Songs from Scripture

AFTER THE RESURRECTION

1. Peter publicly proclaimed the Resurrection of Jesus as a historical fact (Acts 2:22-24)

2. They confidently challenged their hearers to consider the evidence for the Risen Jesus

3. Bold missionaries to the world

4. Returned to Jerusalem with great joy continually in the temple praising God (Luke 24:51-53).

5. Filled with conviction, fearlessness and joy, bravely went to their death as martyrs down to the very last man (except the Apostle John)

6. Went to their own deaths as martyrs never denying that Jesus physically rose from death

How did a handful of simple fishermen and tax collectors change the course of world history?

We are somehow supposed to believe that in the immediate aftermath of the Crucifixion, in the middle of their confusion, despair, fear and existential doubt, they conspired to villainously dupe the world with a new and fanciful tale—creating a story incalculable light years beyond the best of Shakespeare or Tolkien?

Why would they even want to invent a lie when Jesus appeared to have completely “failed” in His mission? Jesus was in a tomb, and they were bereft of hope. Crushed with dark despondency, they were left with nothing but the despairing realization that Jesus may not have been their long-awaited Messiah after all.

Traumatized, perplexed and in fear for their own lives, we are to assume they masterfully plotted together to invent a story that would eventually cost each of them their own lives?

For what advantage?

The motives of the disciples is a complete mystery if the Resurrection never happened. They went on to proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus to the ends of the earth only to receive the “reward” of hatred, scorn, poverty, persecution, excommunication, imprisonment, torture and death.

Either they were the highest pinnacle of masochism in the history of this planet, or far more reasonably, they were simply telling the truth that they could not, under any circumstances, bring themselves to deny.

HOW EACH DISCIPLE DIED AFTER THE RESURRECTION (based on generally reliable historical traditions)

1. Simon Peter CRUCIFIED

   In Rome by Nero around 68 AD. He felt unworthy to be crucified like Jesus, so he requested being crucified upside-down.

2. Andrew (brother of Peter) CRUCIFIED

   Crucified bound, not nailed, for a longer, more painful death on an "X-shaped" cross known as a saltire (St. Andrew’s Cross).

3. James the Greater (son of Zebedee, John’s brother) BEHEADED OR IMPALED

   Beheaded or impaled with a sword by Herod Agrippa in 44 AD. Missionary to Jews in Judea. His accuser was converted by James' courage and the two were beheaded together. (Acts 12:1-2)

4. John (son of Zebedee, James' brother) OLD AGE

   The only apostle to not die a martyr’s death. Banished by Emperor Domitian to the Isle of Patmos where, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he wrote The Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible. Some report him surving multiple murder attempts, including a failed execution by boiling in oil. He was eventually freed and became a missionary to Turkey, dying of old age in Ephesus (Turkey).

5. Philip HUNG UPSIDE DOWN BY IRON HOOKS

   Tortured with iron hooks in his ankles, hung upside down to die in 54 AD after his imprisonment in Heliopolis, Egypt. Missionary to Phrygia near Ephesus (Turkey).

6. Bartholomew (Nathanael) SKINNED ALIVE AND BEHEADED OR CRUCIFIED

   Skinned alive (flaying) and beheaded or crucified, head downward in Armenia. Missionary to Arabia, India, Ethiopia, Mesopotamia (Iraq), and Persia (Iran).

7. Thomas (Didymus) SPEARED

   Martyred by spear in India by four soldiers. Missionary to Parthia (Iran) and southern India (Kerala, Tamil Nadu).

8. Matthew (Levi) SPEARED

   Martyred by spear in 60 AD. Missionary to Ethiopia (Africa), killed for questioning the king’s morality.

9. James the Lesser (son of Alphaeus) CLUBBED TO DEATH AFTER STONING

   Bishop of Jerusalem martyred around age 90 by being thrown off the Jerusalem Temple at Jerusalem, then stoned and clubbed on the head.

10. Jude (Thaddeus), son of James CLUBBED AND CRUCIFIED

    Clubbed and crucified in 72 AD at Edessa (Turkey) while on a missionary trip that went to Persia (Iran).

11. Simon the Zealot (The Canaanite) CRUCIFIED AND SAWN IN HALF

    Missionary in Jordan. Sawn in half after his crucifixion in Britain in 74 AD, killed after refusing to sacrifice to a sun god. (Other accounts report Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot being martyred together).

