He is Risen Indeed!

“…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain…we are the most pitiable people of all.” 1 Corinthians 15:17-19

Christ is risen from the grave? Fact or fiction? One would think that most skeptics would debunk Jesus’ resurrection with theories like mass hallucination or the idea that He did not really die, but they can’t. Our belief in Jesus’ resurrection is based on eyewitness accounts written by men willing to die for it. Those men, Peter, James and John, knew the truth. They saw Jesus. They preached it, and they were able to convince so many others by the power of their conviction. St. Paul, a skeptic, became a Christian three years after Jesus’ death. Bart Ehrman, a very well known skeptic, a non-Christian, says, "Paul got to interview Peter and James. I'd like to interview Peter and James. This is as close to eye witness testimony as we can get.” 

Another proof of the resurrection is that the gospel account tells us that WOMEN discovered the empty tomb. Women in those times couldn’t give a testimony in court. They were second class citizens. They were not considered credible witnesses. If the story was made up, it would never have included women as the first to be at the scene. And then there were the radical transformations of Peter, who went from coward to a champion of the truth, James who had thought Jesus was crazy to the leader of the Jerusalem Church, and countless others martyrs of the faith. 

Charles Colson, who gained notoriety at the height of the Watergate scandal said, “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible!”

God made sure that what we believe in is based on defendable facts. There is SO MUCH MORE EVIDENCE about Jesus and His life, death and resurrection than there is about Julius Caesar and Alexander! Yes, Jesus is risen! Alleluia!