- The Tomb Was Empty on Easter.
The earliest records confirm this: “And when they went in, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus” (Luke 24: 3). Furthermore, Jesus’ opponents supported this by claiming that the disciples removed the body (Matthew 28: 13).
“Jesus Dead Body not found.”
There are four ways to represent this.
- His enemies took away the corpse. Assuming they did so (and they never claimed to have done such a thing), they would have to hand over the body in order to prevent the fruitful spread of the Christian faith in the very city where the crucifixion took place.
There is no doubt that it happened. In any case, they couldn’t deliver it.
- His companions removed the body. This was early gossip (Matthew 28: 11-15). Is it possible?
Did they defeat the tomb guard at some point? More importantly, could they have started teaching so strongly that Jesus was resurrected without even knowing that He was resurrected? Could they risk their lives and admit to beatings knowing it was a fraud?
- Jesus wasn’t dead, but He didn’t realize it until when He was buried in the tomb. He rose and removed his stone, defeated his warriors, met with his disciples and convinced them that he had come back to life, and then disappeared from history.
In fact, not even Jesus’ opponents attempted this line but believed that He was dead. The Romans confirmed it. This stone could not be moved from within by one man, and he had recently been wounded in the side with a spear, burned for six hours, and nailed to the cross.
- God raised Jesus from the dead. This is exactly what He thought would happen and what the disciples said.
But as long as there’s even the slightest chance that restoration can be understood naturally, people of today will say we shouldn’t rush to other worldly explanations. Does this make sense? I strongly disagree.
Of course, you obviously don’t want to be gullible. However, I don’t want us to ignore the reality just because it’s strange. From now on, our responsibility will be greatly influenced by our inclinations to the situations that will arise from the reality of the revival or from the misrepresentation of the recovery.
For example, assuming the message of Jesus has opened you to the truth of God and the need for forgiveness, at that point the authoritative opinions of the world beyond can lose control of your brain.
At some point, does this receptivity mean independence from prejudice against resurrection rather than prejudice against resurrection?
- The disciples changed immediately.
The disciples quickly changed from being incurably ill and unhappy after the execution (Luke 24: 21, John 20: 19) to being safe and eager to watch the resurrection (Acts 2:24, Acts 3: 15, Acts 4: 2).
The change came when they saw the risen Christ had and recognized as his disciples (Acts 2: 32). The most well-known contradictory explanation is that these beliefs result from wishful dreams. There are several problems with this idea. The disciples were not innocent, but they were pragmatic cynics during the resurrection (Mark 9: 32, Luke 24: 11, John 20: 8-9).
Furthermore, are the profound and precious teachings of those who have seen the risen Christ a figment of imagination?
What was Paul’s extraordinary letter to the Romans?
Personally, I find it difficult to see that this giant intellect and very sincere soul deceived or misled when he claimed to have seen the Risen Christ.
- Paul and others saw the resurrected Christ.
This is Paul’s assurance that if he had seen the risen Christ, 500 of his others would have seen him as well, and when he revealed this incident, many were still alive.
“Then Jesus appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once, most of whom were still alive, but some of them were already asleep” (1 Corinthians 15: 6).
What makes this so important is that this document maintained contact with Greeks who were concerned about such events while many of these disciples were still alive.
So this was a lie unless it could be refuted with a direct investigation.