Empty? Empty!

Luke 24:6–7 (RSV) — 6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,7 that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.”

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So you expect me to believe that a man rose from the dead? That's just ridiculous! I only believe in things that can be proven. Give me facts!

Well, let's talk about it.

The empty tomb of Jesus is actually much closer to fact than most people would lead to you believe. There are people whose entire job revolves around studying the New Testament documents that we have. Not all of these people are believers. Some are Jews, some are agnostics, some are atheists, some are Christians but all are very well educated.

Just because NT scholars believe something to be true, doesn't mean that it is. However, if scholars from both ends of the spectrum (believers and unbelievers in Jesus) agree on something, that usually means that there is compelling evidence for such an agreement.

Recently a scholar by the name of Gary Habermas did a survey of over 2,200 publications on the resurrection in English, French, and German since 1975. He found that approximately 75% of scholars accepted the historicity of the discovery of Jesus' empty tomb.

Also, according to Jacob Kremer, another NT scholar who has specialized in the study of the resurrection, "By far most scholars hold firmly to the reliability of the biblical statements about the empty tomb."

The evidence is so compelling that even a number of Jewish scholars, such as Pinchas Lapide and Geza Vermes, have declared themselves convinced on the basis of the evidence that Jesus' tomb was found empty.

Why is it important that his tomb was found empty? Because if we agree that the tomb was empty, then we are left with the task of explaining and it...

Let's look quickly at the different attempts to explain the empty tomb and you can decide which is best.

The Conspiracy Hypothesis
The disciples stole the body and lied about His resurrection appearances, thus faking the resurrection.

While this was a popular theory in the eighteenth century by European deists, today however, it has been completely given up by modern scholarship.

New Testament scholar N.T. Wright sums it up like this, "if you're a first-century Jew, and your favorite Messiah got himself crucified, then you've basically got two choices: Either you go home or else you get yourself a new Messiah. But the idea of stealing Jesus' corpse and saying that God had raised him from the dead is hardly one that would have entered the minds of the disciples."

The only place you really read about this theory anymore is in the popular, sensationalist press or Internet fantasies.

The Apparent Death Hypothesis

Jesus was not completely dead when He was taken dow from the cross. He revived in the tomb and escaped to convince His disciples He had risen from the dead.

Today this hypothesis has also been almost completely given up.

How would the appearance of a half-dead man desperately in need of medical attention have elicited in the disciples the conclusion that He was the risen Lord and conqueror of death? How would you explain the origin of the disciples belief in Jesus' resurrection, since seeing Him again would lead them to conclude merely that He hadn't died? They would not have concluded (upon seeing Him in this state) that He had gloriously risen from the dead.

The Resurrection Hypothesis

God raised Jesus from the grave.

While this at face value may seem to be the least probable explanation, if God exists, this hypothesis seems quite probable especially given the life that Jesus lived and the claims that He made.

This theory requires only one new supposition: that God exists. Surely its rival hypotheses require many new suppositions. For example, the conspiracy hypothesis requires us to suppose that the moral character of the disciples was defective, which is certainly not implied by already existing knowledge; the apparent death hypothesis requires the supposition that the centurion's lance thrust into Jesus' side was just a superficial poke or is an unhistorical detail in the narrative, which again goes beyond existing knowledge; moreover, for the person who already believes in god, the resurrection hypothesis doesn't even introduce a new supposition.

The Conclusion

If you are able to give up a prejudice against miracles, it's hard to deny that the resurrection of Jesus is the best explanation of the facts. What do you think?

John 20:24–29 (NLT) — 24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” 26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” 28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. 29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

Revelation 1:17–18 (NLT) — 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.

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William Craig, (2010). On Guard. Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.
Jacob Kremer, Die Osterevangelien-Geschichten um Geschichte (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1977), 49-50.
Gary Habermas, "Experience of the Risen Jesus: The Foundational Historical Issue in the Early Proclamation of the Resurrection," Dialog 45 (2006): 292.
N.T. Wright, Sewanee Theological Review, 41.2, 1998.

Risen: Fact or Fiction?

Acts 13:28–31 (ESV) — 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

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The resurrection is a fairy tale. The early church probably just copied the idea from other cultures at the time whose "deities" were also raised from the dead.

Let's consider it...

Where did the idea of Jesus' resurrection come from? What did the Jews themselves believe in regards to resurrection and what did the ancient world believe in regards to resurrection? The answers aren't what you'd expect.

First let's look at the cultural influences at the time. New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has done an impressive amount of research regarding these questions. He notes that the most influential thinker of the time was Homer and as far as Homer was concerned resurrection was just something that didn't happen. Wright provides a helpful summary, "Christianity was born into a world where its central claim was known to be false. Many believed that the dead were non-existent; outside Judaism, nobody believed in resurrection."

