Here goes (this will be a combination of my beliefs, and what I've learned from a couple different books- including "The Case for Christ" and "God in the Pits"):
Ok, first of all, if you want to prove that Jesus was raised from the dead, you need to backtrack for a second, and ask some fundamental questions:
Did Jesus really live/ever exist???
Old writings from what is considered to be the time of Jesus (about 2000 years ago) that
are not part of the Bible have been found that talk about a person named Jesus. Three of the authors were Josephus, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger. From their writings, this can be learned about Jesus:
1. Jesus was a Jewish teacher.
2. Many people believed he performed healings/miracles.
3. Some believed he was the messiah mentioned in the Torah
4. He was rejected by Jewish leaders
5. He was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius.
Anyone can do a simple Google search of these authors to read more...But for the sake of continuing, let's assume that Jesus did exist, and that #5 is also true- he was crucified. Then, the next question on the road to answering whether or not he was resurrected would be:
Did Jesus die on the cross?
Obviously, if Jesus never died on the cross, and was taken down and revived, you couldn't say that he (literally) was raised from the dead. So did he die on the cross?
Here are some arguments that go with the theory that he was revived and not resurrected:
1. In the Bible, it says that while Jesus was on the cross and still alive, he claimed to be thirsty (a natural body function result of losing so much blood). A Roman solider put some liquid in a sponge and gave it to him- maybe that liquid drugged him and made him appear dead when he was just heavily drugged up.
2. In Mark 15:44, Pontius Pilate reflected that he was surprised how soon Jesus died- maybe he was taken off the cross before he was actually dead.
3. This argument explains why the tomb was empty after 3 days- there was no dead body - and how Jesus could walk around afterwards, and eat, drink and talk with people.
But maybe Jesus really did die on the cross! Here's some arguements to suggest that:
1. If you've ever seen the movie "The Passion" that came out like a year ago, you know what Jesus endured (and actually, all crucifixion victims) in and leading up to a Roman-style cruxifiction. First there was a flogging- most people were hit 39 times with a whip of braided leather thongs with metal balls woven into them, and pieces of bone inside them too. (In the Bible it says that Jesus was flogged 40 times) I don't want to go through exactly what this does because it'll make you queasy, but let's just establish the fact that LOTS of blood is lost in this process.
2. Jesus showed two symptoms of losing so much blood: (1) He was thirsty on the cross, like mentioned above, and (2) he collapsed while carrying his wood cross on the road to his crucifixion site, and soldiers ordered a man to carry it for him.
3. Now- when Jesus was nailed to the cross and hung up there, finally crucified,
did he die up there? The main way that people died on the cross- the way you die is basically by suffocation/asphyxiation. Basically, each breath is hard (and not to mention, extremely painful b/c you're putting strain on the nails) and eventually after many hours, sheer exhaustion takes over and the person can't muster up the strength to breathe any more. So then the lack of oxygen leads to an erratic heartbeat, and cardiac arrest.
4. All of this leads to a build-up of fluids around the heart and lungs. And in the Bible, it mentions in John 19:34: "on the the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water."
I think it's just common sense here that Jesus died on the cross. Think about it: if he didn't, in the modern world he'd be strapped to a hospital bed for a long, long time. But his disciples put their lives (and some were crucified too) on the fact that he was up and about three days later. If he was just a blood-soaked mess that they were hiding away secretely, would they have been so inspired to get the same treatment, just to defend a lie?
So again, for the sake of continuing, let's assume that he died on the cross.
What Happened to Jesus's Body?
This is the next question I'd like to tackle. There are a few theories on what happened to Jesus's body after he was put in the tomb:
1. The disciples stole it and hid it somewhere, and then ran around telling everyone they'd seen him alive.
2. Someone else stole the body, and when the disciples looked 3 days later and found the tomb empty, they believed he was raised from the dead.
3. The women who first saw the empty tomb forgot which tomb was Jesus', and looked in a different (and empty) tomb. Then they believed he had been raised from the dead.
4. The Roman or Jewish leaders secretly ordered the body to be removed.
5. Then there is the Bible's version: Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and walked out after 2 angels removed the stone covering it.
First of all, the theory that the disciples took it doesn't make sense because of a lack of motive. If Jesus really was dead, and they stole the body, all of his teachings about heaven and such would go out the window in their eyes. So then why would they risk their lives for a lie? In the book "God in the Pits," the author Mark Andrew Ritchie discusses this.
Whenever there's a conspiracy going on, the greater the pressure that is applied to the conspirators, the more likely they will give in to the instinct of self-preservation. For example, if you cheat on your wife/husband (spouce) and then decide to just lie about it, you'll keep on lying as long as whatever is to gain by lying (preservation of the marriage, stability, money) outweighs in your mind whatever there is to lose by lying (feeling guilty, nagging conscience, danger of being found out). Now, what if your spouce puts a loaded gun to your head and says, "JUST TELL ME THE TRUTH- DID YOU CHEAT ON ME???"
All of a sudden, the scales have shifted. What there is to gain (your life!) now severely outweighs what there is to lose by giving up the truth (angry wife, broken marriage, loss of money). So it's only natural that at this point, the conspiracy will be broken and the truth will come out.
So let's look at the disciples. If they stole the body, and knew that the resurrection "conspiracy" was false, what motives did they have to keep it going? Think about it: all they were getting for keeping up their conspiracy was jail, exile, torture, misery, and death. One disciple was actually crucified UPSIDE DOWN. But what would they get if they broke down the conspiracy, and admitted it was a lie? They'd recieve an overall end of suffering, and there would have been a financial reward for the one(s) who went to the Romans or Jewish leaders to turn everyone else in.
All that all of this proves, however, is only that the disciples truly believed in what they were preaching.
This doesn't mean they were right, however- many people have died for causes they believed to be right, yet anyone can tell that it was wrong (KKK members, Nazis, other cult groups). But remember this:
the disciples weren't just saying that they believed that Jesus was resurrected, but that they had seen him alive. On
this belief they were willing to place their lives- on an eyewitness account, not a belief! According to the Bible, the resurrected Jesus appeared to them many times, as well to other people, before finally going back up to heaven for good.
None of the disciples ever broke down and claimed that it was all a lie, that is, they believed to their deaths that they had literally seen a dead man walking again!
Referring back to the list of 5 possibilities of What Happened to the Body, this theory explains #2- even if someone else had stolen the body and that made the disciples believe he was resurrected, this doesn't explain their belief of having many encounters with him afterwards.
And for #3 and #4, why wasn't the body simply produced when all of the rumors and craziness started happening? That would have killed everything.
As for #5, the belief that Jesus was raised from the dead, that's what all of the above arguments have been trying to lead to. Obviously, there is no concrete, absolute proof of this. But I'm sure there's a lot more evidence than many people expected, and I know COOLmac has more, and on the internet, in bookstores, etc. there's lots more too.
Ultimately, it comes down to belief- I just believe that there's lots of good reasons to do so.
And finally, I know that a lot of this "evidence" or arguements depend on:
how accurate is the Bible? We should definitely go into this topic soon...
Last edited by
bullsfan009 on Fri May 06, 2005 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.