speak of a mysterious Q document, that explains the origin of the material shared by Matthew and Luke, but that does not appear in Mark. Though we do not possess a copy of the Q document itself, its theoretical existence indicates another ancient source for the life of Jesus.

In addition, several ancient creeds are recorded in the Bible. These creeds predate the books we find them in, providing more early and independent sources for the life of Jesus. A clear case of this can be found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church:

 

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

 

Many scholars indicate that this was a creed recited by the early church and Paul is simply quoting it. If this is so, then the creed itself is older than the first letter to the Corinthians, and probably much older, since creeds take time to be circulated and accepted. Other similar creedal formulas are found in 1 John 4:2, 1 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 2:8, and Romans 1:3-4. Since these are sources quoted by the Bible, then they give us evidence that people other than the biblical authors believed that Jesus was real, prior to the writing of the New Testament. This evidence alone shows that it is hardly possible that the apostles could have invented Jesus.[vii]

In addition, there are hundreds of other ancient Christian sources that provide evidence for the existence of Jesus. These include the Didache, a collection of teachings practiced by the early church,[viii] as well as the writings of the early church fathers who confirmed the writings of the apostles. The Apostles’ Creed could also be included in this list, since it was probably written prior to 100 AD.

But someone might object by saying that all of these documents were written by Jesus’ friends and followers. Perhaps they somehow made a pact together that they would all lie about Jesus and fabricate a story about his life. Of course this is historically impossible, since most of these sources were written by people who did not know each other. But beyond this, there are other sources proving the life of Jesus written by those outside the circle of his friends, who would have no reason whatsoever to promote a Jesus myth.

 

A Jewish Historian

 

The most prominent Jewish source for the life of Jesus was a man named Josephus, a historian most famous for his detailed accounts of the Jewish war with Rome, which included the famous Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Josephus was not a Christian, so he was not interested in promoting Christian beliefs. He simply wrote down what was happening in the world at the time. Here is a famous passage from his Antiquities:

 

At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he 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 their loyalty to him. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. Accordingly they believed that he was the Messiah, concerning whom the Prophets have recounted wonders. (18.3.3 Arabic 10^th C. version)

 

Not only did Josephus identify Jesus as a historical figure, but he also indicated that Jesus had many followers, that he was crucified by Pilate, the Roman governor, and that some people believed he rose from the dead. All of this from a careful historian who was not interested in promoting Christian belief! No wonder the majority of scholars dismiss the Jesus-myth hypothesis so quickly. But the words of Josephus are only the tip of the iceberg of evidence for the existence of Jesus.

 

Roman sources

 

The life of Jesus and the history of the early church occurred during a time when the Roman government controlled a major part of the civilized world. Archeologists have uncovered several letters and other works written by Roman historians and officials that indicate some of the empire’s difficulties in dealing with the growth of the early church. For example, the Roman senator Tacitus (c.55-117 AD), in recounting the history of the reign of the emperor Nero, wrote:

 

Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. (Annuals 15:44)

 

Here is solid evidence from a man who was not a Christian, nor even a Jew, that Jesus of Nazareth was an actual historical figure, and that he was put to death by crucifixion under the authority of Pontus Pilate.

Other Roman sources include Seutonius and Pliny the Younger. Seutonius was a historian who in his Life of Claudius mentions the expelling of the Jews from Rome because they had been stirred up by a leader called “Chrestus,” a probable reference to Jesus, who was called the Christ. This event finds a strong parallel in the book of Acts:

 

Then Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. They had been expelled from Italy as a result of Claudius Caesar’s order to deport all Jews from Rome. (Acts 18:1-2)

 

Pliny the Younger was the Roman governor of Bithynia who wrote a letter to Emperor Trajan asking him how to deal with the growing Christian population in his territory. In this letter, written very close to the actual life of Christ, Pliny indicates that Christians worshipped Jesus as though he was God.[ix] Pliny’s letter is solid proof that the worship of Jesus as deity did not develop over centuries after his life, but that Jesus was a real man who was thought to be God himself by his earliest followers.

 

Greek sources

 

In addition to the Christians, Jews, and Romans, several writers of Greek origin also join the chorus and confirm the existence of Jesus. Celsus was a 2^nd Century Greek philosopher, famous for poking fun at Christianity. But in so doing, he actually confirms many of the beliefs and practices of the early Church, and he never denies that Jesus was an actual person.

Thallus was another Greek historian who apparently mentions Jesus. We do not possess any of his original writings, but a 3^rd Century Christian historian named Julius Africanus, in writing about the darkness that came when Jesus was crucified states, “In the third book of his history, Thallus calls this darkness an eclipse of the sun–wrongly in my opinion.”[x] This quote indicates that people were aware of the mysterious darkness that occurred at the crucifixion of Jesus, and debated what might have caused it.

 

Assyrian sources

 

One last category of sources for the life of Jesus needs to be mentioned. Two prominent Assyrian sources also testify that Jesus was an actual person. The first was a famous playwright named Lucian of Samosata (c.125-180 AD). In one of his plays, Lucian writes:

 

The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account…

You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.

All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property. (The Death of Peregrine 11-13)

 

Like the Roman sources, Lucian lived close enough to the actual events, and was a strong enough enemy of early Christianity, that if Jesus had never existed, he would have certainly focused his attention on that reality. But Lucian never denies the actual existence of Jesus. He simply makes fun of him and his followers. In so doing, however, he unwittingly proves to us today without doubt, that Jesus of Nazareth was a real man.

The second Assyrian confirmation of Jesus comes from a letter that a man wrote to his son, encouraging him to pattern his life after the lives of wise people. In his list of wise people, he mentions a Jewish king who was executed at the hands of his own people. He writes, “What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise king? It was just after that that their kingdom was abolished.”[xi] Again, another confirmation that many people, not only Christians, knew many facts about the life of Jesus, and their writings confirm that Jesus was an actual person, and not just a myth.

Those who hold to the Jesus-myth hypothesis must do so by blind faith. The evidence argues solidly against their position. It is clear that their goal is not to find truth, but rather to discredit Christianity. We suggest a better course of action; follow the evidence where it leads.

 

 

Not to be Ignored

 

In spite of all this evidence, Jesus is often treated as the embarrassment of Christianity. We feel he is someone who should be helped out and pitied, or even set in a far off corner so that he doesn’t ruin our reputations. There is a tendency to subject him to our sympathy and censorship rather than present him as the object of our worship.

I’m still not sure why, but I (Bradley) once enjoyed watching the infomercials that air at three in the morning. You never know what you’ll find being advertised there. Perhaps there’ll be an eighty-foot long garden hose, or finely tuned nose hair clippers, or knives sharp enough to cut straight through a solid kitchen counter! Funny, there is inevitably some drawback to every item they offer, something the advertisers want to hide, something that keeps their product from being the perfect product they desire the public to think it is. Whether it’s in unreadable print flashing on the screen for three seconds, or the speaker talking faster than anyone could hope to understand, there is something they are ashamed of.

Sometimes Christians present Jesus this way. He is a good “product,” as far as it goes, but he comes with many disclaimers. For example, we have to believe he made postmortem visits to his followers (1 Corinthians 15:5-7). Well, that is just weird. We also have to believe that he commands believers to eat his flesh and drink his blood in an act of communal remembrance.