The writings of the Greek philosophers like Plato and Cicero portrayed the world in a dualistic view where the body was tainted and the spirit was pure. Those who followed Plato or Cicero did not want a body again; those who followed Homer knew they would not get one.

Wright concludes, "Nobody in the pagan world of Jesus' day and thereafter actually claimed that somebody had been truly dead and had then come to be truly, and bodily, alive once more."

What about the Jews themselves? What did they believe in regards to resurrection?

The teachings of Judaism were that at the end of the world, when time had come to an end, there would be a general resurrection to life for the righteous. However, the Jews had no conception of a resurrection that would take place in the middle of history for only one person. We often look back on history with our own knowledge reading into the situations of the past with our own biases. Jewish belief always concerned a general resurrection of the people at the end of time, not the resurrection of an isolated individual or in the middle of history.

Also professor Edwin Yamauchi has done research on the resurrection and concluded that there is no possibility that the idea of a resurrection was borrowed because there is no definitive evidence for the teaching of a deity resurrection in any of the mystery religions prior to the second century...which would have been way after the Christians were believing in it. It would seem that the other religions were actually influenced by Christianity!

The Jewish idea of Messiah was that a man would rise up in popularity and military/political power and overthrow the foreign powers that were oppressing the Jewish people. If you were following a man that you believed to be Messiah, and instead of rising up and conquering the foreign powers he is arrested by them, beaten, mocked, spit on, stripped naked and crucified, you would conclude that he was not the Messiah.

It would literally require a miracle for the disciples to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. The idea of an isolated resurrection in the middle of history was completely foreign to them, the man that they had been following as Messiah was just crucified (which in Judaism would literally mean that you were cursed by God - thus not Messiah), and they were hiding for their lives locked up in a room together so that they themselves weren't crucified for following Jesus.

Only the resurrection of Jesus would have so changed them and convinced them that Jesus was in fact Messiah. Only an appearance from Jesus who had conquered death could take these cowards and change them to so boldly and fearlessly proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and had risen from the grave. Only an appearance of the risen Messiah would have prompted these men to be willing to die for the belief that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Men are willing to die for what they believe in, but no one dies for what they know to be a lie. These men were willing to die proclaiming Jesus has risen!

Matthew 28:6 (NLT) — 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.

These cowards were so fundamentally different that they went on to accuse, to their faces, the very people who were responsible for the death of Jesus........these same guys were, before the resurrection appearances of Jesus, hiding in a locked room like little girls terrified of them.

Acts 3:15 (NLT) — 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!

Acts 5:30 (NLT) — 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross.

Once cowards, these men had become ferocious and dedicated their lives to the spreading of the gospel message....the message of life, forgiveness, and redemption through Jesus of Nazareth.

Acts 10:39–43 (NLT) — 39 “And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, 41 not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. 43 He is the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.”

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*N.T. Wright, "The Resurrection of the Son of God" (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003)
*William Lane Craig, "Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?" in Jesus Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus, ed, Michael J. Wilkins and J.P. Moreland (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996)
*Edwin Yamauchi, "Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History?" Christianity Today, March 15, 1974 and March 29, 1974

Who's on First

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (NLT) — 3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.

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I can't believe in the Bible because it contradicts itself. Even the gospel narratives don't line up! How can you believe in this Jesus guy if even your own "holy book" is full of errors?!

Let's talk about it...

It is true that not all gospel accounts record the exact same story. But what do they differ on? 

The details....

When Jesus is sending out his disciples to preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons Luke records

Luke 9:3 (NLT) — 3 “Take nothing for your journey,” he instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes.

Mark says...

Mark 6:8 (NLT) — 8 He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick—no food, no traveler’s bag, no money.

Here's another one...

Mark 16:5 (NLT) — 5 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked,

then in Luke

Luke 24:3–4 (NLT) — 3 So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

So what are we to believe?! Is it all false?

Think about your own experiences. When people witness an event, do they all recount the event exactly the same? If 2 people witnessed a car accident, would they be able to line up all of the details exactly the same? Probably not, but they would get the main and plain things right. 

In our accounts above, in the first story Jesus is sending out the disciples and the point is that they are not to rely on what they can pack, but rather they are to rely on God to provide. 

In the second story the point is that angels were there and one of the angels ended up speaking to the women who discovered the empty tomb.

If all of the gospel accounts have exactly the same information, that would actually damage their credibility. It would appear that they had all met up and corroborated their stories before writing them down, like you would have to do if you were making up lies. 

Because the gospel accounts don't line up on every detail but still say the same things about the main and plain it actually lends to their credibility!

So what do the gospel accounts all have in common then? What is the main and plain of the gospels?

