An Apologetic for the Resurrection

In less than a week, we will celebrate Easter. As much as I LOVE chocolate easter eggs, for Christians Easter is about something else altogether - the resurrection of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ. Belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus is a central doctrine of Christianity. As the apostle Paul says, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied." (1Cor. 15:17-20)

With Easter at hand, you may have the chance to discuss the resurrection with skeptics, so what follows is a good apologetic means for doing so.

This material comes from a lecture from one of my classes given by an expert on the resurrection, Dr. Gary Habermas.

Since most skeptics will not grant that the Bible is true, it is difficult to use it as evidence for the resurrection. However, Habermas likes to use what he calls the "minimal facts approach" which are facts that about 95% of all scholars agree on. While there are about 20 facts that the vast majority of scholars will give you, this approach uses the best attested of these. This is the strength of this apologetic method when talking with skeptics because it uses facts even critical scholars will grant.

For apologetic purposes, 1 Corinthians 15 is the best text to use for the resurrection. All critics will agree that Paul wrote 1 Cor. and find him very reliable. Paul is in favor with the critics. 1 Cor. is a very early account of the resurrection, earlier than the Gospels. There is virtually no scholar that will disagree that 1 Cor. was written within about 25 years (54-57 A.D.) of this all-important miracle.

So the eyewitness accounts (those apostles from whom Paul received his material) are very early. It would be ludicrous for someone to say that an eyewitness to the death and resurrection of Jesus would not be able to remember the event 25 years after it happened. In fact, we have no problem trusting eye witness accounts for historical events that come much later than 25 years.

Nearly all critics will also agree that Paul believed he saw a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus on the road to Damascus, so skeptics will also need to explain Paul's own account if they want to deny the resurrection.

Before Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians, he was in Corinth and preached the Gospel which, of course, includes the resurrection. This would have been within about 20 years of the event. Paul says he passed on what he received from the other apostles who had seen the resurrected Jesus. Critics agree that what he received (the Gospel message) was from Peter and James in around AD 35 when he was in Jerusalem. As you can see, this is incredibly early - within a few years of Jesus's death and resurrection.

So the apostles believed they had seen Jesus risen from the dead. Critics will grant that. We can also be certain that men are not willing to die for what they know to be a lie. The next step is to go from what the disciples believed to the fact of the resurrection.

Important facts to keep in mind:
-Jesus did die by crucifixion
-The disciples believed they had seen Jesus resurrected from the dead.
-They were so convinced that they were willing to be martyred for their faith in Jesus.
-Paul, formerly the persecutor of those who followed Jesus, was so convinced he had seen Jesus physically resurrected that he became a believer and one of the best missionaries God's Kingdom has ever had.

Also:
-We have very early report of the resurrection - earlier than any other historical source for any other historical event that we trust.
-James, Jesus's brother became a believer after seeing Jesus risen even though he had not been a believer before Jesus's death.
-The resurrection was most certainly examined very carefully precisely because it was a central belief in the Christian faith.

So we have very good reason for believing the resurrection was an historical fact - God breaking in to history in a supernatural way - because all the available facts we have point to the reality of the resurrection. The fact that the disciples believed they saw the resurrected Christ, plus the fact that all other theories to explain away the resurrection fail and raise more questions than they answer, lead to the conclusion that Jesus did rise from the dead. Through Jesus, God defeated sin and death and provided a way back to Him for those who will accept it.

Happy Easter & Praise God!!