Is Jesus Alive?

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest miracle of all, and the truth of the resurrection is essential to the Christian faith. In fact, the Christian faith stands or falls on the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15). Is there evidence that Jesus Christ really rose from the dead? Yes! There’s excellent evidence! Many critics who tried to disprove the resurrection actually became Christians when they investigated the evidence in detail.

A. Evidence from The Bible

We’ve established that the Bible is a reliable historical document. In fact, it’s more reliable than other ancient books. The Bible contains the reports of at least three eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Matthew, Mark and John. Critics may say, “Wait, you’re using the Bible as its own reference!” But we’ve established that the biblical records are reliable evidence. As Christians, we accept the biblical record as true because it’s the Word of God. But even for unbelievers, the biblical documents are reliable historical documents.

1. Historical Record of the New Testament Documents

Gospels: The four Gospels give detailed eyewitness accounts of the resurrected Jesus. Eyewitness accounts are important evidence that would be accepted in courts of law today.
Acts: The preaching of the Apostles stressed the resurrection, and there’s no record that anyone ever came forward to dispute or deny their teaching (see Acts 2:23-24; 4:2; 4:33; 17:31).
Epistles: The apostle Paul states that many people saw the risen Christ. On one occasion, over 500 people saw Him at once (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)! Many of those eyewitnesses were still alive to corroborate Paul’s statement, because 1 Corinthians was written only about 25 years after the resurrection. When Paul wrote this letter to the Christians at Corinth, he knew his readers accepted and believed the resurrection of Jesus without reservation. This letter would never have been accepted as undisputed truth if the resurrection had not taken place.

2. Old Testament Prophecies about the Messiah

All the Old Testament prophecies (or predictions) about the Messianic kingdom assume that the Messiah will live forever. Here are two quick examples of Old Testament prophecies about the death and resurrection of the Messiah:

Psalm 16: “You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). Jewish rabbinical tradition believed that this passage was speaking of the Messiah. While preaching to Jews, the apostle Paul used Psalm 16:10 as an example of an Old Testament prophecy that was fulfilled by the resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah (Acts 13:34-37).
Isaiah 53: This chapter gives a detailed prediction of the death (v 5-8), burial (v 9), and resurrection (v 10-12) of the Messiah.

B. Evidence from Other Sources

1. Tradition of the Empty Tomb

Over the past 2,000 years, critics have made many attempts to explain away the importance of the empty tomb. Some of these attempts are as follows:

“Story” explanation
Critic: “Christians made up the story. The empty tomb is just a legend.”
Answer: This goes against solid historical evidence. Remember, there were many non-Christian eyewitnesses of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus of Nazareth, including Roman soldiers. Probably at least four guards kept watch over the tomb, either Roman soldiers, Jewish Temple Guards, or a combination of both. But the men who guarded the tomb reported to Jewish leaders that the tomb was open and empty.
The guards and Jewish leaders were not followers of Christ, so they would have quickly denied any false stories, and shown the body if the tomb was not really empty. These details can’t be explained if the empty tomb is only a legend. The evidence is overwhelming that there was a tomb where Jesus was buried after His crucifixion, and that it was empty a few days later.
“Swoon” explanation
Critic: “Jesus didn’t really die, He only swooned, or temporarily lost consciousness, but later He revived and recovered in the tomb.”
Answer: The Roman soldiers who were in charge of the execution were very familiar with death. They would have made sure that Jesus was really dead. In addition, it’s absurd to suggest that a man who had been tortured, crucified, pronounced dead, and wrapped in grave clothes could not only survive, but recover sufficiently (without any medical treatment or assistance) to extricate himself from the grave wrappings, single-handedly push aside a one-ton stone, elude a detachment of Roman and/or Temple guards, and simply walk away!
“Stolen” explanation
Critic: “Jesus’ disciples stole His body.”
Answer: How could a small group of frightened men pull this off? A heavy, noisy rolling stone closed the opening of the tomb. It was guarded by Roman soldiers or Jewish Temple Guards (or both) and sealed with an official Roman seal. It was illegal to break into a sealed tomb. Would men who ran away in fear when Jesus was arrested suddenly become courageous enough to steal His body from a tomb that was guarded by armed soldiers? Not likely!
Furthermore, all but one of the disciples were eventually killed for being followers of Jesus. Would they have been willing to give up their lives if they knew that the resurrection was a complete hoax? Definitely not likely!

