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Did the Resurrection Actually Happen?
- Rev Gilbert Wong Did the resurrection truly happen? Can we continue to declare that God raised Jesus from the dead? In today’s scientific world, can we prove anything from the Gospels? For the ‘modern’ people, of course, the idea of a resurrection is a historical impossibility. The dead simply do not rise. Nevertheless, the New Testament authors bear consistent witness to the resurrection of Jesus as a historical fact. In making this claim, they appeal to the empty tomb and to the appearances of the resurrected Jesus. How strong is the caser for Jesus’ resurrection? The Gospels report that the tomb was empty on Easter. And they assert that the empty tomb is a sign that Jesus triumphed over death. We can access this appeal to the empty tomb by surveying the alternate explanation.
But the Gospels report that many other persons, including the disciples, viewed the same tomb. It seems unlikely that so many would make the same mistake about the place where Jesus’ body had been laid.
This was the theory that the guards were bribed to circulate (Matthew 28:11-15). Yet the persons who purportedly perpetrated such a hoax (the disciples) were subsequently willing to die as martyrs for their declaration that Jesus had risen. Is it likely that they would have suffered to that extent for what they knew was a lie?
But would they not have squashed the entire Christian movement by merely producing the body when the story of Jesus’ resurrection began to circulate in the city?
But how likely is it Jesus could have pulled off such a hoax? He barely survived the ordeal of the final hours of Passion Week. Could he really have been in sufficient physical shape a few days later to convince his unsuspecting disciples that he had conquered death? The New Testament accounts for the empty tomb by declaring that God raised Jesus from the dead. The alternate explanations lack plausibility. The New Testament writers also appeal to purported appearances of the risen Lord. The resurrection must be a historical event, they argue, because many people saw Jesus alive after Easter. Does this explanation merit our acceptance? Again we must appraise the alternate theories.
But in what may be the earliest written assertion of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3-8), Paul appeals to living witnesses. He invites his readers to check out the story by contacting the persons who were there.
But the experiences of the risen Lord do not occur in the kinds of situations that are conducive to this phenomenon. There is neither a strong inward desire nor a predisposing outward setting. On the contrary, the followers of Jesus saw no hope of seeing their master again after his crashing death. And the settings of the appearances were varied in location and in time of day. Nor were these experiences merely personal, subjective visions. Instead, they were apprehended by several persons simultaneously. The empty tomb and the appearances of the risen Lord substantiate the claim, “He is risen from the dead.” We can draw confirming evidence from two additional sources. First, Easter resulted in a change in the day of worship among the disciples of Jesus. These people were steeped in the strict Jewish heritage of Sabbath (Saturday) worship. Nevertheless, soon after the events of the Holy Week the early believers began to gather on the first day of the week – “the Lord’s Day – to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; Revelation 1:10). Second, Easter also sparked the phenomenal growth of the infant church. A company of believers sprang forth among pious Jews (Acts 2:41, 47). And in a few years the message about Jesus’ resurrection had become a potent force in the entire Roman world (Romans 10:18; Colossians 1:6). All the above ought to give us the confidence as we, following the early believers, boldly proclaim that God raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:32-36; 13:32-39; 17:18; 1 Corinthians 15:14-17). Indeed, our Lord’s resurrection lies at the heart of Christian faith itself (Romans 10:9). It stands as the sign of his divine identity (Romans 1:4), because the Resurrection is God’s confirmation of Jesus’ understanding of himself and his mission. Jesus’ resurrection is not only crucial to our apologetics, however. It is essential to our experience of Christ as his modern-day disciples. The Resurrection provides the link between our present experience and the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth. The Resurrection guarantees that ours is nothing less than the experience of the living God. If God did not raise this Jesus from the dead, we could no longer claim to enjoy fellowship with the One whom Jesus called “Father” and whose kingdom he inaugurates. [Top] |
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Church of the Ascension, 13
Francis Thomas Drive, Singapore 359339 |