The Resurrection

John ♦ March 13, 2011 ♦ Leave Your Comment

If there is a God, who wishes for mankind to be involved with His purposes, it would seem necessary for this God to leave some sort of evidence or instruction concerning both His existence and requirements. After all, how could the lesser being understand the greater, unless the greater reveal Himself?  And how could the greater justly hold the lesser to account for purposes beyond his ken?

Of the world’s great religions, only Christianity stands or falls based upon a supernatural, historical event[1]. If Jesus of Nazareth did not rise from the dead after crucifixion, then He is not the Christ, not the Son of God, and all of Christianity is false. If He did rise from the dead, then that resurrection provides supernatural proof of His Deity, thereby demonstrating the truth of Christianity’s claims concerning the relationship of God to man.

We are very fortunate today to possess the written Affidavits of the witnesses to this world-changing, historic event[2]. Among the numerous documents bequeathed to us by those thus touched by the Divine are four narrative accounts, known today as ‘Gospels’. Each of these gospels was either authored by an eyewitness (Matthew and John), or by one of their close associates based upon the testimony of the eyewitnesses (Luke and Mark).  Each writer and each witness risked their personal safety, and many sacrificed their lives rather than renounce their testimony, thus providing compelling evidence of their sincerity.

In historical terms, eyewitness narrative reports are the exception, not the rule. And it is almost unheard of for an ancient historical event to be documented by four such accounts. Consequently the resurrection of Christ is better attested historically than many ‘facts’ that we take for granted[3].

Attestation for the authenticity of the gospels occurred uniformly among early Christians. Men such as Clement of Rome, a disciple and follower of the apostles Peter and Paul, supported this testimony both through citation[4] of the gospels and through endorsement of the gospel message concerning the resurrection[5]. Ignatius of Antioch[6] and Polycarp of Smyrna[7], who also knew Jesus’ disciples personally, cited from these gospels accounts in order to invoke apostolic authority among early Christians. And Papias of Hierapolis preserved the circumstances under which the Gospels of Matthew and Mark were written, claiming to have received this information from Jesus’ own disciple John[8]. Later Christians followed suit, with the result that no manuscript of or citation from the canonical gospels has ever been attributed to anyone other than that writer whose name appears on that gospel in a modern Bible.

 Isn’t this the sort of evidence one would expect from a righteous God?