“Slow-witted” explanation
Critic: “The followers of Jesus were slow-witted, uneducated peasants, and they went to the wrong tomb.”
Answer: Many intelligent people observed the burial of Jesus in the tomb of a wealthy, well-known Jewish leader. Did everyone go to the wrong tomb? Surely Joseph of Arimathea would have known the location of his own tomb! The Roman guards and Jewish leaders certainly knew the location of the tomb. They would have quickly produced the body from the tomb to prevent the followers of Jesus from spreading the “rumor” of the resurrection.
“Stoned” explanation
Critic: “They hallucinated. They only thought they saw a resurrected Jesus Christ!”
Answer: If true, then the empty tomb would have to be a hallucination as well. Why didn’t the Jewish leaders stop the rumor that people had seen a risen Christ by producing the body of Jesus? More than 500 people at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6) saw the risen Jesus after the resurrection. Could all 500 of them have imagined it?
“Spiritual” explanation
Critic: “It was a spiritual resurrection, not a bodily resurrection.”
Answer: If it was not a bodily resurrection, the authorities would have produced the body to squelch any rumors. A “spiritual” resurrection doesn’t leave grave clothes without a body. Besides, many physical details were given by the eyewitnesses: Jesus walked, talked, was touched, and ate food. All these physical details must be explained if the resurrection was only “spiritual.”
“Supernatural” explanation
The evidence for the resurrection is so strong that it’s very hard for an honest investigator to deny it. The only reasonable explanation for the tradition of the empty tomb (and all its associated details) is that the tomb really was empty, because Jesus left it by the miracle of the resurrection.

2. Transformation of the Apostles

The disciples of Jesus changed abruptly from a scared and unsure group to courageous preachers! All of them except John died as martyrs. Men who ran away when Jesus was arrested were now willing to die. What caused the change? A fake story of a “resurrection”? No way! They changed because they knew Jesus was alive!

3. Change in Jesus’ family

According to the Scripture record, the family of Jesus went from unbelief (John 7:5) to faith in Him (Acts 1:14). Only a major event, like a resurrection, would have changed them. James and Jude, the half-brothers of Jesus, wrote books of the New Testament, and James became a leader in the Christian church in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13).

4. Conversion of Paul

Saul of Tarsus was a brilliant young Jewish rabbi who was completely convinced that Christianity was a heresy. However, after a dramatic interaction with the living Jesus, he became Paul, the Christian apostle and a leading proponent of Christianity! This man possessed one of the finest minds in history, and he was well-versed in the prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures. He became fully convinced that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah who had risen from the dead. Only an extraordinary experience can account for the radical change in such a man. In Acts 9:1-9, Paul tells the story: He saw and heard the living Jesus Christ!

5. Records of the Early Christians

Their Bible: Early Christians never questioned the accuracy of the historical records of the New Testament. There’s no evidence that the New Testament records have ever been altered or changed in any way.
Their writings: Letters, commentaries, and written church services all attest to the resurrection. These documents form a continuous overlapping chain that links early Christian writings back to the Apostles, who were eyewitnesses of the risen Christ.
Their growth: In spite of severe persecution, the Christian community grew at a phenomenal rate. Only the strong certainty of the truth of the resurrection could explain this. In fact, a large number of Jewish priests were among the earliest believers (Acts 6:7). They didn’t go along with any of the false “explanations” for the empty tomb. They believed that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead and was alive!
Their zeal: The early Christians were convinced that their message was authentic and vital. Would they have been so excited about spreading the gospel if they knew it was all a hoax?
Their deaths: The apostles and many early Christians suffered cruel and agonizing deaths rather than renounce their faith and deny that Jesus was the living LORD. Polycarp, an early Christian leader, knew the apostle John personally, and he would have most certainly questioned John closely about the details and historical accuracy of the resurrection. Persecution broke out in Polycarp’s province in 156 AD. At the age of 86, Polycarp refused to renounce his faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, crying out in the public arena, “For 86 years I have been His servant and He has never done me wrong. How can I blaspheme the King who saved me?” Polycarp was burned to death for his faith in the risen Jesus Christ.

