Get Yourself Saved NOW !!!

Of absolute crucial importance to the Christian faith is the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. As Paul states in his 1st letter to the Corinthians “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain…..ye are yet in your sins” (1 Cor 15:14,17)

We have seen in a previous chapter that the Bible is the most authentically verified, trusted and documented history book that the world has ever known.

Therefore the fact that the resurrection is described in such detail, along with the effects that this miraculous happening had upon its witnesses, should be proof enough alone.

Everyone however, has their own agenda and it is an easy thing for some, to flippantly discount the most important event in history, with an off the cuff, unconsidered comment, that happens to satisfy their shallow lust for depth of truth.

Let us therefore point out the holes in these pails of wisdom; the theories that have been put forward in mostly desperate attempts to deny historical (by any other standard – on any other subject) facts.

The Swoon Theory

The swoon theory proposes that Jesus just fainted (swooned) on the cross – yes I am being serious – and then in the coolness of the tomb, He sufficiently revived to appear resurrected.

Seeing as this is one of the main theories of those that deny Jesus’ deity, death, resurrection and therefore the salvation that is in Him – let’s have a good look at this theory.

If you have read the chapter on Jesus’ death, then you should already realise that for Him not to have been dead would be a physical impossibility that the modern medical establishment constantly confirm.

The theorists seem to forget that Jesus had been severely beaten at the hands of the Chief Priests, Elders and Scribes and at the hands of the Roman soldiers; that He had been brutally scourged by order of Pontius Pilate and that He had been subjected, for six hours, to the most excruciating and torturous death the world had ever known at the hands of His highly experienced executioners.

It denies the recorded facts of the most authenticated historical records in existence. It denies the known professionalism of the Roman executioners. It denies the motives that those given power over Jesus at that point in time, had in making sure He was totally and completely dead.

When the Roman soldiers saw Jesus hanging on the cross He would not have been breathing. Breathing is a highly animated and painful procedure in crucifixion, where the victim must physically push his body upwards using his legs to exhale air and lower himself again to allow inhalation. There is absolutely no other way !!!

Therefore anyone watching a person die of crucifixion could ascertain the precise moment that this rising and lowering stopped and their last breath was taken.

Proponents of the swoon theory are denying the record that Jesus then, after being thought dead, had a Roman spear plunged into Him and made absolutely no sound whatsoever, no movement whatsoever, no reaction of body or mind whatsoever to this unexpected, excruciating and on its own, fatal wound, to the complete and utter satisfaction of the professional executioner.

Jesus was most definitely dead !!!

The medical profession confirm that water and blood would be the result of puncturing A DEAD person (see “Jesus Did Die” chapter). The (highly infrequent and desperate) argument that John recorded blood first (though the water is the first to exit such a puncture) is easily explained in that he gave prominence to the liquid that was of much greater quantity (which is quite correct). This being then a perfect medical description of the fluids that could only come out of A DEAD person.

Jesus’ body was then taken down from the cross ONLY after it was confirmed to Pilate by his Centurion and in turn by those soldiers under his command, each of whose very life depended upon the absolute certainty of their report.

Jesus’ body was then laid in the tomb and tightly wound in spice-laden burial wrappings from head to toe. We can understand these wrappings by looking at the resurrection by Jesus of Lazarus, where we are told “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, “Loose him and let him go.”” (John 11:44)

One would think that a man just brought back to life would have been unconstrainably eager to unravel himself – He couldn’t – thus Jesus told them to “Loose him and let him go.”

We are told that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, with 100 lbs of spices (myrrh and aloes), took Jesus’ body and “…wound it in linen clothes WITH the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.” (John 19:40b emphasis mine) We can therefore ascertain that Jesus was bound in a similar, if not exact same way as was Lazarus and therefore would have been totally unable to “loose” Himself.

The nails that pierced Jesus’ median nerve in His wrists would have rendered His hands irretrievably useless.

His dorsal pedal artery being severed by the nail through both His feet would have meant excruciating pain and after supporting His weight including the lifting and lowering of His body to breath, for more than 6 hours on the cross, would have rendered Him effectively unable to walk.

Yet Swoon theorists think that He somehow managed to unravel the constraints of His graveclothes (John 20:5-8) with all His shoulder, arm and wrist bones severely out of joint from hanging on the cross and with a pair of hands that did not work; remove the stone that covered the only exit from the tomb with a body that was too weak to carry His own cross BEFORE He was even crucified and then, deftly upon feet that were unable to walk, outmanoeuvre a full squad of highly trained Roman soldiers that had one aim and one aim only – to make sure at all costs that Jesus remained in His tomb !!!

