The Evidence for the Resurrection of Christ (Part 2)
Jesus’ Tomb?
Three decades ago, archaeologists found an ossuary in Jerusalem that had
what is believed to be a family tomb. This was not big news until this year when
James Cameron announced that he was filming a documentary and the Discovery
Channel aired their own documentary claiming this was the tomb of Jesus Christ.
Now, thirty years after the fact, it has been announced that “researchers have
made a new discovery that could shake Christianity off its foundation”. I have
even watched some of the more liberal ‘Christians’ come up with new theories
that make Jesus’ ascension into heaven symbolic. One priest even made the
comment that Jesus’ spirit ascended but His body remained on earth.
Why is it that each time the atheists make a claim, Christians put their faith in these wild theories even though there is no credible evidence? When researchers found a tooth of a pig some years back, it was declared to be a missing link for mankind and they used this tooth to create – not one hominid, but an entire family. Science eventually prevailed and it was proven to be a tooth of an extinct pig and not the imaginary ‘Nebraska Man’ created from the imaginations of evolutionists. The evidence of Jesus’ tomb is on par with the pig’s tooth – a speck of evidence and a ton of imagination. It is such a laughable theory I originally shrugged it off; however, since I have seen so much concern over the topic among Christians, I have decided to add a brief segment into this study.
The arguments for the tomb of Jesus are so easily refuted, that no rational person would give them any credibility and a couple of paragraphs should sufficiently aid the Christian with all the information that is needed. The first thing that should be noted is that the archaeologists that discovered the tomb did not see any significance in the names at all as related to Jesus Christ (and still do not). Why? These names were so common during the era of Christ, that it is not surprising at all to see them together. Think about the scriptures. In the four gospels, three Mary’s are directly involved with Jesus. There could have been more, but the fact that in one place you see three people named Mary should be sufficient evidence that the name is quite common. The same is true for the name ‘Jesus’. Jesus was the third most common name in Israel during the era of the tomb. Evidence for this is also found in scripture. In Colossians 4:11 Paul introduces one of his workers as Jesus whom they call Justus.
The Tomb of Jesus theory claims that the odds that Jesus and Mary being in the same tomb together is rare and proves Jesus married Mary Magdalene. This is like saying the odds of a man named Steve being married to a woman named Mary is nearly impossible. Since these two names are common in America, you may find dozens of Steve’s and Mary’s joined together in marriage. Critics of the Bible also claim that Mary’s tomb has the name ‘Magdalene’ over the tomb. This is an attempt at deception. The name on the tomb is ‘Miriamne’ which is a Greek name. Cameron is claiming that this is the Greek translation of ‘Magdalene’. There are two flaws with this statement, first, it is pure speculation that this Greek name means Magdalene and researchers have not made this connection – only Hollywood has. Second, why would a Jewish woman have a Greek name put on her tomb?
Those who promote the Jesus Tomb theory claim that they have absolute evidence through DNA testing. The claim of DNA evidence serves only one purpose – to make the theory sound scientific. Just think about it for a moment. How does DNA evidence identify a body? It is compared to a known source. To identify a body in crime, DNA is taken from the body and compared to either existing DNA obtained from the person before death or by comparing it to either parents or children in order to draw reasonable certainty that this person is a match. You can obtain DNA evidence at any time, but you cannot use this DNA until you have something to compare it against. Without a person that is a relative, the DNA evidence sits in a file until a relative comes forward. The DNA evidence used to ‘discredit’ the resurrection is worthless because there is nothing to compare it against – other than the imaginations of the directors of this project. They throw this around as evidence solely because they know most people have a high respect for DNA evidence but do not understand how it works. Your ignorance is the key to their theory.
The name Matthew was also found in the tomb and it is supposedly evidence that it is Jesus’ tomb. Once again, this is a very common name; however, why weren’t the other disciples buried in the tomb? If you notice, the only names that have been the target of attention are the ones that are common to names found in the Bible. When they figure their odds that they broadcasted as evidence, they only chose the names that would increase their argument and ignored the rest. There were nine ossuaries in this tomb, six had names, three did not. Hollywood only acknowledged the three that would fit their argument, but ignored the three that did not. If the three conflicting names were mentioned, most people would doubt this 'revolutionary' theory. Just like evolution, the atheist only acknowledges the evidence that makes the theory seem credible and discards the rest and even pretends that conflicting evidence does not exist.
