Did Jesus rise from the dead?
We mean specifically to ask, did God raise Jesus from the dead? If the resurrection of Jesus Christ is true, then it would seem to divinely authenticate the central message of Jesus brought to the apostles. It was the message that the apostles devoted their lives to proclaiming: the gospel. For early Christians, this divine vindication was the purpose and significance of Jesus's resurrection. On the other hand,...
• The Apostle Paul: “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God… If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:14-15, 19; cf. 1 Pet 1:3)
The truth of Christianity does not depend on whether the Bible has errors or not. Instead, it is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead which is the litmus test for the Christian faith. It is the resurrection which is the appropriate target for seekers interested in assessing whether at least some kind of bare Christianity is true.
- The Historicity of Jesus' Resurrection online at infidels.org. Lowder is a responsible public debater promoting atheism, co-founder of infidels.org, and arguably one of the greatest living critics of Christianity.
- Antony Flew & Gary Habermas, “My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism" Philosophia Christi vol. 6, no. 2 (2004): 209. Flew died in 2010, but in his time was widely considered one of the greatest critics of Christianity.
• Side note: In a famous televised debate between these two specialists, one of the judges labeled the debate a draw while the four others (all philosophy professors) declared the pro case victorious. The judge declaring it a draw confessed, “I would think it was time I began to take the resurrection seriously.” Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? The Resurrection Debate (Harper & Row, 1987), xiv. Habermas was initially a skeptic himself who converted upon investigating. In a nutshell,• Stephen Davis (Religion & philosophy professor at Claremont): “…no one who denies that Jesus was raised from the dead or who offers reductive theories of the resurrection has yet been able to account adequately for these widely accepted facts. Though many have tried, no one who rejects belief in the resurrection of Jesus has been able to tell a convincing story of what occurred in the days following his resurrection.” [Risen Indeed (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1993), 180.]
• N.T. Wright (NT & Early Christianity professor at St. Andrews): “The proposal that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead possesses unrivaled power to explain the historical data at the heart of early Christianity.” [The Resurrection of the Son of God (Fortress, 2003), 718.]
Pinchas Lapide was a prominent Israeli historian, publishing over 35 books. He became so convinced by the historical evidence that God raised Jesus that, before dying a staunch Jew, he published a book on the evidence titled The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective (1977). Critics like Lapide, Lowder, and Flew often admit the evidence is strong, even if underlying philosophical objections related to God and nature prevent them from believing it or its implications. Many other critics, however, have found the evidence compelling enough even to overturn their philosophy. - Gary Habermas, “Hallucination Theories to Explain Jesus’ Resurrection?” Christian Research Journal, Vol. 23, No. 4, 2001
- This was Greg Cavin's dissertation, though in writing he assumed a basic Biblical reliability which he does not necessarily affirm.
There are strong initial reasons to doubt a good case can be made:
• That data is two thousand years old.
• The data consists of biased Christian writings.
• The event is a miracle.
But prominent atheists with exactly these surface worries, after investigating, could come out confessing:
• Jeff Lowder: “I remember thinking to myself that if I took the time to investigate the resurrection, I could make anyone who believed it look like a fool. Or so I thought. …I was about to discard [it as] ‘another illogical religious belief,’ …[yet] I found extremely difficult to deal with as a critic.”1
• Antony Flew (professor at Oxford): “The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It's outstandingly different in quality and quantity.”2
For example, historians all agree that the apostles at least believed they experienced Jesus appearing to them alive. Accounting for this without Jesus's actually rising and appearing generally requires appeal to group hallucinations. In a survey of over 1,400 academic sources, on specialist notes:
“Similar to the situation at the end of the Nineteenth Century, hallucination and related subjective approaches are again the most popular among critics”3
One atheism promoting debater did his doctoral dissertation on explaning the data and felt that the unknown twin-brother hypothesis was more defensible than the hallucination hypothesis.4
These may seem desperate, but can you look at the evidence and do better?
Jesus's body was gone from its post-crucifixion resting place.
This article analyzes five evidences,...
• Jesus's corpse was gone from the tomb.
• Critics never displayed the corpse.
• The first Christians were saying, “it's gone!”.
• The original “it's gone!” report wasn't a lie.
• People were saying, “He resurrected!”.
This is relevant because there is no easy naturalistic explanation of this fact. In fact, the naturalistic explanations of this and the other facts are arguably more improbable than God's miraculously choosing to raise Jesus from the dead.
But so what if it went missing? Plausibly…
• Jesus's body was stolen?
• Jesus survived and left the grave on his own? (having survived crucifixion)
• Humans transferred Jesus's body to a different grave? [Forthcoming]
- • Stephen Davis: “The disciples were prepared neither psychologically nor theologically for the idea of the resurrection of the crucified Messiah, and the fact that they arrived at this idea so early and so confidently needs explanation.” [Risen Indeed(Eerdmans, 1993), 184.]
