Answering Objections to the Resurrection

Problems With the Swoon Theory

The Wounds

Jesus should have been killed from his wounds. The heavy loss of blood makes death highly probable.  According to the Roman Centurion who oversaw the crucifixion, he was dead (Mark 15:43-45).  For more information on the medical aspects of Jesus’ crucifixion, you can read a study that was done by the Mayo Clinic[3].  There was another study done by the American Medical society in 1986[4].  His hands and feet were pierced.  His back was beaten with a whip with lead balls and sheep bones tied into leather thongs.  Many people died from the scourging alone.

His side was pierced with a spear.  He had a spear wound to the chest, which many physicians believe would have entered his heart and punctured his pericardium, a sac of water around the heart, because John 19:34 says that when they did this to Jesus blood and water came out.  This shows that Jesus’ lungs had collapsed.  Even if Jesus was still just alive after the crucifixion, he would not have been alive long.  Then Jesus is buried and goes without food and medical care the rest of Friday to Sunday.   Let’s say that he somehow survived this.  Stranger things have happened.

The Grave Clothes

Jesus would then have had to untangle the grave clothes. Jesus was wrapped in pieces of cloth and covered with 75 to 100 pounds of spices (John 19:39-40).

The Stone

There was a heavy stone at the entrance of the tomb that weighed one to two tons.  All of the Gospel writers mention this.  The women couldn’t move it and even if Jesus had survived crucifixion by some miracle, he would have been unable to move the stone by himself.  A half-dead swooning man could not have moved it.  Who moved the heavy stone? Even if by some miracle, Jesus was able to push the stone out of the way and get out, he had another problem.

The Soldiers

The tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers.  How could an unarmed swooning corpse overpower all of the Roman guards?  Let’s say somehow he was able to do this.  That leads us to our next problem.

Unrealistic

If Jesus was able to crawl out of the tomb half dead, walking on pierced feet and appear to his disciples after surviving the scourging, crucifixion, without food or water for several days, what would have been their reaction?  They would have felt sorry for him and tried to give him medical attention.  They would not get the impression that he raised from the dead.  Instead they would think that he somehow miraculously survived death but never died.

Implication

Had Jesus been able to somehow get past this problem and convinced his disciples that he had indeed raised from the dead when he had merely swooned, this would only make Jesus a deceiver and an impostor   This is not what proponents of the swoon theory believe.  This is not what Islam teaches about Jesus.

Unanswered Question

But, even if we get past all of these problems, we have one more problem and it is this.  What happened to the body of Jesus? Advocates of this theory have no answer.  They have to believe that he survived the crucifixion, made some appearances for forty days and then just completely disappeared and vanished without explanation.

Problems with the Substitution Theory

The Judas Factor

There is no room in the narrative for a substitute because of the Judas factor.  One of Jesus’ own Apostles turn Jesus in and he is in custody until his death.  There is no doubt that they got the right man, since he was turned in by a disgruntled apostle and identified by a kiss.  There is no time for anyone to take his place.

Implications for God

What does this theory make God out to be?  The substitution theory makes God out to be the source of the greatest deception in religious history.  It makes God out to be a deceiver.  According to this interpretation, God deceived mankind into thinking that Jesus was crucified when in fact he wasn’t?  Even Jesus’ mother, family members and closest followers were deceived into thinking Jesus died on the cross, according to this theory.  It makes God the author of the biggest hoax in history.  It is wrong about God.

 Implications for Jesus

What does it make Jesus out to be?  A false teacher.  Jesus was the one who said that he would be killed (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). This theory makes Jesus out to be a deceiver as well.  It is wrong about Jesus.

 Implications for Salvation

What does this theory think of the cross?  The cross is seen as a bad thing, not as the means of salvation for the world.  This view says that God would never have stood by watching while his enemies crucified his Son.  God planned the crucifixion.  Not only did God allow the cross, He actually planned it.  It was his will for Jesus to suffer on the cross (Isaiah 53:10).  As Peter said in the NT Jesus was killed, not only by wicked hands, but by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). It is wrong about the cross.

