1-Minute Case for the Resurrection

Screenshot Essay

Mar 30, 2024

Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

By Street Theologian streettheologian.substack.com

Atheist turned deist, Anthony Flew, referred to the evidence for the resurrection as different in “quality or quantity” from any miracle in any religion. Jesus died. Non-Christian scholars Lüdemann and Ehrman, claim Jesus dying by crucifixion is "indisputable" and "one of the most certain facts of history”.

Tomb was found empty. This is supported by a creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 that non-Christian scholars Lüdemann, Funk and Goulder date to within several years of Jesus' death at the latest! You also wouldn’t make up women as the first evangelists in an era where their testimony was not trusted. Nor make up a burial by a Sanhedrin member (Joseph of Arimathea) when the Sanhedrin sought to kill Jesus.

The disciples claimed Jesus appeared to them. As attested in the early creed (1 Cor. 15:3-8) and multiple independent sources. Ehrman agrees "we can say with complete certainty that some of his disciples at some later time insisted that.. he soon appeared to them" (1999, p.230-31). They were prepared to die for this belief and preached in the same public and obvious areas where Jesus lived and died.

Were the disciples deceived, deceivers or speaking the truth? Did they die for a lie they made up? Surely not. How did enemies of Christianity like Paul and James (supported by Clement of Rome, Hegesippus, Josephus etc too) also change after their resurrection experiences? Why could no one bring out the body? A spiritual-only resurrection would be completely foreign to first-century Jews and the other dozen or so messianic movements in the 100 years before or after Jesus, died off when their leader died off. What best explains these facts?

To assume miracles can't happen no matter what is to argue in a circle. Jesus, charged with blasphemy, claimed to be God by calling himself the divine Son of Man from Daniel 7 (Mark 14:60-64). He died in service, as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28). As NT Wright articulates, the rise of Christianity cannot be explained unless "Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb behind him."

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