For our Sunday School class we are going through The Gospel Project. Last Sunday in the discussion on the bronze serpent, an interesting question was asked:
For some people, the idea of salvation through the cross of Christ may seem somewhat unlikely or improbable. How would you help answer those with such misgivings? (TGP, Spring 2014, p85)
As I thought through this question I realized how difficult it is to prove the reality of the Cross by the historical fact of the crucifixion. What I mean is that we could historically show that a man named Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem by Pontius Pilate. But that doesn’t mean much of anything in itself. There were other men that were crucified on that same day. The significance is found in why this man was hung on a tree.
For this I believe we need to turn to the resurrection. For those that find salvation through the cross improbably I don’t know that I’d turn their attention to the crucifixion. I’d turn their attention to the resurrection.
Theories Tried and Found Wanting
I agree with Michael Patton that “Christianity is the most falsifiable religion there is and yet it has survived.” And that claim centers upon the resurrection. The claim that the crucified man Jesus Christ has risen from the dead is historically verifiable. There are many that have posited theories to show how the resurrection was a hoax. These are unconvincing.
The swoon theory holds that Jesus did not really die but merely fainted from exhaustion. He was then buried alive. After a couple days he got better, rolled away the stone, and left. Somehow we are supposed to believe that Jesus faked his death better than Tupac, then proceeded to get better and take off his own linen wrappings, somehow find an exit in the tomb that wouldn’t have been known to the guards, and then a day or so later walk seven miles on the Emmaus road—all of this after being beaten and crucified in such a way that professionals said, “Yep, this fella is dead”. Sorry, I’m not buying it.
The hallucination theory holds that all of his Jesus’ post-resurrection visitations were just hallucinations. Here we are supposed to believe that over 500 people at one time had the same hallucination and that others in different places and at different times where having the same thing. Now I could believe something like this in the age of the internet, when the power of suggestion could play a massive role. But not in the first century when news travelled slower than Billy Butler running to first base.
The impersonation theory would have us believe that, just like Elvis, Jesus had an impersonator. This, according to the theory, would explain why people were not able to recognize him at first. Never mind the fact that our typical experience with impersonators is the opposite. Upon closer inspection we don’t usually think to ourselves, “Wow, that dude really does look like Elvis”. No, we usually get closer and realize that this isn’t the real deal.
The theft theory posits that those tricksy disciples stole the body and then spread the lie that Jesus rose from the dead. I suppose the same people watch a movie like National Treasure and think, “Hmm, that’s legit. I could see that happening”. Trained Roman guards were there at the tomb to prevent this very thing from happening. And also the likelihood of keeping this secret for so long and even being willing to die for this lie is just too much for me to believe.
The unknown tomb theory teaches that the early disciples would have had no way to know where Jesus was buried because crucified criminals were just tossed into a pit. This rejects what Scripture teaches—that Joseph of Arimathea took the body to his own private tomb. But even still—this could have been verified by the Romans.
None of these theories would make me disbelieve the historical and biblical evidence of a resurrection. At this point we have to ask—who was this man that was raised from the dead? When we ask that question we are in a much better position to answer questions related to the significance of the Cross.
The resurrection is the crux of the issue. If they won’t believe that somebody was raised from the dead they certainly won’t believe the other Scriptures.
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I’m indebted to this article for help in outlining the different theories that deny the resurrection: https://bible.org/article/false-theories-against-resurrection-christ