 

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6:53-56)

 

In our modern culture, this can be downright embarrassing. Even in Jesus’ day, after he taught this, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (v. 66). So Christians often elevate the ethical teachings of Christianity – like love your neighbor as yourself – and downplay Jesus the person, who has a tendency to come across as an oddity.

But if we are not presenting Jesus, what are we left with? Jesus is not only the destination of apologetics, but he is an absolutely essential part of the path. He is not only the supreme figure within Christianity, but also the greatest argument for it. He is the argument God himself uses (John 1:1-14).

Furthermore, he cannot be ignored. Jesus forces a conscious and intentional acceptance or rejection, and stands as a fork in the road of life. He asks that heart-wrenching question to all people, “Who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29). Every person is under obligation to answer. Is he merely a Jewish religious teacher? An ethical guide? A prophet from God? A manipulative deceiver? A myth who never existed? Or God himself?

Jesus Christ stands in the way of every man’s routine life, and demands to be everything or nothing. He issues this warning to all who will hear:

 

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? (Luke 14:27-28)

 

So let’s examine this man and see if following him is worth the cost. If his claims prove to be false, so be it, leave him to the history books. However, if he is truly God in flesh, then abandon everything in relentless pursuit of his glory. But let none of us be guilty of simply ignoring him.

When Moses saw an unexplainable phenomenon in his normal pursuits of life – a burning bush – he made a decision. “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned” (Exodus 3:3, emphasis ours). Let us follow his example and turn aside to see this great sight, the person of Jesus Christ.

 

 

The God-Man

 

Read the following passage from the Gospel of John carefully. Make the connection between Jesus proving his power by coming back to life from the dead, and the belief of the people: “When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken” (John 2:22).

The disciples saw Jesus alive after he had died, they remembered the Old Testament prophecies that he fulfilled, and they believed. The amazing evidence was set before them. Jesus Christ fulfilled hundreds of Old Testament prophecies in ways that could not have been faked. This proved to them that Jesus was not a liar, but was actually the Messiah. Having faith in Jesus was not a blind leap, but rather was the most reasonable thing to do!

Read the next verse: “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing” (John 2:23). The same thing was true of the people in Jerusalem. When they saw Jesus working mighty miracles, they had reason to believe the words that Jesus spoke. It was not an irrational faith, but rather a reasonable faith based on clear evidence.

The same is true for us today. We have many good and rational reasons to believe that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. We will attempt to demonstrate this with the following simple argument:

 

1.       Jesus claimed he was God.

2.       Jesus proved that his claim was true.

3.       Therefore, Jesus is God.

 

 

Jesus claimed he was God

 

What do you make of folks who say they are God? There have been a few people listed on the pages of history who have made this outrageous claim. Many others declared themselves to be a prophet of God. Most people, however, never make any claims like this. Personal declarations of deity can be a real turn-off.

Imagine if one of your longtime friends stood up one day in a public setting, cleared his throat, and asserted loudly, “May I have your attention please! It is time for me to reveal that I am actually the Lord God Almighty! I insist that everyone who hears my voice fall down and worship me immediately!” You probably would be slightly irritated by your friend’s actions, and wouldn’t want to be seen with that person anymore. After all, claiming to be God is a big deal.

So when people do claim to be God, what should we do with them? David Koresh was the guru of a cult group in Waco, Texas known as the Branch Davidians. Several years ago the group was in the news for stockpiling weapons and eventually the government removed them. Their compound was burned and most of the people in their group, including Koresh, perished in the flames.[xii] 

This story was in the news for several days and reporters continually pointed out that Koresh believed himself to be the Messiah. His followers were also apparently convinced of this. Most people outside the cult, however, thought the guy was out of his mind – missing a few cards, elevator not going all the way up, a wacko in Waco. People who say they are God or god-like usually have only a small following of deluded people.

But when Jesus Christ entered the public scene of history, he was much different. He openly and continually referred to himself as the Messiah, the anointed and prophesied One of the Old Testament. “The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he’” (John 4:25-26).

Jesus never hid the reality that he was the One predicted by the prophets in the days of old. But that is not all! He even declared himself equal with God the Father, an action that got him into real trouble with the Jewish authorities: “‘I and the Father are one.’ The Jews picked up stones again to stone him” (John 10:30-31). They picked up the stones because they wanted to kill him. Why? Because he had just made himself out to be equal with God! That was total blasphemy as far as they were concerned, and a blasphemous man was a dead man.

 This goes even further. People often worshipped Jesus, and when they did, he did not stop them. One time people tried to worship Paul and Barnabas because they had worked a miracle. But Paul immediately prohibited them and said, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you” (Acts 14:15). In stark contrast look what happens when Jesus heals a blind man who shows his appreciation to Jesus by worshipping him:

 

Jesus…having found him [the blind man]…said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. (John 9:35-38)

 

As you continue reading the passage you will observe that Jesus did not correct the man. He did not say, “Stop worshiping me! I’m just a man like you.” This is because Jesus was not a mere man. He was different and he knew it and he proved it.

He even had the audacity to forgive people of their sins. Suppose you and your mom got into a nasty argument. After shouting at her, you did the unthinkable and slapped her to the ground, leaving the house in a fury. Now imagine that while you were out, thinking about the horrors of your actions, you bumped into a man who said, “I forgive you of the sins you just committed against your mom.” What? Who does this guy think he is? How can he forgive you for something you did to someone else? He wasn’t even involved in the incident!

This illustration sounds strange, but this is exactly what Jesus did on many occasions. He forgave people of their sins which they committed against other people. The Jewish leaders knew that when he did this, he was essentially claiming to be God:

 

And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:20-21)

 

Good question! Who can forgive sins but God alone? There is no doubt that Jesus claimed and believed that he was God in the flesh. 

He even acted like God. He multiplied (created) food out of nothing when he fed 5,000 men and their families.[xiii] He calmed furious storms.[xiv] He walked on the surface of water.[xv] He miraculously transformed water into wine.[xvi] He raised people from the dead.[xvii] Who else can do these things but God?

At one point he infuriated the Jewish leaders by referring to himself as the I AM. If you know the Old Testament at all, you know that when Moses asked God for his name, God called himself “I AM” (Exodus 3:14). The Jewish leaders certainly knew that this was God’s covenantal name. So when they heard Jesus say the following, it is clear they wanted him dead for claiming to be God himself: “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple” (John 8:58-59).

To further support his deity, Jesus claimed to be able to do things that only God himself could do. He promised a group of his followers, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am among them” (Matthew 18:20). But how could Jesus make this claim if he was only a human?

He also claimed to have power over everything. When he was about to ascend into heaven, Jesus said to his followers, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18).

It is abundantly clear that Jesus claimed to be God. But there is a problem – all of these claims are found in the Bible. How do we know the Bible is true? Is it possible that the followers of Jesus who wrote the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) just made all this stuff up about him? Is it possible that he never claimed to be God, but they just said he claimed to be God?

These are good questions, and in chapter 5 you will find answers. There, we will make a strong attempt to show that the Bible is true and can be reasonably trusted, but this raises a very important point. We must understand that all of these arguments for the Christian worldview work together. This argument you are reading now about Jesus is supported strongly by the argument that the Bible is true. All of the arguments for the Christian faith must be taken together as a group. When they are all taken together they support each other and comprise a powerful and persuasive set of truths.

