3. Convincing Evidence of Christ's Bodily Resurrection
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
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"Resurrection of Christ" (1475-79), Oil on panel, 148 x 128
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It doesn't surprise me that Christians need to convince
agnostics and atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Jews of
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. But what astounds
me is that by far the most learned and agile opponents of the
physical resurrection of Jesus Christ are liberal Christian
scholars. For example, here is the fairly accurate book description for The Resurrection of Jesus by Gerd Luedemann:
"What actually happened at the resurrection of Jesus? Using
historical criticism and depth psychology, Luedemann reviews
the accounts of witnesses, consults Pauline texts, and
investigates Easter events, concluding that though the
quickening of Christ cannot be believed in a 'literal' and
scientific sense, we can still be Christians."
Huh?
People Just Don't Come Back to Life
The real issue is one of assumptions and worldview. Scholarly
opponents of a literal, bodily resurrection assume a Western
scientific worldview. If something cannot be explained or proved
by science, then it is unscientific and false. There is no room
whatsoever in this worldview for a God who intervenes in history,
as does the God of the Old and New Testaments. There is only room
for scientifically explained cause and effect within a closed
system that excludes miracles. This is a determined unbelief in
anything outside of a carefully defined worldview.
Liberal Christian scholars may assume that their sophisticated
unbelief in the resurrection from the dead is new. It is not. As
long as men and women have been alive on the earth they have
experienced death and reflected upon it. They know that while
people sometimes live a long time, they don't come back to life
once dead.
The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who heard Paul preach on
Jesus' resurrection made fun of him (Acts 17:18, 32). Their
worldview included the immortality of the soul, but not physical
resurrection of the dead.
But for many people who are struggling with their own
mortality, the news that Jesus overcame death and was raised to
life gives them hope. Resurrection is actually "Good News." In
fact, the resurrection of Jesus is the core of the good news
preached by the early church.
Historically Accessible
Liberal Christian scholars have retreated into a fuzzy but
intellectually respectable agnosticism about what can be known
from history. For example, Gerd Lüdemann, whose book was
described above says:
"We can no longer understand the resurrection of Jesus in a
literal sense, i.e. in a bloody way ... for historically
speaking we do not know the slightest thing about the tomb (was
it empty? was it an individual tomb at all?) and about the fate
of Jesus' corpse: did it decay? At any rate I regard this
conclusion as unavoidable."1
With liberal Christian scholars, in addition to their
intellectual pride, the primary hurdle to overcome is
philosophical. To them, Jesus' resurrection can't be examined
with the normal tools of historical inquiry because it is:
- Unrepeatable. It is a one-of-a-kind event that can't
be studied
- Incomparable. We have no analogies to which to
compare it.
- Lacks credible evidence. This isn't actually true,
but these scholars often explain away or neglect the strong
evidence that we do have.
A Narrow View of Historicity
N.T. Wright, who strongly defends the resurrection, sees the
idea of history used in five different ways in our modern
culture:
- History as an event. Something that happened,
whether we can prove it or not.
- History as significant event. An historic event is
one which carries momentous consequences.
- History as a provable event. X may have happened,
but since we can't prove it, therefore it isn't really
historical.
- History as writing about events in the past. It is
historical in the sense that it was written about -- or talked
about, as in oral history.
- History as what modern historians can say about a topic,
that which can be demonstrated and written within the
post-Enlightenment world view. This is what liberal scholars
mean when they reject "the historical Jesus."2
I would argue that the resurrection is historical in senses 1,
2, 3, and 4. It cannot, however, be demonstrated and written
about within the closed Western worldview that a priori
rejects miracles. It is on these narrow grounds that liberal
scholars claim not to know whether the resurrection took place or
not. Mind you, it is not the common man that splits these
historical hairs, but rather the liberal scholar who uses them as
a dodge behind which to make unbelief seem respectable.
In fact, actual historians examine events that happened two or
three millennia ago all the time. There are accepted ways
to determine historical probabilities. The problem with the
resurrection is not that it can't be demonstrated historically,
but that it can't be explained in naturalistic terms. The
explanation requires a recognition that God has intervened in
history.
Alternate Theories of the Resurrection
Before we look at the strong historical proofs for the
resurrection, let's consider the theories that one must adopt if
he doesn't believe in the Biblical account that God raised Jesus
from the dead bodily. I've looked hard to find and categorize the
alternate theories floating around, which attempt to explain the
disciples' belief in the resurrection. They come down to five
theories, each with variations:
- Theft theory
- Swoon theory
- Wrong tomb theory
- Vision Theory
- Spiritual Metaphor Theory
Let's briefly examine these one by one. After we do so, we'll
examine in detail the five strong reasons why Jesus' bodily
resurrection from the grave is the only adequate way to explain
the data.
