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"After more than seven hundred hours of studying this subject and thoroughly
investigating its foundation, I have come to the conclusion that the
resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless
hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, OR it is the most fantastic fact of
history.” (p203)
The majority of this article is based on McDowell’s work in the above mentioned book.
There is no doubt that Jesus prophesying (Matt 16:21; 17:9, 22-23; 20:18-19; 26:32; Mk 9:10; Lk 9:22-27; Jn 2:18-22) that after being dead three days He would raise again is centrally important to what Christianity is built on.
Ignatius, who was a pupil of the apostle John wrote:
“He was crucified and died under Pontius Pilate. He really, and not merely
in appearance, was crucified, and died, in the sight of beings in heaven, and on
earth, and under the earth.
He also rose again in three days…”
Joshephus, the Jewish historian, states in Antiquities, 18.3.3
“And when Pilate had condemned him to the cross, upon his impeachment by the
principal man among us, those who had loved him from the first did not forsake
him, for he appeared to them alive on the third day…”
McDowell states,
“When an event takes place in history and there are enough people alive who were
eye-witnesses of it or had participated in the event, and when the information
is published, one is able to verify the validity of an historical event.”
(p215)
Jesus was scourged with a flagrum which had pieces of bone and metal would lacerate the human flesh. Jesus took a brutal beating and from this beaten He would have been looked like he was butchered. He also had thorns forced on his head, causing blood to flow on his face. He then had to carry his cross through Jerusalem and up a hill. Before Jesus was nailed on the cross He had suffered more than most prisoners would have faced. At this point Jesus was is poor shape. Then He was nailed on the cross. There is no humanly possible way that Jesus could have survived what he went through. Mel Gibson does a great job with the movie “The Passion of the Christ” in depicting what Jesus went through leading up to and including the crucifixion.
There is no doubt that Jesus was dead when He was taken off the cross. The Romans were very effective in their caring out of beatings and executions. The Roman soldiers had to make sure their prisoners were dead upon execution because if they weren’t it would mean that the soldier would be put to death. Also Pilate would have required certification of Christ’s death. So there was no mistakes made by the Roman executioners.
Regarding Jesus burial, there would have been no way that Jesus body could have been moved by the disciples or anyone else. The religious leaders had guards placed to guard the tomb because of Jesus’ prophecies of a resurrection. There was also a stone which we sealed in front of the tomb. There is no way that anyone could have over taken the guards as it would have meant the loss of their lives had they let someone take Jesus’ body away, not to mention that the disciples would have not been psychologically capable of devising and carrying out a plan to move Jesus’ body because of the grief they would have felt seeing Jesus crucified.
In addition, the fact that the eleven disciples and the apostle Paul died as martyrs would seem to be enough to believe that Jesus did raise from the dead. Why else would twelve men be willing to die for what they believe? Either these twelve men were telling the truth that Jesus rose from the dead, or they died for a lie.
McDowell gives this verdict to this topic:
“The established psychological fact of changed lives, then, is a credible reason
for believing in the resurrection. It is subjective evidence bearing
witness to the objective fact that Jesus Christ arose on the third day.
For only a risen Christ could have such transforming power in a person’s life.”
(p253)
The following was posted as part of my Jesus as God. It does add to the discussion on this topic, due to the recent talk about the “bones of Jesus” being found. For the record, it is not possible to find the bones of Jesus since He rose again and assended to Heaven.
It is interesting, last night a story was broken that someone had “found
the bones of Jesus Christ.” They mention that they are using DNA evidence to
connect Jesus with the other remains found. It may be true that this body is
connected biologically to these other bodies, but DNA evidence cannot prove that
these bones are Jesus, because we don’t have a DNA sample from Jesus. In
addition to this there is confusion as to if the box that held these bones names
Jesus or someone else. On top of this Jesus was a common name when Christ walked the earth. Then the final nail in the coffin of this discussion is that Jesus,
after raising from the dead, ascended into heaven. Eye witnesses have recorded
this in the Bible. Some people will argue that there was a conspiracy and Jesus
didn’t raise from the dead. However, the eleven remaining disciples all died for
this truth. One has to think, would these men and others have died for this
cause had it been a conspiracy or hoax? I’m pretty sure that had it not been the
truth, these men would not have died for it. Thus it is clear that Jesus really
did raise from the dead and did ascend into heaven. There is no sense looking
for the “bones” of Jesus because you won’t find them. Jesus is not dead, He is a
live in heaven and He is God.
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