The strongest evidence against the Tomb of Jesus theory is the location of the tomb. At least the swoon theory had the foresight to put Jesus in a far away place, but the new theory puts Jesus right in the middle of Jerusalem. Think about the implications of this for a few moments. The church is now growing at an alarming rate, the Jewish religious leaders are doing everything in their power to stop this new faith, the apostles are being beaten, threatened, jailed and killed for their claims that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. Doesn’t it seem a little odd to say that Jesus was living openly in Jerusalem – the hotbed of controversy – and no one thought to point down the street and say, “Why is Jesus living down the road with his children?” The irony almost makes me laugh. The entire Christian belief system would crumble and the early church with it if Jesus was on the streets of Jerusalem. If these were just a bunch of cult followers, they would have rewritten the Bible to fit the evidence and would have made Jesus into a cult leader instead of a risen Savior. This would include rewriting the Old Testament that foretells that His life would be taken from the land of the living (Isaiah 53:8).
Anyone who puts any faith at all in this theory should also take a moment to pay homage to their pig’s tooth.
The stolen body theory. This is the only counter-argument that is even remotely logical. It also has flaws that can’t be explained. First, who stole the body? It is undeniable that the body of Jesus was no longer in the grave. The disciples, Jews and Roman soldiers all concurred that the body was missing. As one historian put it, "history’s silence is deafening concerning the body of Jesus. No one has ever claimed to see the body of Jesus after the resurrection." If the Jews or Romans stole it, they would have produced it. All of the efforts to squelch Christianity and the determination to explain away the resurrection would have ended quickly if someone produced the body. We know that the soldiers did not have it or they would have surely produced it. They were paid for their silence, how much would they have been paid if they produced the body? There would have been no need to think up and rehearse the story of the disciples stealing it if the soldiers had it. We know the Jews didn’t have it, because they would have been the first to put it on display. This only leaves the disciples or the resurrection.
Lets look at the possibility that the disciples took Jesus’ body. When Jesus was arrested, the disciples scattered like cowards. Peter was the boldest of the 12 and he denied Jesus 3 times. To show how cowardly he was at this point, he was afraid of a servant girl who probably had no say in that culture at all. Yet when she confronted Peter he called curses down upon himself to prove he did not follow Jesus. They were too afraid to come forward to take Jesus down and help with the burial. How is it that they would suddenly be bold enough to risk certain death and sneak among the guards, break the seal, move the stone without rousing anyone and take the body. Also consider that the head cloth was neatly folded and laid beside the burial cloth. Anyone sneaking into the tomb would be hastily retreating after getting the body. They would not take the time to remove the burial cloth and then neatly fold it. How would a stolen body suddenly empower 11 men who were hiding from the Jews to go out and begin preaching His resurrection boldly before the same leaders they feared? What would make eleven men rejoice at being beaten, imprisoned and then put through painful deaths? A stolen corpse? This argument also does not hold water.
The final possibility is that Jesus was resurrected. We see that all the evidence against the resurrection falls short, but what evidence lends credibility to the resurrection? Let’s begin by examining the disciples. These men fled in all directions when Jesus was arrested and they did not offer any defense on His behalf. After the resurrection there was a dramatic change in their lives. These men who were afraid to be present at Jesus’ burial now were going into the very city where the crucifixion occurred and were boldly proclaiming His resurrection at their own peril. The crowds were still present and so were the council members that tried Jesus and the soldiers who crucified Him. Why would they suddenly have such a change of heart that they would preach the same Jesus that they had just denied? Not only did they preach the resurrection, but they also condemned those responsible for His death and called them to repent so they could be forgiven. To create a legend, you don’t go where the eyewitnesses are and exaggerate when the facts are still fresh. Legends are born by carrying the story to a distant land or waiting until the facts have faded. The disciples went to where the fire was still hot. They proclaimed the resurrection to those whom they knew would examine the facts.
There were many eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ. Look at Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 15:
6 After that He was seen by over five hundred
brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have
fallen asleep.