 

 

Listening Is Important

 

If someone says he is God or a spokesperson for God, what should we do with him? We think that, at the very least, people should listen to him and test his claims to see if he is telling the truth.

Think about it. Here we are – humanity – swirling about on this planet called Earth in the midst of a vast and mostly unknown universe. How did we get here? Why are we here? Most people would really like to know the answers to these questions, and a lot of answers have been offered. Some say that life is a sort of cosmic accident that arose in this far corner of the universe and that it has no real meaning. It just happened, so hey, we might as well enjoy it. This is the answer of the naturalist (whom we will talk more about later on). 

But Christians are not at all happy with that answer and nobody should be. We feel life is significant and meaningful, an idea shared by many. The fact that people exist at all seems to be a pretty big deal, not just some sort of universal fluke. Our existence seems to be on purpose, as Sir John Templeton pondered, “Would it not be strange if a universe without purpose accidentally created humans who are so obsessed with purpose?”[xviii]

People want sufficient answers to our big questions of existence and purpose, but there is a major problem. Where do we find those answers? With the exception of the folks who landed on the moon and orbit around the earth on occasion, we’re stuck on this planet. We can’t just fly up into Heaven and ask God what is really going on. So what we need is someone to come down from God to us.

If someone says that he has been sent from God, then, as a minimal response, we should listen to what he has to say. We don’t have to believe him, and we should certainly test his words to see if he speaks truth, but at the very least we should listen to him.

For example, Muhammad, the founder of Islam, declared himself to be a prophet of God. A seeker of truth named Whitney might listen to Muhammad but not believe him. Muhammad said that he was a prophet of Allah (the standard Arabic word for “God”) and that he had the answers people were looking for, but as Whitney studies the Qur’an she is not convinced that Muhammad was telling the truth. In fact, it seems as though Muhammad was very confused. So she listens to him, but then refuses to believe him.[xix] 

Most people who claim to be God or a prophet of God are the same as Muhammad. They fail to follow through in proving their claim. But this is where Jesus Christ was so different and unique. Not only did he claim to be God, having all the answers that people needed about the meaning of life, but he also verified and substantiated his claim.

 

 

Jesus proved that his claim was true

 

Get ready, here comes another Superman story. Suppose someone walks up to you on the street and says, “My name is Clark Kent and whenever the need arises, I can turn into Superman.” You would say, “Whatever!” Most folks are smart enough not to believe such an outrageous claim. But then suppose he rips off his coat and tie revealing his blue and red Superman suit, complete with majestic cape flapping heroically in the wind. He shouts, “Up! Up! And away!” Then with a bounce he flies up into the air and circles around the sky. When he lands you stare at him in amazement and say, “Wow! It is true, you really are Superman!”

It is one thing to claim to be Superman, but it’s another thing altogether to prove it. It is one thing for Jesus to say he was God, but it is another thing altogether for him to prove it. As unlikely as it might seem, that is exactly what He did.

We’ve already mentioned some of the miracles that Jesus worked in demonstrating that he was God – healing the blind man, turning water into wine, feeding 5,000, walking on the water, and calming the storm. After each of these miracles, people became convinced that Jesus was really what he claimed to be. “Many of the people believed in him. They said, ‘When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?’” (John 7:31). These people believed Jesus was the Messiah because Jesus proved it to them by performing miracles. These signs and wonders were pointers to the reality that God had become flesh and was dwelling among them (John 1:14).

Of course, many people say that miracles are impossible. Therefore, Jesus could not have worked miracles. The flaw with that reasoning is that it starts from a premise of unbelief. It assumes that there is no God first, then states that miracles are impossible. Well, in a universe where there is no god or supernatural being of any kind, one would expect there to be no miracles.

But the Christian can use the same approach. If there is a God, as we have good reason to believe there is, then miracles are not only possible, but to be expected. It is the blatant denial of God that leads people to deny the possibility of miracles. To take it one step further, if miraculous events do occur, then they offer an incredible amount of proof that there actually is a God.[xx]

It should also be noted that Jesus worked miracles mostly in front of many people, without the benefit of a stage, lights, and emotional music, as seen in the services of various self-proclaimed healers of our own day. Indeed, Jesus healed all types of diseases, many that were visible to the eye, so that the validity of the miracle could not be questioned.

 

On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered…And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. (Luke 6:6, 10)

 

Modern day “healers” who are interested in manipulating people for financial gain and in order to acquire personal prestige, do not do things like this! They prefer to “heal” people of invisible diseases like headaches or backaches or the like. But this man had a visibly deformed hand that was restored before the eyes of many witnesses, some of whom were the enemies of Jesus. Even these enemies did not deny that Jesus was actually performing miracles, since this was undeniable. Instead, they attributed his work to the power of demons (Matthew 9:34).

This fact lends a great deal of historical credibility to the reality that Jesus of Nazareth was known as a miracle worker. If a person’s enemies admit that the miraculous is happening, even if they do not believe it is coming by the power of God, then the chances are much greater that the Bible is recounting factual history, and not just the thoughts and theology of Jesus’ friends and followers.

 

 

The Proof of the Resurrection

 

But of all the miracles of Christ, one of them stands out above the rest – he returned from the dead. People don’t usually come back from the dead. If they did, we would all freak out. 

I (Jason) remember my brother renting the movie Return of the Living Dead when we were kids. I do not suggest you watch it, nor would I ever recommend it. It isn’t exactly edifying art. It portrays zombies who return to life because of exposure to a particular gas. The zombies are not happy at all, nor do they make the “living” people very happy. Flicks like this do not paint resurrection in a good light.

Interestingly, the Jews during Jesus’ day would have thought even less of the idea of resurrection. They considered dead bodies “unclean” (Numbers 9:7). The thought of a man back from the dead would not have been very appealing to them. Paul says that for this reason the resurrection is a “stumbling block to the Jews” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

In spite of this, Paul maintains that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was and is a reality. Of greater importance, the resurrection is the proof that Jesus is who he says he is. “[Jesus] was declared to be the Son of God…by his resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4). The fact that Jesus conquered death is the principal proof that he is the One who has the power over death. When the disciples saw that Jesus had returned from the dead, all of their doubts quickly disappeared. 

This is why John the Apostle referred to Jesus as the “Word” and wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). By rising from the dead, Jesus proved beyond all question himself to be the Son of the living God.

This point is so important that we have devoted the entire next chapter to examining the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There we hope to show just how incredible it is that Jesus rose from the dead and why it is reasonable to believe that he did.

 

 

Jesus is God

 

The amazing conclusion of Christ’s proofs for his divinity is the reality that he is actually God in the flesh. This is a worldview-altering fact. Since he is God, everything he said was true. He said the Bible was true and indeed it is.[xxi] He said salvation comes by grace alone through faith in him alone and indeed it does.[xxii] 

If he is God then our lives have meaning and purpose. We were created to bring honor and glory to God forever by seeing him as the eternal treasure that he is, and enjoying what we see (Psalm 16:11; John 17:13). Christianity is not about having a checklist of spiritual duties like Bible study, prayer, and church attendance, and going through the motions of those religious activities. Yes, those disciplines of grace are vital to Christian life and growth, but the heart of the Christian faith is a Person who is God in the flesh (John 1:14). 

