Christianity is truly unique. I can think of no other group – religious or otherwise – whose credibility relies entirely on the validity of a single event in history. To the best of my knowledge, Christianity is the only group or movement to ever make a public confession like this one:
If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
– 1 Corinthians 15:14
This has been the Church’s mantra since Day 1: No resurrection, no Christianity. And to be clear, by “resurrection” the first Christians didn’t mean that Christ’s spirit rose and appeared like a ghost; to them, resurrection always referred to the physical raising of Jesus’ body.
This presents a major challenge for rational, intellectual types who are tempted to adopt the morals of Jesus while writing off his miracles. The resurrection – which can only be described as the Miracle of miracles – presents a bridge too far for many skeptics who prefer to follow the facts instead of their feelings, and when confronted with the false binary of being reasonable or being religious, many choose to walk away from Jesus.
Over the next few Fridays, I’d like to examine a few of the most common arguments employed by agnostics and skeptics to deny the resurrection of Jesus. As always, I’d love to entertain your questions and critiques if you have them. You can send them my way by simply replying to this message.
Argument #1: The Christian claims about Jesus’ life were written decades or centuries after he (supposedly) lived.
Embedded in this question are a handful of other scathing inquiries, such as:
- How can we be sure that Church leaders didn’t change their story through the centuries between the actual events and when they were finally written down?
- Why should we believe what Christians say about Jesus when the only historical sources are found in the Bible, which is obviously biased?
- And how can we really be sure that Jesus ever existed, and that he wasn’t a mythological figure along the lines of the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses that were popular in those times?
If these questions appear harsh or outlandish, or if you’ve never wrestled with doubts this extreme, you should know that many modern-day non-Christians are asking questions like these. If, for example, you have a 20-something little brother, child, or grandchild who calls himself agnostic or atheistic, I can guarantee you that these are the questions he and his friends are discussing over coffee.
In the first of his New Testament letters, Simon Peter told believers to always be prepared to respond to questions like these:
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect… – 1 Peter 3:15
The good news is that these questions, which seem so pointed and intimidating, are fairly simple to handle. Let’s take the last one, first. Is there sufficient historical evidence that Jesus actually existed?
There is. Dr. Bart Ehrman, a New Testament scholar who is also an outspoken critic of Christianity, has written multiple books in which he rejects the claim that Jesus could have been a mythological figure. In his book called Did Jesus Exist, Ehrman wrote:
“The idea that Jesus did not exist is a modern notion. It has no ancient precedents. It was made up in the eighteenth century. One might as well call it a modern myth, the myth of the mythical Jesus.”
Along the same lines, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School, has written that, of all the events of Jesus’ life that are described in the gospels, “…only two are universally accepted as historical by even the most liberal scholars: his baptism by John the Baptist, and his crucifixion.” Although this may seem like a veiled critique of Christianity’s claims, it also affirms that historians universally agree that Jesus of Nazareth is a historical figure.
But, the skeptic wonders, aren’t we basing our claims about Jesus’ existence on one (very biased) source? No. First of all, the Bible is not one source, but many independent sources who wrote in different times, places, languages, and circumstances. Not only do we have nine or ten independent, first-century accounts of Jesus’ life in the New Testament (Matthew, John-Mark, Luke, John the Apostle, Paul, James, Peter, Jude, and the unknown author of Hebrews), but we also have non-biblical, non-Christian historians – such as the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus – who wrote in the first century attesting to the life, death, and burial of Jesus.
Even so – the miraculous claims Christians make about Jesus could have evolved over time, right? No, I don’t think they could have.
Why not? Because there is consensus among historians that Paul wrote his letter we call 1 Corinthians in the early 50s AD. And in that letter we find perhaps the most important (and most debated) chapter in the entire New Testament – 1 Corinthians 15. In this chapter, Paul quotes an older creed that he previously “preached” (v.1) in Corinth during his stay in 47-48 AD.
But this creed must have been older than 47-48 AD, because Paul said that he had received (v.3) it from someone else at some earlier date. Modern scholars – Christian and non-Christian – have studied this chapter, and the creed it contains, and have reached a broad consensus that the 1 Corinthians creed can be traced back to 35-36 AD, within 5-6 years of Jesus’ death.
What was this early creed that was being recited by Christians in their movement’s infancy?
“That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared…”
– 1 Cor. 15:3-6
Christians were proclaiming the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus within just a few years of his life. These aren’t mere myths and legends about Jesus; these are statements of facts offered by multiple, independent eyewitnesses and accepted as viable evidence by reputable, non-Christian scholars today:
Fact #1: Jesus died on a cross.
Fact #2: He was buried in a tomb.
Fact #3: The tomb was empty three days later.
Fact #4: Hundreds of eyewitnesses encountered the risen Jesus in the flesh.
Fact #5: Those same eyewitnesses were willing to lose everything – including their families, their dignity, and their very lives – for their conviction that Jesus rose, and even as they were being hunted and slaughtered, they fearlessly spread the Good News across three continents in the first century.
If you’re doubtful about Jesus and Christianity, take a look at those five facts again, one at a time. Ask yourself which of these factual statements you doubt, and why. Now consider this: if these five facts are true, what is your alternative explanation to the Christian claim that Jesus rose?
After years of doubting Christianity, I reached the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus is a true story. I don’t believe in the empty tomb because of “blind faith”, but because I believe it’s the most probable explanation of the facts listed above. My belief in the resurrection led me to a deeper faith in God, a greater appreciation for the Bible, and the blessed assurance of my salvation in Christ.
If you struggle with doubts, I will pray for you to find the courage to wrestle with your doubts and to follow wherever the evidence leads.