1. Theft Theory
The theft theory is probably the first explanation given by
Jesus' enemies and is still propounded by opponents of the
resurrection today. When the soldiers reported to the chief
priests that the stone had been rolled away, they were given "a
large sum of money" to tell the story that "His disciples came
during the night and stole him away while we were asleep"
(Matthew 28:11-15)
The problems with this explanation are three-fold: (1) The
disciples had no motive to steal the body. (2) Roman soldiers who
fall asleep on watch are subject to death. (3) The disciples
wouldn't have died for a faith they knew not to be true.
Some people have proposed that Jesus' enemies stole the body.
But they had no motive either. They wanted Jesus well buried. If
they had stolen the body, when the apostles began preaching the
resurrection in Jerusalem, they could have ended Christianity's
15 minutes of fame by merely producing the body. They didn't.
Why? Because they didn't have Jesus' body.
2. Swoon Theory
According to the swoon theory, originally propounded by a
German scholar Paulus in 1828, Jesus didn't really die, but
weakened by loss of blood and his wounds, he slipped into a coma
and was presumed dead. Later, in the cool of the tomb, he revives
and leaves the tomb.
The problems in this theory are the spear thrust to his side
which apparently pierced his pericardium and released blood and
water, signifying death. If Jesus had survived, the cool of the
tomb would be more likely to kill than revive him. Moreover, in
his weakened condition he would have to unwrap himself from the
burial wrappings -- or be helped by friends. But where's the
motive?
A twist on this theory was propounded Hugh J. Schonfield
(1901-1988), a British Biblical scholar, in his novel The
Passover Plot (1965), later made into a movie (1976). The
plot was that, with Jesus' collusion, Joseph of Arimathea was to
drug him to make him unconscious and get him off the cross alive.
This theory assumes that Jesus lived out the remainder of his
days in hiding. But it isn't psychologically sound, as we'll see
shortly.
3. Wrong Tomb Theory
The wrong tomb theory was developed by Kirsopp Lake
(1872-1946), a noted English Biblical scholar and Harvard
professor who wrote Historical Evidence for the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ (1907). In it he suggests that the women
mistook the location of the actual tomb where Jesus' body lay.
Instead, a young man, guessing their errand, points them in the
right direction saying, "He is not here, see the place where they
laid him" (misquoting Mark 16:6), but the women misunderstand,
are frightened, and flee.3 Later they mistakenly think
the young man was announcing the resurrection.4
The problem, of course, is that Mary Magdalene had been to
that tomb two days prior on Friday night (Matthew 27:61; Mark
15:47). In addition, it bore the seal of Rome and there was a
guard of Roman soldiers camped in front of it. They couldn't have
missed it. If this theory were true, all the Jewish authorities
would have needed to do to refute claims of the resurrection
would be to produce Jesus' body. They didn't.
4. Vision Theory
The vision theory was the fall-back position of one of the
most influential opponents of the bodily resurrection in the
twentieth century, German New Testament scholar Rudolf Bultmann
(1884-1976). He sought to "demythologize" the gospel to make it
believable to modern man. He wrote in 1941 of "the incredibility
of a mythical event like the resuscitation of a corpse -- for
that is what resurrection means."5 Since a bodily
resurrection was out of the question for Bultmann, he theorized
that the disciples experienced subjective visions that convinced
them that Jesus had risen from the dead. He wrote,
"The historian can perhaps to some extent account for that
faith [in the resurrection] from the personal intimacy which
the disciples had enjoyed with Jesus during his earthly life
and so reduce the resurrection appearances to a series of
subjective visions."6
Later he seems to have retreated some from this position and
declared that how the disciples' faith arose was "not of basic
importance."7 Johannes Weiss calls this "a profound
inner conviction which through an overwhelming final experience
emerges at last into certainty and reality."8
In other words, the disciples eventually come to believe that
Jesus was resurrected because no other explanation of his death
would do. It doesn't explain the exploding growth of the
Jerusalem church based on the preaching of the resurrection. To
refute this, all Jesus' enemies would have to do would be to
produce the body. Sometimes called the Personality Influence
Theory or the Hallucination Theory,9 this is a
desperate theory without support. It is inconsistent with the
disciples' mental state and doesn't explain Jesus' appearance to
500 persons at once.