He came down from Heaven to give us the answers that we so desperately need. He proved that he was indeed God and therefore has the right to speak with authority. When we worship, we do not worship an idea or a concept. We worship him, a real Person who supplies us with all we will ever need. 

Why are we Christians? Because Jesus, the most amazing man who ever lived, who claimed and demonstrated his divinity, instructed us to be Christians. And though we may not be able to have all the answers we want here and now, we trust him. He is a lot smarter than we are.

 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-30)

 

This article is chapter 4 from the book Contend: A Survey of Christian Apologetics on a High School Level.

 

As Christians, everything we believe hinges on Jesus and what he did. Even more specifically, it all hinges on one climactic event – his resurrection from the dead. If Jesus did not rise again, we should tear down all the churches in the world because Christianity is not true. We should go skiing on Sundays or perhaps fishing or maybe just sleep in. But whatever we do, if the resurrection did not actually happen, we should NOT waste time by going to church or pretending to worship.

It is his resurrection that is the primary proof that he is God and that everything he said was true. The Apostle Paul understood this when he wrote the following: “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty…And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” (1 Corinthians 15:14; 17).

The words “empty” and “futile” in these verses show us just how important the resurrection of Jesus really is. Without it, Christian preaching is empty and Christian faith is futile. They are like soap bubbles, soon to pop and disappear altogether. 

So there is a lot that depends on the resurrection. The entire Christian faith is on the line! To be a Christian means to believe what seems to be impossible: that Jesus actually died, was buried in a tomb, and after three days physically came back to life. In this chapter, we present several lines of evidence that demonstrate that the resurrection event actually happened.

 

 

Old Testament Predictions

 

The Old Testament predicted that Jesus Christ would come, that he would be a great teacher, that he would die, and that he would rise again. That’s a very big deal because the Old Testament is just that – old! It was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born and yet it predicts events in his life in precise detail.

For example, we read the words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1). These are the very words Jesus uttered as he was dying upon the cross.[i] When Jesus spoke these words, he was not merely speaking random thoughts, but rather showing the world that Psalm 22 is an incredible, direct prophecy of his crucifixion. A few verses later we read this:

 

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” (Psalm 22:6-8)

 

This is Jesus talking, even though these words were written approximately one thousand years before he was born! This is how he felt upon the cross as he was being ridiculed by the Jewish leaders, as detailed by the Gospel of Mark:

 

So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” (Mark 15:31-32)

 

The mockery and derision against Christ grows even more intense as the next section in the ancient Psalm reveals:

 

For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet – I can count all my bones – they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. (Psalm 22:16-18)

 

The “dogs” of this passage refer to the Roman soldiers who tortured and crucified Jesus. Jewish people often referred to Gentiles as dogs, which they viewed as unclean animals.[ii] Jesus felt these evildoers surrounding him and inflicting him with tremendous pain (Mark 15:15-20). These are things that Jesus could not have faked since it is impossible to plan one’s own crucifixion in such detail that the soldiers who carry out the execution gamble (“cast lots”) over your clothes (Luke 23:34)! 

The prophecies of Psalm 22:16 also indicate that when the Messiah was killed, it would be through a piercing of his “hands and feet.” Amazingly, King David made a prophecy about crucifixion, probably not even realizing what is involved in crucifixion. He predicted that the Messiah would be pierced, but surely David himself could not fully understand what that meant. Of course he did not have to fully understand it, since it was God who was superintending this entire process.

Psalm 22 also states that the Messiah would have no bones broken, another fact that the Gospel accounts confirm: “For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken’” (John 19:36).

 

 

Beyond the Grave

 

As you read deeper into Psalm 22, you see that death is not the end of the story for this anointed One.

 

But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen! I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. (Psalm 22:19-22)

 

These are not the words of a person who plans on staying in the grave. Notice the last statement, “In the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” That is future tense! “After I am tortured and ridiculed and crucified, I will praise you!” Jesus plans on more than just death. He plans on a future after death.

In Psalm 16, Christ’s resurrection is spoken of as well. In Peter’s famous Pentecost sermon in Acts, he quotes directly from this ancient Psalm of David:

 

For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence. (Acts 2:27-28)

 

Peter later spells it out for his listeners, interpreting David’s words as an incredible prophecy of the resurrection of Christ. “[David] foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption” (Acts 2:31).

Peter wanted to make it clear that this was no simple coincidence; that he was not just reading Christ’s resurrection into an Old Testament passage. David really was talking about Jesus rising from the dead, even though David lived around a thousand years before Jesus was born!

This point is made even clearer by the prophet who became a meal for a large marine creature. Jonah is more than a story about a guy who was swallowed and vomited by a big fish. Remember how long Jonah was in the fish’s belly? “And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17).

Okay, big deal. He was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. But look at what Jesus says about this.

 

An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:39-40)

 

Amazingly, the story of Jonah is a prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ! The Old Testament overflows with these types of prophecies. Check this one out:

 

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10)

 

It was the “will of the LORD,” that is, God the Father, to “crush” Jesus Christ the Son. This is the only way God could be just and justify sinners at the same time (Romans 3:26). The Father crushed the Son in order to redeem guilty sinners for his glory. 

But notice the rest of the verse: “He shall see his offspring.” What offspring? The offspring is referring to God’s children, adopted into his family and saved by his grace. If you are in Christ you are a child of God. He (Jesus) will see his offspring. But how will he see his offspring if he is dead? How will his days be prolonged if he is crushed by the Father? Of course the answer is resurrection. He will be crushed but he will live!

One more verse to prove the point that the Old Testament thoroughly predicted the resurrection of Jesus.

 

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10, italics ours)

 

This is actually a prediction of the second coming of Christ. When he comes, people will mourn because of their refusal to trust him. But notice that they will look on the one “whom they have pierced.” In other words, people will see the same Jesus who was crucified and killed. In order to see a person who was killed, that person has to rise again from the dead!

Jesus did not simply spring up from out of nowhere on the pages of history and say, “Hey everybody, I’m God.” Rather, he personally fulfilled hundreds of ancient prophecies written about him, including his resurrection from the dead. This substantiated his claim to be God.

In order for the resurrection to have been a hoax or a fake, Jesus would have had to plan some things that he had no control over – like his death by crucifixion and the actions of the Roman soldiers and the Jewish leaders. This is impossible unless God was controlling all of the events, and fulfilled prophecy is mighty powerful evidence that he was.

 

 

Eyewitness Testimony

 

I (Jason) once served an intriguing week of jury duty. I was elected as the jury foreman in the criminal trial of a man charged with multiple armed robberies. We listened carefully as the witnesses were brought into the courtroom one after the other. We were informed by the judge and attorneys that the witnesses were not allowed to speak with each other before they testified, assuring they could not share their stories.

One store owner angrily identified the defendant with a pointed finger, as the man who stole several hundred dollars from him. The security camera in his store provided an unclear, grainy picture of the gunman, but even though his face was obscured, the assailant in the photograph shared many similarities with the defendant sitting in the courtroom.

