The Most Important Lesson I’ve Learned in a Long Time

I recently realized that belief in Jesus should be based on logic and not emotion.  You’d think this would’ve been more apparent, but when you grow up surrounded by Christianity with holidays like Christmas and Easter you take a lot for granted and you miss the miracle of it all: (me) “Of course Jesus walked on water.  That’s His thing.”   After watching Tim Chaffey’s video on the resurrection (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko2xhGc7Q98) and reading Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Easter, I now have a much healthier appreciation for the resurrection story (i.e. Easter story).  Over my life I’ve tried sharing my faith by appealing to a person’s need for God or how God can make life better (e.g. Jesus said “My purpose is to give [you] a rich and satisfying life.” (John 10:10)), but as these wiser people have shown me: Appeal to the logic.  As Chaffey noted, “There’s a really cool name we often give skeptics who try to prove the resurrection wrong.  A lot of time we call them Christians now (e.g. CS Lewis, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, Malcom Muggeridge, Frank Morison).”  That’s the power of the logic behind the resurrection as a historical event – it changes lives.  As both Chaffey and Strobel claim, the Easter story is the “The most proven event in human history for a reason.”  Considering one third of the world’s population (about 2.4 billion) claim to be Christian, this would make sense.  That’s a lot of people wanting to understand their beliefs better and to make sure they’re not being duped.

From a historical standpoint there are five primary facts that are agreed upon by almost every scholar because they are confirmed in various sources between the New Testament, early writings about the New Testament, and non Christian, Roman writers:

1. A man named Jesus who performed miracles (or magic) was crucified on a cross
2. There was an empty tomb shortly after the time Jesus was buried
3. After the crucifixion followers claimed to have seen the risen Jesus alive and boldly proclaimed this despite the risk of death
4. After Jesus’ death, His once skeptic brother, James, became a believer (and important leader of the early Church)
5. The Apostle Paul persecuted early believers then suddenly became a believer (and arguably the most important Christian to ever live)

So why is the logic behind the Easter story so important? Because people need to answer this one crucial question: How was there an empty tomb where a dead Jesus had been buried three days earlier?

Then you’ll want to answer this backup question: Why would so many people die, be willing to die, or suddenly completely change their life because they believed they saw Jesus alive with the holes in His hands and feet?

If you don’t believe Jesus was the Son of God as He claimed, these historical facts become difficult to explain.  Chaffey breaks down the most common explanations for these, which I’ve copied below with my own explanations.  Let’s start with my favorite and then end with the one that makes me angry:

1. World’s First Time Traveller: Dying on a cross? That’s not how I’d use time travel.

• Aliens Stole the Body: When all else fails, blame Luke Skywalker.

• The Wrong Tomb: This is hilarious to me because it maintains the women who discovered the tomb was empty went to the wrong one.  My wife is bad with directions, but no one could be that bad.  Even if the women in the Easter story went to the wrong tomb, someone they talked to (perhaps Joseph of Arimathea, the owner of the tomb) would’ve known where it actually was and corrected them.  Then, if they were anything like me, they would’ve made fun of the women for being so bad at directions and that’d be the end of that story.

• Swoon Theory: Holds that Jesus didn’t actually die.  That’s a fun idea (and not medically possible as explained in The Case for Easter by one of the foremost forensic pathologists, Dr. Robert J. Stein).  Let’s say despite having been nearly whipped to death and then hung on a cross, which causes two dislocated shoulders on top of the nails through the wrists and feet, and then being handed over to executioners, the most prolific Roman killers of a people known for being, Jesus pulled a Houdini and tricked the Romans and all the witnesses by being in a coma-like state.  Believers of this theory maintain Jesus then managed to wake up two to three days later, and despite His intense injuries, he moved the giant boulder blocking the tomb that would take several people to do and then he walked past the Roman soldiers guarding it (that’d be its own miracle).  He then met up with His followers, and despite the need for intense medical treatment, Jesus convinced them to lie and say He really was the Son of God even though it would mean they’d also die brutal deaths.  That means Jesus is not only the greatest con man the world has ever seen, He’s the greatest salesman: (followers) “So lying won’t make us money, but it will likely cause us to be beaten to death? Sounds like a good deal.”