All four gospels agree that:

Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem by Roman authority during the Passover Feast, having been arrested and convicted on charges of blasphemy by the Jewish Sanhedrin and then slandered before the governor Pilate on charges of treason. He died within several hours and was buried Friday afternoon by Joseph of Arimathea in a tomb, which was shut with a stone. Certain female followers of Jesus, including Mary Magdelene, having observed his interment, visited his tomb early on Sunday morning, only to find it empty. Thereafter, Jesus appeared alive from the dead to the disciples, including Peter, who then became proclaimers of the message of His resurrection.

Minor discrepancies don't affect our case. Historians expect to find inconsistencies even in the most reliable resources. No historian simply throws out a source because it has inconsistencies. Otherwise we'd have to be skeptical about all secular historical narratives that also contain such inconsistencies, which is wholly unreasonable.

There are a lot of people that do not want the Bible to be true, but the fact remains, we have good reason to believe that Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth and really did rise from the grave.

The historian, Kenneth Scott Latourette, says, “As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that measured by his affect on history Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on the planet.” 

The non Christian, Historian, H.G. Wells, says, “I’m a historian. I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all of history.”

Even Fidel Castro, the great Communist Dictator and Revolutionary in Cuba, who does not love and worship Jesus Christ as we do, says this, “I have always considered Christ to be one of the greatest revolutionaries in the history of the world.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Reformed Baptist Preacher, says this, “Christ is the central fact of the world’s history. To him everything looks forward or backward. All the lines of history converge upon him. All the great purposes of God culminate in him. The greatest and most momentous fact which the history of the world records in the fact of his birth...”

Matthew 1:21 (ESV) — 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

John 3:17 (ESV) — 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Acts 2:21 (NLT) — 21 But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Acts 4:12 (NLT) — 12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

2 Timothy 1:9 (NLT) — 9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.

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Craig, W. L., (2010). On Guard. Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.

It's Just a Book of Fairy Tales...or is it?

Isaiah 14:24 (ESV) — 24 The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,

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The Bible is often written off as just another book. It's often discounted because men wrote it, and men are just as prone to error then as they are now. And it wasn't even scholarly people that wrote the book! You have fishermen, tent makers, shepherds, tax collectors, men that lived apart from society in caves and deserts, etc. So if this rag-tag group of outcasts writes something, why do people give it so much weight/value?

Read what I'm going to write below and tell me who this is talking about. 

• “Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head” (Ps 69:4).

• “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the Lord and His Anointed One” (Ps 2:2).

• “Even my friend in whom I trusted, one who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me” (Ps 41:9).

• “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered” (Zch 13:7).

• “Then I said to them, ‘If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ So they weighed my wages, 30 pieces of silver. ‘Throw it to the potter,’ the Lord said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter” (Zch 11:12–13).

• “They are striking the judge of Israel on the cheek with a rod” (Mc 5:1).

• “I gave My back to those who beat Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard. I did not hide My face from scorn and spitting” (Is 50:6).

• “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Ps 22:16).

• “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Ps 22:1).

• “Everyone who sees me mocks me; they sneer and shake their heads: ‘He relies on the Lord; let Him rescue him; let the Lord deliver him, since He takes pleasure in him’ ” (Ps 22:7–8).

• “They gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Ps 69:21).

• “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed; my heart is like wax, melting within me” (Ps 22:14).

• “Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses, and He carried our pains; but we in turn regarded Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted” (Is 53:4).

• “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth” (Is 53:7).

• “They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing” (Ps 22:18).

• “He submitted Himself to death” (Is 53:12).

• “He bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels” (Is 53:12).

• “You may not break any of its bones” (Ex 12:46).

• “He protects all his bones; not one of them is broken” (Ps 34:20).

• “They will look at Me whom they pierced” (Zch 12:10).

• “They made His grave with the wicked, and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully” (Is 53:9).

• “For You will not abandon me to Sheol; You will not allow Your Faithful One to see the Pit” (Ps 16:10).

• “You ascended to the heights, taking away captives; You received gifts from people, even from the rebellious, so that the Lord God might live there” (Ps 68:18).

• “The Lord declared to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool’ ” (Ps 110:1).

Who do you think this is referring to?

All of these scriptures are taken from the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. This was all completed some 400 years before Jesus was born. This is a widely accepted fact, in fact these were all translated from Hebrew into Greek in Alexandria roughly 150 years before Jesus' birth.

These writings, these predictions are SO specific that they leave no room for error.

No other religious literature has prophecies so distinct, so specific that have been fulfilled in the way that Christ has fulfilled the Hebrew Bible.

Christianity is not just another religion, Jesus is not just another prophet, the Bible is not just another book.

1 John 5:11–12 (NLT) — 11 And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.