Next, the clerk of a check cashing business, wiping her tears as she spoke, recounted to the jury her story. She said that the defendant, whom she also pointed out in the courtroom, had held her at gunpoint and sprayed a mace-like substance in her face as he fled with the money.

Other witnesses were also questioned, confirming to one degree or the other that the defendant was guilty. When the trial was over and the jury gathered to make our decision, it did not take long for us to agree upon the verdict. Because of the testimony of several independent, eyewitnesses, this guilty man will be sitting in jail for a long time. Such is the power of eyewitness testimony.

If a number of independent sources inform us that they saw Jesus alive after his death, then this provides solid evidence that he rose from the dead. Paul wrote about this reality to people who were skeptical regarding the resurrection:

 

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. (1 Corinthians 15:3-5)

 

Paul states that Jesus “appeared” to Cephas (Peter) and also “to the twelve,” meaning the twelve disciples. In other words, they saw him, spoke with him, and ate with him after he had been put to death (John 21:1-14).  

But these men were not the only ones to see him. He also appeared to Mary Magdalene and other women who had come to the tomb on the first Easter morning (Luke 24:10). Here are at least fifteen people all making the same claim – that Jesus was alive. Imagine if Peter was the only person who claimed to have seen Jesus alive. We would then have reason to seriously doubt that Jesus actually rose from the dead.

If one person came and told you he saw a flying saucer land in his backyard, you probably would not believe him. In fact, you might think his chair had fallen clear off its rocker. You’d suspect he lives on the outskirts of left field. But if fifteen different people came, one after the other, and told you about the flying saucer, you would be more prone to take seriously what they were saying. The greater amount of independent eyewitness testimony, the more assurance we have to believe that something is true.

At least fifteen people all claimed that they saw him alive after he had died! But there is more. Paul recounts that Jesus “appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:6). What an incredible verse! When Paul wrote this he knew that many people would find it hard to believe that Jesus had actually come back from the dead. So he points out that not only fifteen or so people had seen Jesus, but on one occasion he appeared to over five hundred people, all at the same time! 

Paul challenges skeptics to ask those witnesses about the resurrected Christ. He says that many of them “are still alive” and this evidence can be verified by interviewing them. Of course, in the present day, all of those five hundred witnesses are now dead. We cannot question them like people could in Paul’s day. But here is the point: Paul would not have written those words in his day, challenging people to interview witnesses, unless he actually believed Jesus had risen from the dead. Put yourself in Paul’s shoes and think about it. He was laying the Christian faith on the line with this challenge. He was opening the door for skeptics to prove him wrong if they could. That says a lot! And he goes even further: “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Corinthians 15:7-8).

Paul points out that he too had seen Jesus Christ face-to-face after Jesus had been crucified. Remember, Paul was not always a Christian. In fact, the book of Acts tells us that Paul hated Christians and sought to kill them. He was on his way to a town called Damascus in order to throw some of the Christians there into prison when something astounding happened. Jesus Christ showed up!

 

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:3-5)

 

So Paul also saw the resurrected Savior. We cannot see Jesus today (yet), but hundreds of people saw him back then. All of these people claimed the same thing – Jesus is alive. They verified it personally. Did they all lie? Where they all deceived? We don’t think so. The number and diversity of independent eye-witnesses is overwhelming, especially considering that belief in the resurrection of Christ often led to severe persecution in their day. In that type of environment most people would not say they believed the resurrection, unless they actually did, since this belief often led to severe suffering or death.

 

 

The Actions of the Guards

 

Another line of evidence pointing to the actual resurrection of Jesus involves the Roman guards who sealed the tomb and were commanded to guard it. The seal involved a cord that would have been stretched across the outside of the tomb, and sealed with wax on both sides. The purpose of this sealing was to show that the tomb was under the official protection of the Roman government and to ward off vandals. The tomb was protected with maximum security. “Pilate said to them, ‘You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard” (Matthew 27:65-66).

It is very important to note that Matthew wrote his Gospel when there were people still alive who could have verified the setting of this guard and the Roman seal. When a Roman guard was given an assignment, these trained killers took their jobs seriously. If they failed in their tasks, they often were threatened with death! This becomes clear in the biblical text.

 

While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’  And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. (Matthew 28:11-15)

 

The Pharisees made a bargain with the soldiers after the body came up missing, offering to protect the soldiers from Pilate. All they had to do was lie and say they fell asleep while guarding the tomb. The Pharisees and the soldiers both knew that if Pilate found out that the body of Jesus was missing, the poor soldiers would probably be put to death.

The Pharisees were trying to minimize the damage done by the missing body of Jesus. But they could not cover up the story even though they bribed the Roman guards to lie. If the tomb were sealed and guarded by the Romans, then it is clear the disciples did not take the body of Jesus. They could not have breached this type of protection. Something else had to happen – something extraordinary.

 

 

Empty Tomb

 

Another line of evidence supporting the actual and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is the empty tomb. He was buried in a tomb, but after he was buried, that tomb was empty! 

But how do we know the tomb actually was empty? None of us were alive back then. None of us went to the tomb to check and see if it was really empty. Today we do not know exactly where the tomb of Jesus was located, so we still have no way to know that the tomb was really empty. Right? 

Not so fast. Actually, we can make some powerful, logical deductions showing that the tomb was actually empty. Think for a moment. What happened in Jerusalem fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead? It was the day of Pentecost. The Apostle Peter preached a powerful sermon then, the same one mentioned earlier in this chapter. Here is another part of it:

 

Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. (Acts 2:22-24)

 

What is it that Peter is preaching in front of thousands of people in Jerusalem on Pentecost? It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ! “God raised him up!” That is the central message of the sermon.

Now if I were in Jerusalem and heard Peter preach that message, but I was skeptical about the resurrection of Christ (after all, I have never seen anybody come back from the dead), what could I do to prove Peter wrong? How could I show the world that this crazy preacher was saying things that are impossible? 

Well, obviously, I would go to the tomb of Jesus and pull out the body and show it to everyone. Peter’s message would then be immediately dismissed. Remember, the tomb was located in Jerusalem, the very place where Peter was preaching this message. Plus, the tomb belonged to a well known Jewish leader, Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:57-58). In other words, the tomb was not obscure or hidden, but rather it belonged to a familiar man, and people would have been aware of its location. If Jesus’ body was in the tomb, then his body no doubt could have been produced. But his body was not produced. He was not in the tomb.

So here we have strong evidence that the tomb was indeed empty. The question still remains – how did it become empty? We know that the disciples could not have stolen the body, because the Roman guard was there and the tomb was sealed. We also know that the Jewish leaders would not have stolen the body. That would have worked against them. They were trying to get rid of Jesus, not promote a resurrection idea. If they had the body hidden (so that the disciples would not steal it perhaps), then they could have produced the body when Peter was preaching on Pentecost in order to squelch the growth of the early church. They did not do this, because they did not have the body.

So how did the tomb become empty? Are you starting to see how all the evidence points to the actual resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? When we take all the information together, the resurrection makes more sense than any other alternative. 

Now an unbeliever will probably not be convinced by all of this evidence. This is because he has already decided that people cannot come back from the dead under any circumstances. So even though all the evidence points to the resurrection of Christ he will still not believe it, because in his mind it is impossible.