6. Writings of Josephus

Josephus Flavius was a non-Christian Jewish historian in the 1st century. In Antiquities of the Jews, he wrote the following about Jesus: “He appeared to them [His followers] alive again on the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold…” Critics have tried to suggest that Christians inserted this statement into the writings of Josephus in the 3rd or 4th century AD. However, there’s no evidence to support the idea that his writings were “re-worked”! All the manuscripts of Josephus contain this quote, including all the early manuscripts that were translated into other languages. The possibility that anything could have been inserted into all the manuscripts is extremely unlikely.

7. Origin of the Church

The Christian Church was founded on belief in a living Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of the Old Testament Scriptures (Acts 2:22-24). Remember, the earliest Christians were Jews (Acts 6:7), who expected a Messiah who would live forever. They would never have believed in, followed, and died for a Messiah who they thought was dead!

8. Origin of Resurrection Sunday (“Easter”)

Although the name “Easter” is derived from a pagan Spring festival, the annual celebration of the resurrection day dates back from earliest times to the Sunday following the Jewish Passover. In reality, every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection that took place “on the first day of the week.”

9. Phenomenon of Sunday as the Day for Christian Worship

The earliest Christians were Jewish. They argued about many things: circumcision, the Sabbath laws, feast days, dietary laws… etc, but they never argued about worshiping on Sunday. Jewish people would never have begun to worship on any day other than the Sabbath (Saturday) without a major reason. The only reason for instituting another day of worship is that the resurrection took place on Sunday, the “first day of the week” (Luke 24:1).

Jesus never taught that the day of worship should be changed. His followers started to worship on Sunday to celebrate His resurrection day. Christian worship on every Sunday since then has been a celebration of the resurrection. Critics have a very hard time explaining how Jewish people started worshiping on Sunday, apart from recognizing that a very significant event must have taken place on Sunday.

C. Inadmissible Evidence

1. “Near Death” Experiences

We should be skeptical of reports of “near death” experiences. Often the details of these “out-of-body” experiences don’t line up with Scripture. For example, even unbelievers have had near-death experiences of “light and joy,” yet Hebrews 9:27 emphatically states, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

2. Visions

For evidence that would stand the test in a court of law, we must have eyewitness testimony of the bodily risen Jesus, not “visions.” For evidence of the resurrection in this chapter, we didn’t even use the vision of John the Apostle in the book of Revelation. However, we did use the testimony (not a “vision”) of the apostle Paul. Paul testified that, when he was an virulent unbeliever and was traveling to Damascus to persecute and kill Christians, he had an eyewitness experience of the risen Christ (Acts 9).

3. The Shroud of Turin

The Shroud of Turin is purported to be the burial shroud of Christ, with an “image of Christ” that is said to have been made by a “radiation scorch” at the time of the resurrection. There are many reasons why the Shroud of Turin is probably not authentic. If you’re interested in looking at this subject in more depth, you can read this report from Creation Ministries International.

Conclusion

As we mentioned earlier, many critics have actually turned to Christianity because of the undeniable evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

C.S. Lewis, admitted that he was forced to become a Christian against his will because he couldn’t deny the evidence for the resurrection.
Lew Wallace, the author of Ben Hur, started to write a book disproving the resurrection, but after his investigation of the evidence, he became a Christian instead!
Simon Greenleaf was a 19th century Harvard law professor whose legal writings are still used today. He tried to prove that the resurrection never occurred, but became a Christian as he examined the evidence. He then wrote a book entitled, An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice. Simon Greenleaf put the evidence for the resurrection on trial. Verdict: the resurrection won, on the basis of indisputable evidence!
Early in the 20th century, a non-Christian attorney named Frank Morrison was convinced that the resurrection was no more than a fairy tale ending to the “Christian legend.” He planned to write a book to disprove the resurrection. After examining the evidence, he became a Christian and ended up writing a very different book: Who Moved the Stone? The first chapter, entitled “The book that refused to be written,” is a description of the book he had planned to write before his mind was changed by the evidence for the resurrection!