Nobody can rise from the dead. The disciples must have been lying. It is just an old legend. There is probably some natural explanation for it. How do we know Jesus actually died? These are some of the objections raised against the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (For the sake of a clearer and more focussed argument, Jesus is assumed as a historical figure who existed and it is also assumed that there is a familiarity with the Gospels.) However, the resurrection is the only probable answer as to what happened after Jesus’ death because it is the only explanation without consequential problems.
One opposing viewpoint is that the disciples lied and stole the body of Jesus. But, to lie and to steal does not line up with the disciples’ characters, save Judas. As children of Jewish families, they were raised to obey the Law of Moses, God’s Law. Also, the disciples were too afraid of Roman authorities and were overwhelmed with sadness by their Lord’s death to make an attempt at stealing the body. The Bible says that the disciples were scared and hid inside a room with the doors locked (Every Man’s Bible, John 20:19). And yet another problem is that no sane person would die for his own lie!
The “stolen body” theory is the oldest and first pretense used to explain away the resurrection. Matthew 28:11-15 that the Pharisees’ first actions were to bribe the guards and then to tell them to say that the disciples stole the body while the guards slept. In his book, Know Why You Believe, Paul Little, an evangelist, comments, “Who knows what goes on while he’s asleep?” (Little 64). Further, almost all the disciples were killed for their beliefs, although treacherous Judas Iscariot committed suicide and John was exiled (Nalle and Nalle 298-301). The others certainly did not face their martyrdoms in order to support what they knew were lies.
And, though John was not martyred, he and others still likely faced harsh persecution, which may be more painful than it appears. Consider how some people today are terrified at the thought of losing society’s acceptance. Some people strive for the latest fashion, to obtain a new material fad, or to have a good reputation; and they give in to the world’s pressure to be accepted by the world. But, the faithful disciples never gave in. Roman Emperor Domitian exiled John to the island of Patmos (299). If the emperor himself knows you and your Christian beliefs well enough to hate you, you are very likely to be looked down upon as a notorious Christian. Thus, the disciples genuinely believed that what they witnessed was true. For surely they would not have been willing to take on the world’s pressure, persecution, and execution all to support a story they knew was false. To sum it up, “The point is that their sincerity to the point of martyrdom indicates that they were not intentionally lying” (Habermas and Licona 94). As you can tell from the disciples’ sincerity, they did not steal the body.
Now that it has been established that the disciples were not lying on purpose and did not steal the body since no person would face persecution to support his own lie, nevermind dying for it, the next theory to consider is hallucinations. The disciples definitely believed that what they saw was true, but maybe they did not witness reality, rather, they hallucinated. One way to hallucinate is by wanting so very badly to believe something false, that you imagine it and connect it to reality (Little 69). Or, perhaps you happen to be an anxious or fairly imaginative person (68). You may recall how the disciple Thomas said in John 20:25, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” He wanted physical proof, “[he] wasn’t about to have a hallucination” (Little 71). Thomas was not going to imagine or believe a fake Jesus. Also, Mary Magdalene, for example, was not anxious to find a resurrected Jesus because she went to the tomb with spices early Easter morning to anoint His corpse, she did not think He was going to be alive (70). Moreover, another issue is that the first Christians would not have believed the crazed witnessing of anxious or imaginative disciples who hallucinated.
But, the disciples did not have to be anxious or imaginative to hallucinate. People can also hallucinate under stressful circumstance, and the disciples were definitely stressed. “Hell Week,” for example, is very stressful. Before becoming a Navy SEAL, one must get through Hell Week. Hell Week is a week of strenuous work and exercise. Most recruits only receive five hours of sleep maximum. Once, while rowing in a boat across a body of water, a few soldiers out of the group hallucinated. One saw a wall they were about to slam into, another thought he saw a train coming across the water, and yet another soldier witnessed an octopus waving at him. Like the soldiers, the disciples were under stressful circumstances, however, the mere handful of SEALS who did hallucinate, saw totally different hallucinations (Habermas and Licona 106).
According to the hallucination theory, after the resurrection, all of the witnesses of Jesus hallucinated. No one ever physically saw Him, because He never “rose.” In 1 Corinthians 15:6, Paul speaks of Jesus’ appearance to the five hundred believers, and he mentions that most of them were still alive at the time. The implication of: “You can talk to many of the real witnesses yourself since they are still living,” would indicate that Paul is not worried of greatly varying reports, because they saw the same Jesus. People did not see an octopus, wall, train, and whatever else; they saw Christ. Ron Rhodes, a Christian apologist, sums up the hallucination theory’s problems well when he states, “All 500 people could not possibly have seen the same hallucination at the same time” (Rhodes, day 205).