But think about it. Sure, people do not normally come back from the dead. We can all agree on that. But if we have good reason to believe that there is a God and that he is the God of the Bible (and we do), then the idea of resurrection is not so hard to conceive. If God is the giver and taker of life, then he can give and take life as he pleases. If there is a God, then the possibility of resurrection is not only likely, but highly probable. And there is even more evidence pointing toward the actual resurrection of Jesus Christ. Keep reading.

 

 

Large Stone Moved

 

Historians and archeologists know quite a bit about Jewish burial practices in Jesus’ day. Tombs were commonplace and large stones were rolled in front of them. These stones were designed to move back and forth so that others could be buried in the tomb, usually other family members. But it was not easy to move these enormous and heavy stones. Some suggest that the stone covering Jesus’ tomb weighed one to two tons and would have required several men to move.

If this is true then it leads to several conclusions. First, the women who came to the tomb in order to anoint the body of Jesus could not have moved it by themselves. This was indeed a major concern for them, as Mark points out: “They were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?’” (Mark 16:3). Even if they could have moved the stone on their own, remember the Roman guard was stationed there to be sure there was no stealing of the body. 

As it turns out, they did not have a problem with the stone at all. The Bible makes it clear that when the women arrived at the tomb, the stone was already moved away and the Roman guard had already left the scene. The Roman soldiers would never have fled the scene like this without good reason. In fact, as we have already seen, their lives depended upon them succeeding in their tasks. Something big must have happened! The Gospel of Matthew tells us what this “something big” was.

 

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. (Matthew 28:2-4, italics ours)

 

The movement of this large stone also shows that Jesus’ disciples could not have taken the body. They might have been physically able to move the stone, but they could not have done it with the Roman guard there. Even if the guard had fallen asleep, the noise involved in moving the stone would have awakened them. Besides that, it is unlikely that all the guards would have fallen asleep since it was their job to be guarding the tomb! 

Our knowledge of this giant stone in the mouth of the tomb is another powerful line of evidence that shows the resurrection of Christ makes more sense of the data than any other scenario.

 

 

Women Saw Him First

 

Historians speak of the criteria of embarrassment which raises the credibility of historical documents. If a historical document includes embarrassing statements it is more likely to be true, since manufactured stories usually attempt to make the heroes look as good as possible. Scholars Gary Habermas and Mike Licona explain, “An indicator that an event or saying is authentic occurs when the source would not be expected to create the story, because it embarrasses his cause.”[iii]

As we read the Gospel accounts of the resurrection we find a major case of the criteria of embarrassment. In fact, considering that cultural context, it is startling to find that Jesus’ male disciples did not find the tomb empty first. Nor did they see Jesus alive first. The first people to have this honor were women (Luke 23:55).

Now there is nothing at all wrong with being a woman, but we have to put ourselves into their first-century sandals. According to Jewish principles of legal evidence, “women were lowly esteemed and their testimony was regarded as questionable, certainly not as credible as man’s.”[iv] In other words, in a court of law the words of a woman were considered unreliable and might even damage a case. So what?

If a deceitful person or group of people were making up the story of the resurrection, which many skeptics say this is exactly what the disciples did, then would they have included in their story women finding the empty tomb first? Of course not!

If a person is contriving a tall tale in order to create and promote a religion for personal gain, he would want to make the story seem as convincing as possible. He would not want the first witnesses to be people whose witness did not count! If the resurrection accounts were manufactured in order to convince others that Jesus had come back from the dead, women would never be included in the story as the first witnesses.

The fact that women found the empty tomb first does not prove the resurrection of Christ by itself, but it does lend a great deal of historical credibility to the Gospel accounts. And when you take this fact with all the other evidences we’ve seen so far, the resurrection makes a lot of sense. Here’s another fact to add to our list of reasons to believe Jesus actually came back from the dead.

 

 

Courage of the Disciples after They Saw Him

 

Scholars and historians inform us that after the life of Jesus, the church grew at an astounding rate. In fact, within four hundred years, Christianity was adopted as the official state religion of the Roman Empire. That was incredibly rapid growth in a hostile environment! This type of growth would be very surprising if there had been no resurrection. Jesus’ followers were unremitting preachers of his resurrection, and they paid a high price for their belief and public bravery. The Romans and Jews wanted them either silenced or dead.

After the crucifixion, the disciples were basically hiding out for fear of their lives. The cruel death of their Master had shaken them up pretty badly and understandably so. Jesus was their leader, the One they expected to deliver them from the Roman oppressors and restore Israel. Now he was dead! He was not the Messiah after all.

But several weeks later we see Peter and the other apostles no longer afraid. In fact, we see them laying their lives down in order to boldly preach that Jesus had risen from the dead. According to tradition, all of the disciples of Christ, with the exception of John, were martyred for their faith that Jesus had actually risen from the dead. In John’s case, he was exiled to the island of Patmos (Revelation 1:9) as punishment for his tenacious and faithful preaching. All of these men were willing to sacrifice everything, including their very lives, because they believed that Jesus had truly risen from the dead.

What happened to change the disciples from a frightened and confused group who were hiding out for fear of their lives, to being radical and bold preachers of the gospel? The answer is clear – they were convinced that Jesus had risen from the dead and that they had seen him personally! How do we know? It is a psychological reality that people will generally not die for what they know to be a lie. They will not give up everything in order to promote a message that they know is false. 

Let’s be careful here because, yes, some people will die for a lie so long as they believe it is true. For example, militant Muslims often become suicide bombers, because they actually believe Allah will reward them for their “bravery.” But if those same Muslims knew that Allah was a false god and that there was no reward for suicide bombing, then they would not go through with blowing themselves up. People do not die for what they know is a lie.

What is the point? If the disciples knew that the resurrection did not actually happen, then they would not have been willing to die for it. But they were willing to die for it. All of them were willing to die for it (not just one or two crazy lunatics). This tells us at the very least, that the disciples actually believed Jesus rose from the dead or they would not have preached so boldly in such a hostile environment. This evidence, taken in conjunction with everything else we have seen, points clearly to the reality of the resurrection.

 

 

No Contradictions in the Resurrection Accounts

 

Some people who deny that Jesus rose from the dead say that we cannot trust the Bible because it is filled with contradictions. The accounts in the four biblical Gospels about Jesus coming back to life are often attacked as being inconsistent with each other. If the four Gospels are all telling different stories, should we trust them?

However, a close look at these four accounts of the resurrection of Christ, comparing them with each other, will show them to all be entirely consistent. There are no contradictions between what Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John says about the resurrection.

Sure they read a little bit differently. But any time you have multiple authors, they are going to write in different styles, and focus on different points. That is not a problem at all. In fact, this proves that the Gospel writers were not teaming up to manufacture a false religion. The relevant question is, do the contents of the resurrection accounts mesh with each other or do they contradict each other? A fair reading of the texts shows that they mesh perfectly.

For example, the objection is often raised that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all disagree on the number and identification of the women who found the tomb empty. Here are the texts in question.

