DAY 206
CHALLENGE
“There’s no good evidence that Jesus actually rose from the dead.”
DEFENSE
The Resurrection explains the evidence we have better than any alternative hypothesis does.
According to the Christian message, Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. He rose from the dead, his tomb was found empty, and he appeared to his disciples. Finally, he ascended into heaven in their presence.
The pivotal claims here are that he died, rose from the dead, and ascended. The latter is often overlooked, but it was a key part of the Christian message, both for its theological significance and—for our present purposes—because it explains why Jesus was no longer walk- ing the streets of Jerusalem.
People saw Jesus die and ascend, but nobody saw him resurrect, since it happened while he was in the tomb. The evidence the apostles offered for the Resurrection is that the tomb was found empty and Jesus began appearing—alive—to the disciples.
How else might one explain the above? Some have proposed that the disciples lied: They were crooks, stole Jesus’ body, and lied about the Resurrection appearances and the Ascension.
If they didn’t lie, how could we explain the empty tomb? Some have proposed the disciples went to the wrong tomb, that someone other than the disciples stole the body, or that Jesus didn’t die—he just became unconscious on the cross. That could also explain how he later appeared to the disciples.
Other proposals for how he could have appeared include that it wasn’t really Jesus who was crucified but an identical twin, that an impostor afterward appeared to the disciples, or that they simply hallucinated. Some have even proposed that the disciples didn’t think the tomb was empty and that they believed Jesus had been “spiritually” resurrected.
All these hypotheses are fraught with problems. Most explain either the empty tomb or the Resurrection appearances, but not both. Most also ignore Jesus’ Ascension into heaven.
To fix the problems, it could be tempting to combine hypotheses (e.g., the disciples went to the wrong tomb, then hallucinated the Resurrection appearances), but combined hypotheses inherit problems from both originals.
In the next few days, we will look at the problems with each of the alternative theories (see Days 207–215), leading to the conclusion that Jesus was, indeed, raised from the dead.