Name me three great men that lived and walked on this earth who said they would die and then come back to life and it can be shown to have done so. I’ll give you one name..Jesus Christ. Is there another?
How about Buddha, Mohammed, Zoroaster and Confucius, did they return from the grave? How about great men with great followings such as Caesar and Marx, have they made it back from the other side of life? One must consider classical Greek philosopher Plato, together with his teacher Socrates and his great student Aristotle, maybe they can be added to this short list.
As it turns out, no other leader great or small can make this claim. No one other than Jesus Christ. It is this bodily resurrection that remains Christianity’s crowning proof of its doctrines and faith. Everything else that was said to be done by Christ no matter how great and marvelous, falls in line behind the resurrection. If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.
Death is man’s greatest enemy and it has conquered all the great men listed above. No matter how brilliant, rich and strong one may be, no one is so wise that they can escape the power of death. The grave will always win as the once great leader returns to nothing but dust in the end. Then we have Christ who died and now lives.
If all of this is somehow a delusion and Jesus of Nazareth did not really raise from the dead, then He is no different from other great men who also have died. He is worse than these other great men, in fact He should be branded a charlatan since He staked all His claims to absolute deity on His promised return from the dead. This would place all other great men above Christ, for they never made such bold promises to return as He did.
On the other hand, if the resurrection is really a demonstrable fact of history, then His claims are indeed vindicated and we must place trust in His other promises. If this can be shown, then death is not the great victor, but rather Christ stands alone as that great one.
Evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection.
Several books have been written on this topic. The evidence for the resurrection as a historical event is so strong that even Dr. Antony Flew, until recently a noted proponent of atheism, had to admit, “The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity, I think, from the evidence offered for the occurrence of most other supposedly miraculous events.” (From: "My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism: An Exclusive Interview with Former British Atheist Professor Antony Flew." Available from the Web site of Biola University at www.biola.edu/antonyflew/.)
Located on probe.org one will find a list of evidence that attests to Jesus resurrection. They call this list the ten “A”s. Please find them below.
1. Accurate predictions. Both the Old and New Testaments contain predictions of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Numerous times in the Gospels, Jesus told his disciples and the Jewish authorities that He would raise to life after three days in the earth. In John 2, at the very beginning of His ministry, Jesus told this to the Jewish leaders. It made such an impression on the disciples, that verse 22 tells us, “So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.”
2. Attesting miracles. Jesus’ resurrection was not a sudden miraculous cap to an otherwise unremarkable life. Jesus had consistently demonstrated His authority over the material universe from turning water into wine, to walking on the water, to healing the sick, to raising Lazarus from the dead. His resurrection is consistent with the power He demonstrated during His earthly ministry.
3. Agonizing death. Jesus had numerous opportunities to avoid a fatal confrontation with the Jewish leaders and Roman authorities. No one is going to go through a Roman scourging and crucifixion as a hoax. Jesus submitted to the cross because it was necessary to pay for our sins and He knew that He had the authority to conquer death.
4. Angry authorities. After word of Jesus’ resurrection began to spread, the Jewish authorities wanted to put a stop to people believing in Him. Producing the body of Jesus would have been the best way to do this. Even with support from the Roman authorities, they were never able to produce a body.
5. Absent body. The chief priests set a guard around Jesus’ tomb to make sure the body was not stolen by his disciples. Those guards knew their lives could be at stake if they failed in their duty, but on the third day Jesus was gone. Once they regained their senses, the guards “reported to the chief priests all that had happened.” Why did they take this risk? Because they knew that there was no body to recover. No one has ever found any credible evidence that the body of Jesus was anywhere to be found on this earth.
6. Amazed disciples. After Jesus’ arrest, most of His disciples fled. It is clear from their reaction that they despised the cross and were not anticipating the resurrection. Two of his disciples did not recognize the risen Jesus even as He was teaching them the Scriptures related to Himself. Their skepticism and shock showed that they clearly were not part of some preplanned hoax.
7. Agreeing eyewitnesses. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to over five hundred people. They testified to His resurrection. We do not have a record of anyone disputing their testimony, saying “I was there with them and it was a hoax.”
8. Apostolic martyrs. People don’t die for something they know to be a hoax. Yet, many of these eyewitnesses accepted death rather than deny the resurrection of Jesus.
9. Agnostic historians. Contemporary, non-Christian historians reported that Jesus was reputed to have risen from the dead and that his followers were willing to die rather than recant their belief in Jesus.
10. Attesting Spirit. Over the centuries, the Holy Spirit continues to convict unbelievers and assure believers that Jesus is the risen Son of God.
One must then set the claim of others against this truth. In other words, the world has many religions and with those religions are leaders claiming the truth and wisdom belongs to them. “But which one religion is the truth?” is always asked by the skeptic. Is the Christian Bible really God’s revelation or should we follow the words of Plato? Every religion has their holy books and doctrines based on its leaders teachings. What does the resurrection do to all other claims?
Jesus’ resurrection confirms that Jesus is the source of truth. It forces all other faiths to be placed in subjection to the one that has proven He is God. It shows all other leaders as mere man and lifts up Christ as the one and only truth.
No wonder then, in view of the combined evidence of the empty tomb, the numerous appearances, the change in the disciples, and the authenticity of the records from sources outside of the faith, not to mention the testimony of two thousand years of Christian history, that such a man as Thomas Arnold, formerly Professor of History at Rugby and Oxford, one of the world’s great historians, could say:
“I know of no one fact in history of mankind which is proved by better, fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of fair enquirer, than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died, and rose again from the dead.” (Sermons on Christian Life; It’s Hopes, It’s Fears and It’s Close” Page 324)
In like manner, Simon Greenleaf, one of the most skilled legal minds ever produced in this nation, top authority on the matter of what constitutes sound evidence, founder of Harvard Law School, after a thorough evaluation of the four Gospels accounts from the point of view of their validity as objective testimonial evidence, conclude:
“It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact." (The testimony of the evangelist. Page 28)
Jesus stated, " .. I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:" (John 11:25). He also said, " Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6). Eternal life is found through Jesus Christ alone. Any religious belief that contradicts this must be false. Every religious leader has been buried in a grave. Their tombs have become places of worship. The location of Jesus' tomb is unknown because it was empty; his body is not there. There was no need to enshrine an empty tomb.
Physical death is not the end of man’s soul. Life with Christ awaits His true followers that call Him Lord and have placed all their hope in him as their Savoir from sins and death, for only He has shown he has the power to conquered death.