7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
Paul presented his claim before those that could question him and in fact is inviting them to question. He is saying that most of these witnesses are still alive and available to examine.
People may be willing to die for what they believe to be true, but who would die for what they knew to be a lie? The eleven disciples saw Jesus die. They gained absolutely no financial gain from this faith; indeed we see just the opposite, they lost everything except their joy and the hope of heaven. When Jesus was alive, their hope was their expectation of an earthly kingdom. After the resurrection, they lived for Christ with reckless abandon as they were committed to the hope given to them for the eternal life and the kingdom of God to come. Only John died of old age; however, he was beaten, imprisoned and banished to the isle of Patmos. Patmos was a penal colony where criminals were sent to die either from starvation or from the hands of other criminals. Each of the other disciples were beaten repeatedly and eventually killed. Look at how Jesus' disciples died and determine if this sounds like men clinging to a lie:
Matthew was slain in Ethiopia
Mark dragged through the streets until dead
Peter and Simeon were crucified
Andrew crucified
James beheaded
Philip was crucified
Bartholomew flayed alive
Thomas pierced with lances
James, the less, thrown from the temple and stoned to death
Jude shot to death with arrows
Paul was boiled in hot oil and beheaded
All of these men could have lived if they had said one statement: "He is dead",
but they refused. The list above accounts of their deaths but they also endured
hardship, imprisonment and beatings and torture. Paul was stoned and
survived. He was beaten with 40 stripes from a cat of nine tails on 5 occasions,
beaten with rods 3 times,
and imprisoned repeatedly. Similar stories follow the other apostles.
Bartholomew was crucified twice. He was first nailed to the cross and then
brought down by the Roman Emperor and set free. Not even a fool would have
continued to spread a lie after this encounter, yet Bartholomew recovered and
went on spreading the gospel until he was captured again and crucified a second
time. The disciples lost everything but stated that they joyfully endured the
plundering of their goods knowing that a better inheritance awaited them at the
resurrection.
The disciples lived lives that would be considered sheer misery by the world,
yet they rejoiced in their sufferings. Not one of them caved in and chose the
easy life. Can anyone believe that not one of these men would deny his
resurrection unless they absolutely witnessed the resurrected Christ? What did
they have to gain by forming this kind of religion? They lost property and often
were abandoned by friends and family. Even if you could believe that these men
were willing to suffer for a lie, would they be willing to draw their own
friends and families into suffering? They may have suffered for Christ on the
outside, but they rejoiced openly and lived with joy and peace that their
captors did not have and could not understand. Throughout history, many of the
very people who have persecuted Christians have become Christians. As they saw
the strength, joy and peace that defied logic, they saw their own lives as
meaningless. There are many testimonies of captors who witnessed persecution who
said, "I want what that person has".
If Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body of Jesus in hopes of being religious
elitist, they would have given up when the illusions of grandeur proved to be a
failure. If it were a lie, they would have quickly grown tired of the beatings
and other punishments. Look at James, the brother of Jesus. He rejected Jesus
during His life. I am sure that he thought of his older brother as just another
sibling and a delusional one at that. Yet after seeing the resurrected Christ
James was a changed man as well. He no longer called himself the brother of
Jesus but a bondservant of Christ. Not a single critic ever questioned that the
tomb was empty. There was no doubt of this fact. The real question is, which
testimony do you believe? Those who reject Christ or those who were eye witness
testimonies to His resurrection and GLADLY suffered for their proclamation of
this truth?
Are the gospels reliable? What about the differences? One of the biggest
arguments against the gospels is that they have slight differences. The irony is
that if all the gospels were identical, they would have zero credibility. These
same critics would say they were written by the same person. In truth, the
differences between the gospels are not contradictions but the eyewitness
testimonies written from different perspectives each testifying to the same
truth. Critics of the gospels argue both sides and don’t see their own
contradiction. Skeptics claim that the later church doctored the manuscripts to
support their beliefs and then these same critics point out the differences as
proof of error. First, if the later church had doctored the manuscripts, why
didn’t they fix the differences? Second, we know the manuscripts were not
doctored because we now have documents dating back before the ‘questionable’ era
and there are virtually no differences. By all standards, even the harshest
critics agree that the scriptures have maintained an incredible accuracy over
the centuries.