• Grave Robbers: These people stole items to sell.  Even if they somehow got past the guards and into the tomb and for some strange reason decided to steal the body of Jesus, wouldn’t they have sold it after? They’re robbers; not collectors.  And wouldn’t there have been a crazy amount of rumors about that because the empty tomb was huge news for both the Jewish leaders who wanted the Jesus story to die out or the thousands of followers who would’ve been offended by the theft?

• Annihilation Theory: This idea maintains while in the tomb the gases in there somehow evaporated the body of Jesus into thin air.  If this was a thing, wouldn’t we be using that now for disposing bodies? That’d be especially great for mobsters erasing their enemies or cheap people like me wanting to save money on a funeral. Other people argued the body was eaten by wild dogs, but that just sounds like something a cat person would’ve made up: (extra crazy cat person) “Cats will eat their dead owner, but dogs ate Jesus!” (normal crazy cat person) “I don’t think that’s true.”  

• Hallucinations: Considering Jesus was claimed to have been witnessed by groups of people all at once and witnesses claimed to have touched Him, that’s pretty farfetched.

• Séance: The disciples would’ve had to break the Jewish rule about communicating with the dead: “Let no one be found among you… who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.” (Deu 18:9-12)  It also doesn’t explain why the disciples and others would die proclaiming Jesus was alive because they’d know it wasn’t true.

• Vision Theory: This belief maintains Jesus sent vivid telepathic messages to his disciples from heaven.  If this was true, it still misses how the tomb was empty and the bold messages of the disciples of Jesus being alive.

1. The Jesus Myth: This foolish idea maintains Jesus was a made up character who didn’t actually exist. This theory is ridiculous considering the amount of historical evidence for His life and insulting to the hundreds of millions of people who have died for their belief in Jesus as the Son of God.

1. THE MOST INSULTING & HORRIBLE THEORY YET IS THE MOST ACCEPTED: This last theory actually really upset me largely because of how vastly accepted it is (i.e. 25% of the world at 1.8 billion people).  Chaffey claims that the Qur’an teaches that Jesus didn’t actually die; He was taken to heaven and one of the disciples was transformed to look like Him and died in his place.  The likely person for this sacrifice was Judas since he was the only one of the 12 disciples not around after the crucifixion.  That’s a serious flip from Judas betraying Jesus and then killing himself after.  I will be the first to admit I’m not an expert of Islam, but Chaffey does share a quote from the Qu’ran to verify this: “That they said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah,’ – but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein who are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not—nay Allah raised him unto himself (Qur’an 4:157-158).  When I Googled it, this version came up: (the Jewish people) “boasting, ‘We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.” But they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so.¹ Even those who argue for this ?crucifixion? are in doubt. They have no knowledge whatsoever—only making assumptions. They certainly did not kill him. Rather, Allah raised him up to Himself. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.” This definitely goes against Christianity because the Gospels regularly teaching and proving that Jesus was the Son of God.  The New Testament, as a whole, talks about this and use it as one of the main reasons the Jewish leaders wanted Him dead.  If Jesus died around 30AD with the New Testament Gospels and letters being written between 50ishAD to 100ishAD compared to the Qu’ran being written 609-632AD, historically the New Testament would be more reliable, especially since it was written while witnesses were still alive/dying for their faith.  This also doesn’t answer how there was an empty tomb or the witnesses boldly claiming to have seen Jesus with the stigmata.  Chaffey’s main argument, however, is if Allah replaced Jesus with a typical human, the crucifixion is a lie – arguably the greatest lie of all time – and Allah becomes a deceiver.  If Allah is “all wise” I assume Muslims would say He would have a reason for this, but the implication is very troubling because “deceiver” is the term used for the devil.  

On the plus side, knowing this becomes a potential talking point with Muslim friends.  For example, “Why do you think Muslims don’t see Jesus as the Son of God?” or “I heard there’s a passage in the Qu’ran that says Jesus didn’t die on the cross.  Is that true? Can you explain it better to me?”

This week may we all consider the questions: If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead like the evidence suggests, how was there an empty tomb? And if Jesus rising from the dead is the best answer, what does this mean for how we should live our life?

 Rev. Chad David, ChadDavid.ca, learning to love dumb people (like me)