Easter is
commercialized into eggs and bunny. Although the bunny and eggs are oft
associated with pagan connotations such as Eastre (or Eostre), better evidences
suggests the contrary. History.com reports that German immigrants were the
source of Easter bunny and the eggs were a depiction of Christ’s resurrection.1
Significantly,
if Christ did not resurrect, our faith is useless, says the Bible, “If there is no resurrection of the dead,
then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our
preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (1 Corinthians 15: 13-14, NIV).
How could
we be reasonably sure that Christ rose from the dead?
Historical Basis
Affirming Christ’s Resurrection
Mike
Licona, associate professor in theology at Houston Baptist University, offers
reasons as to why historians consider Christ’s resurrection as a credible historical
event. Historians consider confirmations by independent sources, unsympathetic
sources and eyewitnesses as objective and reasonable evidences for Christ’s
resurrection: 2
Confirmation by Independent Sources:
The gospels and Paul’s letters are independent of each other, yet they
affirm Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. The gospels and the Pauline letters
were authored by different people from varied contexts.
Since the
gospels and the Pauline letters, being independent of each other, affirm Christ’s
crucifixion and resurrection, historians trust the authenticity of Christ’s
crucifixion and resurrection. Historians term this process of validating a
historical account as the “Criterion of Multiple Attestation.”
Confirmation by Unsympathetic
Sources: Publius Cornelius Tacitus, historian of the Roman Empire, was not
a friend of Christianity. In his work Annals (15.44), Tacitus referred to
Christianity as an evil and a mischievous superstition. However, at the same
time, he attested to Christ’s crucifixion by Pontius Pilate (crucifixion was an
antecedent event to resurrection).
When antagonistic
sources confirm Christ’s crucifixion, historians trust that Christ was indeed
crucified. While Christ’s disciples may have an innate bias to affirm the
crucifixion, Tacitus, as the unsympathetic source, had no reason whatsoever to
affirm Christ’s crucifixion. This process of validating a historical account is
termed as the “Criterion of Unsympathetic Sources.”
Confirmation by Eyewitnesses: Historians
trust both the reports of eyewitnesses and reports written closer to the event
described. This is termed as the “Criterion of Early Attestation.”
Therefore,
historians trust that Apostle Paul preserved an oral tradition about Christ’s
resurrection that goes back to the early Christian church or the Jerusalem
apostles, who were eyewitnesses to Christ’s resurrection. Paul’s letter to the Corinthian
church narrates Christ’s resurrection from the perspective of the eyewitnesses
and also as a written record of Christ’s resurrection closer to the time of Christ’s
resurrection, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: 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 to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more
than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom
are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one
abnormally born.” (1 Corinthians 15: 3-7, NIV, Emphasis Mine).
Minimal-Facts Affirms
Christ’s Resurrection
Furthermore,
Dr. Gary Habermas, Distinguished Professor of Apologetics and Philosophy and Chairman
of the Department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University, who specializes
in the study of Resurrection-of-Jesus research, states five highly credible
historical facts a.k.a. “Minimal Facts” that almost every historian accepts:
“1) Jesus died due to crucifixion.
2) His disciples had experiences
that they thought were appearances of the risen Jesus.
3) Their lives were transformed
because of this conviction.
4) As a result, they proclaimed this
message very soon after Jesus’ death, actually within weeks…
5) A man named Saul of Tarsus was
converted to Jesus Christ by what he also concluded was a personal appearance
of the risen Jesus to him.
These are five tough facts that
virtually everyone is going to grant as historical, especially the scholars who
have studied this area.” 3
Moreover, Habermas
includes the conversion of Apostle James, brother of Christ Jesus and a skeptic,
who became a follower of Christ after HE appeared to him. These historical
facts are sufficient to conclude that Christ’s resurrection was factual.
Defeating Objections
to Resurrection
Christ’s Disciples Hallucinated: The
detractors of Christianity may argue that Christ’s disciples hallucinated and
that they did not see the real Jesus.
Habermas
offers reasonable refutations to defeat the hallucination hypothesis: 4
1.
