The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the pillar of the Christian faith. If one could disprove the resurrection, they could find the ultimate flaw of Christianity. In 1 Corinthians 15 the Apostle Paul himself said that if there is no resurrection then our faith is in vain. This is why there is a movement in atheism today to disprove the resurrection. They know that if they can disprove that then the rest of Christianity will fail.
One of the issues is the tendency of people to look at the Bible as a book of cool stories, and not actual events. People don’t really believe that the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, or that Jonah was actually swallowed by a big fish. They don’t actually believe that Jesus healed people or that he rose from the dead. Indeed, even some in Christianity struggle with the reality of these events. But the Bible is not just a book of stories. These events actually took place. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that the Bible can be trusted on all accounts.
Take Luke for example. Sir William Ramsay is quoted as saying that Luke was a historian of the first rank. This wasn’t a statement by a biblical historian. On the contrary, Ramsay was trying to prove Luke WRONG. The book of Luke and Acts are so full of historical detail that we have to take them seriously. And Luke was just one of the writers to witness the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
To believe in the resurrection, you first have to believe in miracles. This is the issue with the world today. We are way too “educated” and “scholarly” to believe in miracles, right? Those Bible stories were cool for previous generations, but they weren’t as smart as we are today. The thing is that as technology has advanced people have actually become dumber, not smarter. But that’s a discussion for a different post. The real question is not necessarily if miracles exist, but rather does God exist? If God exists then miracles are not only possible, they are also probable. And this is where the atheist argument hits a snag. They can’t be fair to the resurrection argument, because they don’t believe in God.
The reality is that the resurrection DID happen. The evidence is in history itself. Here is a question. Why would biblical writers die for something they KNEW was a lie? Remember, the disciples were full of doubt after Jesus was crucified. Most of them gave up the idea of Jesus as the Messiah. They were all hiding in a room scared for their lives! So what turned these would be quitters into a group that ultimately changed the world? The only logical conclusion is that Jesus rose from the dead and they witnessed it!
There are even more reasons to believe in the resurrection, but I don’t have time to go over all of them in this post. As a Christian, you can stand firm in your faith that Jesus really did rise from the dead. But the better news is that because he rose you can too, through the power of His Spirit! That’s the true importance of the resurrection.