We have not even considered His wounds from the scourging, the beatings and the crown of thorns – nor have we even given a thought to His hematidrosis, hypervolemic shock symptoms and pericardial fluid that had come gushing out of His side when…..

…..A SPEAR was thrust into Him and out had came forth blood and water !!!!!

Are we to believe that after all of this theoretical farce that a blood covered, flesh stripped man; beaten and bruised to disfigurement and with 3 day old gaping and by now festering wounds in His side, both wrists and in both feet, came crawling on dislocated arms to proclaim that He had the ultimate victory, had overcome death itself and was indeed the Lord of Life ?

Are we to presume that after He had WALKED some of the 7 miles to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-31) and then appeared in Jerusalem to the Apostles that very night, that in this diabolical and pitiful state, He instilled enough confidence in His followers for them to proclaim Him as the Messiah, the Saviour of the world and The Lord God incarnate – and enough conviction for them to devote their lives in the ministry of proclaiming these truths and for the majority of them to die a martyrs death for their conviction?

I think not.

Let’s move on…

The Hallucination Theory

With the intention that anything other than the simple facts of Jesus’ resurrection will do, theorists next propose that Jesus was not raised back to life but was merely a false sensory perception in the form of a hallucination.

The problem is that even secular scientists would deny these claims; psychiatrists who have studied this phenomena conclude that usually only paranoid or schizophrenic people have hallucinations and that they are linked to their PAST experiences, when in surroundings FAMILIAR with these past experiences and when there is a “spirit of anticipation or hopeful expectation” of the thing of which they hallucinate.

In a nutshell – NONE OF THESE THINGS suit the historical records of the people to whom Jesus appeared to. (regarding anticipation of Jesus’ resurrection see later – “The stolen body theory”)

Remember also that in one situation Jesus appeared to more than 500 people at once (1 Cor 15:6); a nigh impossible scenario for all to have the exact same hallucination.

Further we must consider Thomas’ experience in deciding whether Jesus’ appearances were merely hallucinatory or nothing more than visions.

Thomas’ doubting was based upon his unbelief of the increasing reports of sightings of the resurrected Jesus, proclaiming “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe” (John 20:25)

Eight days later He did just this (John 20:26-28) to the OBVIOUSLY PHYSICAL and risen Jesus.

Finally and yet again, we come across the irrefutable historical fact that the tomb was empty !!!

It is a pointless exercise to concoct a theory regarding scientifically impossible hallucinations, if one cannot explain away the fact that THE TOMB WAS EMPTY !!!

It is far simpler to just believe the facts as historically recorded – Jesus rose from the dead !!!

The Hypnosis theory

This theory suggests that some of Jesus’ miraculous cures during His ministry were achieved via hypnotism and therefore, they say, it would follow that before He died, He could have planted a post – hypnotic / post – resurrection suggestion in the minds of all those who are recorded as seeing Him risen, that they would believe that He had.

The fact that this is so outrageous a suggestion leaves me, for reasons of brevity to again bring forward the witness and experiences of Thomas and that still empty tomb as evidence against this (see above)

The drugged body theory

This theory suggests that instead of just believing the recorded facts and the subsequent beliefs and convictions of the Apostles, we should add to these accounts a plant based drug (of the likes of Reserpine et al) that is shown to place a mouse into a death-like state for several days. According to this theory, this drug would, of course, have been administered to Jesus during His final hours.

Thus, they say that Jesus obviously did not die, but was merely drugged to look like He did and thus there was no resurrection.

Besides the complexity of such a plot we must truly consider the torture that Jesus experienced (see last chapter) and the resultant state He was in when taken down from the cross.

No drug ever found could revive a person who had been through such an ordeal and present Him 3 days later to the Apostles as the conqueror of death itself. Remember, that He had no use of His hands, feet that would struggle to walk and gaping wounds all over His head and body.

And STILL we would have to explain how He left the sealed and fully guarded tomb on that Sunday morning !!!

The unknown tomb theory

This theory states that the Apostles did not know where Jesus had been buried and that the women went to the wrong tomb on the Sunday morning.

Historians would rightly say that most crucified men were taken from the cross and thrown into a rubbish tip outside the city walls, wrongly adding that they were not allowed to be buried.