• Edward Schillebeeck: “[the disciples underwent] a process of repentance and conversion which it is no longer possible to reconstruct on a historical basis.” [Jesus: An Experiment in Christology (Crossroad Publishing Co., 1979), 387.]
Shortly after Jesus’s crucifixion, a variety of different persons/groups began to testify that Jesus appeared to them alive from the dead.
This full article gives 7 examples/evidence.
• E.g. “He visited us!” says Mary & women.
• E.g. “He visited us!” says Cleopas & co.
• E.g. “He appeared to me!” says Peter.
• E.g. “He visited us!” say ‘the 12’ apostles.
• E.g. “He visited us!”say ‘The 500’.
• E.g. “He visited us!” say Acts 1 competitors.
• E.g. “He appeared to me!” says James.
• E.g. “He appeared to me!” says Paul.
• [1st church’s Jesus-bio matched witness testimony]().
• [The gospels Jesus-bio relayed witness testimony]().
This is relevant if there are no plausible alternative explanations for their experience. To the degree that their interpretation of their experience has the most power to explain their experience (over rival explanations), to a corresponding degree it is evidence for Jesus’s actually appearing to them alive from the dead, and therefore his resurrection.1
But so what? Plausibly…
• They were lying.
• They were fooled: by Jesus who faked his death.
• They were fooled: by a look-a-like impostor of Jesus.
• They were fooled: by hallucination(s) of Jesus.
• They were fooled: by aliens (e.g. a hologram).
And keep in mind…
• God would have Jesus appear to more than just the apostles.
- Jesus stands out (in history, character, etc.) as a chosen representative of God might. While God may have little reason to raise most individuals spontaneously in the middle of human history, He might nevertheless have reason to raise Jesus―to vindicate Jesus and his message. See Oxford philosopher Richard Swinburne's The Resurrection of God Incarnate (Oxford, 2003). He covers this question in depth and concludes that becoming incarnate and resurrecting is a kind of thing God might plausibly do if God existed.
- By way of response, however, the hypothesis is not that Jesus rose naturally from the dead. That, all parties agree, is absurd.
- Gerd Lüdemann, What Really Happened to Jesus (John Knox, 1995), 130.
Humans who die always naturally stay dead.
We can discuss 2 reasons to agree:
• We see an unbroken trend of humans staying dead.1
• Natural mass cell revival is wildly improbable (violating entropy).2
This is relevant because Jesus is a human who died. So, “A consistent modern view must say farewell to the resurrection of Jesus as a historical event.”1
But so what? Plausibly,…
• …God exists and had special reason to resurrect Jesus miraculously (i.e. non-naturally).1
It is false that Jesus was exected by crucifixion on a Roman cross.
This article analyzes 3 evidences, namely…
• …the crucified rarely die within three hours
• …Jesus swooned on the cross
• …Jesus was not crucified
This is relevant because if Jesus survived, then he would have never been dead and therefore could not have resurrected.
But no,…
• ...Jesus was first scourged, nearly to death.
• ...crucifixion in general is fatal.
• ...the executioner judged Jesus dead.
• ...Jesus was speared in the side.
• ...contemporaries never doubted it.
• ...the buriers judged Jesus dead.
But so what?…
• …He would have still died inside the tomb.
Jesus was resurrected by aliens. This is relevant because if aliens raised Jesus, then he rose but his resurrection was natural; his resurrection was not a supernatural miracle wrought by God.
But no, we can discuss 5 reasons to disagree, namely…
• …space-traveling aliens do not exist in the Universe
• …space-traveling aliens would not know we exist
• …aliens would have no desire to raise Jesus
• …aliens would not have the technology to resurrect humans
• …Jesus attributed the resurrection to God
Jesus is not a real historical figure.
This article analyzes 3 evidences, namely…
• …Jesus matches prior mythic deities.
• …Miracle-workers aren’t real historical figures.
• …1st century historians are silent on Jesus.
This is relevant because if Jesus never existed, then he could not have actually risen from the dead.
But no, consider 5 reasons to think Jesus did exist, namely…
• …Jesus's existence is well-reported.
• …specific things are known about Jesus.
• …early sources show no sign of doubt/debate.
• …the AD 30 Jerusalem church believed Jesus existed.
• …the AD 30 Jerusalem Jews believed Jesus existed.
Theistic explanation is illegitimate; real potential explanations cannot feature God.
This article analyzes eight evidences.
• “God-did-it” is just an appeal to ignorance-gaps.
• “God-did-it” is just an appeal to magic.
• Explanations don't compound the mystery.
• Explanations don't explain “too much”.
• Meaningful claims are verifiable (by senses).
• Meaningful claims are falsifiable/testable.
• Explanations cite effective mechanisms.
• Explanations are unificationist.
This is relevant because if miracles are not genuine historical explanations, then no miracle can be the solution to explaining this or that data. In other words, there can be no evidence for the resurrection, and so it would seem to be an unjustifiable belief.
But no, God can theoretically feature in a real potential explanation…
• All agree: outlandish evidences for God could warrant theistic conclusions.
• Theism does best explain some facts.
• Theism can be rational.