The resurrection is the single most important event in human history. If it did not happen then the Gospel is a complete fraud. If it did happen then the Gospel stands in total validated dominance over every other philosophy or creed known to mankind.
The evidence for the historical resurrection is pretty substantial. The two main pieces of evidence are the empty tomb and the witnesses.
In speaking of the empty tomb I don’t mean a tourist attraction in Jerusalem but the fact that the resurrection was publicly proclaimed less than two months after the crucifixion. The easiest way to disprove the claims of the apostles was simply to produce the body. That never happened, so obviously the tomb was empty and the body gone. The only question was whether or not Jesus’ followers came and stole away the body. Considering the essential absence of violence in Jesus’ teaching and ministry, and the fact that violence was basically absent in the book of Acts, this story of covertly overpowering a contingent of soldiers seems highly unlikely.
The witnesses to the resurrection are an even stronger argument for its historical veracity. The “science” of historical investigation weighs particular kinds of evidence to arrive at an accurate picture of past events. The gold standard is an eye witness to those events. Some might counter that the eye witnesses to the resurrection are not trustworthy because they had something to gain by promoting the story. Yet, did they? None of them became wealthy in this world’s sense. For the most part they experienced more ridicule than admiration. And ultimately they were virtually all required to lay down their lives for their testimony of the resurrection.
So, it is not hard to believe that the political powers of the land paid off soldiers to lie for them? It is hard to believe that people would give up their lives for what they know to be a lie? If you answered “Yes” to these questions then, good news, Christ is risen!
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