So far it has been discovered that the disciples neither lied and stole the body nor hallucinated. Maybe they just went to the wrong tomb. Well, the only disciple who was convinced by the empty tomb was John. Dr. Rhodes also says,
To believe this theory, we’d have to conclude that the women[;]…Peter and John[;]…the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Romans[; and]… Joseph of Arimathea, the owner of the tomb…went to the wrong tomb…[And lastly] the angel from heaven appeared at the
wrong tomb…. (day 201).
Lastly, another problem with this theory is that if Jesus’ body never rose and was still in the tomb, then who appeared to the five hundred in 1 Corinthians 15:6 as previously stated above?
All those ancient witnesses obviously saw the real Jesus. Yet, Jesus just could not have risen from the dead. What if He faked His death? He simply fell unconscious. This theory is called the swoon theory. Dr. Rhodes again points out the unlikelihood that,
…four experienced Roman executioners goofed and mistakenly pronounced Jesus dead…More than a hundred pounds of gummy spices were applied to Jesus’ body, and during this process, no one saw Jesus[’] breathing…Jesus awoke in the cool tomb, split off the garments, pushed the several-ton stone away, fought off the Roman guards, and
appeared to the disciples. (Rhodes, day 202).
Who could believe such an impossible theory? Consider further that Jesus had to “…walk miles on feet that had been pierced with spikes…” (Little 67). Imagine: Jesus “…appeared to his disciples in his pathetic and mutilated state, and convinced them he was the risen prince of life” (Habermas and Licona 228). After surviving crucifixion and accomplishing those other amazing feats, He would not look very glorious, rather He would be, “…limping, bleeding, pale, and stooped over in pain…” (103). The authors, Habermas and Licona, state,
…the spear wound…inflicted on Jesus, the blood and water that were described as flowing from his body were probably due to the rupturing of the sac that surrounds the heart (called the pericardium)…No question remained concerning the status of the
victim afterward. (102).
In short, the factors of the swoon theory are highly improbable.
Another, less impossible theory is that the whole resurrection story is nothing more than a legend mixed in with other pagan myths. First of all, the “[first] clear parallel [mythological story] account is 100+ years after Jesus” (92). Second, most scholars agree that the New Testament’s content is the same as the original manuscripts. Therefore, if the content of the New Testament is genuine, then the legends and myths would have had to mix in before the Gospels were written down. People could not have embellished details on the Gospels over time, since the content is presumed as authentic as the earliest documents. Also, “…the resurrection story itself can be traced to the real experiences of the original apostles.” So, if the Gospels were made up, then the disciples would not have included the resurrection, and evidence for legends being made would exist (85). One more consequential problem with the disciples’ creating the resurrection story is that the first people to have seen the Risen Christ would not have been women because women were not regarded as trustworthy as men (73). The resurrection is not a very convincing myth.
No, the resurrection is not false for any of the reasons listed above, it is false simply because science proves that people do not rise from the dead! Through mankind’s knowledge of science, nature, and their laws, people know that dead organisms never randomly become alive again. Science has proved that people will not naturally rise from the dead (136). However, God is not bound by the laws of nature! Who can declare that an omnipotent God is bound by any law? God created nature’s laws, He can break them. Science does not say that nothing rises from the dead, science says that nothing rises from the dead naturally. Further, another issue with protesting that everything must be interpreted naturally is that it applies circular reasoning. Science does not prove that everything happens naturally (141).
A skeptic might think, now, that it is true that these opposing theories cannot suffice for explaining the resurrection, but he may want to know why he should believe the resurrection. Belief in Jesus’ resurrection is not solely based on the fact that no flawless opposing theory exists. Plenty of other reasons exist for believing in His resurrection. Jesus claimed that He would rise at least four different times (see John 2:19; Luke 9:22; Mark 9:31; and Matthew 20:19). One would not be in complete shock at claims that Jesus rose because He always said He would rise. Also, Jesus had many witnesses, over five hundred after He rose (see 1 Corinthians 5:16). No eyewitnesses exist today, obviously, but records do exist that were written by credible eyewitnesses.
The four Gospels written about Him were by two primary sources, Matthew and John; and by two secondary sources, Mark, who listened to Peter’s preaching (GotQuestions.org), and Luke, who interviewed eyewitnesses (see Luke 1:1-4). Though one may bring up how the Gospels supposedly “contradict” one another, “…from an historian’s perspective…[this adds] to their credibility because of the existence of multiple witnesses” (Habermas and Licona 232). Furthermore, if the Gospels were exactly alike, skeptics may propose the idea that the disciples assembled together to create the story. It is very opinionated of someone who wishes to not believe in the resurrection to, “…conclude that an event did not occur because the accounts contain discrepancies” (122). Also, people do not suppose that Tiberius Caesar never existed because if he did, more sources would exist for someone so important as the Roman Emperor. Yet that is what some people do with Jesus, though the ratio of the amount of secular, legitimate, historic sources for Tiberius Caesar and Jesus is 9:9 (233).
