Jesus Really Did Physically Rise From the Dead!

Ten Good Reasons to Believe the Easter Story

1. Jesus was the most famous man of his day

Although many people misunderstood Jesus, everyone knew him as a miracle worker who did astonishing things and talked about God. Jesus was so famous that he was mentioned by about a dozen non-Christians in the ancient world. There was no possibility that it was all just a case of mistaken identity.

2. The final trial and verdict was announced in public

At the time Jesus lived, Jerusalem was to Jews like Mecca is to the Muslims, and the greatest annual pilgrimage was at Passover, when Jesus was executed. This means there would have been thousands and thousands of eye-witnesses of Pontius Pilate’s verdict and the crucifixion itself from throughout the Roman Empire, as well as thousands and thousands more from Judea itself.

3. The Romans liked killing and were good at it.

The Roman centurions who were given the task of executing Jesus were professional soldiers who lived in an astonishingly brutal culture. The Romans were only so successful because they were better at killing than their enemies. If these centurions failed to properly execute a convicted criminal they would be executed themselves.

4. The Romans took extra precautions to prevent anyone from stealing the body

The Romans and the Jewish leaders had heard rumours that Jesus claimed that he would rise again from the dead. They had a huge incentive to make sure that this couldn’t happen. If it did, they knew that they would loose control of trying to crush the Jesus movement. They placed a legal seal between the rock and the tomb to prevent anyone tampering with it then they placed a guard of at least four highly trained soldiers who could have easily fought of a couple of fishermen and a tax collector.

5. The Romans and Jewish Leaders didn’t produce the body

The Romans and Jews could have stopped the followers of Jesus in their tracks simply by displaying the body of Jesus in public. In fact, this was what the Romans preferred to do with potential rebels. To there embarrassment, the body couldn’t be found because that Body was alive, well and constantly appearing to hundreds of people.

6. Jesus appeared to a woman before he appeared to anyone else

In the customs and law of the time, a woman’s evidence was less valuable than a man’s. If the resurrection was a fabricated story that the disciples invented, they would not have weakened the plausibility of their lies by saying that women were first to see the resurrected Jesus. The only reason the the historical record says that it was women who first saw Jesus was because the disciples were more concerned about being truthful than being persuasive.

7. Jesus appeared on numerous occasions to many people after his resurrection.

Jesus drank and ate food with them to demonstrate that he was not merely a ghost. He appeared to sceptics like Thomas, he appeared to groups of people, but inside and outside, at night as well as in broad daylight. He even appeared to over 500 people on at least one occasion. The historical record includes:

1. Mary Magdalene at the tomb (Mark 16.9-11; John 20.11-18) 
2. Peter in Jerusalem at the tomb (Luke 24.34; 1 Cor. 15.5) 
3. Jesus' brother James at the tomb (1 Cor. 15.7)
4. The other women at the tomb (Matthew 28.8-10)
5. Two travellers on the road (Mark 16.12,13; Luke 24.13-34)
6.  Ten disciples behind closed doors (Mark 16.14; Luke 24.35-43; John 20.19-25).
7.  All the disciples, with Thomas, excluding Judas Iscariot in a closed room (John 20.26-31; 1 Cor. 15.5)
8. Seven disciples while fishing (John 21.1-14)
9. Eleven disciples and others in Galilee (Matthew 28.16-20).
10. A crowd of 500 "most of whom are still alive" at the time of Paul writing (1 Cor. 15.6)
11. All the apostles (including the Twelve plus all the other apostles) (1 Cor. 15.7)
12. Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem (Luke 24.44-49)
13. Those who watched Jesus ascend to heaven (Mark 16.19,20; Luke 24.50-53; Acts 1.3-8)
14. Paul along with others on the road to Damascus (1 Cor. 15.8-9; Gal. 1.13-16; Acts 9.1-8, 22.9,13.30-37; 1 Cor. 15.10-20; Gal. 2.1-10)

8. Something astonishing suddenly happened to the disciples

For most of the last three years of Jesus’ life, His disciples were confused, misunderstanding, unfocused and occasionally cowardly. Yet they suddenly were transformed, into a focused, united and courageous group that would stop at nothing to proclaim to the world that Jesus had risen from the dead. Nearly of them were brutally killed for proclaiming that Jesus rose again from the dead. Why would they all suffer such extreme persecution for something that they all knew to be a lie?

9. The day of worship suddenly changed

After the Resurrection, tens of thousands of Jews suddenly abandoned the centuries old commandments of Moses to celebrate the Sabbath on the last day of the week and began worshipping on the first day of the week the day on which the Lord Jesus conquered death and opened the way for both Jews and non-Jews to come to God.

10. The ancient offering of animal sacrifice suddenly stopped

The Jews of Jesus’ day rigidly believed that God demanded animals be sacrificed if God was to be pleased with them. After the Resurrection, the new Jewish Christians suddenly stopped offering animal sacrifices to God, because they believed that God had already supplied the sacrifice through the death and resurrection of Jesus.