RESURRECTION
THE FOLLOWING IS A COLLECTION OF VERY STONG REASONS TO BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION. THE REASONS WERE COMPILED FROM SOME OF THE GREATEST WRITERS ON CHRISTIAN EVIDENCE.
WHY I KNOW THE RESURRECTION HAPPENED
Compiled from books/material by Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, George Dehoff, Norman Geisler, Charles Spivak, Henry Morris and John Clayton. The most important source is the Bible. The material was duplicated by these writers and by me just as it has been done through the centuries.
1) Thousands of Jews and Pharisees abandoned their faith and converted to Christianity during the first century AD. They gave up the social and religious institutions they had been involved in since they were children, to follow Christ. For example they gave up Saturday as a day of work and made Sunday a day of worship. How do you explain this if the resurrection did not occur?
2) Eleven of twelve apostles were martyred because of their belief in Christ. For example Paul was beheaded and James was stoned. Don’t you think one of the 12 would have cracked under the pressure of decades of persecution if this were a made up story. Who is willing to die for a lie if they are in a position to know the truth about what they are willing to die for. Dean and the Watergate guys could not wait to cut a deal to save their hide and they were not facing death.
3) The eyewitnesses of Christ had nothing to gain unless he had really been raised from the dead. History records the persecution that the first century Christians had to endure. Who would endure this for a lie?
4) We know where the bones of Abraham and Mohammad are but the man who had the greatest influence on history of the world does not have a grave that contains his bones.
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5)The New Testament Story is not a legend because it was written during the first century by people who were an eyewitness.
6) Phlegon was an ancient Roman writer who said, “ Jesus arose from the dead, exhibited the marks of his punishment, and showed how his hands had been pierced by nails.”
7) Roman guards ( 16 men with five weapons each ) were responsible for guarding the tomb of Jesus to make sure that the tomb would remain sealed, but they were not successful. The rock in front of the tomb weighed from 3,000 to 4,000 pounds. The Roman seal was placed on the tombstone and the guards would be put to death if they fell asleep or left their post..
8) There are too many eyewitnesses and too many miracles to believe that all of these people got it wrong .
9) Christianity began in the very city where Jesus was put to death. Yet after his death it grew exponentially. No one wants to follow a dead man.
10) The Messianic prophecies written hundreds of years before Christ were on target. He was: from the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Judah, Son of David, born in Bethlehem, dies on a cross, no bones broken and ect. There were over 300 of these prophecies.
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11) Jesus, the greatest moral teacher who ever lived, claimed to be God and he was willing to die a horrible death for the sins of the world. Great moral teachers do not die for a lie!
12) Many ancient non- Christian writers wrote about Jesus: Josephus ( a Jewish writer wondered if it were permissible to call him a man), Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Seutonius and others. No doubt he was a living breathing historical person.
13) While Jesus hung on the cross there was darkness from the 6th to the 9th hour and the earth did quake as predicted in the Old Testament and confirmed by secular and Christian writers. Secular writes tried to explain away the darkness as an eclipse of the sun but an eclipse does not last for three hours.
14) Though widely reported by many first century writers both Christian, and skeptic that Jesus performed miracles none of the first century writers questioned whether they were performed or not. Don’t you think there would have been at least one first century historical skeptic who would have questioned the resurrection if it were not so.
15) I still think one of the most profound problems for skeptics is to explain the actions Saul (Paul). This guy had it all. A respected Jew who won acclaim persecuting Christians, a Pharisee, the best student of the famed Rabbi Gamaliel and also a Roman citizen. He is on the road to Damascus on a mission to persecute Christians when "something" happened that completely changed the course of his life. He gave up a "gifted" life for one that made him reviled, often imprisoned, frequently stoned and beaten and finally beheaded by Nero. What were his motives for this radical life change? What in earthly terms did he gain by this life course change? None. Only an encounter with the resurrected Christ makes logical sense. Quote from Dr Charles Spivack from Birmingham, Alabama
16) The Dead Sea Scrolls confirm what was written in our Bible during the first century is what has been translated in our Bibles today.
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17) Some of the greatest legal minds have tried to refute the resurrection and failed. Thomas Arnold historian with Oxford University said, “ No fact in history has greater and fuller evidence of every sort - than the fact that Jesus died and rose again from the dead.” Dr Simon Greenleaf Law Professor Harvard was challenged by his students to refute the resurrection. He couldn’t and became a zealous Christian.
18) The consistency of the apostles testimony never failed despite life long persecution and martyrdom however the theories used to deny the resurrection all fail under close scrutiny.
19) There has never been any evidence in archeology that has refuted anything found in the Bible. All historical evidence concerning the Bible is in favor of the Bible.
20) Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40, and Jesus for only 3. Yet the influence of Christ's 3-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching from these men who were among the greatest philosophers of all antiquity. –Unknown
21) Jesus Christ is the most dominate figure in all of history.-- HG Wells
22) Further, the Roman historian Tacitus, writing in the late first century, records, “Consequently, to get rid of the report (that Christ was risen), Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite punishments on a class hated for their disgraceful acts, called Christians by the populace. Christ, 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.” Therefore, the testimony many decades later is that Christ did indeed die from this “extreme penalty.” Any believable report to the contrary would surely have surfaced by the time of Tacitus’s writings, but there was none. From Answers In Genesis.
23) Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works—a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day. Incidentally, we can consider Josephus a “hostile witness” since he was not a Christian. AIG
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24) Paul stated that Jesus appeared to James (1 Corinthians 15:7). While there are a handful of men named James in the New Testament, Paul likely was referring to the half-brother of Jesus, the biological son of Mary and Joseph. The Gospels indicate that Jesus had several brothers, including “James, Joses, Simon, and Judas” (Matthew 13:55), and that they “did not believe in Him” during His ministry (John 7:5). James later became a leader of the church at Jerusalem and at the so-called Jerusalem council (Acts 12:17, 15:13). According to tradition, he was martyred for his faith in Christ by being thrown off the temple and then beaten to death. What could so drastically change the life of an unbelieving person who actually grew up with Jesus? The only legitimate explanation is that he knew his brother had died, but then he saw Him alive again. From AIG
25) When I read the book of Daniel and see the prophecy about the Babylonian, Persian (was united with the Meads), Greek and the Romans Empires I see history written hundreds of years before it happened. There is too much prophecy here which was verified hundreds of years after it was written for this to have occurred by chance.
