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November 4, 2024
Why Are You a Christian? Part Two

by Jason Neill

Scripture reading: Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20; 1 Corinthians 15; 1 Peter 3:15

Last week I shared my story of how I struggled with my faith in college. The crisis was a result of questions my professors were raising to which I didn’t have an answer. The Bible was the first concern. How do we know the Bible doesn’t have any errors? Fortunately, we have more ancient manuscripts of the New Testament than any other ancient document. The fact that we have multiple copies is not what makes it divine (i.e., the very words of God), but it does mean we can accurately discover the genuine words of scripture through the science of textual criticism (the art and science of comparing ancient manuscripts to one another to discover the original reading).

One argument for the Bible’s divine origin is its prophetic accuracy. Seeing that only God can predict the future (see Isaiah 46:9-10), He does so accurately and provides sufficient detail that the reader knows it cannot be reasonable to come to any other conclusion. The coming of Jesus was foretold by the Old Testament prophets. The city of Messiah’s birth was foretold (see Micah 5:2), the nature of His birth (see Isaiah 7:14), His death (see Isaiah 53), and resurrection (see Psalm 2; 16). The intricate details of these predictions do not lend themselves to coincidence.

Now onto the second topic, the resurrection. The importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ can hardly be overstated.  The Apostle Paul clearly stated, “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” (1 Cor. 15:17-19, NKJV).  It is hard to miss Paul’s point.  If the resurrection did not happen then the Christian faith is futile, meaningless, and significantly no different than other world religions. However, there are some theories that have been put forth to deny this cornerstone event of Christianity.

For instance, you do not have to go outside of scripture itself to hear an alternative to the resurrection of Jesus. Because of fear on the part of the religious leaders that the disciples would come and steal the body of Jesus from the tomb, proclaiming he rose from the dead, they asked Pilate to post guards at the tomb of Jesus (see Matthew 27:62-66). When the third day arrived the soldiers still stationed outside Jesus’ tomb, must have seen a life altering event! Apparently, when they reported what had happened to the religious priest, they instructed the soldiers “tell people, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep” (Matthew 28:13, ESV).

The comical part of this story was that the religious leaders told the soldiers to tell others, when asked, why the tomb was empty was to say the disciples came and took the body while they were asleep. How could the soldiers know it was the disciples that took the body if in fact they were asleep? We have here in the gospels one of the first alternative stories to explain the empty tomb of Jesus other than through the resurrection.  

A second alternative to the resurrection of Jesus is commonly referred to as the swoon theory. This theory suggests that Jesus did not die on the cross but essentially fainted. After “deceiving” the soldiers that Jesus was dead, they took the body of Jesus off the cross, his disciples buried him, and somehow over time Jesus regained consciousness, pushed the huge stone that covered his grave aside so he could get out, walked to Jerusalem on nail pierced feet, and appeared to his disciples as the “resurrected” Jesus.

One of the odd parts of this explanation is how would this Jesus who experienced scourging and crucifixion be thought of as raised from the dead when his body had taken such a beating? His body would have reflected all he had gone through three days prior. In addition, why would his disciples become excited about his “being brought back to life” to the point of experiencing boldness to witness to others, be beaten for their preaching Jesus rose from the dead, and even be willing to die for their faith? The swoon theory is too absurd to be credible.

Personally, if I had followed Jesus for three years, heard him claim equality with God, performed miracles, was tried, beaten, crucified, and blacked out of consciousness on the cross, then came to in the grave, pushed aside the stone, walked to Jerusalem, and appeared to me in that beaten up state, I don’t think I would have thought it was the person he claimed to be. I certainly would not have been zealous to proclaim him to others, suffer physically because of my association with him, or even died because I was a follower. Would you? I doubt it.

The only theory that makes the most sense of the data; namely, that Jesus died, was buried, three days later the tomb was found empty, the disciples claim He appeared to them, the transformation of the disciples from cowards to heroes of the faith, the conversion of the once antagonist Apostle Paul (see Acts 9), and the conversion of Jesus’ half-brother James (see 1 Corinthians 15:6-8, especially verse 7), is that Jesus physically, literally rose from the dead.

Take James, for example. James was Jesus’ half-brother. What would it take for you to believe your sibling was God in the flesh? It would take a resurrection from the dead. Consequently, I think the resurrection is the best explanation for the facts.

Why am I a Christian? There is only one reason. Because it is true; it corresponds to reality. I am a Christian because the story of Christianity is true. And I think that is why everyone else should be a Christian too.

For more on these topics, I recommend the following resources: From God to Us: How We Got Our Bible by Norman Geisler and William Nix, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas and Mike Licona, and The Story of Reality: How the World Began, How It Ends, and Everything Important that Happens in Between by Greg Koukl.