Another reason for believing in the resurrection is looking at the effects it has today from nearly two thousand years ago! The Christian church came about around 32 AD because Jesus rose from the dead (Little 62). Also, the first Christians were former Jews, yet they made the dramatic change from worshiping on Saturday to Sunday, the day of the week on which Jesus rose (62-63). Christianity spread throughout the known world through Jesus’ disciples, the very first Christians, who worshiped Him at the temple, too. Jesus Christ’s resurrection inspired the terrified disciples into boldly speaking out for their Master.
Moreover, after Jesus died, He appeared to Saul, a Jew who hated Christians. He was “…born into the tribe of Benjamin, he was raised as a Pharisee and taught by the famous Jewish rabbi Gamaliel” (Nalle and Nalle 287), and “…he was a Roman citizen” (290). Saul had a good reputation with the Jewish leadership, and “[he] was in the forefront of the violence against Christians. He went from house to house, looking for believers and dragging them off to prison” (288). Jesus’ appearance to Saul after His death and resurrection changed him from Jew to Christian, from persecutor to persecuted, from Saul to Paul. He became the main author of the New Testament and the greatest apostle (see 2 Corinthians 11:5).
You may think that no one would fall for such an impossible story as a “resurrection” back then. But, consider this modern-day example: your kind, but strange, old neighbor recently passed away. A couple of days after the funeral, you hear rumors that her daughters spotted her around town. You are skeptical. But, you remember that she used to say that she would not be dead forever, so you start to wonder. You may suggest that the daughters, perhaps, saw someone who looks like her. Or maybe the daughters thought they saw her, they are still devastated at their old mother’s death after all. However, several friends also claim to have witnessed her. You are shocked at the number of witnesses (about fifteen now)! All of these people start telling everyone, “She’s still alive! She is not dead!” Things are getting out of hand so a few members of city council say, “They’re lying,” and they tell them to quiet down or else. The witnesses refuse and continue to share what they saw. The council members eventually get some regular folks to make fun of them and to rudely tell them to hush. The witnesses will not be hushed and then hundreds more people claim to have seen the old, dead neighbor. Thousands start believing on account of their witnessing.
The old, dead neighbor was Jesus; the daughters, the women in the Bible; the friends and witnesses, the disciples and the five hundred believers to whom Jesus appeared; the council members, the Jewish leaders; and the regular folks, the Jews. Consider further if the old neighbor performed miracles as Jesus did also, adding to the possibility of another miracle. Or if the council members and rude folks went so far as to beat, imprison, and execute the witnesses without the witnesses’ recanting their story. And imagine that the neighbor’s coffin was empty. This actually happened! Jesus claimed He would rise, and He performed miracles, too. He appeared to over five hundred believers total, and the disciples faced persecution for what they believed was true. If these events occurred today, it would be hard not to believe!
In conclusion, no theory except the Resurrection Theory efficiently explains whether Jesus rose from the dead. The disciples did not have themselves persecuted for a lie. All those eyewitnesses could not have hallucinated the exact same hallucination at the exact same time. Everybody involved in this event did not accidentally go to the wrong tomb. Jesus definitely died after his crucifixion. The New Testament is generally accepted among scholars as original. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was not a legend; and even if the disciples did make up the story, it would have included more trustworthy witnesses for that time period than women. Science can prove that people do not naturally resurrect; it cannot prove, however, that people do not resurrect supernaturally. The Ultimate Law-Maker can bend or even break His laws. And, the belief that all things must occur naturally is circular. Finally, plenty of reasons exist for believing in Christ’s resurrection. When you read the Gospels and see the changes in the Eleven disciples, all you need to do is to think, “Why?” and you find that Jesus’ resurrection is the only answer. As said in The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, “Nothing can ruin an otherwise interesting argument like the facts” (Habermas and Licona 148). Works Cited
Arterburn, Stephen, and Dean Merrill. Every Man's Bible: NIV; New International Version. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2014. Print.
GotQuestions.org. “Gospel of Mark.” GotQuestions.org, S. Michael Houdmann, www.gotquestions.org/Gospel-of-Mark.html.
Habermas, Gary R., and Michael Licona. The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI, Kregel Publications, 2004.
Little, Paul E. “Did Christ Rise from the Dead?” Know Why You Believe, IVP Books, 2008.
Nalle, Rob, and Julia Nalle. The BiblioPlan Companion Year One a Text for Ancient History. Palmyra, Virginia, BiblioPlan for Families, 2014.
Rhodes, Ron. 5-minute Apologetics for Today: 365 Quick Answers to Key Questions. Eugene, Or.: Harvest House, 2010. Print.