I'm almost embarrassed to mention Michael Perry's theory that
Jesus communicated to his disciples by telepathy that he had
truly conquered the powers of death.10 It is novel,
let us say, though it has no basis in the facts of the New
Testament.
5. Spiritual Metaphor Theory
The spiritual metaphor theory is the final alternate theory of
the resurrection, fairly common in our time among liberal pastors
and theologians. It asserts that the disciples, especially Paul,
didn't really believe in a bodily resurrection, but held a more
spiritual view. Early Christians used terms such as dying and
rising as a kind of metaphor to communicate their faith. When
they said, "Jesus was raised from the dead," so this view goes,
they meant something like, "He is alive in a spiritual,
non-bodily sense, and we give him our allegiance as our lord."11
Only later did the church begin to take such expressions
literally, according to this theory, and then penned the gospel
accounts as a kind of secondary reinforcement of this belief.
This fuzzy-headed thinking doesn't understand Paul well, ignores
the early date of the gospels, and bypasses the gospel accounts
of the resurrection.12
In a nutshell, these are the five alternate theories that are
supposedly more possible or historical than the gospel account
itself. Instead, none of these alternate theories deals
adequately with the historical material we have in front of us --
the New Testament. Instead they make unspoken assumptions and
don't really add up.
Five Important Facts of Easter Morning
What does add up to a credible story, however, is the evidence
of the New Testament. In Lesson 2 we examined various elements of
the gospel accounts. Here let's examine the cumulative power of
the account that makes it by far the most plausible explanation
of what happened on Easter morning. These arguments can be summed
up in five points.
- The Empty Tomb
- The Undisturbed Grave Clothes
- The Disciples' Psychological State
- The Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus
- The Growth of Christianity
1. The Empty Tomb
The first important fact of Easter morning is that tomb is
empty. This in and of itself didn't create faith in the
resurrection. To Mary Magdalene it was a sign of grave robbers.
But any explanation of the resurrection must deal with the
fact that Jesus' tomb was empty. In other words, there must be
some explanation of what happened to his body. The theft, swoon,
and wrong tomb theories above have rather lame explanations,
though they deal with the issue. But the vision and spiritual
metaphor theories essentially ignore the fact that Jesus body
isn't in the tomb. Any explanation of what happened Easter
morning must deal with the fact that the tomb was empty.
2. The Undisturbed Grave Clothes
The second important fact of Easter morning is that two of the
gospel accounts make it clear that Jesus' grave clothes lay
essentially undisturbed on the stone shelf within the tomb. None
of the alternate theories above even attempt an explanation.
If the grave clothes were missing or even thrown on the floor
it could have meant that Jesus' body had been stolen or even
revived and left. But for them to be still folded as they had
been when they had been wrapped round and round Jesus' body is
very strange. It indicates that his body just slipped out of them
without disturbing them. The best explanation is that Jesus' body
was raised from the dead miraculously by God. Any explanation of
what happened on Easter morning must explain the position of the
grave clothes.
3. The Disciples' Psychological State
The third important fact of Easter morning is the disciples'
psychological state, which is mentioned in all four gospels. They
were in hiding, discouraged, and disheartened. They did not at
first believe the women's report of Jesus' resurrection. Only
after Jesus appeared to them in person did they believe.
This indicates several things:
- That they weren't inclined to concoct a story of Jesus'
resurrection.
- They weren't inclined to mistake Jesus' missing body for
resurrection.
- They didn't expect any resurrection, even though Jesus had
predicted it on at least three occasions. Jesus' crucifixion
for them was an indication that their Messiah had been
discredited.
- They weren't inclined to steal Jesus' body.
But let's suppose for a moment that they were part of a
conspiracy to steal Jesus' body and claim that he had been raised
from the dead. Of the original 12 disciples, ten were martyred
for their faith. Only John seemed to have died of natural causes.
As Origin put it, men do not risk their lives and suffer
martyrdom for a lie.
To assume that the disciples were part of a conspiracy doesn't
jive with a careful assessment of their psychological state. To
suppose that the disciples of Jesus, the man of truth, would
perpetrate a fraud is preposterous. When you consider the
disciples' psychological state following Jesus' crucifixion, only
the fact of the resurrection can explain the change that took
place in them.