Problems with the Theft Theory

No Motive

The disciples did not even believe in the resurrection.  The Apostles did not believe in the resurrection when Jesus announced it beforehand (cf. Luke 18:31-34).  They did not believe it afterwards when the women told them about it.  They thought they were crazy (Luke 24:11).  The disciples had no motive to steal the body, since they did not understand that Jesus was going to rise from the dead. The women went to the tomb carrying spices early Sunday morning to anoint a dead body (Mark 16:1; Luke 24:1).

 No Opportunity

Even if they did understand this, there is no evidence that they had the courage to do this (the timid Galileans were in hiding from fear).  Nor is there any evidence that they had the opportunity to do this.  The tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers.

The claim is that the soldiers were sleeping when they stole the body.  It is unlikely that they were sleeping on the job.  It was an offense punishable by death for Roman soldiers to sleep on the job.  If they were sleeping, how do they know for sure that the disciples stole the body?  Even if they were sleeping, it is a little unlikely that they could have moved the stone and stolen the body without waking anyone up.

The Grave Clothes

John adds an important detail.  He says that the body of Jesus was gone but his grave clothes were left in the tomb (John 20:5-7).  If they did steal the body, they would have taken everything.  They would not have stolen the body completely naked.  They would have been in a hurry that that would be dishonoring to the body.

 Logical Implications

Even if you can explain all of these problems, you have to assume that the early Christians were simply liars and impostors   They were willing to risk being arrested, tortured and killed, beheaded or fed to lions for something that they know to be false.  Is it possible that they did this?  It is possible but highly unlikely.  People die for a lie all the time.  Look at all of the Muslim terrorist who blow themselves up for a lie but they don’t know it is a lie.

History has shown that people WILL give their lives for what they believe is true, but not for what they know is false.  This theory has the early Christians dying for something that they know to be false.  That involves a psychological miracle.  Whatever else you can say about the early Christians, they were not dishonest people.  They gave the world some of the highest ethical and moral teaching it has ever known.

The Appearances

This theory has no explanation for the appearances.  It is one thing to claim that the disciples stole the body of Jesus.  That might explain the empty tomb but it doesn’t explain any of the appearances of Jesus.

Problems with the Hallucination Theory

The Empty Tomb

It doesn’t explain the empty tomb at all, just the appearances. If they just saw hallucinations, then what happened to the body of Jesus?   Why is the tomb empty?  This theory has no explanation.  If the apostles had hallucinated and then spread their hallucinogenic story, the Jews would have stopped it by producing the body but they couldn’t do this, because the tomb was empty.

Not Anticipated

Hallucinations occur in people who are anticipating or on expecting something to take place.  The disciples did NOT expect Jesus to rise.  The women’s first thought on seeing the tomb open was NOT that Jesus had risen, but that the authorities had moved the body.  Faith in the resurrection did NOT create the appearances because the women who went to the tomb didn’t have any faith in the resurrection.  They were expecting to find a dead body to anoint.

When the women told the disciples about the resurrection, they didn’t believe them.  They thought they were crazy.  In fact, so far from anticipating and imaging that they were seeing Jesus, some who saw him did not even recognize him at first.  Two disciples walked seven miles, talking to Jesus, and they didn’t know who he was (Luke 24:13-16).  This is very interesting.  Why did Jesus disguise who he was for these seven miles?  Jesus wanted these two disciples to learn what the Scriptures taught FIRST before he revealed to them who he was.

Their eyes were not opened as to who he was (24:31) until he had first opened their Scriptures to them (24:32).  Jesus didn’t want their faith to be based just on experience but on the Scriptures.  In John 21, seven disciples went fishing.  Jesus began talking to them and they didn’t recognize him at first (John 21:1-13). Of course, he was also a hundred yards away.  There is a good application from that story.

The application is that should not trust ourselves.  They had fished all night and caught nothing.  What did Jesus say?  Without me you can do NOTHING (John 15:5).  They didn’t just fail, they worked hard and failed and they failed in the area that they had some expertise.  They felt proficient in this area.  These men were professional fishermen.  They knew how to fish.  They worked hard and saw no results (cf. Psalm 127:1).

Wrong Profile

Hallucinations usually occur in only certain types of people.  They occur in people who are mentally or emotionally unstable (paranoid or schizophrenic individuals).  Jesus didn’t just appear to a few impressionable or hysterical women.  He appeared to many different types of people.  He appeared not only to Mary Magdalene who had seven demons in her at one time (Luke 8:13) but also to some rugged fishermen and tax collectors.  He appeared to Paul who was highly educated.

