evidence for the resurrection
At the center of the Christian faith and the gospel is the belief in the resurrection of the dead, which in turn is based on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to immortal life. It is a supernatural and unique event in human history. The Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah - God's promised Savior of the world - would die as a substitute for people's sins and that God would raise him from the dead on the third day. Both events are attested in the New Testament of the Bible. Nevertheless, there are many people who doubt the phy-sical resurrection of Jesus or consider it a fairy tale. But in truth there are numerous indications that prove that Jesus was actual-ly resurrected and is alive.
1st The empty grave
According to biblical tradition, Jesus was crucified and killed by the Romans. Jesus' substitutionary death for people's sins has already been predicted by various prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Furthermore, the Bible testifies that Jesus' bones were removed from the cross by a man named Joseph of Arima-thea after he received permission from the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. He placed the dead body of Jesus in a tomb that he had originally had carved out of a rock for himself. Many historical reports from non-Christian sources, whose authors include people such as Flavius Josephus, Cornelius Ta-citus, Lucian of Samosata and Maimonides, confirm the early Christian eyewitness ac-counts of the death of Jesus of Nazareth.
Before his crucifixion, Jesus announced to his disciples several times that he would be killed and rise again on the third day. The Gospels describe how two women named Ma-ry and Mary Magdalene went to Jesus' tomb that day. They found Jesus' tomb empty and the stone that closed the entrance to the tomb rolled aside. In addition, the Gospels describe how an angel and shortly after-wards Jesus himself appeared to the women.
Faced with the empty tomb, the Jewish scribes and Pharisees, who had played a key role in the crucifixion of their Messiah, claimed that Jesus' body had been stolen. If it could be proven that Jesus' body decayed in the grave, it would be easy to disprove his resurrection. But the fact that this did not happen proves that Jesus' tomb was indeed empty.
2nd Theft excluded
Out of fear and at the urging of the Phari-sees and Jewish scribes, Pontius Pilate had many Roman soldiers closely guarding Jesus' tomb. Since the tomb was empty on the third day, only three groups of people could have removed Jesus' dead body from the tomb. Either the Romans, the Jews or the disciples of Jesus.
Since the Romans wanted to maintain peace in Judea (modern-day Palestine), there was no reason for them to steal the body. In ad-dition, the soldiers were given the task of closely guarding the grave. According to the laws of the time, violating them could have cost them their lives. The soldiers could therefore have had no interest in allowing the body to be stolen or even car-rying it out themselves.
The Jews, in turn, would not have removed Jesus' body from the tomb because the an-nouncement of his resurrection was the last thing they wanted. They were also the ones who asked Pilate to guard the tomb of Jesus. If Jesus' body had fallen into the hands of the Pharisees and scribes, they would have immediately released it and presented it to the world, thereby refuting the disciples' claim that Jesus was alive. Consequently, Christianity would not have emerged.
The disciples were frightened and despon-dent at the sudden and shameful death of their Lord, whom they had tirelessly fol-lowed for three years. In addition, a horde of battle-hardened and strongly armed Ro-man soldiers guarded their master's grave. In this respect, it is not convincing to assume that they would have taken the risk of stealing Jesus' body, risking their own lives, just to fake a resurrection. This would also make no sense if Jesus had not actually been resurrected. Such a lie would not have bene-fited them in any way. Rather, with this deli-berate deception they would have proven themselves to be false witnesses and made themselves guilty before God.
Neither Jesus' friends nor enemies expected his resurrection. Even during his lifetime, the Gospels say, the disciples did not under-stand what Jesus specifically meant when he announced his resurrection. Furthermore, it should be borne in mind that the Jewish people of that time, which also included the disciples of Jesus, expected their Messiah as a powerful ruler and king who was supposed to liberate the people from the Roman oc-cupiers. With the death of Jesus, the hope that Jesus was the promised Messiah was sud-denly dashed. In addition, Jesus' death on the cross meant to the Jews that God must have cursed Jesus (see Deuteronomy 21:23), since every person who was hung on a tree was considered cursed. So the disciples had even less reason to steal Jesus' body. If Jesus' body was not removed from the tomb by the Romans, the Jews, or his disciples, the only conclusion is that God raised Jesus from the dead.
3rd Women as first witnesses
It is highly unlikely that in a fictional story at that time women would have been chosen as the main witnesses to the resurrection. In rabbinic Judaism, women were considered unfit to bear witness. Women were not al-lowed to testify in court because they were considered unsuitable to accurately des-cribe an event, especially since the two women mentioned in the Bible could not expect any gain for such a fraud. This fact also speaks for the credibility of the resur-rection.
4th 500 eyewitnesses
After his resurrection from the dead, Jesus revealed himself to many people. Paul men-tions around the year 55 (25 years after Jesus' resurrection) that Jesus appeared to over 500 people at the same time. He wrote that some of those witnesses had died, but most were still alive. This meant that the people living at the time had the opportunity to question the eyewitnesses of the resurrection them-selves.
