Why Christians Believe the Resurrection Occurred

Two motifs running through contemporary civilization are physical demonstration and technological application. Since the dawn of experimental science and advanced mathematics in the fifteenth century, these motifs have increasingly dominated our thinking. During the Middle Ages, scholars had appealed to principles laid down by established authorities, and from these principles deduced what they believed to be the case. Now, they appealed to what they could observe and measure: whatever exists, exists in some quantity and therefore can be measured. There was a corresponding cultural shift in what it meant to know something.

This shift has brought with it tremendous advantages. A thousand years ago, people did well to live past the age of thirty. Today, people rely on medical science to detect and treat previously lethal conditions, no longer worry much about dying from infectious diseases, and live into their eighties or nineties. We enjoy the convenience of indoor plumbing, drink clean water, and in other ways benefit from modern sanitation engineering. Energy from pipes and wires enables us to heat and cool homes, cook and refrigerate food, read without candlelight, and log onto websites like this one. We are so reliant on applied science that, were we deprived of it for even a few days, existence would become at least miserable and possibly lethal.

In the face of all this and much more, it may be hard to accept that a mangled and successfully executed man could be brought back to life. This, however, is the astonishing claim Christians make about Jesus, without which they insist Christianity becomes an empty religion and no more than an idealistic ethical code. Here are some of the reasons that Christians believe in the resurrection as a once-in-all-of-history event:

The documents of the New Testament, written by a variety of people in different places and times throughout the first century, contains the record of people who believed the resurrection occurred. These is no record of any of them expressing doubt about, watering down, or backing away from this core belief. It obviously took a great deal of time and effort to write these documents. Why would these different writers go to such lengths to write in detail about what they either know to be false or waiver in their belief that it's true?

Just about all of the early Christians were Jewish, so they endured various forms of abuse from their fellow Jews, who viewed them as having abandoned Judaism. In 64 A.D., Emperor Nero moved from abuse to outright persecution when he accused the Christians of having set fire to Rome. Although no one knows the exact number, it is clear than many of them died at his hands. Yet, there is no record of any of them renouncing faith in Christ or belief in his resurrection. People sometimes die in the service of an ideology, but they rarely if ever sacrifice themselves for what they believe to be false.

Before the resurrection, followers of Jesus were confused, uncertain, and timid. After the resurrection, they became clear-minded, sure, and bold. Something of monumental significance had brought about this change. If even one of them had later decided that the resurrection