HE HAS RISEN!
Many of us know the physical, bodily Resurrection of Jesus is true, yet we struggle to explain to others why we know this to be true.
"Well you just have to believe." "You know it in your heart." or "The Bible says so." are answers that not only will fail to convince a skeptic, but will probably serve to make them believe we're a bunch of mindless, fanatics with no rational reason behind our beliefs.
JUST THE BARE FACTS, MA'AM.
How do we show that our belief is not only rational, but the best explanation of the facts?
One way is to use what has been called, "The Bare Facts" approach. To start off with, for the sake of argument, we look at the New Testament only as historic documents. From reading the New Testament as historic documents we can glean these facts that are well attested to:
1) Jesus was Crucified, died and was buried
2) His tomb was discovered empty
3) Numerous people claimed to have seen Jesus after He died
4) The Apostles completely changed their attitudes from one of fear of being killed and hiding, to preaching that Jesus had Risen to the point of being killed for it.
Any explanation of what happened in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago has to take into account these four facts. If an explanation fails to account for all four facts, it cannot be the truth.
For example some claim that Jesus didn't really die, but merely "swooned" or fainted on the cross and was actually still alive. I recently saw a whole book dedicated to this theory at our local library. This could account for the tomb being empty and numerous people claiming to have seen Him alive after His Crucifixion. However, this does not account for the complete change in the Apostles' attitudes (would a near-dead, man, who's completely beat up inspire you to preach he was resurrected or inspire you to call an ambulance?) and doesn't account for the Romans' execution efficiency. They knew death. In addition, between the scourging - which could be a death sentence itself - the spikes through His hands and feet, the spear in the side and the resulting gush of blood and water, no medical expert looking at that list of damage to the body would say that person would be up and walking in 36 hours. The late Dr. Zugibe, forensic pathologist and medical examiner studied the mechanisms of the Biblical Crucifixion of Jesus for 45 years. His book "The Crucifixion of Jesus" shows that it was not possible that Jesus was alive when he was taken down off the cross.
Skeptics will also say "The Apostles stole His Body." This would admit #1 and would account for #2, but doesn't explain #3 and #4. This is actually the oldest claim made by skeptics. The Pharisees told the tomb guards to make this claim (Mt 28:11-15). However, how many of us could really see the Disciples taking on a troop of Roman Soldiers, over powering them - but leaving them alive - and taking Jesus' body? They only had 2 swords among them, and Peter was so inept with his sword that when he had a free swing he only succeeded in cutting off some guy's ear. If he were a trained soldier, Jesus would have had to raise another person from the dead, not just heal an ear.
Otherwise how likely is it that the Apostles snuck in through the asleep guards, rolling aside a huge stone in front of the tomb, unwrapping Jesus' body and sneaking back through the guards with a dead body without waking a single one? Traditionally, if guards failed in their task their sentence was death. This is why the Pharisees had to reassure the guards that if their boss found out they would smooth things over with him.
This also does not account for the Apostles' 180 degree change: no one dies for what they know is false. If the Apostles stole Jesus' Body, they would know what they were preaching was false. All but John died in horribly slow, torturous ways. During their deaths, they were told numerous times that all they had to do was say it was a lie, and they could go free.
Take Bartholomew / Nathaniel. He was martyred by being SKINNED ALIVE! How long could you last? If you had told a lie and were being tortured to death for telling that lie. All you had to do was tell the truth and you'd be set free. HOW LONG WOULD YOU LAST? Yet all of them died proclaiming Jesus' Resurrection was TRUE!
There are other objections - the Apostles made the whole thing up, it was a mass hallucination, it was only a 'spiritual' resurrection - but in the end, only one explanation accounts for all four of the "bare minimum" facts: That "[Jesus] was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day He rose again (bodily) in accordance to the Scriptures..."
So with the confidence bolstered by logic and reason let us proclaim:
HE HAS RISEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment