Did Jesus Rise?

On Thursday, Mr. Wallace Smith followed up on his previous forum on establishing pillars. He explained that after that forum, he received questions concerning why he placed Jesus Christ as the Son of God as his second pillar and the Bible as His Word as his third. 

Mr. Smith first clarified that he believes the Bible is the word of God. That is an unshakeable pillar he has established. Yet for him, personally, the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is His second pillar, second to his first, which is that God exists. He guided us to 1 Corinthians 15, which states, “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty.” This is a simple statement that tells us that if Christ was not raised from the dead, then He is not the Son of God, and everything He taught is futile. 

How can we know Christ rose from the dead in addition to simply trusting the Bible? Mr. Smith felt it necessary to teach us to defend this question. He said that even if we treat the Bible as if it weren’t the word of God, as just a historical book, we can still come to the same conclusion. 

Mr. Smith read a quote that the New Testament qualifies as one of the finest historical documents ever written. He brought out aspects from the Bible that make this statement accurate:

• It’s not one book but many little accounts from several authors
• Many of the events were written extremely close to those described 
• Small, unimportant details corroborated by multiple sources inside and outside the collection
• It contains embarrassing elements 
• Passes even statistical tests that ancient writers could not have anticipated 

Mr. Smith said these points were not to prove that the Bible is the word of God but a reliable historical text. He explained that there are facts even many professional Bible skeptics do not deny. He dove into three significant facts that these skeptics are willing to admit, which prove Jesus rose from the dead.

1. His tomb was found empty. 

Testimony from the first-century Jewish leaders, enemies of Christ’s church, support this. If this claim were false, Jewish leaders would have produced the body.

2. His disciples believed He appeared to them alive after His death. 

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul states that over 500 people saw Christ. Even skeptics do not deny that he wrote this approximately 20 years after the event. Paul says that most of the 500 were still alive to his day. He says, “Don’t believe me; ask the multitude of eyewitnesses who saw Christ.” Historian Josephus wrote in 66 A.D. that the disciples believed Christ was alive again after His crucifixion. 

3. The disciples went out proclaiming His resurrection even in the face of martyrdom.

No serious person denies the fact that the disciples faced extreme persecution for their preaching because of the amount of evidence and writings backing this claim.

What is the reason that these men would be willing to face this type of suffering? Mr. Smith shared with us three of the more popular false explanations that try to explain… without admitting that Christ is the Son of God and was raised from the dead. 

1. He faked His death.

Aside from how crazy the statement is, using the above facts, it is easily disproven. The disciples believed He was there with them alive after His death; if He never really died, then His disciples wouldn’t believe he rose from the dead. Beyond that, if they understood that He didn’t rise from the dead versus a battered and bleeding individual who had simply barely escaped death, then they would not be convicted to stand in the face of martyrdom for holding onto that belief.

2. The disciples stole the body.

Again, if the disciples had known they had the body somewhere, they would not have honestly believed He had risen. They also would have eventually broken under the persecution they faced.

3. The disciples hallucinated that they saw Him.

If they hallucinated the entire thing, there would have been a body in the tomb that the Jewish leaders could have shown to disprove them.

Mr. Smith demonstrated to the LE students that even if you view the Bible as a historical text, there is ample evidence that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He rose from the dead, and everything Christ spoke and taught is valid.

We are grateful for the knowledge that can assist us in being better apologetics to our faith!