5tjh Transformation of the disciples
Jesus' death on the cross completely dashed the hopes of the disciples. As a result, they initially could not believe in the resurrec-tion of their master when the two women told them about the empty tomb. But a few weeks later, the disciples, who had recently been disappointed on the ground, gathered to boldly proclaim the resurrection of their Lord; for which they had to face ridicule and persecution as well as imprison-ment and death.
Jesus' resurrection is the only coherent ex-planation for this fundamental change of mind. The disciples were completely con-vinced that they had seen, spoken to, and eaten with their Lord.
6th Martyrdom of the disciples
The transformed disciples were willing to be tortured and killed for the proclamation of their Lord's resurrection. As is well known, there are terrorists and suicide bombers who are willing to voluntarily die for their religion. But unlike the disciples, they could not know whether what had been passed down to them over several gene-rations was true or not. The Christian mar-tyrs, on the other hand, were able to witness firsthand what they believed and pro-claimed. In this context, some claim that the disciples had a "hallucination" and there-fore believed in the resurrection of Jesus. But in view of the fact that there were over 500 people to whom the risen Jesus witnessed himself, this attempt at an explanation seems more than unbelievable.
No one would die for something they know is a lie; especially when he himself is the mas-termind behind the fraud. The rapid spread of the Christian faith confirmed that some-thing extraordinary had happened in Jeru-salem. During the apostles' lifetime, the go-spel was spread throughout the known world despite brutal persecution. Many of the disciples died. The Bible gives the example of James Zebedee, who was beheaded by the prince Herod (see Acts chapter 12).
Although so many people were hated, some-times cruelly tortured and murdered, or excluded from society because of their be-lief in Jesus, not a single example is known from the first centuries where a Christian expressed his faith would have denied Jesus to save his life or to avoid religious per-secution.
7th transformation from Saul to Paul
Most of the apostolic letters in the New Testament were written by a man named Paul from Tarsus. Paul, whose original name was Saul and who belonged to the strictest Jewish religious group at the time - the Pharisees - was initially a bitter opponent of the new movement. His hostility toward Christians, whom he viewed as a corrupt sect and a threat to Jewish traditions, led Paul to persecute Jesus' disciples throughout Jeru-salem and beyond. Furthermore, Paul also openly spoke out in favor of their execution. Paul thus proved to be one of the most zea-lous persecutors of Christians of the time.
But when the risen Jesus appears to Paul in a vision, his attitude changes completely. Through this event, Paul suddenly became one of the most effective messengers of the gospel. He went on many mission trips and founded several churches. In doing so, Paul endured much tribulation and persecution. At the same time, by preaching the gospel, he made himself an enemy of the Pharisees and scribes, to whom he himself once belonged. Paul was imprisoned, stoned and ultimately executed in Rome for his faith in Jesus. Only an event like the revelation of the living Jesus could have brought about such a remar-kable change of heart.
8th Change in Jewish traditions
For over 1,200 years, the Jews preserved the traditions handed down by God through the prophet Moses, which they viewed as sacred and unchangeable. The Jews knew that any willful violation of the law would bring God's wrath. The basis of their faith was the so-called Law of Moses, which dis-tinguished Israel from all other Gentile nations. The Orthodox Jews defended these traditions with all their might.
But just five weeks after his crucifixion, over ten thousand Jews followed Jesus and pro-claimed him as their Messiah and King. Sud-denly they broke with the traditions they had been accustomed to for generations and proclaimed Jesus Christ as Savior and the only way to God.
9th The Gospels
Several years after Jesus' death on the cross, the Gospels were written, which compre-hensively testify to the life of Jesus and his resurrection. Many witnesses to the resur-rection of Jesus, some of whom lived until the beginning of the second century, are named there. If the resurrection were a lie, one would have to assume that many of the eyewitnesses mentioned would have publicly contradicted the claims. If Jesus were just a simple itinerant preacher or an ordinary prophet, there would not be the many writ-ten testimonies such as the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles or the Apostolic Epistles, which in turn were written by different au-thors and which put the Son of God at the center of the to draw attention, emerged.
10th TDreams and visions
Even today there are many reports of people around the world to whom Jesus reveals himself as the living one in a dream or a vision. Many of these testimonies come from Muslim countries where there is severe perse-cution of Christians. These revelations are perceived as so credible that many of these people convert to Jesus, which is accompa-nied by a profound change in their lives and their faith.
The consequences:
The fact that Jesus rose from the dead has far-reaching consequences for every per-son. If Jesus is alive, it means that there is an all-powerful God who can bring the dead to life and that Jesus is truly the Messiah, the Son of God and Savior of the world (and no other). It further means that the Bible is the true word of God (and no other). Last but not least, it means that there is eternal life after death and with it hope for people.
Jesus Christ says:
"I am the resurrection, and the life:
he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die."