12. Judas Iscariot SUICIDE

    Suicide by hanging (Matthew 27:3-5) after he betrayed Jesus (John 13:2)

OTHER DISCIPLES

1. Matthias (who replaced Judas, Acts 1:20-26) BURNT ALIVE OR BEHEADED AFTER STONING at Jerusalem

2. Mark (John Mark) DRAGGED TO DEATH

3. Luke HUNG on an olive tree

4. Apostle Paul (Saul) BEHEADED by Emperor Nero at Rome

5. James (half-brother of Jesus) CLUBBED TO DEATH

   Thrown off a high wall. Because he survived, he was clubbed to death for not denying Jesus.

Christ’s resurrection (and our own as believers) is often greatly misunderstood as nothing more than a wispy future state that is purely spiritual or ethereal. The Scriptures contradict this view in the strongest of terms. The resurrection life is in fact so solid, strong and real that, as C.S. Lewis wrote, it is we who are the ones who live here in “the shadowlands.” We await a new and glorious, unbroken world where all who believe in the Son will live forever in new and glorious, unbroken bodies, like His (Philippians 3:21).

Unlike pagan religions that teach that we are pure souls imprisoned in corrupt bodies, Christianity proclaims the essential psychosomatic (soul and body) unity of the human person. Our souls are only temporarily separated from our bodies at death. But all who have received the gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:36) will be materially reunited with new and transformed physical bodies. Jesus will lift each one of us from death into the power of an endless life (1 Corinthians 15:49–52).

1. Ghost The apostles first had this notion (Luke 24:36-43), which Jesus quickly dispelled the idea of his not having a real body by eating broiled fish and showing them his scarred hands and feet. A ghost is a spirit without a body.

2. Resuscitation Lazarus had to die again. Jesus' resurrection is permanent. Lazarus came out of the tomb with the same body he had before, resuscitated, and wearing his grave clothes. Jesus now has a new immortal body and his grave clothes were neatly laid aside and folded in his tomb.

3. Reincarnation Reincarnation (supposedly) only gives you another mortal body. Christ's resurrection body is immortal. It was both older and newer than the body you (supposedly) get in reincarnation. It was older in that his friends recognized it, and newer in that it was immortal.

4. Simple immortality A Platonist or Gnostic always expected this after death: the final freeing of the soul from its bodily prison. But C.S. Lewis is clearest on this confusion in his book, Miracles: “On such a view [the assumption of simple immortality] Christ would have simply done what all men do when they die; the only novelty would be that in his case we were allowed to see it happening. But there is not in Scripture the faintest suggestion that the Resurrection was new evidence for something that had in fact always been happening. The New Testament writers speak as if Christ's achievement in rising from the dead was the first event of its kind in the whole history of the universe. He is the "first fruits," the "pioneer of life." He has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because he has done so....”

5. Enlightenment, Nirvana, Satori, or Moksha This is what a Hindu or Buddhist would hope for after death: a loss of personal individuality and reabsorption into the One, the All, or more accurately, a realization that he/she was always the One and not an individual at all. The risen Jesus is a very distinct individual, even an embodied one.

6. Translation or Assumption into Heaven This is a Jewish notion describing what happened to Enoch, Elijah, and possibly Moses. Catholics also believe it happened to Mary (nowhere found in Scripture and rejected by almost all other Christians). In translation or assumption, a living person is taken directly to heaven. But the resurrection did not bring Jesus directly from earth to heaven, but rather from the realm of the dead to earth in a new body.

7. Vision Whether from God, your own unconscious mind or by evil spirits, a vision remains a purely spiritual and subjective experience. Over 500 people saw Jesus' resurrection body on at least eight separate ocassions at carious times and locations. He was touched. He ate.

8. Legend Legends, however wise or noble, are only fictions made by mortal minds, not by God or by nature.

9. Myth Myths differ from legends in that they are symbolically true. Ancient Near East religions seem to have confusedly foretold the resurrection in their myths of grain and corn gods coming back to life each spring. These gods do not exist, but the new vegetation does, hence the symbolic truth in their myths. But Christ's resurrection is pinned down to a real, specific, concrete time and place in history, and certified by eyewitnesses. The New Testament itself explicitly distinguishes Christ's resurrection from myths and legends: "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and corning of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (1 Peter 1:16). Modern demythologizers try to get around this by distinguishing heilsgeschichte ("sacred history") from ordinary, secular history, saying the resurrection happened in the first, and not the second. This is either obfuscation or downright deceit. If it did not happen, don't call it "history" but fiction. If it did, then it happened just as crudely and literally as births or wars happen, and we don't need the distinction.