Hallucinations do not occur to groups. On the contrary, the risen Christ
appeared to groups of people (1 Corinthians 15: 5-7).
2. Those that
experienced the risen Jesus were different genders and different personalities –
the hardhearted Peter, tender-hearted John, soft-hearted Marys. It is rather
implausible for people that are so different (personality, gender, time and
place of sighting the risen Jesus) to hallucinate the same risen Jesus. They would
not have been in the proper frame of mind to hallucinate.
3.
Hallucinations do not change people, whereas the apostles were thoroughly
changed when they saw the risen Jesus. These disciples were so changed that
they were gave up their lives for Christ’s sake.
4. The conversion
of Apostle Paul and James, the brother of Jesus, also defeats the hallucination
hypothesis. Paul was actively persecuting Christians. James was a skeptic.
Neither of them would have longed to hallucinate the risen Jesus. So both these
men would not have been in the proper frame of mind to hallucinate the risen Christ.
Given these
reasonable evidences, we could reasonably conclude that those who posited the
hallucination hypothesis probably hallucinated this hypothesis.
Jesus Did Not Die At The Cross (Swoon
Theory):5 The Quran states that Jesus did not die on the cross.
Other detractors of Christianity state that Jesus merely swooned or lost
consciousness at the cross.
Medical
science strongly suggests that Jesus died of asphyxiation. The heart wound
inflicted by the soldier upon the crucified Christ confirmed Christ’s death.
The sucking chest condition (Piercing of the spear into Christ’s upper thoracic
area would have prevented effective breathing and produce sucking sound from
the wound. This would have certainly killed Christ) is an added affirmation for
Christ’s death on the cross.
But the supreme
defeater to the objection that Christ did not die on the cross comes from the German
liberal scholar, David Strauss.
Strauss
asserted that the swoon theory was self-contradictory. If swoon theory was
accurate, then Jesus would have been alive. The disciples then would have no
reason to preach the gospel, for there need be no forgiveness, no church, and
no eternal hope in Christ.
Finally, we
can safely bury the swoon theory for we also have the affirmation of Christ’s
crucifixion by non-Christian historians such as Thallus (52AD), Mara
Bar-Serapion (70AD), Josephus (93AD), Pliny the Younger (112AD), Cornelius
Tacitus (116AD), and Phlegon (140AD).
Jesus Was Buried Elsewhere: 6
Absence of authentic evidences placing Jesus’ body elsewhere and the earlier source
that Mark used for his gospel narrative are sufficient for the historians to
believe that Christ was buried in Joseph of Arimathea’s family burial cave.
Conclusion
Be assured
that every objection against resurrection could be reasonably defended with the
evidences already at hand.
Habermas’
words constitute the most appropriate conclusion, “Now, if you’re sitting there wondering, “Look, I don’t know. I’m a Hindu.
I’m a Buddhist. I’m an agnostic. I’m an atheist.” Sure, you can walk away and not
believe in Jesus, but do you know what? I don’t think you can walk away and say
there’s no data. I don’t think you can walk away and say that there are no
facts. I really wonder if you want to throw out or to ignore these facts
because we can get to each one of them independently and for multiple reasons.
But do you know where all this is
going? Paul says that it’s because of the resurrection that death has no sting.
It’s because of the resurrection that the grave has no victory. Because of the
resurrection of Jesus we have the precious opportunity for eternal life. But we
need to say “I do” to Jesus. It’s all in whether we make that commitment…If you
don’t say “I do” to Jesus, what do you have? You still haven’t trusted his
teachings. “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” [1
Cor. 15:55] I leave you with the words of Jesus: “Because I live, ye shall live
also.” [John 14:19]” 7
Endnotes:
Websites cited were last accessed on 27th March
2016.
1 http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/easter-symbols
2 http://www.risenjesus.com/assessment-present-state-historical-jesus-studies
3 http://www.garyhabermas.com/books/EvidenceBook/GaryHabermas_Evidence-for-the-historical-Jesus-Release_1point1.pdf,
p54.
4 Ibid, p57-58.
5 Ibid, p65-66.
6 Ibid, p68-70.
7 Ibid, p87.
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