Facts Relevant to the Resurrection

1. Facts Relevant to the Resurrection 187

2. Jesus of Nazareth • Jewish prophet • Claimed to be the Christ prophesied in Jewish Scriptures 188

3. He was crucified • 3 days after his burial, the women found the body gone 189

4. Disciples claimed God raised Him from the dead and He appeared to them several times before ascending to heaven 190

5. 191 The Resurrection is a time-space dimension event in history

6. Jesus was physically alive, then dead • Was placed in a definite geological location – a tomb 192

7. Guards were placed at the tomb • 500 people saw Him alive after His death 193

8. Testimony of History and Law 194

9. George Eldon Ladd 195 “The only rational explanation for these historical facts is that God raised Jesus in bodily form.”

10. “I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them… Thomas ArnoldAuthor: 3-volume History of Rome 196

11. …I know of no one fact in the history of mankind, which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort to the understanding of a fair inquirer… Thomas ArnoldAuthor: 3-volume History of Rome 197

12. …than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.” Thomas ArnoldAuthor: 3-volume History of Rome 198

13. “Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historical incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ… Brooke Foss Westcott English Scholar/Literary Giant 199

14. …Nothing but the anteceded assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it.” Brooke Foss Westcott English Scholar/Literary Giant 200

15. “If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable according to the canons of historical research to conclude that the tomb… Dr. Paul MaierWestern Michigan University 201

16. …in which Jesus was buried was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter.” Dr. Paul Maier Western Michigan University 202

17. He was trained in examining the evidence to report the truth about stories. He thought the life of Christ was the most beautiful lifestyle, but… Dr. Frank Morrison Journalist 203

18. …regarding the resurrection thought somebody tacked a myth onto the beautiful life of Christ. Dr. Frank Morrison Journalist 204

19. …He decided to write a book to refute the myth of the resurrection. While doing research in Palestine, he became a believer. Dr. Frank Morrison Journalist 205

20. Wrote Who Moved the Stone?Chapter 1: “The Book That Refused to Be Written.” Dr. Frank Morrison Journalist 206

21. Dr. Simon GreenleafHarvard University Law 207 Not a believer, he used to put down the Christians in his law classes.

22. Dr. Simon GreenleafHarvard University Law 208 …One year, Christian students challenged him to take his three volumes on the Laws of Legal Evidence and apply the principles to evidence for the resurrection of Christ…

23. Dr. Simon GreenleafHarvard University Law 209 …In the process, he became a believer and concluded “the resurrection is one of the best established facts of history.”

24. Dr. Simon GreenleafHarvard University Law 210 It is impossible that the apostles “could have persisted in affirming the truths they had narrated…

25. Dr. Simon GreenleafHarvard University Law 211 …had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.”

26. Dr. Simon GreenleafHarvard University Law 212 Greenleaf concludes that the resurrection of Christ is one of the best-supported events in history according to the laws of legal evidence administered in courts of justice.

27. Lord DarlingFormer Chief Justice Great Britain “In its favor as a living truth there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial… 213

28. Lord DarlingFormer Chief Justice Great Britain …that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true.” 214

29. Pamela BinningsEwenPartner-International Law Firm “The historical, documentary, archaeological, and other evidence that has been presented to the jury is sufficient… 215

30. Pamela BinningsEwenPartner-International Law Firm …by more than a preponderance that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as reported in the Gospels actually did occur as a historical fact.” 216

31. Sir Lionel Luckhoo “I have been fortunate to secure a number of successes in jury trials and I say unequivocally the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ… 217

32. Sir Lionel Luckhoo …is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.” 218

33. Stephen Davis Philosopher “It seems clear – indeed, axiomatic –that if the resurrection of Jesus actually occurred, then it is a fact about the past as it occurred… 219

34. Stephen Davis Philosopher …And if the world of history is understood as the events that occurred in the real past and that historians attempt to discover, then it follows that the resurrection of Jesus was an event in history.” 220

35. “The hypothesis of the resurrection is both verifiable and falsifiable:… Dr. William Lane Craig 221

36. Dr. William Lane Craig …Verifiable through proving the historicity of the empty tomb, the appearances and the origin of the Christian Way;… 222

37. Dr. William Lane Craig …Falsifiable by either disproving the above or providing naturalistic explanations of them... 223

38. Dr. William Lane Craig …In fact, I should go so far as to say that there is not a single event in the resurrection narratives that is not in principle historically verifiable or falsifiable.” 224

39. Dr. William Lane Craig “When you... [use] the ordinary canons of historical assessment, the best explanation for the facts is that God raised Jesus from the dead.” 225

40. “The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the ‘Christ-myth’ theories.” F.F. Bruce 226

41. Pamela BinningsEwenPartner-International Law Firm “The Gospels are documents of the requisite age, coming from the proper custody, and free of suspicious appearances… 227

42. Pamela BinningsEwenPartner-International Law Firm …they meet all of the requirements for authentication under the rules of evidence.” 228

43. Pamela BinningsEwenPartner-International Law Firm “To understand the shattering impact of it, you would need to know the man (who has certainly never since shown any interest in Christianity… 229

44. Pamela BinningsEwenPartner-International Law Firm …If he, the cynic of cynics, the toughest of the tough, were not – as I would still have put it – ‘safe,’ where could I turn? Was there no escape?... 230

45. Pamela BinningsEwenPartner-International Law Firm …brought kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting eyes in every direction for a chance of escape.” 231

46. “Early in 1926, the hardest-boiled of all the atheists I ever knew sat in my room on the other side of the fire and remarked that the evidence… C.S. Lewis Author 232

47. C.S. Lewis Author …for the historicity of the Gospels was really surprisingly good.” 233

48. “All that stuff of Frazer’s about the Dying God…It almost looks as if it really happened once.” Atheist Talking to C.S. Lewis 234

49. “It seemed very clear.I didn’t see any other explanation in history for what happened.” Anne Rice Novelist 235

50. 236