Also consider the testimonial aspect. If three witnesses testified to being eyewitnesses to an event and their stories matched completely with the exception of a few supporting details, would that evidence be valid? By all standards it would. In fact, if there were no differences, it would raise serious doubts to their credibility. The scriptures provide Matthew, Mark and John as eyewitness accounts to the life of Christ and they all agree. Luke comes in as a character witness that makes an airtight case. Luke was not an eyewitness. Luke wanted to do two things. He wanted to give Theophilus a complete explanation of who Jesus was and he wanted to compile all the testimonies that had been handed down 2nd and 3rd hand from eyewitnesses. This is an extremely important testimony. This is how we know if the word and doctrine handed down agrees with the events that actually occurred. The gospels were not widely known at the time. The differences in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John prove that the each of the apostles wrote from their own eyewitness perspective. The gospel of Luke proves that the gospel was accurately handed down without becoming sensationalized. There is virtually no difference between Luke’s account that was passed by testimony and the apostle’s accounts that were witnessed directly. These three witnesses and the character witness of Luke would hold up under any cross-examination.
The earliest apostle writings can be dated back to eyewitnesses. You can’t make that claim from other religions. Christianity was written down closer to the actual events than other religions. The Gathas of Zoroaster were estimated around 1000 BC but didn't make it into writings until after the third century AD and the most popular Parsi biography was written in 1278. Buddha lived in the sixth century BC, but the scriptures of Buddha were not written until the first century AD. Muhammad died in 632 AD but his sayings were not written for more than 100 years, 767 AD. Unlike other religions, outside the Bible there are many supporting witnesses that verify the accuracy of the accounts of scripture. Without the Bible, we can prove through historical evidence that:
Jesus was a Jewish teacher
Many people credited Jesus with healing and exorcisms
People believed He was the Messiah
He was rejected by the Jewish leaders
He was crucified under Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius
After his shameful death, His followers believed he was still alive and this
faith spread to the multitudes throughout Rome by AD 64
The Christian faith was held dear by all manner of people; women, men, slave,
free, rich, poor.
Those who converted, worshipped Jesus as God.
There are also tens of thousands of archaeological discoveries that validate the
scriptures and silence criticism.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a fact of history and applies to every person’s life. Because Jesus died, our debt was paid. Jesus’ last words on the cross was, "It is finished", the debt has been paid. His death on the cross paid the debt for your sin and His resurrection gives you life. Romans 10 says:
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in
your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put
to shame."
Salvation depends on the resurrected Christ. When you believe and confess Him as your Savior, you will no longer have to fear the shame of your sins and no longer have to fear God’s holy judgment for sins. The Bible says that Jesus came into the world and that the world was made through Him. As many as receive Him, to them He gives the right to become the children of God (John 1). It is not automatic, we must acknowledge Him as Lord. The Bible also says that we must count our lives as a loss and receive new life through Him. He died to take your debt to sin and exchange His righteousness in its place. When we receive Christ, we literally become the righteousness of God so that we are completely justified before Him. It is no longer your ‘falling short’ but the gift of righteousness credited into your life because of your faith and trust in Christ. If you have never received Jesus as your Lord and you would like this new life, just say this simple prayer. The words are not what is important, it is your heart felt submission to Christ and faith – believing in the completed justification Jesus Christ provided to you on the cross.
"My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" The cry of Jesus on the cross as He bore the pain of your sin and the fullness of His humanity suffered for your sake. Though He was fully God as the Bible claims, He was also complete in His humanity. To suffer for your own guilt causes us all to have pain. Consider what it is like to suffer the guilt and shame for the actions of someone else. To be unjustly accused and punished for the sins of someone else is harder to take than suffering the consequences of your own actions. Yet this is exactly what Jesus willingly did for you. He bore the weight of your guilt and the wrath of God against sin so that you might become the righteousness of God through faith in Him. Jesus cried, "It is finished!" Your debt was paid in full. Do you want to let go of your debt and exchange the guilt of that debt for the righteousness of God? Invite Jesus Christ to be Lord of your life and your Savior today. Hope and salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone and only Jesus proved to be our Savior by His death, burial and resurrection.
Eddie Snipes
Exchanged Life Outreach
http://www.exchangedlife.com
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