But we know firstly from the historical Gospel accounts that Jesus’ dead body was not thrown onto a mass burial tip, but was carried to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man’s tomb (Isa 53:9) “…that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.” (Luke 23:53b)

We know that this Joseph “went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.” (Luke 23:52) and Pilate, who had the authority to allow this, “…commanded the body to be delivered.” (Matt 28:58)

Archaeology too has confirmed this point that not everyone was thrown into a mass grave after crucifixion, but that the body could be requested, perhaps by family or friends, for the purpose of a proper, more honourable burial.

In 1968, the remains of one such man were discovered in a burial cave at Giv’at ha-Mivtar, northeast of Jerusalem; he had died in his mid-twenties, crucified at about the same time as Jesus.

A 4.5 inch (11.4 cm) nail was still lodged in his heel bone, attached to a small piece of wood. Both his leg bones had been smashed, something often done to hasten the death of the crucified (The Bible emphasises that this was not done to Jesus, since He died quickly).

Back to the theory…

We know from whose tomb it was in which Jesus was placed, that Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Council and a secret follower of Jesus (John 19:38) knew its location at the very least.

We also know that Nicodemus helped Joseph in carrying, dressing and burying Jesus’ body (John 19:39-40). Nicodemus, a Pharisee (John 3:1) also therefore knew the exact location of the tomb.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that the women followers of Jesus watched from outside the tomb as Jesus was therein being laid. (Matt 27:61, Mark 15:47, Luke 23:55)

This theory also totally ignores the fact that it was the Jewish leaders that actually requested that Jesus’ tomb be sealed and that a Roman guard be placed outside the tomb. They were given a guard (multiple Roman soldiers) and it was the Chief Priests and Pharisees who went to the actual tomb and sealed it (Matt 27:66) !!!

The tomb was secured, sealed and surrounded !!!

So we know that the Chief Priests and Pharisees (Matt27:66), Joseph, a member of the Council (Matt 27:57), Nicodemus, a Pharisee (John 19:39), Jesus’ women followers (Mark 23:56) and a team of Roman guards (Matt 27:65-66) ALL KNEW PRECISELY INTO WHICH TOMB JESUS’ DEAD BODY WAS BURIED !!!

It also ignores the fact that Jesus’ burial clothes were found in the tomb that was visited on the Sunday morning (John 20:5-7). It is far fetched indeed to think that they were just cast into a random empty tomb by Jesus or whoever supposedly stole His body; and that is was then this particular random tomb that everyone, including the entire Roman guard who had been stood outside the real sealed tomb, suddenly turned up at !!!

Finally, it is also totally overlooks that when the first people arrived on Sunday morning and saw the stone rolled away from the entrance, there was at least one Angel present !!!

Had He turned up at the wrong tomb also ?

The Spiritual Resurrection theory (including the Vision Theory)

Although these are two separate theories I think that the dismissal of them can use the same evidence and therefore shall discuss them both here.

These theories claim that Jesus was not physically resurrected but was Spiritually resurrected instead (the Vision theory would not even concede this point and would state that Jesus was merely seen in visions but was not actually present).

In making either of these theories believable, Jesus’ body had to remain in the grave.

Remember of course – THE TOMB WAS EMPTY !!!

As we have just seen, the graveclothes of Jesus were lain in the tomb but Jesus’ body was nowhere to be found (John 20:5-7).

“Nowhere to be found” is important here…

If the dead body of Jesus could have been found, how many interested parties would there have been that would have striven to produce it as THE IMMEDIATE PROOF that there was no resurrection ?

The Chief Priests, Elders and Scribes; the Pharissees; the Saducees (who did not even believe in any form of resurrection); the Roman guard that surrounded Jesus’ tomb (and had been paid money to lie about the resurrection, needing protection from the wrath of the Roman hierarchy for allowing Jesus’ body to be missing in the first place) – in fact ANYONE that had anything to do with the Crucifixion; Anyone involved in the lengths that were gone to, to ensure that this very thing could never happen !!!

Where was the body?

It was most certainly not in the tomb – this is undeniably proven by the lack of anyone producing it; all those mentioned having massive motivation to do just that !!!

