Now, I get that, if the Bible isn’t reliable, then what we can know about God becomes suspect but I hardly see that as proof that God isn’t real, that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, and that our sins can’t be forgiven! Of course, I am of the opinion that the Bible is 100% accurate and that all criticisms directed at the Bible will disappear with a fair reading of the text. I was just pointing out that an alleged contradiction, even one which is not easily explained, isn’t proof of anything!
Many examples of alleged contradictions surround the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus: things like, how many women went to the tomb? What time did they arrive? How many angels were there? What did Judas do with the 30 pieces of silver? How did Judas die? This Easter season, I thought I’d make a series of posts dealing with the most often used criticisms of the events, and conclude the series with a day by day discussion of what Jesus may have been doing each day during the Passion Week.
Please keep checking back!
Defending the Resurrection: Where is the Body?
This post doesn’t really deal with contradictions. Rather, I intend to address the various arguments critics use to attack the Resurrection. In Matthew 12:38-40, the Pharisees had asked Jesus for a sign to prove His words were from God. Jesus responded that the only sign they would receive would be His resurrection. He said, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Indeed, Jesus' entire ministry and every promise He made is contingent upon His resurrection. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then every promise He ever made would be dead with Him. 1 Corinthians 15:14 puts it this way, “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
The Pharisees understood how powerful the sign of the resurrection would be. They perhaps understood better than the disciples and when the Resurrection happened, the Pharisees immediately tried to hide it from the world. They knew that if the people believed Christ rose from the dead, they would believe Jesus' words all the more. Because the resurrection is such powerful evidence for the divinity of Christ, opponents of Christianity aggressively attempt to deny and discredit it. There are a few standard approaches that unbelievers take to rebut the event of the resurrection. The absent body of Jesus is a silent witness against all of their claims.
You’ve probably heard some or all of my rebuttals to the arguments before. They’re not mine originally but have been repeated many times, the most widely read being by Lee Stroble. I still thought it would be productive to sum them up in my own words and have them all listed in one place. Here we go!
Attempt #1: The disciples lied
An easy criticism is to claim the disciples simply lied about seeing Jesus alive. This theory defies common sense. Certainly there are some false preachers today who proclaim the gospel only to gain personal wealth. However, in the case of the disciples, they suffered persecution and even death for their preaching. After Jesus' arrest, Peter, out of fear, denied even knowing Him. Later, when directly threatened to stop preaching in the name of Jesus, Peter and John both answered, “But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:17-20). What could have turned Peter from a coward who denied knowing Jesus into a champion who proclaims Him in the face of persecution? This is not likely if Peter secretly knew the resurrection was a lie! Tradition tells us that all of the apostles except John were martyred for their preaching. Even John was tortured and exiled for his faith. Are there 12 men anywhere who would give up their lives for something they knew to be a lie? Would not even one of them recant to save his own life?
Remember also what they preached: that Jesus was the Way, Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Would 12 liars with nothing to gain give up their lives to promote the idea that a dead man had been raised and that He was the embodiment of truth?
The Pharisees would have loved to silence any false rumors about the resurrection of Jesus. They could have easily done so by directing people to His tomb. Alas they couldn't. Where was the body?
Attempt #2: The disciples were deluded
Knowing that no one would give his life for something he knew to be a lie, some argue that the disciples might have been this zealous if they simply believed Jesus were alive even if He weren't. The disciples so desperately expected the resurrection that they actually imagined seeing Him. This idea contradicts Scripture, though, because we know that the disciples did not expect Jesus to be resurrected. In fact, when they were first told of the resurrection, they refused to believe, thinking the women were telling “idle tales” (Luke 24:10-11). We have, too, the famous scene of doubting Thomas (John 20:25).
When the disciples did see the risen Savior, it was not a fleeting glimpse. They touched Him. They walked, talked, and ate with Him. He appeared to them on different occasions. 1 Corinthians 15:4-6 even says that He was seen after His resurrection by more than 500 people at once. These events are not possible if the disciples had only imagined seeing Jesus.
Finally, if the disciples had only imagined seeing Jesus alive, that means He was really still dead in the tomb. OK, so where is the body?
Attempt # 3: The wrong tomb
A variation of the “deluded” theory is that the women simply visited the wrong tomb. The tomb, after all, was gifted at the last minute by Joseph of Arimathaea (Matthew 27:57-60) and the body of Jesus was interred there hastily before the Sabbath began so it’s not implausible that the women weren’t familiar with its location.
