pilgrim people

Can you think of anything that, if proven, would cause you to renounce the historic Christian faith? Or would you believe the Gospel no matter what?

I can. There are four witnesses that testify of the truth of Christianity that would have to be truly disproved in order for me to consider renouncing the historic Christian faith: 1) the empty tomb of Christ; 2) the testimony of the apostles; 3) the organic biblical-theological nature of Scripture; and 4) the testimony of natural law and common grace in human beings (especially the eschatological hope pressed into human consciences). Without those witnesses, there is no Christianity.

Thinking about the first of the four, we have to ask, what would cause rational and sane people to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Skeptics might retort, “Well, maybe they weren’t so rational or sane after all. People don’t rise from the dead. That is not a normal occurrence in everyday life observable to science. It’s only the superstition of ignorant, unscientific, unsophisticated, ancient people. And because many people are still superstitious, some still believe in that ancient fairy tale. People just want something to believe in, something that gives them purpose and meaning and hope in this life.”

Others might reply, “Well, maybe the disciples really DID believe that Jesus rose from the dead. After all, they missed him so dearly and were so stricken with grief that they really wanted this to happen. They just convinced themselves of it even though it wasn’t true.”

To that, some might add, “Well, it is not that Jesus actually rose from the dead physically – because we know that that cannot happen. But he has risen in our hearts and he lives on...kind of like Elvis, only in a greater way. The memory of him gives us a powerful spiritual experience.”

It is of course very true that people can be very superstitious, self-deceived, and believe ridiculous things. Humans are incurably religious and search for some meaning and purpose in life, and look for something to worship. If people don't find that through organized religion or the individualistic mysticism and self-realization so rampant in our culture today, they may try to find it in a cult that believes in crazy, inconceivable, crackpot notions. Last year was the ten-year anniversary of the "Heaven's Gate" cult mass suicide of 39 people in a house in Rancho Santa Fe. These folks followed the teachings of one man who taught, among others things, that a spaceship was coming for them and would transport them to a new life that was in his words, “beyond human.” Being convinced of this, 39 people ate pudding and applesauce laced with lethal poison and drugs – the largest mass suicide on US soil, right here in San Diego.

We hear about stuff like this and we think, “Who in the world would believe such things?” But it just shows us how easily people can be deceived.

But as Christians, how do we know that WE are not believing in a myth? How do we know that Christianity is not just a sham? Well, one very, very good reason is this: the testimony of the empty tomb. That is a fact that must be dealt with. If Jesus’ body was still in the tomb after three days, then everything that the apostles proclaimed and wrote is a lie and there is no Christianity. We are still waiting for the Promised One of the Old Testament.

But if the tomb was empty as history reports, then everyone is compelled to deal with that fact.

And it is precisely for this reason that many skeptics in their fierce opposition to Christianity have tried to discredit the testimony of the empty tomb by coming up with theories such as the “swoon theory,” which is pretty absurd when you think about it. The swoon theory basically says that Jesus wasn’t really dead when he was buried. He was, in those immortal words of Billy Crystal in The Princess Bride, "mostly dead."

Maybe after being beaten by a Roman garrison of soldiers and having his back ripped open by the standard Roman whippings; after being nailed to a cross and hanging there for hours in the slow suffocation that the Romans had perfected in their crucifixions - all of which was done under Roman regulation, mind you; after having a spear put thrust into his side so that water and blood gushed out and the experienced Roman soldiers were able to verify his death; maybe after all that he really wasn’t dead. Perhaps he was in a coma or some sort of drugged state. When he got into the tomb, though he was beaten, had huge holes in his wrists, feet and side, and lost a tremendous amount of blood, the cool air of that tomb revived him so that he was able to regain his strength, burst out of the bandages that he was wrapped in (which weighed about 75 pounds), roll away the tombstone, fight his way past the Roman guards and escape to freedom.

That sort of fiction might work for Jack Bauer on 24, but it didn’t work for Jesus of Nazareth in the first century. The Koran might claim that Jesus only pretended to be dead, but nowhere in Roman or Jewish history does anyone argue or even imply that Jesus did NOT die on the cross. His death was a matter of public record and remains a fact from history. Pilate certified his death before he gave the body to be buried.

Even the Journal of the American Medical Society, a secular publication, made this conclusion on page 1463 of their issue on March 21, 1986: “Clearly the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that J was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted and supports the traditional view that the spear, thrust between his right ribs, probably perforated not only the right lung but also the pericardium and heart and thereby ensured his death. Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that J did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge.”

There is simply no credibility in claiming that Jesus did not really die. It is for that reason that others who have opposed the Gospel have tried to make the claim that Jesus' body was stolen. Matthew tells us that the Jewish leaders tried to circulate this story, even bribing soldiers to go along with it. But this theory doesn’t make much sense when it is examined. In the first place, the disciples weren’t expecting Christ to be raised from the dead. They knew there was a general resurrection at the end of the age, but they were not expecting Christ to be raised in three days. Even though Jesus had predicted his death and resurrection, they were terrified when Jesus was arrested and crucified. They didn’t understand his death. They ran and hid. Peter denied knowing Christ three times! Are we to think that they actually fought their way past the Roman soldiers, or snuck past them while they slept on duty (even though that was a crime punishable by death for a Roman soldier)? That is completely inconsistent with the facts about these men as revealed in all four Gospel accounts.

But more importantly, it is not credible to think that the disciples stole the body of Jesus and then preached a lie by saying that he was raised from the dead, and then all – each one of the them to a man – suffered persecution for the rest of their lives and all of them (except John) were martyred for something that they knew was a lie. People might suffer and die for something that they are convinced is true, like those poor people of the Heaven’s Gate cult, but it is ridiculous to believe that the disciples all would have gone the rest of their lives, gaining no worldly wealth, fame or honor, but instead be mocked, imprisoned, tortured, and martyred for something that they knew wasn’t true.

Others have said that Joseph of Arimathea stole the body. But that too has all sorts of problems: why did he take the body? What was his motive? Where did he put it? And most importantly: how does one explain the second great testimony, which we will take up in the next post.