By Bill Westers – August 11, 2023
C.S. Lewis once said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” So, which is it? Is Christianity true and of infinite importance? Or is it simply meaningless? How do we know?
Well, we can examine the whole cumulative case for Christianity, but ultimately it comes down to the truth of one singular event – the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus rose from the dead, all of Christianity is true, but if it didn’t happen, Christianity is false. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15,
“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (verse 14)
“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” (verse 17)
If all of Christianity hinges on the truth of the resurrection, how do we know if it really happened? Is there any evidence?
Minimal Facts Approach
Gary Habermas has come up with a list of what he calls the minimal facts of the resurrection. This is a list of facts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus that virtually all scholars, Christian and non-Christian alike, regard as true. A summary of some of the key minimal facts are as follows:
- Jesus died by Roman crucifixion and was buried in a tomb.
- The tomb was later found empty.
- Soon afterwards, Jesus’ followers had real experiences that they believed to be appearances of the risen Jesus.
- As a result of these experiences, their lives were transformed, even to the point of being willing to undergo severe persecution and excruciating death without ever recanting.
- Finally, both James (the unbelieving half-brother of Jesus) and Paul (formerly Saul, the great persecutor of Christians) converted to Christianity also as a result of experiences that they believed to be the appearances of the resurrected Jesus.
Abductive Reasoning
With these minimal facts as our evidence, we take a courtroom approach called abductive reasoning. In a court of law, the jury must come to a conclusion that is “beyond reasonable doubt.” How do they do that? They examine all the evidence and determine what explanation best accounts for all the evidence. Of course, there might be multiple possible explanations, but in the end, jurors must decide what is the most reasonable inference from the evidence.
Keeping in mind four key pieces of evidence – the empty tomb, the appearances of the risen Jesus, the transformed lives, and the excruciating deaths of Jesus’ followers (including James and Paul) – we will examine a few possible explanations and evaluate how well each explanation accounts for all the evidence.
Explanation #1: The Wrong Tomb
Why was the tomb empty? Maybe the disciples went to the wrong tomb! Well, first of all, you would have to ask, Would this cause conversion or simply confusion?
Remember, the disciples’ lives were transformed because they thought they saw the risen Jesus, not because of an empty tomb – that would only cause confusion! Imagine the women and disciples arriving at the empty tomb. What would likely be their first thought? Probably not that he had risen, but more like “Where is he? What happened to his body?” They would be confused.
Secondly, if they went to the wrong tomb, what could the Jews and Romans do to bring an end to it all? Simply bring out the body! They could go to the right tomb, pull out the body, and say, “Hey! You went to the wrong tomb! This is the right tomb, and here’s the body. Let’s move on with life!” Keep in mind that the tomb belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, so the Jews would know where the tomb was. And the Romans placed guards there, so they would also know.
But they didn’t do that. Why?
Explanation #2: The Body Was Stolen
Perhaps the body was stolen! Maybe the disciples stole the body, just like the Jewish authorities paid the Roman guards to say. This, of course, would make the disciples the liars and deceivers here.
Before we begin to examine this theory, remember that it is a widely accepted fact that the disciples really did believe that they actually saw the risen Jesus!
But put that aside for now, and imagine that they did actually try to go down to the tomb to steal the body. They would have to get past the elite Roman guards, and quietly move away the HUGE STONE without waking the sleeping guards – who, by the way, would most certainly be executed if they were caught sleeping on the job!
They would then make up a story about Jesus rising from the dead. But we have to ask, “Why this story?” You see, in their culture, they believed in a resurrection, but at the last day and of everyone, not the current bodily resurrection of one individual. So there was no real concept of this in their minds.
And then, who wrote all of this? Who came up with this story? A bunch of men! Why would a bunch of men come up with a story where they were the fearful ones, hiding from the Jews, while the brave women marched down to the tomb and were the first ones to witness the resurrected Jesus – especially in a culture where a woman’s testimony was not considered valid?