On that Sunday morning, the women could have gone to where they thought the tomb was, but found an empty tomb instead. In the confusion of an empty tomb where they believed the body of Jesus would be, they simply concluded that He had risen from the dead. This is in spite of the fact that, as Mary sat weeping at the empty tomb, John 20:13 tells us that she believed someone had moved the body - not that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Besides that, though, this criticism fails in many of the same ways as the delusion theory. It doesn’t explain, for example, Jesus’ many appearances to His disciples after the crucifixion.
And, of course, there’s the most glaring flaw in this theory, that if the women had visited the wrong tomb, the body of Jesus would still be lying in Joseph’s tomb, right? The Romans or Pharisees could have simply directed people to the correct tomb and say, “See! Here He is!” But they couldn’t, because it was the correct tomb and where was the body?!
Attempt #4: The swoon theory
Some people have argued that Jesus did not actually die on the cross. Rather, He merely fainted or swooned and He was mistaken for being dead. Later, in the cool air of the tomb, He was revived and came out. When His disciples saw Him, they believed He rose from the dead. Seriously! Some people say this! Excuse me while I laugh my head off.
This story is hardly credible. It fails to address many critical details given in the text of the gospels. Remember that before the crucifixion, Jesus was beaten and scourged. Witnesses to the crucifixion confirm that He died on the cross (Mark 15:39, John 19:30,35). After He died on the cross, a soldier pierced the side of Jesus to confirm He was dead (John 19:34) - modern doctors believe that the description in John indicates the soldier pierced His heart. Finally, a Roman Centurion, acting on Pilate's orders, examined the body of Jesus to confirm He was dead (Mark 15:44-45). It is simply not possible for someone to be tortured, crucified, stabbed in the heart, be examined by a Roman Centurion, and still not be dead.
Let's assume for a moment the highly impossible idea that Jesus truly didn't die on the cross. The cool air that would have been in the tomb certainly would not have revived Him. People who experience shock or blood loss need to be warmed! Why do you think they put blankets on victims of shock? Yet even assuming He did revive in the tomb, what next? In His condition could He have moved the stone? Remember, it was so large that the women weren’t sure if the few of them together could do it. Then what? Could He have overcome the Roman guard, walked a few miles into town, and still appear ruddy enough to convince His disciples of some glorious resurrection? //RKBentley still laughing//
The swoon theory borders on the desperate. Keep in mind too that even if all of these outrageous imaginations were possible, Jesus would have eventually died anyway. So there is still that one pesky detail - where is the body?
Attempt #5: The Resurrection is a myth
Today, perhaps the most common way people deny the resurrection is to say it is only a myth. The first century Church did not believe Jesus rose from the dead but only believed He was a great teacher. As their adoration for Jesus grew, their recounting of His teachings became exaggerated. Eventually, the claim became that He rose from the dead.
This certainly cannot be true. We unfortunately do not have the original autographs of the New Testament authors but the oldest copies we have already include accounts of the resurrection. Paul’s conversion happened when he saw the Risen Savior on the road to Damascus. His entire gospel was that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead on the third day. To say that the Resurrection never happened would mean that nearly the entire New Testament has been fabricated.
We also have a record from Flavius Josephus, a first century, Jewish historian. In his work, The Antiquity of the Jews, there is a reference to Jesus (known as the Testimonium Flavianum) that is so remarkable, it is claimed to have been inserted centuries later by some anonymous Christian interloper. Much could be said about the Testimonium Flavianum but for now, I’m going to cite a less popular and less disputed version of the text:
At this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day.
So all accounts we have from the earliest sources, all attest to the fact that even the 1st century Church already believed Jesus rose from the dead. To rebut this, critics will argue that the accounts of the resurrection were added to the text in later dates. How convenient for them. Can they please produce the earlier texts that lacked the resurrection accounts? They cannot; they merely assert the resurrection was added later without having any evidence for such.
But regardless of the early written evidence for the resurrection of Jesus let me ask this: If the resurrection of Jesus is a myth, where is the body?
All other tales
From the moment of Christ's resurrection, people have sought to deny it. Unbelievers will always attempt to discredit the historicity of the resurrection. No argument, though, no matter how imaginative, will ever adequately address the evidence given in the gospels.
What about the testimonies of first century historians? What about the earliest manuscripts? What about the bold preaching of the apostles? What else can explain all these things except that they are true?
And no lie will ever explain the empty tomb. This Easter, if you should hear one of these myths or some variation on them, ask the critic, “So where is the body?”