In addition, we are given the very facts to refute this theory by both John AND Luke (for those who try to argue that John only embellished His account to dispel Gnostic vision theories). Both record the resurrected Jesus meeting with His disciples the first three times (John 21:14)

Thomas was possibly the very first “vision theorist”. He would not believe that Jesus had physically resurrected, even though he was constantly hearing the recorded facts from first hand witnesses, until he himself physically saw and touched Him (John 20:25 above)

John also records that Jesus prepared a breakfast for 7 of His disciples at the sea of Tiberius (Galilee), inviting them to “Come and dine” (John 21:12) One could infer from this that the physically resurrected Jesus could also eat.

However, inference is never necessary to prove important facts in the Bible. When Jesus appeared in His resurrected, physical and glorified body (Phil 3:21); a body that could appear, disappear and transport itself to another location; He was EXTREMELY EXPLICIT on this point to dispel ANY doubt with His Apostles; as Luke records…

“Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, “Peace be unto you.” But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

And he said unto them, “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”

And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, “Have ye here any meat?” And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.” (Luke 24:36-43)

So we have a most definitely empty tomb, the living, resurrected body of Jesus being touched and examined by His disciples and Jesus making a point of eating in front of them and TELLING THEM “…a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (Luke 24:39b)

This was a physical resurrection !!!

The Impersonation (sometimes wrongly called “twin”) theory

This theory states that the resurrected Jesus; the One that hundreds of people saw; was not Jesus at all, but instead, an impersonator or even a twin brother of Jesus.

Again we can turn to Thomas for a simple refutation.

Thomas would not believe until He knew for sure that is was in fact Jesus.

Thomas talked with Jesus, physically placed his fingers into Jesus’ nail wounds and his hand into His side where the spear had been thrust. Thomas worshipped Jesus (John 20:28) because of his realisation of the Truth. Jesus was truly resurrected from the dead.

Jesus’ wounds are plainly impossible physical features for anyone to impersonate.

Further, each time Jesus appeared to the Apostles gathered together, the doors were shut and yet Jesus miraculously manifested Himself to them in physical form; another impossibility for the impersonator of this theory.

We are told that the reason some found it hard to recognise Jesus after His resurrection (a common argument from the theorists) was The Lord’s doing.

“…Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.” (Luke 24:15-16) As always God has His purposes in everything and at exactly the moment that it suited the Lord’s purpose “…there eyes were opened, and they knew Him…” (Luke 24:31)

Everything is there in the inspired Scripture to completely disprove all manner of arguments against the plain and simple facts as they are recorded for us to believe.

Jesus Himself really had risen from the dead.

The Twin Theory

Rather than just accept the facts, as would be accepted as such in any other similarly authenticated historical documents, theorists will go to any lengths to accommodate their disbelief.

There are three main versions of this “twin theory”…

The first, states that it was not Jesus, but Jesus’ twin brother that did all of the appearing to everyone after the “resurrection”.

The second, states that it was not Jesus who was crucified but instead, his twin brother.

Both of these ideas fall at the first hurdle; the fact that there is no historical record of Jesus ever having a twin.

We could go into the fact that this twin was never mentioned in any account of Jesus’ birth or any part of His ministry. We could spend time pondering what motive a twin brother would have, to be brutally beaten, scourged and crucified in his brothers place. We could wonder how the twin would have been so perfectly able to perfectly imitate Jesus and (seeing as he is never mentioned as being present with Jesus) school himself in the Scriptures, in doctrine and in prophecy, in order to prove Jesus was spoken of throughout the Old Testament.

But we won’t.

Further – and needless to ask really – but we will…

How did the post resurrection twin mimic the wounds of the crucified twin? How did they miraculously appear and disappear if they were supposedly both just human identical twins? How could a purely human identical twin fake Jesus’ ascension into Heaven (Acts 1:6-11) ?

And more than any of these, no matter which one was crucified – WHY WAS THE TOMB EMPTY?

This theory, for obvious reasons is not followed by many but there is a similar and far more promoted version of this theory which deserves more thought and will be given that in the chapter dedicated to the Muslim religion, namely…

The Substitution Theory

This is a theory that I personally have only heard used by Muslims, to attempt to deny the death and resurrection of Jesus and thus, make the facts agree with their book, the Quran.

The theory states that (by various excessively complex scenarios) Jesus Himself was not the One to go to the cross and be crucified and that it was merely made to look like He did (Sura 4:157-158 in the Qu’ran) – I kid you not !!!

As we will see in the Muslim chapter, a lot of their doctrine comes from the heretical Gnostic texts and this is no exception.

