So, with no body of evidence, and
with a known tomb clearly empty, Morison accepted that Jesus’ body had somehow
disappeared from the tomb.
3. Were the Disciples Hallucinating?
Morison wondered if the disciples might have been
so emotionally distraught that they hallucinated and imagined Jesus’
resurrection. Psychologist Gary Collins, former president of the American
Association of Christian Counselors, explains that, “Hallucinations are
individual occurrences. By their very nature, only one person can see a given
hallucination at a time. They certainly aren’t something which can be seen by a
group of people.”
Hallucination is not even a remote possibility,
according to psychologist Thomas J. Thorburn. “It is absolutely inconceivable
that … five hundred persons, of average soundness of mind … should experience
all kinds of sensuous impressions – visual, auditory, tactual – and that all
these … experiences should rest entirely upon … hallucination.” The
hallucination theory, then, appears to be another dead end. What else could
explain away the resurrection?
4. Is it just a Legend?
Some unconvinced skeptics attribute the
resurrection story to a legend that began with one or more persons lying or
thinking they saw the resurrected Jesus. Over time, the legend would have grown
and been embellished as it was passed on. But there are three major problems
with that theory.
Legends simply don’t develop while multiple
eyewitnesses are alive to refute them. One historian of ancient Rome and Greece,
A. N. Sherwin-White, argued that the resurrection news spread too soon and too
quickly for it to have been a legend. Even skeptical
scholars admit that Christian hymns and creeds were recited in early churches
within two to three years of Jesus’ crucifixion.
Legends develop by oral tradition and are not
supported with contemporary historical documents. Yet the Gospels were written
within three decades of the resurrection.
The legend theory doesn’t adequately explain either
the empty tomb or the fervent conviction of the apostles that Jesus was alive.
Morison’s original assumption that the resurrection
account was mythical or legendary didn’t coincide with the facts.
5. Did the resurrection really
happen?
Having eliminated the main arguments against Jesus’
resurrection due to their inconsistency with the facts, Morison began asking
himself, “did it really happen?” Instead of looking for evidence against Jesus’
resurrection, he wondered how strong the case was for its actual occurrence.
Several facts stood out.
...Women First
Each eyewitness account reports that Jesus suddenly
appeared bodily to his followers, the women first. Morison wondered why
conspirators would make women central to the plot. In the first century, women
had virtually no rights, personhood, or status. Morison reasoned that
conspirators would have portrayed men, not women, as the first to see Jesus
alive. And yet we read that women touched him, spoke with him, and were the
first to find the empty tomb.
...Multiple Eyewitnesses
The disciples claim they saw Jesus on more than ten
separate occasions. They say he showed them his hands and feet and told them to
touch him. He ate with them and later, on one occasion, appeared alive to more
than 500 followers.
In Caesarea, Peter told a crowd why he and the
other disciples were so convinced Jesus was alive.
“We apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout
Israel and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by crucifying him, but God
raised him to life three days later … We were those who ate and drank with him
after he rose from the dead.”
Morison realized that these early sightings of a
risen Jesus by so many of his followers would have been virtually impossible to
fake.
Consistent to the End
As Morison continued his investigation, he began to
examine the motives of Jesus’ followers. He reasoned that something
extraordinary must have happened, because the followers of Jesus ceased
mourning, ceased hiding, and began fearlessly proclaiming that they had seen
Jesus alive.
As if the eyewitness reports were not enough to
challenge Morison’s skepticism, he was also baffled by the disciples’ behavior.
These eleven former cowards were suddenly willing to suffer humiliation,
torture, and death. All but one of Jesus’ disciples were slain as martyrs. If
they had taken the body, would they have sacrificed so much for a lie?
Something happened that changed everything for these men and women.
It was this significant fact that persuaded Morison
the resurrection must have really happened. He acknowledged, “Whoever comes to
this problem has sooner or later to confront a fact that cannot be explained
away … This fact is that … a profound conviction came to the little group of people
– a change that attests to the fact that Jesus had risen from the grave.”
