Many people reject the resurrection of Christ, as it is not supported by scientific evidence. However, the available evidence presents a compelling case to the contrary.
All reputable historians agree that Jesus Christ truly lived in the Roman province of Judea around 30 A.D., and this is the consensus among mainstream scholars. Only a small minority of thinkers, primarily proponents of the so-called “Christ myth theory”, challenge this view, including Robert M. Price. However, the prevailing historical consensus affirms that Jesus was a real historical figure.1 The Christ myth theory remains on the fringe of academic thought and, in some iterations, even takes on the characteristics of a conspiracy theory.
If Jesus Christ did indeed exist, can the account of His resurrection be true? Historians often refrain from addressing these accounts, while critics of Christianity and secular scholars firmly reject the notion that Christ rose from the dead. After all, science has no empirical evidence of a person who truly returned to life after being dead for several days, nor is there any known process that could facilitate such an event.
For this reason, critics view the account of Christ’s resurrection as merely a fable or myth believed by only uneducated, naive people. Evidence, however, tells us a different story!
The Resurrection of Christ
The key facts regarding the resurrection of Christ are as follows. First, Jesus Christ was a historical figure who lived and died, having been crucified by the Romans. The majority of contemporary scholars accept the historical existence of Jesus Christ. Second, according to the biblical narrative, a few days following His burial, His disciples discovered that the tomb was empty. Third, on the same day, the disciples reported encountering Christ in various locations and at different times. Moreover, Christ explicitly stated that He had risen from the dead. Finally, these events played a significant role in the rapid expansion of Christianity. Today, approximately one-third of the global population identifies with Christianity, making it the largest religion in the world.2
Can we trust the accounts of the empty tomb and the visions of Christ experienced by His disciples? Critics of Christianity may suggest that the body was stolen or that the disciples experienced collective hallucinations. However, Nicholas Thomas Wright, Bishop of Durham and a renowned New Testament theologian, argues that these accounts are indeed credible. He does not merely appeal to faith; instead, he presents a series of pieces of evidence that lead to the conclusion that the miracle of the resurrection truly occurred. These pieces of evidence can be found in the appendix of Antony Flew’s book: There Is a God.3.
The Concept of Resurrection in Ancient Thought: Beliefs and Doubts
To gain a proper understanding, we must first examine the various resurrection beliefs held by the Jews and other nations around the Mediterranean at that time. Wright points out that within the Jewish community, there were different groups with differing views on the matter. The most widespread belief was in the universal resurrection of the body at the end of time (John 11:23-24). The Pharisees were strong advocates of this belief. In contrast, the Sadducees, a group associated with the temple priesthood in Jerusalem, did not acknowledge any form of life after death, let alone resurrection.4
However, those who believed in the resurrection would never have conceived of proclaiming that, suddenly, in their time, a single, chosen individual had risen. Moreover, this individual could not have been the Messiah. Neither Christ’s opponents nor His disciples expected Him to rise from the dead, as no one could have imagined that the Messiah would die. As a result, Christ’s words about His death and resurrection initially made no sense to His disciples.
As for other nations, particularly the Greeks, the matter is clearer: the concept of resurrection was viewed as sheer foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:23). While the Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul after death, the resurrection of an ordinary person was beyond their comprehension. The same held true for the Romans.5
Yet, the early Christians made the resurrection of Jesus Christ the cornerstone of their teaching. Furthermore, for Christians, the resurrection of their Savior was inseparably linked to the glorious hope of their own future resurrection. While various Christian factions emerged, disputing issues of greater or lesser importance, there was unanimous agreement on the doctrine of the resurrection until the mid-second century A.D.
Women as Witnesses
Another intriguing piece of evidence that Christ’s disciples were not fabricating His resurrection concerns the role of women. At that time, it was widely believed that women were not credible witnesses.6 The Gospel writers explicitly state that it was women who first discovered the empty tomb and were the first to witness the resurrected Christ. Among them was Mary Magdalene, known as an adulteress—certainly the last person the apostles would have chosen to feature if they were fabricating the entire story. The mention of women being the first to witness the resurrected Christ is almost like shooting oneself in the foot. Yet, that is precisely how they presented it, fully aware that doing so risked their own reputations.
The Resurrection of Christ – Hallucination or Something More?
Some argue that Christ’s disciples simply experienced hallucinations after the death of their beloved leader. However, if that were true, why would they have used the Greek term anastasis, which means “resurrection”?7 In antiquity, people commonly reported visions, ghosts, and other apparitions, especially while mourning the loss of a loved one. This was considered normal at the time. However, they never claimed that their loved ones had risen from the dead, only that they had ascended to heaven before their eyes several days later (Acts 1:9-11). Christ’s disciples must have experienced something entirely different. After all, hallucinations and apparitions don’t eat real fish and honey in the presence of witnesses (Luke 24:41-43).