4. The Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus
The fourth important fact of Easter morning involves Jesus'
appearances to several individuals and to ten of the disciples at
the same time -- all on the Sunday of the resurrection. Let me
list these appearances:
- Mary Magdalene (John 20:14-17; Matthew 28:9-10; Mark 16:9)
- "The other Mary" (Matthew 28:9-10)
- Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5)
- Cleopas and another disciple on the road to Emmaus on
Sunday afternoon (Luke 24:13-35; Mark 16:12)
- Disciples in Jerusalem on Sunday evening (Luke 24:36-43;
Acts 1:4; John 20:19-23; Mark 16:14; 1 Corinthians 15:5)
Jesus also appeared to the disciples and others over a period
of 40 days (Acts 1:3; 13:30-31).
- Thomas and the other disciples, a week later (John
20:24-29)
- Disciples in Galilee (Matthew 28:17)
- Disciples (Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two
others) while fishing on the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-23)
- 500 people at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6)
- James, Jesus' brother, who later became the leader of the
Jerusalem congregation (1 Corinthians 15:7)14
- Disciples at the ascension (Matthew 28:51-52)
- Paul (1 Corinthians 15:8), much later
The gospel writers and Paul are crystal clear that the risen
Christ appeared to different individuals and groups of people at
different times over a period of about 40 days. This pretty well
shoots down the vision theory -- all the alternate resurrection
theories in fact. Paul indicates in 1 Corinthians 15:6 that "most
of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep," in
other words, he is claiming that eyewitnesses were living then --
approximately 53-55 AD15 -- to whom Jesus had actually
appeared. This was not some kind of secretive, hidden phenomenon,
but was openly known and talked about in the early church.
Detractors claim there were no credible eyewitnesses. That is
patently false; they are merely choosing to disbelieve any of the
New Testament accounts.
5. The Spread of Christianity
The final important fact of the Easter account really took
place after Easter Sunday in the rapid growth of the Church.
Fifty days after the Passover on which Jesus was crucified was
the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem. On that day the Holy Spirit
fell upon 120 believers who were gathered praying. "The rest is
history," as they say. The Holy Spirit prompted the apostles to
preach that Jesus had been raised from the dead -- in the very
city where he had been crucified and buried.
- "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the
agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its
hold on him." (Acts 2:24)
- "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all
witnesses of the fact." (Acts 2:32)
- "You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the
dead. We are witnesses of this." (Acts 3:15)
- "... Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom
God raised from the dead..." (Acts 4:10)
- "With great power the apostles continued to testify to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them
all." (Acts 4:33)
- "The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead -- whom
you had killed by hanging him on a tree." (Acts 5:30)
The church grew to 3,000 on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41),
then to 5,000 men (Acts 4:4), one fifth the population of
Jerusalem, then the New Testament records that many among the
priests of the city believed (Acts 6:7). When the Jews began
heavy persecution against the Christian church, they preached the
resurrection wherever they went.
- Peter in Caesarea: "They killed him by hanging him on a
tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and
caused him to be seen." (Acts 10:39-40)
- Paul in Pisidian Antioch: "They took him down from the tree
and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead...."
(Acts 13:29-30)
- Paul in Thessalonica: "... Explaining and proving that the
Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead." (Acts 17:3)
- Paul in Athens: "[God] has given proof of this to all men
by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:31)
- Paul before King Agrippa and Governor Festus: "... That the
Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the
dead...." (Acts 26:23)
What galvanized a demoralized band of followers into fearless
proclaimers of the resurrection? Within a generation or two,
Christianity had spread to the farthest reaches of the Roman
empire. By the early fourth century Christianity had become the
dominant religion -- proclaiming the resurrection from the dead
of Jesus Christ!
The easiest way to stop the spread of Christianity in
Jerusalem would have been to produce Jesus' body. But Jesus'
enemies were not able to convince the populace of Jerusalem that
the resurrection was a fake. Too many people had seen Jesus after
his resurrection. There were too many witnesses to the
resurrection to shut down this new faith. As a result,
Christianity mushroomed -- first in Jerusalem, then Judea,
Samaria, and finally to the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts
1:8).
Arguments by Silence
When you consider a theory that gospel accounts of the
resurrection were concocted after the fact to prove something
that didn't happen, observe several interesting facts about the
accounts.
- Lack of Biblical quotations. The rest of the gospels
make constant reference to Old Testament scriptures that Christ
fulfilled. Yes, Christ explains how his death and resurrection
were foretold in Scripture (Luke 24:25-27, 46). The story is
told plainly without embellishment.
- Lack of Christ appearing first to male disciples.