In the (fraudulent) Gospel of Barnabas, most likely written in the 14th Century by a Muslim and not in the 1st Century as some claims attempt, (more on this in the Islam chapter) it is Judas Iscariot who is said to have been crucified instead of Jesus, even though we have an historical Biblical account of his death by suicide.

Another substitution that is often attempted is Simon of Cyrene, the man commissioned to help Jesus carry His cross even though by all accounts available, it is very probable that he was black !!!

At this point it is perfectly plain from all these theories that there is one overriding problem that none of those theories we have so far considered can overcome – THE TOMB WAS EMPTY !!!

So it all comes down to this one last theory…..

The Stolen Body Theory

As it states, the stolen body theory proposes that Jesus’ body was stolen from the tomb before the “thus admitted” empty tomb was discovered on the third day.

The most commonly blamed culprits are the followers of Jesus and it is they upon whom we shall focus, as it is suggested that nobody else would have had even the slightest motive for doing such a thing for the following reasons:

The Roman soldiers were posted at the tomb to guard such a thing happening on pain of death as we have seen in our dismissal of the Swoon Theory above.

The absolute and very last thing the Jewish leaders wanted was for Jesus’ body not to still be in the tomb on the Third day; as can be seen from Scripture:

“Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.
Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.
So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” (Matt 27:62-66)

This tomb was watched, guarded and sealed – As it is written, the Jewish leaders and the Roman soldiers did everything within their power to ensure that no one could get at or get into the tomb to take away the body.

Everything that was done was done for this one purpose !!!

Embarrassingly, when told of the events that took place by the Roman soldiers, the Jewish leaders had to reinvent this very same story that they had worked so hard to prevent; this story now being a preferable account than the supernatural, factual account that the soldiers had reported to them.

Thus the oldest theory to deny the facts was created on the very day of the actual resurrection itself… “Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch (the Roman guards) came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.
And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.” (Matt 28:11-15)

At no point in these accounts do the Jewish leaders deny the most important fact – THE TOMB WAS EMPTY !!!

We know that the tomb was near to Golgotha/Calvary and we know that Golgotha/Calvary was close to Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders or anyone else that heard what had happened that Sunday morning could merely walk the short distance to check the facts – the empty tomb – for themselves.

That all being said, let us turn our attention to Jesus’ followers…

Some commentators have suggested the women who first went to the tomb were the ones to steal Jesus’ body, but again we can turn to the historical accounts of the Scriptures to realise that this is not possible:

“And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.” (Mark 16:2-4)

Each of the Gospel writers that mention the stone, record that is was of a great size and weight. Modern engineers have calculated that it would have been at least 1 ½ to 2 tons in weight and we know that 1st century tombs usually have an entrance of at least 4 to 5 feet in height for the people carrying the body inside to stand (Joseph, being a rich man, may have had a larger entrance, but that is speculation on my part).

This stone would have to at least have a diameter of 6 to 8 feet to completely cover and seal the tomb. Some tombs that have been discovered have the heavy stone rolled down into a trench below the base of the opening. If this was the case with Jesus’ tomb it has been suggested by engineers that although one or two men could release the stone to roll over the opening; to remove it afterwards could have taken up to ten men.

There are only women mentioned as being the first to go to the tomb on that Sunday morning and by their own admission (Mark 16:2-4) they were completely unable to even contemplate removing the stone.

Therefore we are left with the Apostles as the only people left whom, if a number of them were present, could have removed the stone from the entrance of the tomb and removed Jesus’ body.

However…

This theory denies all that we have already shown about the professionalism of the Roman soldiers whose only purpose was to ensure that this very thing did NOT happen !!!

So ignoring the obvious and insurmountable problem of overpowering the Roman guards and the extremely unlikely scenario where expedient tomb thieves bother to undress the dead body before removing it, let us look at the other facts.

What is the real likelihood of the Apostles actually being motivated or able to pull of such a heist and thus hoaxing billions of Christians into a false sense of eternal security for the last two millennia…

At Jesus’ arrest “They all forsook Him, and fled.” (Mark 14:50-52)); one even ran away naked !!!