Group Appearance

Hallucinations tend to be individual, private and personal.  They are subjective rather than collective.  Hallucinations are linked in an individual’s subconscious.  No two persons will experience the same hallucination.  Jesus appeared to groups of people, as well as to individuals.  Jesus appeared to five hundred people at once (I Corinthians 15:6).  This is even more remarkable than five hundred private “hallucinations” at different times and places of the same Jesus. Five hundred separate Elvis sightings may be dismissed, but if five hundred people saw, touched and talked with him in the same town at the same time, that would be a different matter.  It is impossible for five hundred people to have the same hallucination simultaneously.

Meals

Hallucinations do not eat (John 21:1-14; Luke 24:30). They had breakfast waiting on them.  The Lord Jesus made breakfast and was waiting for them on the shore.  Visions and hallucinations do not make breakfast.  The disciples not only saw Jesus, they heard him, walked with him, touched him and even ate with him.  He cooked for them.

Cessation

It also doesn’t explain why the appearances all stopped after forty days.  If they were just hallucinations, why didn’t they continue?

Problems with the Myth Theory

False Analogy

Neither Horus, Mithras, and Osiris were historical persons. Jesus was. We can prove that he actually lived. He is mentioned by three secular historians in the first century. Two was Roman (Tacitus, Suetonius) and one was Jewish (Josephus) and none of them were even Christian. Jesus’ life and death were actual events in history. Since the pagan gods were not real persons, never really lived, never really died, they never really rose from the dead. In addition, none of the so-called pagan savior gods died for anyone else and they did not die for sin. That is a uniquely Christian belief.

The Empty Tomb

If the resurrection of Christ is all a myth, then why is the tomb empty? The resurrection was preached by the early Christians in the very city in which Jesus was killed only a few weeks after his death. It would have been very easy to disprove that message by the enemies of Christianity had the tomb not been empty.

The Eye Witnesses

The fact that there were all kinds of eye-witnesses to the event is evidence that the event is not a myth. When Paul wrote the Book of I Corinthians fifteen or twenty years later, many of the eye-witnesses were still alive and could be interviewed (15:6).

Internal Evidences of Authenticity

1)  The Appearance to Women

It is interesting to me who was the first person that Jesus appeared to after he rose from the dead. He appeared FIRST to Mary Magdalene when she was by herself (Mark 16:9; John 20:1-18). Mary had already been to the tomb two times. The second appearance of Jesus was to a group of women (Matthew 28:8-10). Jesus appeared to the women first, NOT to Peter or the Apostles, even though the Apostles were the foundation of the church. That is very significant. Why?

In the ancient world women were not legal witnesses. They could not testify in court. The first century Jewish historian, Josephus, said, “From women let no evidence be accepted, because of the levity and temerity of their sex”. Anyone who would try to make up a story of the resurrection in the first century would not have women to be the first witnesses of the resurrection. Their testimony was considered worthless. That is evidence that the story is genuine and that the Gospels are historical.

2)  Presence of Variations in the Narrative

The fact that we have four Gospels, not one and the fact that they are very different from one another is further evidence that the resurrection story is not a myth. How many women went to the tomb? Was it one (John), two (Matthew), three (Mark) or more (Luke)? Did they go when it was dark (John) or light (Mark)? Was the stone rolled away before they got there (Mark, Luke, John) or after (Matthew? Did they meet the angels inside the tomb (Mark, Luke, John) or outside the tomb (Matthew)? Were the angels sitting (Matthew, Mark, John) or standing (Luke)?

Did Mary Magdalene see an angel on her first trip to her tomb (Matthew, Mark, Luke) or did she not see an angel (John)? Did Peter learn about the resurrection (Luke) or just the empty tomb (John) from the women? Did the angels tell the women to go to Galilee (Matthew, Mark) or to stay in Jerusalem (Luke)? If anyone would want to make up the story of the resurrection, they would want to deliberately avoid any contradictions.

In a real court case, different witnesses would not describe the same incident in exactly the same way. If they did, one might think that there is a conspiracy. Minor variations in the story are not necessarily contradictions. They are actually evidence that the narrative is truthful. None of the four Gospels were interested in giving a complete history of everything that happened that morning.