 

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. (Matthew 28:1)

 

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. (Mark 16:1)

 

Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. (Luke 24:10)

 

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. (John 20:1)

 

Outspoken atheist, Michael Martin, says that these accounts are hopelessly irreconcilable.[v] That means no matter how hard you try, you cannot make them fit together. He says they contradict and there is no way to make them mesh.

If Martin is right, then clearly we cannot trust the Bible. If it contradicts itself at any point then there is error in it. If there is error in it, then we cannot truly trust any part of it. But is he right? Are these four passages contradictory? Is Martin giving the text a fair reading?

Notice first of all that Mary Magdalene is mentioned in all four of the accounts. In fact, it seems clear that she is the main character in all the resurrection narratives, other than Jesus of course. John only mentions her and none of the other women that Matthew, Mark, and Luke mention. Does that mean that John contradicts Matthew, Mark, and Luke?

Of course not! Just because he does not include the other women in his version of the story does not mean they were not there. John has a special interest in focusing on Mary Magdalene and so he only mentions her. This is not lying, but rather an example of selective history. A story will show how selective history works.

 

 

The Sunday School Party

 

Becca went to a Sunday School party last night. There were thirty people at the party. While there Becca spent some time talking to Nick and Gerard. They had a long and enjoyable conversation about their ministry project coming up at Children’s Hospital. Becca soon walked over to Sarah, who seemed to be crying.

“What’s wrong?” Becca asked. Sarah told her that her dad had been diagnosed with cancer and her family was really struggling right now. So Becca spent the rest of the time at the party right beside Sarah, being a friend in a time of need.

After the party Becca went home. Her mom asked her, “How was the party?” Becca told her it went well. Her mom then asked, “What did you do?” Becca recounted to her mom the conversation with Sarah about her dad’s illness and then the conversation ended.

But wait a minute, what about Nick and Gerard? Was Becca lying or being deceitful when she told her mom she talked to Sarah? After all, she talked to more people than just Sarah. Of course she wasn’t lying or being deceitful. She was giving her mom a selective history. She was not giving all the details of the party, but just the ones she thought were important and relevant.

It is the same in the Gospel accounts of the resurrection. John only mentions the presence of Mary Magdalene, but that does not mean the other women mentioned by the other Gospel writers were not there! John does not see the need to list them out in his account. There is no contradiction here at all. There is just a difference in emphasis among the Gospel writers. As you read the Gospel accounts you will see this type of selective history all the way through, just as you will when you read two different news articles of the same event. So the objection that the resurrection could not have happened since the Gospels contradict is faulty and should be abandoned.

 

 

Jesus Is Alive

 

As we study all of these evidences for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and take them all together as a group, it becomes amazingly clear that Jesus actually came back from the dead. All the other theories that people have considered look silly in the face of the evidence.

For example, some have suggested that the women went to the wrong tomb. They say it was still dark and the women were very emotional, so they simply went to the wrong place. They saw an empty tomb, but it was not the tomb Jesus had been buried in. They only thought Jesus had risen, so they went and told the disciples that he was alive. The disciples then began to preach that Jesus was resurrected, merely taking the word of the disoriented women. 

But we know this could not have happened! John informs us that Peter and he checked out the tomb very carefully (John 20:3-9) and verified that it was empty. Plus the tomb was identified clearly as the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a well-known person during that time. The women were not going to some random tomb, but to a specific tomb. 

In addition to this, if the women went to the wrong tomb, then the body of Jesus was still in the actual one. So when the disciples were preaching the resurrection, the Jewish leaders could have produced the body from the “real” tomb to disprove the disciples. But we know they did not do that.

Some who deny the resurrection suspect that the disciples had mass hallucinations. They so much wanted to believe that Jesus was alive that they worked themselves up into a high-pitched hysteria. In this atmosphere of hysteria, they “saw” Jesus in their midst. The skeptics say this explains why the disciples would be willing to die for their faith that Jesus came back from the dead. They believed they saw him, when in fact they did not.

This kind of theory is ridiculous in the face of the evidence.  The Bible tells us that Jesus appeared to different people in different places. It does not say there was just one appearance, but we read this in the book of Acts: “To them he presented himself alive after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).

Luke (who wrote Acts) makes it clear that Jesus gave “many proofs” that he was alive. Plus, if the disciples simply had mass hallucinations, then (again) when Peter was preaching on Pentecost the body of Jesus could have been produced to disprove his claim that Jesus came back from the dead. These facts deny the possibility of the mass hallucination theory.

 

 

The Best Explanation of the Facts

 

Given these clear historical evidences and the trustworthy nature of the Bible, it is totally reasonable to believe that Jesus actually rose from the dead. Perhaps even more reasonable than the belief that LeBron James can do a three-sixty!  In fact, it is by far the best explanation of the facts.

Though it seems strange to us that a resurrection might have actually happened (since we do not normally see people come out of their graves), the resurrection of Jesus nonetheless makes more sense of the data than any alternative explanation.

Of course, if Jesus did rise from the dead, then everything he said was true! His resurrection authenticates his words. The Bible is true, God exists, Heaven is real, Hell is real, and salvation is possible through Christ. If you have never come to this risen Savior to experience his life-giving grace, we encourage you to set aside your pride and rebellion and bow your knee to the living King.

 

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Revelation 22:17)

 

If someone asks me why I am a Christian, the first answer I am obligated to give is a personal answer.

Before I can give more brainy answers like the Cosmological argument for the existence of God or detailed arguments on why I trust the Bible or why Naturalism is bankrupt, I first have to show that all of this is very, very personal.

What was it that first made me even consider God at all? What was it that drove me initially to Him?

The answer to these questions is indeed personal. God has made a promise to me as an individual. He has promised to meet my greatest need. My greatest need (and yours too), is to be forgiven for sin and to be reconciled to God. Therefore through His enablement I ran to Him and threw myself at His feet pleading for His sweet mercy. This is the primary reason I am a Christian. He has turned my “mourning into dancing.”

Psalm 30:8-12 To you, O LORD, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!” You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever! (ESV)

See, even as a child I knew that I was bad. I could sense my heart leaning toward the dark side. I felt much like Anakin Skywalker, who desperately struggled with his true nature. Was Anakin good or bad? Most of us know the story. He started out as good, or at least as a “good guy.” But eventually the man that was Anakin Skywalker became the dreaded killer Darth Vader, mostly machine and seared conscience. The pull towards evil was much too powerful for Skywalker to resist.

I felt those same evil urges in my own life, but this was no movie – it was real. What is worse, I liked it. To me it was more fun lying, cussing, stealing, cheating and thinking dirty thoughts than it was to be good and obedient.

As a pre-teen my “friends” and I were already smoking cigarettes. But that is not all. We obtained our cigarettes by going on a “run.” We would say, “Well, we’re out of cigarettes, it’s time to take a run.” The run was actually a ride – on our bicycles down to Jitney Jungle, our local supermarket.

We would walk smoothly through the electric sliding doors (the ones we used to open and close over and over again while waiting on our parents to bag the groceries). Then we would calmly walk past the cigarettes, which at that time were not yet out of reach behind the counter, as they are in most stores today. Instead, they were right in the open were anybody could grab them.

I reached my hand out and took two or three packs or Marlboro Lights, usually three. My friends did the same. Then we would walk down an obscure and abandoned aisle and, while walking, we would stuff the cigarettes down our pants – not our best moments. Then we would walk out of the store as quickly as we came in. We never got caught. But God had caught my heart.