It was too tall of a tale for their time!
Explanation #3: The Apparent Death (Swoon) Theory
What if Jesus didn’t actually die? Maybe they just thought he died, but he just passed out or was unconscious.
I call this the Monty Python theory, after the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where they are ringing the bell and going through the village saying, “Bring out your dead!” An older man is being carried out to be placed on the cart of corpses, but he then cries out, “I’m not dead! I feel happy!” (Disclaimer – This is not a family-friendly movie!)
We have to remember that the Romans were expert executioners. This was not their first rodeo! They knew how to effectively kill someone, and they knew exactly what it looked like when they were dead. That’s why they didn’t have to break Jesus’ legs when he was on the cross. They could tell that he was already dead.
Plus, this would have to be a medical mystery. For someone to go through everything that Jesus did, where he was beaten within an inch of his life and lost so much blood that he couldn’t even carry his own cross up the hill to be crucified; then he was nailed to the cross, hands and feet; pierced through the side, punctured his lungs and his heart; then he was taken down, wrapped in seventy-five pounds of burial cloth, placed in a tomb, where he would stay for thirty-six hours – at least – without food, without water, without any medical attention; and then three days later he just comes to, unwraps himself, moves the huge stone – from the inside, where there is no leverage; gets past the elite Roman guards; and walks seven miles to Emmaus with holes in his feet!
He would get there, claiming to have risen and conquered death, only to have the disciples say, “Okay, Jesus, have a seat. We’ll get you some water… Call 9-1-1!” It would change the story a bit, wouldn’t it? “Thomas… Ouch! Don’t touch me, it hurts!“
He would be pitied, not praised!
Explanation #4: Hallucination
Maybe Jesus’ followers were just hallucinating…
The problem with this theory is that hallucinations are not group experiences. There is no evidence of this ever happening. Even if multiple people had simultaneous hallucinations, they would not be the same. They are like dreams, unique to the individual.
And this was not just to one or two people here and there. There were at least a dozen appearances over the course of forty days, to multiple different people, including several groups, one of which was over five hundred people at one time!
Finally, that brings us back to another problem. If they were just hallucinating, what could the Jews and Romans do to bring them back to reality? Bring out the body! The body is the buzzkill!
What Is the Best Explanation?
There are several other explanations (Con-man, Copycat Myth, Legend), but they all have similar weaknesses. And why are skeptics continually trying to come up with other possible explanations? Because they know that none of them are very solid, strong explanations! They know they can’t account for all the evidence. They all have holes!
So what is the best explanation of the evidence?
Maybe the best explanation is that the resurrection actually happened. It’s the only explanation that accounts for all the evidence.
The only thing that it requires is that you don’t rule out the supernatural a priori. You can’t say, “It wasn’t a miracle because miracles don’t happen.” You can’t rule out the supernatural simply because it’s not natural. That’s the very definition of supernatural! You can’t rule out a supernatural explanation of something that, if it actually occurred, would obviously have to be supernatural! That only begs the question. That’s exactly what we are trying to figure out here.
Does all of this “prove” that the resurrection really did happen? Well, it depends on what you mean by “prove.” To be clear, historical events can rarely be proven using empirical evidence because they cannot be repeated in a lab. As such, we must rely on a different type of evidence – historical evidence.
To examine this, let’s go back to our discussion of the courtroom approach. Imagine the prosecutor in a murder case clearly identifies a motive, finds fingerprints on the murder weapon and DNA at the scene, maybe even a body in the suspect’s car, would that be enough to “prove” that the suspect committed the murder? Or could there be other possible explanations? Of course, there could be other possible explanations, but in a courtroom, this evidence would hold up pretty well to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect is guilty. It would be the most reasonable inference from the evidence.
Now if we apply this method to the evidence for the resurrection, it may not “prove” that it happened, but I would contend that it is the best explanation of the evidence.
And if we consider that the greatest miracle already occurred – the creation of the universe from nothing – then a resurrection miracle is at least possible.
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