Professor J. N. D. Anderson, author of “Evidence
for the Resurrection” concurs, “Think of the psychological absurdity of
picturing a little band of defeated cowards cowering in an upper room one day
and a few days later transformed into a company that no persecution could
silence – and then attempting to attribute this dramatic change to nothing more
convincing than a miserable fabrication … That simply wouldn’t make sense.”
Why Did it Win?
Finally, Morison was bewildered by
the fact that “a tiny insignificant movement was able to prevail over the
cunning grip of the Jewish establishment, as well as the might of Rome. He
explains,
“Within twenty years, the claim of
these Galilean peasants had disrupted the Jewish church… In less than fifty
years it had begun to threaten the peace of the Roman Empire. When we have said
everything that can be said… we stand confronted with the greatest mystery of
all. Why did it win?”
By all rights, if there were no
resurrection, Christianity should have died out at the cross when the disciples
fled for their lives. But the apostles went on to establish a growing Christian
movement.
Whatever one believes about the
validity of Jesus’ resurrection, clearly “something happened” after his death
that has made a lasting impact on our world. When world historian H. G. Wells
was asked who has left the greatest legacy on history, the non-Christian
scholar replied, “By this test Jesus stands first.” What is that legacy?
Let’s look at just some of Jesus’
impact:
-Time is marked by his birth, B.C.–
before Christ; A.D. – in the year of our Lord.
-More books have been written about
Jesus than about any other person.
-About 100 great universities were
established to spread his teaching — including Harvard, Yale, Princeton,
Dartmouth, Columbia, and Oxford.
-Jesus’ teaching that all people are
created equal laid the bedrock for human rights and democracy in more than 100
countries.
-The high value Jesus placed on each
person regardless of sex or race led his followers to promote the rights of
women as well as abolish slavery.
-Humanitarian works such as the Red
Cross, World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, Mercy Ships and the Salvation Army were
founded by his followers.
A Surprise Conclusion
In the book he finally wrote, Who
Moved the Stone, Morison documents the evidence that led him to a belief in the
resurrection. Morison is not alone. Numerous other skeptics who examined the
evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, also became convinced and accepted it as the
most astounding fact in all of human history.
Oxford professor and former skeptic
C. S. Lewis, who had once doubted Jesus’ very existence, was also persuaded by
the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. He writes,
“Something perfectly new in the
history of the Universe had happened. Christ had defeated death. The door which
had always been locked had for the very first time been forced open.”
But there is even more. . .
Jesus on Trial
Dr. Simon Greenleaf decided to put
Jesus’ resurrection on trial by examining the evidence. Greenleaf helped
Harvard Law School gain widespread credibility. He also wrote the three-volume
legal masterpiece A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, which has been called
the “greatest single authority in the entire literature of legal procedure.” The
U.S. judicial system today still relies on rules of evidence established by
Greenleaf.
Greenleaf wondered if Jesus’
resurrection would hold up in a court of law. Focusing his brilliant legal mind
on the facts of history, Greenleaf began applying his rules of evidence to the
case of Jesus’ resurrection. The more Greenleaf investigated the record of
history, the more evidence he discovered supporting the claim that Jesus had
indeed risen from the tomb.
He documents his case for Jesus’
resurrection in his book, Testimony of the Evangelists. So, what was that
evidence? Greenleaf observed several dramatic changes that took place shortly
after Jesus died, the most baffling being the behavior of the disciples. He
argues, “it would have been impossible for the disciples to persist with their
conviction that Jesus had risen if they hadn’t actually seen the risen Christ.”
Applying his own rules of evidence to the facts, he accepted the resurrection
as the best explanation for the events that took place immediately following
Jesus’ crucifixion.
Many other legal experts, including
former Chief Justice of England, Lord Darling, agree with Greenleaf’s verdict
on the case for Jesus’ resurrection. Darling writes,
“There exists such overwhelming
evidence…factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world
could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true.”
But the resurrection of Jesus Christ
raises the question: What does the fact that Jesus defeated death have to do
with my life? The answer to that question is what New Testament Christianity is
all about.
Did Jesus Say What Happens After We Die?
If Jesus really did rise from the
dead, then he alone must know what is on the other side. What did Jesus say
about the meaning of life and our future? Are there many ways to God or did
Jesus claim to be the only way?
