The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest day in history and the foundation of the Christian faith. On the early morning of the first Easter 2,000 years ago, Christians believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.Without the resurrection, there is no gospel message, there is no forgiveness of sins, and there is no salvation. 1 Corinthians 15:17 states, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” The apostle Paul understood the significance and centrality of the resurrection. He openly proclaimed the emptiness and futility of the Christian faith without a living savior. With the resurrection being vitally important and with Easter being just a few days away, I believe it would be beneficial to discuss the truth of the resurrection. So, is there evidence for the resurrection? Though some may claim that this event never happened, I would like to offer a cumulative case resurrection of Christ. I believe the claim that Jesus rose from the dead is the best explanation of the evidence that will be presented via the TRUTH acronym.
T- Tomb of Jesus
The tomb of Jesus was found open and empty on the Sunday morning after His crucifixion. For Jesus to rise from the dead, it necessitates that He died and is no longer dead. Thus, it is imperative that the tomb where Jesus was laid would be empty following His resurrection. When considering the consensus from the majority of historical and New Testament scholars, we can safely conclude that the tomb of Jesus was found empty by some of His women followers on the Sunday morning after His death by crucifixion by the Romans. Additionally, when we consider the oppositional groups of Jesus and His followers, we find that the Jews, the Romans, and the followers of Christ all recognized the reality of the open and empty tomb. In fact, the Jewish religious leaders claimed that the disciples stole the body from the tomb (Matthew 28:12-13; Justin Martyr, Trypho 108; Tertullian, De Spectaculis 30). This is known by historical scholars as enemy attestation and is good evidence for the empty tomb. On the other hand, it would have been senseless to argue for the emptiness of Christ’s tomb. If the claim of the open and empty tomb was false, it would have been incredibly easy to dismiss and invalidate. All a contemporary skeptic would have had to do was go to the tomb and see for themselves, but there is no indication or record of anyone refuting or denying the fact that the tomb was open and empty. Though this does not prove the resurrection, the tomb of Jesus offers us reason to question what happened to Jesus after He was placed in the tomb.
R- Records of History
The records of history offer four historical facts about the person of Jesus that frame the argument for the resurrection that even hostile non-Christian sources would affirm. 1) Jesus of Nazareth was sentenced to death and crucified by the Romans. 2) Jesus was buried in the tomb by Joseph of Arimathea. 3) Jesus of Nazareth’s tomb was found open and empty on the first day of the week. 4) Many followers of Jesus believed to have witnessed numerous postmortem appearances of Jesus after his crucifixion and began to proclaim that He rose bodily from the dead. Some of the historical non-biblical accounts include: Thallus (52 AD), Tacitus (56-120AD), and Josephus (37-101AD). Though this is by no means a comprehensive list, it is a helpful start when considering the historical evidence. It is also worthy to note that the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as well as the epistles of the apostle Paul should all be considered when collecting the historical data. It is biased to only consider opposing argumentation when evaluating the historicity of a claim. One must be willing to consider all available evidence, including the numerous accounts shared in the New Testament. Therefore, one must grant the fact that Jesus of Nazareth lived, died by crucifixion, was no longer in His tomb a few days later, and many individuals believed to have seen Him after death.
U- Unlikely Surge of the Church
The unlikely surge of the church presents a difficult reality for the skeptic. Jesus had a number of followers when he was alive due to his influential teachings. However, the Jewish religious leaders sought to kill Jesus in hopes that His death would be the end of His movement. Instead, the movement surprisingly grew exponentially after the crucifixion. Something significant must have happened to Christ’s followers after the crucifixion. They went from being a group of fearful followers to bold proclaimers of the resurrection. This was also very un-Jewish for the disciples to have come to believe that Jesus physically rose from the dead. There was no Jewish expectation for a physical resurrection before the end of the age. Jesus’ death should have been a deathblow to Christianity. However, the Christian movement became the primary faith system of the Roman Empire by 323 AD and later the largest faith group in all of history. Therefore, the unlikely surge of the church makes the resurrection of Jesus highly likely and the best explanation for the events proceeding Christ’s death.
T- Testimony of the Eyewitnesses
The testimony of the eyewitnesses offers more weight to the truth of the historical claim that Jesus rose from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:3-11 offers an early first century creed affirming that there were over 500 eyewitnesses that claimed to witness postmortem appearances of Jesus. By today’s standards, it would be virtually impossible to refute 500 people testifying of the same event. One would have to either claim that they were all lying or delusional. Although, both seem very implausible. However, one of the most convincing eyewitness testimonies comes from Saul of Tarsus, also known as the apostle Paul. Saul was a well-known Christian skeptic and persecutor of the church that converted to Christianity after his personal encounter with the resurrected Christ (Acts 9:1-19). After that encounter, Saul committed his entire life to sharing the message of the resurrection. Saul had nothing to gain and everything to lose by giving up his social power, status, and influence to become an evangelist for the Christian faith. Thus, the testimony of eyewitnesses is a persuasive argument for the truth of the resurrection.
H- Honesty of the Apostles
The honesty of the apostles is one of the most convincing arguments for the truth of the resurrection. Typically, when one lies they do so to gain fame, money, or power. However, when we consider the claims of the apostles, there does not seem to be any indication that they were being deceitful or motivated by selfish-ambition. When the apostles preached Christ and His resurrection, they did not promote themselves, rather they expressed their own shortcomings and sinfulness with embarrassing detail. They praised and preached Christ, not themselves. Additionally, they willingly embraced being mocked, beaten, imprisoned, and even killed for their faith. Peter, Paul, James (the brother of Jesus), and James (the son of Zebedee) were all martyred for their faith and many others may have been as well. Despite all the persecution, there is no record of any of them renouncing their belief that they witnessed the resurrected Christ. The apostles would not have willingly suffered and died for something they knew to be lie, the only rational explanation is that they truly believed that Christ had been raised from the dead.
Do you find the TRUTH defense to be a compelling argument for the resurrection of Christ? Why or why not?
As for me, I believe that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!
Really great word.