This post by
David Virkler from several years ago shares timeless insights on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We
are pleased to share it again.
How do we know that the resurrection is a fact and not merely the fictional creation of misguided hopefuls? Let’s list some reasons:
1. The disciples were surprised by Christ’s resurrection. They didn’t make it up.
2. There were multiple appearances to individuals. Christ appeared to the 11 remaining disciples, one of whom was doubting Thomas who needed compelling physical proof. A further appearance was to over 500 simultaneously, which undermined the apparition idea (2 Corinthians 15:6).
3. Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote for second century Romans, mentions that Christ’s resurrection was believed by contemporary disciples. "He was the Christ, and when Pilate at the suggestion of the principle men, had condemned him to the cross, they that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things about him."
4. No body was ever found. If it had been, Christianity would have been dead out of the starting blocks.
5. Everything believers hold sacred would be a farce according to 2 Corinthians 15:12-19. Christian preaching would be empty. Christian doctrine would be a farce. Christian ministers would be frauds. Believers would be deceived. We would yet be in our sins. The dead in Christ would have perished. We would have only the temporal and no Heaven.
6. Perhaps the best proof arising in modern times is the conversion of Charles Colson of Watergate infamy and later of Prison Fellowship fame. I once heard him personally tell this story, which is featured in a recorded message entitled "Thank God for Watergate." In it Colson says:
”The evidence is that twelve men were with Jesus. Twelve men testified that they had seen Him bodily raised from the dead. They were with Him…. After He ascended into heaven, they went about the sands of the Holy Land for forty years proclaiming that Jesus Christ had been bodily raised from the dead never once denying Him, every single one of them beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. Could they have done that if that were not true?
”In less than three weeks [after the Watergate scandal broke], John Dean…walked into the prosecutor’s to make a deal to bargain to save [his] own skin. … The moment he did that, everybody went flying in to try to make a deal with the prosecutor. Twelve most powerful men in the world couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re going to tell me that those twelve apostles for forty years would go about the sands of the Holy land proclaiming they had seen Jesus raised from the dead? Absolutely impossible. The Apostle Peter would have turned state’s evidence—he had already done it. … The truth is that people will give their lives for something they believe to be true. They will never give their lives for something they believe to be false. The historic evidence is overwhelming.
”If this Book is true, it challenges every single one of us to look at the most important question in life. Is Jesus Christ who He says He is? And if He is, your life can never be the same once you answer that question. And there’s only one way you can answer that question because the evidence is more powerful than any case I ever argued in all the years that I was a lawyer arguing cases in court. It’s true. Most of us spend our lives running away from it because we know that if we embrace it will change our lives."
These are amazing words from a former top presidential advisor who praises God for Watergate because it proved to him the truth of the resurrection. Believing the resurrection is vital to salvation. Romans 10:9-10 says, "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Dave Virkler
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