It’s not enough for sceptics to merely assert that it’s impossible for anyone, let alone Jesus, to have risen from the dead. For
someone to assert that
he did not rise from the dead, in fairness, they should also provide a feasible
alternate explanation for the historical record regarding the rise of Christianity.
Just as it is inadequate to merely claim the Holocaust did not happen. A Holocaust denier is obligated by objectivity to provide substantive reasons explaining the preponderance
of evidence to the contrary.
Here are some of the historical facts regarding
Christianity that require explanation:
- Why did Christianity emerge so rapidly, with such power?
- What changed the worldview of so many thousands of individuals virtually overnight?
- No other band of messianic followers in that era concluded their leader was raised from the dead — why did this group do so?
- No group of Jews ever worshipped a human being as God. What led this group to do so?
- And how to account for the hundreds of eyewitnesses to the resurrection who lived on for decades and publicly maintained their testimony, eventually giving their lives for their belief?
There are at least three substantial categories of
evidence supporting the reasonableness of Jesus’ Resurrection as the only credible
answer to these questions:
- The fact that his tomb was empty
- The abundance of witnesses to his Resurrection
- And the substantial confirmation provided by the cultural context.
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