The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important event in the history of the world. I don’t believe that it can be stressed enough how central to our faith that this one event is.

Jesus’ death atoned for our sins, so that is important to remember always (Rom 5:8). But it is by the Resurrection that we are assured final victory over death: “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him” (Rom 6:9). The same is true of us, who are in Christ (Rom 6:11). This passage bears repeating in full:

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. [Rom 6:8-11]

Most people perceive, due to a very secularized culture, that it is Christmas–the birth of Jesus–that is the center of Christian celebration. In fact, Christmas is not–nor ever should be–the center of our celebration. It was not with His birth that He saved us, but with His death. His Resurrection achieved final victory over death, and confirmed His promise to us that He was indeed who He said He was.

In Genesis, after Adam and Eve sin, God punishes them with many afflictions. The most severe is death: “for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Gen 3:19). This is the beginning of the Hebrew belief in nihilism. God is not promising eternal life and fellowship, but is declaring that the man will return to the dust from which he was formed. There is no look at death, heaven, or hell in the Old Testament, it is all nihilistic. After death comes oblivion.

Twelve men in Galilee were raised with this belief. This is unshakable, unavoidable. They were raised with this nihilistic viewpoint, they believed that death was God’s decree, the wages for sin (Rom 6:23). But something happened overnight to change their minds. Something took these twelve men and changed them from cowards and deserters into martyrs for their faith.

Something also worked on Paul, one of the leaders of the effort to quash this new faith. He turned from a murderer and torturer into the most vocal proponent of this new faith. Not only was Paul a Jew, but a Pharisee: one of the higher-ups of the Sanhedrin. He would have been keenly aware of Genesis 3:19: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

What changed the minds of these men? Why did they suddenly turn from a nihilistic view of death to preaching the bodily resurrection of all the dead in Christ, even willing to march to their own deaths for doing so?

I submit that only one event could have changed these guys’ minds. The physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Without Christ, there is no Christianity. This is surface-level thinking. Let’s go deeper than that: Without Christ’s resurrection, our faith is in vain and we are trapped in our sins (1 Cor 15:17). The dead are lost; they have returned to dust (1 Cor 15:18). And it gets even worse: If there is no life after death, and all we have to hope for is this life only, then we Christians are the most pathetic of all people (1 Cor 15:19).

I promised a piece on the Resurrection, an answer to Rook Hawkins’s Problems With the Resurrection blog entry from January. I found the piece itself laden with problems of its own, not worth a serious apologetic response. Instead of that essay, I instead submit two articles, one from William Lane Craig, and one from Edwin Yamauchi. These eminiant Christian scholars have both spent many years successfully defending the core of the faith we share, and I am happy to present two articles on the historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, for those who want to examine the evidence and not just blindly believe what the church teaches us.

God bless, and Happy Easter!

Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History? by Edwin Yamauci

The Historicity of the Empty Tomb by William Lane Craig