And what about Saul, later known as the Apostle Paul? Saul was not a disciple of Christ, so he had no reason to grieve over His crucifixion. In other words, he was the last person in Judea likely to experience a hallucination after Christ’s death on the cross. Yet, according to the New Testament, on the road to Damascus, Saul encountered Christ, and people in his company witnessed the event as well (Acts 9:3-7). This encounter with Christ transformed him completely; he became His apostle, disregarding his reputation among both Jews and Greeks.8
Faith that Endures
Finally, let us reflect on why Christianity spread so rapidly. Both the apostles and other early Christians were willing to endure immense suffering, even facing brutal death, for the sake of Christ. For instance, the Apostle Paul was beheaded, the Apostle Peter was crucified upside down, and the Apostle James was stoned and beaten to death.9 These individuals had such unwavering faith that they were willing to endure any shame in His name.
Would they have been willing to suffer so much if they had known their cause was nothing more than a grand deception, or if they had been uncertain of what they were doing? Most of Christ’s apostles were Jews. If they had known it was all a lie, how would they have stood before God, in whom they believed? It is highly unlikely that the apostles would have faced brutal deaths, knowing they were dying for a sophisticated deception that would result in severe punishment from God on Judgment Day.
Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!
From the facts presented above, we can draw several important conclusions. First, something extraordinary must have occurred to make Christ’s disciples willing to face death. Even if someone had stolen Christ’s body without the disciples’ knowledge, it would not change the situation. According to the account, the risen Jesus appeared to over 500 people (1 Cor 15:3-8).
The second conclusion is that if Christ did not rise from the dead, the creation and growth of Christianity would require an incredibly improbable series of events: first, the theft of the body; then, mass hallucinations experienced by hundreds of people, including a fervent persecutor of Christians and his escort, all of whom were convinced that Christ was not a mere posthumous apparition, but had truly risen from the dead.
Finally, the third conclusion is that this cannot simply be a clever deception by Jesus’s disciples. They were willing to sacrifice everything for their Master and Savior, including their own lives. And as we know, liars do not make good martyrs.
This leads us to the only logical conclusion: Christ’s disciples did not merely experience something extraordinary that made them willing to die for it; that extraordinary event must have truly been the resurrection of Christ. Antony Flew, a former atheist philosopher who eventually came to believe in God and became a deist (though not a Christian), commented on this, saying, “The evidence for the resurrection [of Christ] is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion”.10 And he is not alone in this conclusion.11
By the way, we recommend reading the articles:
- Is the Biblical Age of the Universe Plausible?
- Secrets of Ancient Civilizations – Part 1: Construction
- Secrets of Ancient Civilizations – Part 2: Science and Technology
- Secrets of Ancient Civilizations – Part 3: Origins
- Which is Greater – God or the Universe?
Footnotes
- Dunn, J.D.G., 2003. Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, p. 339.
- Brake, A., 2018. ‘The Minimal Facts of the Resurrection’, CrossExamined, 5 March. Available at: https://crossexamined.org/the-minimal-facts-of-the-resurrection/.
- Flew, A. and Varghese, R.A., 2007. There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. HarperCollins e-books, pp. 185-213.
- Flew, A. and Varghese, R.A., 2007. There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. HarperCollins e-books, pp. 197-198.
- Flew, A. and Varghese, R.A., 2007. There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. HarperCollins e-books.
- Flew, A. and Varghese, R.A., 2007. There is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. HarperCollins e-books, pp. 206-207.
- Walker, P., 1999. The Weekend That Changed the World, p. 63.
- Shenvi, N., 2023. ‘4 Points of Evidence for the Resurrection’, Crossway, 31 March. Available at: https://www.crossway.org/articles/4-points-of-evidence-for-the-resurrection/.
- Kurtis, K., 2010. ‘What Happened to the Twelve Apostles?’, Christianity.com, 28 April. Available at: https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/whatever-happened-to-the-twelve-apostles-11629558.html.
- Habermas, G.R., 2024. My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism: Discussion with Antony Flew, Evangelical Philosophical Society. Viewed 12 November 2024. Available at: https://www.epsociety.org/articles/my-pilgrimage-from-atheism-to-theism/.
- Bishop, J., 2015. ‘25 Scholars (and 42 Quotes) on the Evidence for Jesus Christ’s Resurrection’, Bishop’s Encyclopedia of Religion, Society and Philosophy, 29 June. Available at: https://jamesbishopblog.com/2015/06/29/jesus-really-did-appear-to-the-disciples-and-skeptics-after-his-death-40-quotes-by-scholars/.
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