What we have is the testimony of Mary Magdalene, a woman, whose
testimony wouldn't have much weight from a Jewish legal point
of view. Yes, the scripture records later appearances to
specific male disciples, but the detailed accounts concern
women.
- Lack of emphasis on personal hope. The future
resurrection hope of the Christian isn't mentioned in these
accounts. Rather, the emphasis seems to be: Jesus is risen, now
you have work ahead of you!
- Lack of a portrait of Jesus. Jesus is not depicted
in these accounts as a heavenly being, radiant and shining.
Rather he has a human body that is "unusual."13
If, as some liberal Christian scholars claim, the accounts of
the resurrection were concocted late by disciples creating a
physical resurrection to support Christian faith, that the
stories would pull out all the stops to prove the point. Instead,
the accounts are told plainly as they occurred.
The Sufficiency of the Evidence
Taken individually, the various details of Jesus' resurrection
would be powerful. But taking all the evidence together, the case
for the resurrection is compelling. No alternate theory of the
resurrection explains the remarkable facts of:
- The empty tomb,
- The undisturbed grave clothes,
- The disciples' psychological state,
- The post-resurrection appearances of Christ, and
- The spread of Christianity.
What seems to some as too good to be true indeed is true. We
all face death, but Christ's resurrection is the Good News that
we Christians can proclaim to our world. Death is not the end. As
he was raised, so we will be also!
Prayer
Father, thank you for the strong assurances you have given us
that Christ has been raised indeed! Strengthen your Church in
this faith as well, that around the world we might proclaim the
resurrection of Christ our Lord without embarrassment or
hesitation. Teach us to tell the Good News! In Jesus' name, we
pray. Amen.
Key Verses
"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance :
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that
he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to
the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the
Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the
brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though
some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all
the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one
abnormally born." (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
References
- Gerd Luedemann, The Resurrection of Jesus: History,
Experience, Theology (translated by John Bowden; Fortress
Press, 1994), p. 180. Lüdemann continues, "To the question:
'Can we still be Christians?' the answer has to be a confident
'Yes'.... The man Jesus is the objective power which is the
enduring basis of the experiences of a Christian.... We must
stop at this historical Jesus, but we may believe that he is
also with us as one who is alive now." (pp. 182, 183)
- Wright, Resurrection, pp. 12-13.
- Kirsopp Lake, The Historical Evidence for the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons,
1907), pp. 250-253, quoted by McDowell, Evidence, pp.
265-266.
- As outlined by Ladd, Resurrection, p. 136.
- Rudolf Bultmann, Kerygma and Myth (SPCK, 1953), pp.
38-42, cited by Paul Beasley-Murray, The Message of the
Resurrection (Inter-Varsity Press, 2000), p. 242.
- Bultmann, Kerygma and Myth, p. 42, cited by Ladd,
Resurrection, pp. 136-137.
- "How the Easter faith arose in individual disciples has
been obscured in the tradition by legend and is not of basic
importance." Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament
(New York: Scribners Sons, 1951), I. p. 45), cited by Ladd, p.
137.
- Johannes Weiss, Earliest Christianity (New York:
Harper and Brothers, 1959), I, p. 30, cited by Ladd (p. 137).
- Thoroughly refuted by McDowell, Evidences, pp.
257-265.
- Outlined by Ladd, p. 139, citing Michael Perry, The
Easter Enigma (London: Faber & Faber, 1959).
- Marcus J. Borg, in Marcus J. Borg and N.T. Wright, The
Meaning of Jesus (London: SPCK, 1999), chapter 8, cited in
Wright, Resurrection, p. 718. This general approach is
discussed by Wright, Resurrection, pp. 7, 701-706.
- Of course, the New Testament does use dying and rising as
analogies of the spiritual life (Romans 6:4-10; Colossians
2:12-13; 3:1; Ephesians 2:5-6; etc.). But that doesn't prove
that they didn't really believe in a literal, bodily
resurrection. The actual resurrection provides the basis and
vocabulary for the analogy.
- These strange silences in the Biblical accounts are
explored by Wright, Resurrection, pp. 599-608.
- Fee, 1 Corinthians, p. 731.
- 1 Corinthians is dated in the Spring 53 to 55 AD (Fee, 1
Corinthians, p. 15).
Resurrection and Easter Faith
Copyright © 1985-2010 Ralph F. Wilson. <pastor
joyfulheart.com> All rights reserved. A single copy of this article is free. Do not put this on a website. See legal, copyright, and reprint information.
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