APOLOGIA!

Every word of God is tested…Proverbs 30:5

Resurrection: Hoax? Or History?

Our faith and hope rests on the validity of the resurrection of Jesus.

Either He was resurrected (history) or his disciples deceived us (hoax). Which is it?

How Will We Ever Know?

Since we cannot travel back in history to see the events for ourselves, we must find another way.

What are the evidences for Jesus’ resurrection?

The Importance Of The Resurrection

Only four major world religions are based on personalities.

Only Christianity claims an empty tomb for its founder.

Abraham died. Buddha died. Mohammed died. None of these were ever said

to be resurrected.

Vitally Important British theologian Michael Green:

“Christianity does not hold the resurrection to be one among many tenets of belief. Without faith in the resurrection there would be no Christianity at all. The Christian church would never have begun; the Jesus-movement would have fizzled out like a damp squib [small firework] with His execution. Christianity stands or falls with the truth of the resurrection.”

Jesus Claimed He Would Be Raised From The Dead

• And that His resurrection would be a sign.

• Matthew 12:40 – “…for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Matthew 16:21

• “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.”

Luke 9:22• …saying, “The Son

of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.”

A Fact Of History• Ignatius (disciple of apostle John) – martyred

by being thrown to the wild beasts in the colosseum at Rome, wrote his Epistles on his way to his martyrdom.

• “He was crucified and died under Pontius Pilate. He really, and not merely in appearance, was crucified, and died, in the sight of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth….He also rose again in three days….He really died, and was buried, and rose from the dead.”

From Josephus• Jewish historian writing for the Romans at

the end of the first century A.D.• “Now there was about this time Jesus, a

wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him many Jews, and also many of the Greeks. This man was the Christ and when Pilate had condemned him to the cross, upon his impeachment by the principle man among…

• …us, those who had loved from the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive on the third day, the divine prophets having spoken these and thousands of other wonderful things about him. And even now, the race of Christians so named from him, has not died out.”

• Passage has been proved to be authentic.• Doesn’t mean that Josephus believed, but

that he was recording accurate history to the best of his ability.

Acts 1:3

• “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking things concerning the kingdom of God.”

Evidence From Luke

• Greek physician• Wrote his gospel sometime

between 63 and 70 A.D.• Claimed to write after he had,

“investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order…. (Luke 1:3)

• Earliest church received his gospel as absolute truth.

Paul’s Epistles

• Galatians, Corinthians and Romans all written between 55-58 A.D. around 25 years removed from Jesus.

• Each was written from what Paul preached, even earlier and closer to Christ.

• Affirms the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:3-8

• For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins…and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day…and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now…then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

Romans 1:4

• …who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

His Resurrection Our Resurrection

• Philippians 3:10-11 -- …that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”