DID JESUS REALLY RISE FROM THE DEAD?

1. DID JESUS REALLY RISE FROM THE DEAD? WHAT SCHOLARS SAY Gary Habermas, The Risen Jesus and Future Hope~Citing from 1,400 critical scholarly works, 1975 – 2003

2. Twelve points of historical agreement: 1. Jesus died by Roman crucifixion. 2. He was buried (most likely in a private tomb). 3. The bereaved disciples lost hope – became discouraged and despondent. 4. Jesus’ tomb was found empty very soon after his internment.

3. Twelve points of historical agreement: 5. The disciples had experiences that they believed were actual appearances of the risen Jesus. 6. The disciples’ lives were totally transformed by these post-Resurrection experiences. 7. The proclamation of the Resurrection took place very early – from the beginning of Church History.

4. Twelve points of historical agreement: 8. The disciples’ public testimony and preaching of the Resurrection took place in the City of Jerusalem. Where Jesus had been crucified and buried shortly before. • The Gospel Message centered on the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. • Sunday became the primary day for gathering and worshiping. ** [Note the progressive change of leadership from Messianic(Hebrew) to Hellenistic (Greek) dominance.]

5. Twelve points of historical agreement: 11. James, the brother of Jesus and a skeptic before this time, was converted when he believed he also saw the risen Jesus. (James became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem during the Diaspora – see Acts 15, and later he wrote the letter that became the Book of James in our New Testament.) 12. Just a few years later, Saul of Tarsus (Paul) became a Christian believer, due to an experience that he also believed was an appearance of the risen Jesus. (This occurred while Paul was on the road to Damascus to put more believers of Jesus in jail – see Acts 9).

6. THREE KEY AFFIRMATIONS: 1. The New Testament Story is History – Not a Legend! ** Note the “overlap” here – a Review of key points from our last two chapters: a. The N.T. documents were written within two generations of the events described by eyewitnesses or their contemporaries. b. The N.T. storyline is corroborated by non-Christian sources. c. The N.T. mentions at least 30 historical figures the existence of whom has been confirmed by sources outside of the New Testament.

7. THREE KEY AFFIRMATIONS: 2. The New Testament Story is True – It is Not a Lie! The New Testament writers included: a. Divergent and Embarrassing Details. b. Difficult and Demanding Sayings of Jesus. c. Facts known to and/or easily verifiable by their readers. ** In addition, these men endured intense persecution, torture and martyrdom. No one would do so for what they knew to be a lie!

8. THREE KEY AFFIRMATIONS: 3. The New Testament accounts are written as a simple Narrative Story – There are No Embellishments! a. The N.T. writers meticulously accurate; they included more than 140 historical details confirmed by both archaeology and non-Christian historical sources. b. Within these historical narratives the N.T. writers included the accounts of miracles without embellishment or significant theological comment.

9. TTHE TEN RECORDED APPEARANCES OF JESUS Table 12.1 in our Text, page 303 The Table is Titled “The Twelve Appearances. . . .” Two of these are not actually “appearances of Jesus.” Rather, the table documents the scriptural references for both those who discovered / observed the empty tomb and the ten actual appearances of Jesus to individuals after His Resurrection.

10. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: The only possibility left to the skeptics is that the New Testament writers truly did believe that what they wrote about was true, but they were, themselves, deceived. The “heart” of the Gospel is the Resurrection of Jesus. Skeptics’ Alternate Explanations for “the Resurrection of Jesus” and Our Response:

11. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: 1. “The Hallucination” Theory – the disciples were deceived in that they thought that they saw the post-resurrected Jesus, but these were hallucinatory experiences.

12. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: Our Response – Hallucinations, like dreams, are phenomena experienced by only one person. Groups do not have hallucinations or dreams. Table 12.1 of our Text enumerates the twelve biblical accounts of the post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus to more than 500 people in various settings over a 40 day period plus His appearance to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus recorded for us in Acts 9.

13. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: 2. “The Witnesses Went to The Wrong Tomb” Theory. Our Response – First, if the disciples had gone to the wrong tomb, the chief priests and elders of the Jews would have certainly gone to the right tomb, and they would have paraded Jesus’ corpse through the city streets of Jerusalem to counter the lie the disciples were trying to perpetuate.

14. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: Second, skeptics and critics must not only answer the first flaw in their “theory,” but they must also explain the dozen or so post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus to more than 500 witnesses over the ensuing forty (40) days!

15. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: 3. The “Swoon” or “Apparent Death” Theory – Jesus did not really die on the Cross. He “swooned” or fainted and was alive when He was placed in the tomb. Later, He “woke up” and convinced His disciples that He had risen from the dead.

16. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: The “Swoon” or “Apparent Death” Theory – Jesus did not really die on the Cross. He “swooned” or fainted and was alive when He was placed in the tomb. Later, He “woke up” and convinced His disciples that He had risen from the dead.

17. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: (b) Modern doctors attest that “the weight of historical and medical indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted and supports the traditional view that the spear, thrust between his right rib, probably perforated not only the right lung but also the pericardium and heart and thereby ensured his death. Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge.” – Journal of the American Medical Association, March 21, 1986, and

18. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: (c) Anyone who had suffered the beatings of both the Temple Guards and the Roman Soldiers, the loss of blood from the crown of thorns pressed into his scalp, but especially the flogging by the Roman lash, and was impaled on a wooden cross with iron spikes driven through both wrists and ankles and suspended in agony for at least 9 hours, and who then had his side deeply pierced by a Roman battle spear, who never have been able to arise on his own and convinceanyonethat he was risen from the dead! Such a preposterous scenario is ludicrous beyond belief!

19. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: 4. “The Disciples Stole the Body” Theory. Our Response – This “theory” stands in direct contradiction to the preceding one in that this “theory” makes the disciples the deceivers and not the deceived. In addition it (a) stands in direct contradiction to all of the statements of the Gospel writers, Paul the Apostle and the non-Christian historians who write of the resurrection in their historical documents, and (b) it once again begs the question that one would suffer torture and death for an obvious “con-job!”

20. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: 5. “A Substitute Took Jesus’ Place on the Cross” Theory – The Muslims Theory as recorded in the Qur’an (Koran) which states that someone like Judas was killed in Jesus’ place.

21. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: Our Response – not only is there absolutely no evidence to support this contention, but it absolutely begs the question that Jesus’ closest followers and his own family members, including his mother, would not have realized that it was someone else, and not Jesus Himself, dying on the Cross before their very eyes!

22. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: • “The Disciples’ Faith Led Their Belief in the Resurrection” Theory – put forth by John Crossan of ‘The Jesus Seminar.’ Our Response – After Jesus’ death the disciples faith was not such as to incline to develop a Resurrection Account that they would be willing perpetuate with the result that they would be tortured and killed. Rather, it was the actual post-Resurrection repeated appearances of Jesus that radically transformed them from the cowering men secluded in the Upper Room behind barred doors to the powerful Preachers of theKerygmathat, in turn, transformed their world!

23. THE ONLY “WAY OUT” FOR THE SKEPTICS: 7. “The New Testament Writers Copied Pagan Resurrection Myths” Theory – as in those of Marduk, Adonis or Osiris. Our Response – based on the eyewitness accounts and the inclusion of real historical figures, all corroborated by independent, outside sources, for someone to believe this would show them, as C. S. Lewis notes, to be incompetent literary critics.

24. TRUE BELIEVERS MUST GO ON OFFENSE! Remember, Apologetics is more than offering a valid “defense” for what we believe and why. When answering the ‘attacks’ of the skeptics and the critics of Christianity, it is not enough to merely ‘counter-punch’ – that is, to offer reasons why their accusations are not valid. We must then go to an “Offensive Posture” and demand of them –DO YOU HAVE ANY EVIDENCE FOR THAT?

25. For a critic of our faith to put forth an “alternative theory” is unacceptable if his/her ‘accusation’ is mere speculation, something put forth without any historical or hermeneutical foundations. If such an ‘argument’ is postulated, we must ask the skeptic or critic to offer the same level of proof to validate their ‘theories” as they ask of us to refute them!

26. The only one of these so-called “alternate theories” that haws any possible foundation in history as revealed in the New Testament is the one that the disciples stole the body. This is found in Matthew 28:11-15 where it was clearly discounted as a lie, a plot concocted, and accompanied with a bribe to the Temple guards who had been assigned to guard the tomb of Jesus, by the chief priest and elders (members of the Sanhedrin that had condemned Jesus to death).

27. Skeptics and critics should be willing to bring forth first-century sources that document evidence to support their theories. It is, however, evidently clear that they are unable to do so! A last point should be made here. We have confined ourselves to a discussion of the Resurrection Accounts. Skeptics and Critics should be held to the same level of evidentiary documentation to support their attacks on the other 35 miracles of Jesus documented in the New Testament accounts of the Gospels of Jesus the Christ ~

28. A FINAL STATEMENT OF OUR FAITH – CONTEXT! CONTEXT! CONTEXT! • The Theistic Nature of the Universe Makes Miracles Possible. • Ancient Documents (the Old Testament) Prophesied That Miracles Are To Be Expected. • Historically Confirmed Eyewitness Documents (the New Testament) Attest That Miracles Actually Occurred. • Independent Ancient Historical Documents Relate the Same Basic Story Line as Our Ancient Documents, and Archaeological Discoveries Confirm the Details Contained in Our Ancient Historical Documents. In Such Context the New Testament is Shown to Be True! Hallelujah!!!