How
to Know God Exists Series
The Resurrection - Part Three
The last few months we've been
studying the resurrection of Jesus as a proof of the existence
of God. Of course, the resurrection is much more than just a way
to show God exists. It is the most compelling evidence we have
to show that it is the Christian God to whom we refer when we
speak of God's existence. It validates Jesus' teaching and His
claims of deity.
In past articles, we've already
shown how the resurrection accounts read more like history than
myth, and how the written accounts are so close to the proximity
of the events they record that any myths or legends creeping
into them is highly improbable. (If you've missed one of these
articles, they can be found online at http://www.comereason.org/newsletters/.)
This month, I'd like to more closely examine the idea of
eyewitness testimony and how it also supports the resurrection
as a matter of historic fact.
Eyewitness Testimony From Live
Witnesses
The four gospels are believed to
be written by eyewitnesses of Jesus' ministry, death, and
resurrection (Matthew and John) or by people who spoke directly
with eyewitnesses (Mark and Luke). The gospels themselves
contain reports of Jesus appearing to many different people in
the forty days after He was raised from the dead.
Some skeptics believe that the
gospel writers fabricated the resurrection in order to help them
establish their new religion. Others claim that the witnesses
were suffering from some type of mass-hysteria or communal
hallucination. But a careful study of the gospels shows why
these theories don't make sense.
Because the gospels were written
approximately 30 to 50 years after the events they record, many
of the people who are offered as witnesses to the resurrection
were still alive when they were circulated. This means that as
people heard or read about the resurrection, they weren't left
to "just take the matter by faith." Anyone who had
reason to doubt the resurrection could ask the witnesses
themselves if the events recorded in the gospels were true.
Because the many different witnesses were available to
corroborate the testimony of the gospels, any hallucination or
wishful thinking would be quickly pointed out and the claims
made by the apostles would be dismissed.
Now, because the testimonies by
Jesus' disciples agree doesn't make that testimony
unimpeachable. It doesn't rule out the idea of a conspiracy to
lie about the resurrection. However there exists an even more
compelling argument that answers this objection - the existence
of hostile witnesses.
The Existence of Antagonistic
Eyewitnesses
Because Christianity represented
a danger to the power structures of the Sanhedrin, the leaders
and chief priests did everything they could to extinguish this
new movement within Judaism. They were vehement in stopping the
apostles from spreading tales of the resurrection. They beat and
imprisoned Peter and John and stoned Steven to death.
However, the easiest way to quash
this new religious movement would have been to demonstrate that
the apostles were lying when they claimed that Jesus rose from
the dead - by producing a corpse! The Sanhedrin could easily
counter the testimony of the eyewitnesses by saying "Look,
you know that we took the body and put it in a potter's
grave" or "here is the tomb where Jesus' body
lies." They said nothing of the kind. They admitted that
His body was no longer in the tomb when they created the story
of the apostles' stealing it. (There are many reasons why this
is implausible which we will cover in our July issue.) By
claiming that Jesus' body was stolen they corroborate the fact
that Jesus' tomb was indeed empty.
In fact, any discrepancy
or inaccuracy from Jesus' disciples would have been immediately
exploited by the Jewish leaders of the day as proof that the
tales told by the believers were false. Considering that not
only were these leaders intimately involved with the crucifixion
and its resulting events, but they had every opportunity to
counter the claims of Jesus' followers and offered nothing
tangible in their defense, the truth of the resurrection is
compelling.
Appeal to the Facts
The last group of witnesses we
will examine are the multitudes in Jerusalem. Jesus attracted
many disciples, most of whom did not continue to follow Him
after His death. He also was known by many more of the general
public. His crucifixion, a public execution before a high
feast-day, would have been a very visible spectacle.
If the disciples were playing
fast and loose with the truth, the people they were preaching to
would have objected, knowing that their tale was fictional.
However in Acts 2:22 we see something completely different. The
disciples appealed to the knowledge of the crowd in order to
support their claims of resurrection. Peter used the phrase
"as you yourselves know" when speaking at Pentecost.
He knew what he was saying was true and the facts were on his
side. Even more telling was that the people listening responded
to his claims by being "pricked in their hearts" and
repenting, not by contradicting them.
The fact that we have many
first-hand accounts of Jesus' resurrection makes the argument
for the resurrection credible. The fact that these eyewitnesses
were giving testimony while facing a hostile audience makes it
stronger. The fact that the enemies of the apostles could offer
no evidence to contradict their testimony makes it beyond merely
reasonable to hold the belief that Jesus rose from the dead. The
resurrection becomes as trustworthy a piece of history as any
other. Next time, we'll look at how the changed lives of the
disciples also bolster our case. God bless until then.
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