Oh, I knew I was bad. And it wasn’t just the normal kind of badness that could be justified with words like, “Everybody does it.” No, I sensed a deep badness that went all the way down to my soul. I knew I was bad and I knew that I was in trouble with God. Perhaps you know exactly what I’m talking about.

There were times (and still are) when the sense of guilt was intense and sometimes overwhelming. I remember when my parents caught me sneaking out of our apartment in the middle of the night. I felt so awful. I really had let them down and they let me know about it as only parents can do. Something was terribly wrong in my heart and soul and I knew it and even as a young teenager I desperately wanted that problem repaired. I could not stand living with it.

Plus, I knew that it wasn’t just the Bible that called me bad. I really did not care at all about church or the Bible or anything related to those things. So it wasn’t like I was conditioned to think I was bad, but I knew that I was really and actually bad. And that scared me.

God Sent Me a Note

God is a God of grace and mercy beyond our wildest imaginations. And He works in ways that blow our minds. As I struggled through my own badness and how I planned to deal with it, God put a little letter in my pathway. God sent me a note.

The note was a tract, which is a small booklet that has the message of Jesus Christ printed on it. I was only eleven or twelve years old when I stumbled across the note on the side of the road. Ironically, I found the tract on the same street I walked down on the night I was caught sneaking out of our apartment. God does work in mysterious ways.

I read the tract while standing there on the curb. I always had believed in the existence of God, but this was new information I was reading. I was being exposed to truth I had not encountered before, or at least had never cared to listen to before. I was deeply interested in and intrigued by what this little note from God said.

If you are familiar with the gospel or with gospel tracts at least, you might be able to guess the first thing I read. It said that all people are “sinners and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Wow! This little booklet identified my heart! The Bible confirmed the truth that I already knew – I am bad and badly in need of some help and so is everyone else.

People are special creations of God, formed in His image, and yet there is a profound problem with us. There was a Fall in our race (go back and read Genesis 3 again). There is a devastating brokenness that infiltrates every area of our being.

This sin, deeply imbedded within us, reveals its grotesque face clearly as we abandon God and turn to worship idols. We worship primarily the idols of me-and-my-stuff. Rather than loving and obeying and rejoicing in God, we attempt to please our own hearts by spending the majority of our days focused on ourselves and the stuff we can get our hands on. We are self-centered, self-worshipping materialists (look that word up).

I kept reading the tract. I saw that a great Day of Judgment was coming; a Day on which God would take His seat upon His throne and books would be opened. The Lamb’s Book of Life would be among them. The little note from God made it clear to me that anyone who did not have their name recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life would be cast into a lake of fire and be forever punished for their sin.

Revelation 20:12; 15 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done…And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (ESV)

My heart was gripped and it was melting. I did not desire to face this holy Judge in my condition and I was afraid. Perhaps you are reading these words right now and you understand the fear I felt, because you are feeling it too. If this is you, my prayer is that reading the next section will move you from fear to joy.

Christianity Provides a Definitive and Permanent Answer

As I continued to read the note from God I begin to sense the wonder of the gospel message. Jesus Christ had come to earth, not as a mere ethical teacher to show us how to be good, but rather to pay a high and permanent price to redeem us from our “badness.”

It was becoming clear to me – Jesus had come to repair my heart problem! He could take my evil and wicked heart and trade it out for a heart of love, peace, and joy. He could take my empty and bankrupt moral account and replace it with His own righteousness.

I could not rid myself of the guilt and sin that was implanted within me, but His atoning life, death, and resurrection was sufficient to get the job done!

Christ provided for me a personal answer to my biggest problem! This is what is so enticing to me about Jesus Christ. He is a glorious, ever-existing, all powerful being who concerned Himself with my problem and provided a permanent solution.

Even if there were no other defenses of the Christian faith, I would still be convinced that Jesus is Savior because I can sing with personal confidence that “I once was lost, but now I’m found.” I also can sing, “I need no other argument; I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me!”

Even further (as if this could get any better), I cannot be re-lost again! The Bible makes it clear that Christ holds me in His hand. I do not hold myself in His hand, rather He holds me.

John 10:28-29 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (ESV)

This is really good news! It means my cleansing and salvation is definitive. It is a life-change from now throughout eternity. In other words, my badness can longer be grounds for my punishment in Hell because I am securely hidden in Christ. He is my newfound goodness and righteousness.

Other Worldviews and Religions Are Insufficient Answers

After my conversion to Christ I began to notice over a period of years that other religions could not have done for me what Christ did. If I had remained in the more-or-less agnostic state I was in, I would have continued to suffer under my own shame and guilt. I don’t know how long I could have held out that way. Suicide would probably have been a serious option for me.

But suppose I had attempted to find peace with God through some other religious framework. Think about what would have happened in the following scenarios.

If I had joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I would have been taught that salvation was not an act of pure grace, but also involved my own righteous works. I would have been extremely frustrated trying to please God by my own works in order to earn salvation. After all, I am bad to the core of my being. How terribly irritating it would have been for me trying to produce righteous fruits from a dead and unholy heart!

If I had joined the Mormon Church I would have been required to keep Mormon Law faithfully. If I had joined Islam I would have been required to keep Islamic Law faithfully. These two options would have been similar to the Jehovah’s Witnesses option. Frustration, frustration, frustration!

If I had fled to eastern religions, such as Hinduism or Buddhism, I would have been told that, contrary to what I feel, I am not actually bad. In fact, all of reality is an illusion. This is why the little fellow on The Matrix is able to bend the spoon, because after all, the spoon is not really there at all. You just think it is.

My guru would have taught me that I need to work diligently to escape the brutal cycles of reincarnation that I am entrapped in, than the illusion that I am bad would go away forever.

I think this type of belief system would have driven me insane! In spite of the denial of evil in my heart, I would sill have felt the evil there. A person can deny they have cancer, but if they really have it, the denial is ridiculous. Eastern religions do not fix the problem that resides in every human heart. They just simply deny that a problem exists.

Only biblical Christianity dealt with my problem! Christianity alone provides a solution to man’s deepest need and solves our biggest problem. Christ alone can reconcile God to man.

Romans 5:11 We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (ESV)

Apologetics is a very personal enterprise. I am a Christian first and foremost because Jesus saved me. My personal testimony of experiencing grace is what motivates me to share Christ with others and tear down every lofty argument that is lifted up against the truth. I have experienced God personally and know His grace directly. I am convinced that there is a God, and that Jesus is the Son of God, and that Christianity is true because of His act of grace upon my soul. Nothing could convince me otherwise. He made me His and I can be no other than what I am.

But there is a difference between my knowing that Christianity is true and my showing others that Christianity is true. If I am speaking with an unbeliever and tell her about my experience with God, she might say, “Great! But I have had no such experience with God. Therefore, I do not believe.”

I need to be able to show her other arguments that support my faith. The cool thing about Christianity is that it is totally true, and therefore everything backs it up. From the stars above to the moral code written on the heart of ever human, everything points to the authenticity of the Christian faith as detailed in the Bible. This is where the other arguments of apologetics comes into play and of course this post is way too long to do that now.