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Is there any good reason to believe?
by
Code 2 Life
In a day when all miracles are looked upon as immediately suspect, the Christian message that Jesus was dead for three days and then supernaturally rose from the dead sounds absolutely incredible.
How in the world is anyone supposed to believe this when it allegedly happened some 2000 years ago. Is there any way to make some sense of this claim? I think there is. Much work has been done on this question and there are countless numbers of historians and theologians who have spent a great deal of time creating a very powerful historical case for the resurrection of Jesus.
The good news is that it is constructed out of historical facts and not on mere speculations with no real foundation.
Historians typically use a variety of criteria to help them make determinations. Two such criteria are ‘explanatory power’ and ‘explanatory scope.’ Whenever a historian has several pieces of data he is trying to understand or explain, he will come up with certain hypotheses or theories that have to pass these criteria for truth. Explanatory scope simply says that whatever theory you come up with, it has to explain ALL OF THE FACTS.
The scope of the theory has to account for everything, otherwise it is not capable of explaining all the pieces. Explanatory power forces the theory to have the ability to explain all the data. For example, if someone threw a baseball through a window and there is a 6 year old boy and a 6 week old baby, although both of them are potential suspects, you can rule the baby out immediately because that theory does not have explanatory power. In other words, the baby does not have the ability to throw a ball through the window.
So when dealing with something like the resurrection, it is important to get all the historical facts on the table and then come up with a theory which can account for each of those facts as well as that has the ability to explain all of the facts. Let’s list the facts that most historians and critics would accept and let’s come up with some explanations to account for how to explain these historical facts. Below is a list of facts that most people would agree with:
1. Jesus’ tomb was found empty by a group of his women followers.
2. Jesus appeared to many after his death and many became followers of His. Two very important people that chose to change their ways and follow Jesus were Saul of Tarsus and James, the half-brother of Jesus.
3. Many socio-religious customs were changed:
a) the Law of Moses was believed to be fulfilled in Jesus.
b) the sacrificial system was done away believing that Jesus was the final sacrifice.
c) the Sabbath Day was eventually a common practice on Sunday celebrating the day of Jesus’ rising from the dead.
d) thousands of Jews chose to follow a man they saw hanging with the curse of the state and the curse of God upon his life who claimed to be God.
So, as we look at each of these historical facts, we have to ask the question, what best explains ALL OF THESE FACTS (scope), as well as what is ABLE TO EXPLAIN all these facts the best (power). Many theories have come up to try to explain all these facts, but none to anyone’s serious satisfaction. Some of the most popular over the years were:
1) The disciples stole the body of Jesus
Problem: this means they would have all died for what they knew was a lie and a fabrication; not very plausible at all.
2) The Romans stole the body of Jesus
Problem: all the Romans had to do was reproduce the body and show it to everyone to end the commotion.
3) The women went to the wrong tomb.
Problem: this means that everyone else must have gone to the wrong tomb as well (the disciples, the Jewish leaders, the Romans, and the owner of the tomb himself, Joseph of Arimathea)
4) Swoon Theory: Jesus never really died; he revived Himself in the tomb and came out presenting Himself as the resurrected Messiah!
Problem: After having been beaten nearly to death, then being crucified, then being tied by hands and feet as well as being wrapped in 70 lbs. of linens and spices makes it virtually impossible to break free. How about the stone and the guards next? Much too implausible. The only real alternative able to explain all the facts is that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. Think about it for a moment. If Jesus did rise from the dead it would explain :
a) the empty tomb—he rose
b) the appearances—he showed himself; when he showed himself to his brother, that would definitely explain his brother’s conversion.
c) Saul’s conversion demands explanation. What would possibly motivate him to give up everything to follow the man he fought so vigilantly against.
d) The law fulfilled—Jesus lived the perfect life on behalf of everyone else
e)Sacrifices ended—‘Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world’
f)Sabbath Day on Sunday—if He rose on Sunday, this would clearly explain the changed day
g) Thousands of Jews followed Him after His death—to follow someone with the curse of God and the state on their life makes no sense unless this person did something to prove to them who He is.
All of these facts can be explained simply by the resurrection. No other theory or suggestion is needed to account for all of these facts. Without a doubt, Jesus rose from the dead and changed the lives of everyone in His day, not to mention the lives of millions over the future centuries. These historical facts make a good case for the belief that Jesus in fact rose from the dead in confirmation of His radical claims to being God.
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