Whilst Jesus was being tried, Peter denied he even knew Jesus three times, the final time “began he to curse and to swear, saying I know not the man…” (Matt 26 74)

Following Jesus’ arrest, the Apostles had seen or heard that Jesus had been tried, beaten, viciously scourged and then crucified. Little wonder that they would be fearful for their own safety. Their fear is highlighted by the fact that there was only one Apostle at the place of the crucifixion (John 19:26) whilst the rest of His acquaintances stood watching from afar (Luke 23:49)

Even after Jesus had died, had been taken down from the cross and was being buried, there is no record that any of the Apostles were to be found helping or being associated with the task.

After three days and the tomb being discovered empty, it is recorded that they STILL did not understand that Jesus was even meant to rise from the dead !!!

“For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.” (John 20:9)

This alone would preclude ANY motive for stealing Jesus’ body even if the means had been available to them.

To confirm this point we know that when Jesus appeared to them on that first Sunday night that “…the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews “ (John 20:19).

At this point Jesus upbraided (rebuked) them for their unbelief (Mark 16;14) and AFTER He had showed them His nail and spear wounds and AFTER He had eaten food in front of them that…

“Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.” (Luke 24:5-46)

…thus showing that there would have been no previous motive for stealing the body to pretend He has been resurrected because they did not even know that He was supposed to be !!!

These were scared and perplexed men, fearing for their lives and keeping out of the way of those who had killed their friend, teacher and leader.

The Apostles were not in any sort of state to be fighting a professional guard of highly trained Roman soldiers, in order to steal the body of someone they truly believed to be permanently dead and buried !!!

Dramatically changed people.

Aside from all of the ways that we have quashed the claims of each theory put forward to deny the resurrection, I feel we would be very amiss to not also consider the evidence of the affect this historical event had upon its first hand witnesses.

We have seen the pre-resurrection state of Jesus’ followers, particularly His Apostles; scared and perplexed men fearful for their own lives.

What we see after the resurrection is complete and utter transformation that can be explained no other way, than that they completely believed that Jesus had physically, miraculously and gloriously risen from the dead !!!

We see that His Apostles were willing to die for their belief; James was beheaded (Acts 12:2), Peter was crucified (John 21:19 and tradition). Tradition has it that all but John died the most horrible death, specifically for their belief and teaching of the risen Jesus.

We see that after Pentecost, when they received the required power for their ministries from the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-41) that Peter, who prior to this had thrice denied even knowing Jesus, could stand up in front of thousands of Jews (the very people from whom he had been hiding before the resurrection) and eloquently speak of how Jesus was the promised Messiah, tell them fearlessly that they had killed their Messiah and deliver to them the means by which they could now be saved.

The Apostles preached with zeal in Jerusalem of the risen Jesus; a stones throw away from the evidence of the empty tomb as we have seen. Nobody denied that the tomb was empty !!!

They went out from Jerusalem and preached this Gospel to countries around the Mediterranean, the middle east and Asia; all the time facing eventual martyrdom for their message of the death, burial and physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

James the brother of Jesus; completely unbelieving of the identity of Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God (John 7:5) saw the risen Jesus (1Cor 15:7) and not only was converted to a believer but 4 years later we are told that he was recognised as a “pillar” (leader) in “the church” at Jerusalem (Gal 2:9)

Saul of Tarsus; a Pharisee and enthusiastic persecutor of those that believed in Christ and His resurrection; after an encounter with the risen Jesus (Acts Chs:9,22,26 et al) became Paul the zealous missionary whose epistles form 25% of the New Testament.

These men were not believing in a lie !!!

They devoted the rest of their lives to the furtherance of their message in the risen Jesus; without riches or earthly rewards and unto death for their refusal to deny the truth !!!

They believed in the FACT OF JESUS’ RESURRECTION from being first hand witnesses to the risen Lord !!!

Final comments

When it comes to evidence, it would seem prudent to turn to those whose mastery is in the law. I present to you a Harvard Professor and two Law Lords to complete this chapter, with their opinions on the evidences we have now discussed.

“It was impossible that the apostles could have persisted in affirming the truths they had narrated, had not Jesus Christ actually risen from the dead, . . .”
Dr. Simon Greenleaf, The Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University.

“The claims of Jesus Christ, namely his resurrection, has led me as often as I have tried to… examine the evidence to believe it as a fact beyond dispute.”
Lord Caldecote, former Lord Chief Justice of England.

And my personal favourite…

“No intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true”
Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Darling.

JESUS HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD – The resurrection accounts are FACTS – This is history – This happened – All the evidence points to this; the only possible conclusion – IT IS TRUE !!!

BELIEVE !!!!!