As they were talking about these things, Jesus
himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were
startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them,
“Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and
my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have
flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed
them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were
marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a
piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. (Luke 24:36-42 ESV).
Perhaps the most compelling of the evidences is that Jesus' disciples had real experiences with one whom they believed was the risen Christ. This is not commonly disputed today because we have the testimony of the original disciples themselves that they saw Jesus alive again. And you don't need to believe in the reliability of the gospels to believe this. In, Paul records an ancient creed concerning Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection appearances that is much earlier than the letter in which Paul is recording it:
For I delivered to you as of first importance
what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the
twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).
It is generally agreed
by critical scholars that Paul received this creed from Peter and James between
3-5 years after the crucifixion. Now, Peter and James are listed in this creed
as having seen the risen Christ. Since they are the ones who gave this creed to
Paul, this is therefore a statement of their own testimony. As the Jewish
Scholar Pinchahs Lapide has said, this creed "may be considered the
statement of eyewitnesses."
Now, I recognize that
just because the disciples think they saw Jesus doesn't automatically mean that
they really did. There are three possible alternatives: they were lying; they
hallucinated; or, they really saw the risen Christ.
If the disciples knew
that Jesus had not really risen, but they made up this story about the
resurrection, then why did 10 of the disciples willingly die as martyrs for
their belief in the resurrection? People will often die for a lie that they
believe is the truth. But if Jesus did not rise, the disciples knew it. Thus,
they wouldn't have just been dying for a lie that they mistakenly believed was
true. They would have been dying for a lie that they knew was a lie. Ten people
would not all give their lives for something they know to be a lie. Because of
the absurdity of the theory that the disciples were lying, we can see why
almost all scholars today admit that, if nothing else, the disciples at least
believed that Jesus appeared to them. But we know that just believing something
to be true doesn't make it true.
That brings us to the
second of the theories: the disciples were wrong and had been deceived by a
hallucination. The hallucination theory is untenable because it cannot explain
the physical nature of the appearances. The disciples record eating and
drinking with Jesus, as well as touching him. This cannot be done with
hallucinations. Second, it is highly unlikely that they would all have had the
same hallucination. Hallucinations are highly individual and not group
projections. Further, the hallucination theory cannot explain the conversion of
Paul, three years later. And perhaps most significantly, the hallucination
theory cannot even deal with the evidence for the empty tomb.
Since the disciples
could not have been lying or hallucinating, we have only one possible
explanation left: the disciples believed that they had seen the risen Jesus
because they really had seen the risen Jesus. So, the resurrection appearances
alone demonstrate the resurrection. Thus, if we reject the resurrection, we are
left with a second inexplicable mystery--first the empty tomb and now the
appearances. The answer… Hallelujah… He is risen!
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