—OBJECTION: Dead men don’t rise. You can’t prove Jesus’s resurrection without using the Bible.
—RESPONSE: Dead men do rise, but only when God says so, and Jesus, being the express image or representation of God (Heb. 1:3), absolutely rose from the dead. While I know you’d like for me to avoid using the Bible to support this claim, it’d be quite irresponsible of me to do so. Besides, what would constitute proof? If I provided you with other, inferior sources for the resurrection, like the works of Josephus (c. 37-100 A.D.), you’d likely reject it because he was a Jewish historian and not a Christian, so you might question why he included an admission of the resurrection in his chronicles at all (rf. Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVIII, 3).
Moreover, I suspect you don’t want me to use the Bible because you have some level of skepticism or disdain for it. Regardless, it’s the most direct, reliable, historical document available on Jesus’s resurrection. Remember, when referring to the Bible—specifically the New Testament, though it’s sold as a unit, it’s actually a collection of 27 books with more than 9 authors and 5,000 manuscripts. So, asking me to prove something without using the Bible is like asking a doctor to perform surgery without a blade and suture. Sure, it can be done, but why wouldn’t you use the best available tools?
Hopefully, with that hurdle addressed, perhaps we can consider the resurrection from the perspective of biblical eyewitness accounts. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John (or the disciple whom Jesus loved) after his crucifixion (rf. John 20). In 1 Cor. 15:5, the Apostle Paul (also a witness of the resurrected Lord) states that Jesus appeared to Peter (Cephas), then the Twelve. Afterwards, the Lord Jesus appeared to more than 500 disciples at one time (v.6). These disciples, most of whom were alive when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, could easily corroborate or invalidate Paul’s claims, yet he wrote them anyway. Lastly, Paul adds that the resurrected Jesus appeared to James and then all the apostles (v.7).
Using only those two books of the New Testament, it’s clear that Jesus was seen via eyewitness accounts of more than 500 people. If you want to suggest some conspiracy, it requires that you believe poor fishermen and a tentmaker in addition to at least 251 living disciples, all in various geographic regions and without modern information transportation, conspired to make false proclamations in oral and written form without anyone ever discovering it.
I don’t know if that’s proof enough for you, but it certainly is for me. If it is proof, what will you do now? Will you acknowledge His resurrection and still run in defiance of Him who claimed to be God (Jn 14:9), or will you accept His kind, gracious gift of eternal life and turn to Him in repentance of your sinful and unbelieving ways? I pray you’d do the latter. If you need help, check out this link: The Good Person Test.
#MMApologist #SoliDeoGloria #SolusChristus