10. "Easter faith" The resurrection must be clearly distinguished from what modernists call the "resurrection of Easter faith" in the hearts and lives of the disciples. "Easter faith" without a real Easter is a self-contradiction and a self-deception. You cannot have faith in faith, because like knowledge, faith is essentially intentional. It needs an object other than itself. Faith in faith is also perverse and unnatural. It is like an attempt to get a taste of a delicious dessert without eating it. The disciples could never have experienced such a resurrection of faith and hope without a literal resurrection.

    - from Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Peter Kreeft

When I first began investigating the details surronding the Resurrection many years ago, filled with endless questions and doubts, I was fully expecting at least one powerful and persuasive potential counter-narrative that could adequately explain what really happened.

It came as a total surprise and complete shock to see how rationally unsatisfying all the other alternatives were. Jesus changed the course of history forever and He changed my life. Look and live. He can change the course of your life too.

Stolen Body

This was the earliest anti-Christian Jewish argument in the first century (Matthew 28:13). It’s important to note the astonishing unspoken assumption in this theory: everyone agreed with the fact of an empty tomb. It would have been ludicrous for the apostles to preach Christ’s Resurrection without a tomb that both they and the hearers knew was empty. So who did it? Let’s explore:

1. What motive would the Romans have? If they wanted to keep the peace in Palestine, the last thing they needed was to fan the flames growing that the King of the Jews they crucified had now risen from the dead.

2. If instead, the Jewish religious authorities had stolen the body, they would only be promoting the very idea they were hoping to suppress. All the Roman and the Jewish leaders needed to do was simply produce Jesus’ body and the Christian faith would have been over before it even got started.

3. If the disciples instead were thieves of Jesus’ corpse who then invented a fanciful tale, why would each of them (except John) boldly cross the world (Egypt, India, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Cappadocia and more) to proclaim the Gospel, suffer horribly with their lives ending as martyrs for what each one knew in their heart was a lie? For the sake of argument, let’s say they did conspire to deceive the world with a new, fantastic tale. They would need to eliminate the evidence of Jesus’ body to pull off their hoax.

   How would they do it? Stealing the body and cynically declaring a “resurrection” would require these fishermen and tax collectors to overpower or somehow trick the Roman guards who were set in place precisely to prevent the body being moved (Matthew 27:62-66). We get the word “decimate” from ancient Rome’s discipline of “decimation” (from Latin decimatio 'removal of a tenth'), a Roman military punishment where every tenth man in a group was executed by his fellow soldiers. Roman soldiers were neither soft nor easily duped. Inside prison, Peter was surrounded by sixteen soldiers (Acts 12:4), so we would expect no fewer outside of prison posted by Pilate to guard the tomb of Jesus. Simply imagining the exhausted disciples attempting to overpower trained Roman soldiers is laughably absurd. 

   The disciples declared Jesus’ bodily Resurrection (not the common idea of a ghost or spirit) in Jerusalem while the tomb was within walking distance of the hearers. The tomb was empty. It would have only taken one disciple—only one—to deny their fable and the Christian faith would have instantly evaporated. Almost every disciple would eventually face brutal torture and execution, but not a single denial ever came.

   Today, we measure time itself by how many years it has been since Christ was born.

Resuscitation ("Swoon theory")

This explanation, which was never proposed until the second century, claims that Jesus did not die, but merely fainted on the Cross and recovered later. Stop for a moment and consider the proposed sequence of events:

1. Jesus had just gone through the strain of several unjust trials.

2. He was then whipped mercilessly by Roman soldiers tearing the flesh off His back.

3. He was next crowned with thorns piercing his head.

4. He was placed on the Cross with nails driven through his flesh.

5. His side was pierced with a spear letting out blood and water (John 19:34-35), meaning his lungs had collapsed leading to asphyxiation.

6. The Roman soldiers were somehow fooled into mistakenly thinking Jesus was dead despite their savage and widely feared expertise in human execution. Because they were convinced he was dead, the soldiers did not break Jesus’ legs as they did to the two others criminals (John 19:31-33).

7. Without medical care or nutritional sustenance, He prevented Himself from dying of exposure in the tomb.

8. He then managed to push away a stone weighing thousands of pounds.

9. After which He overpowered multiple militarily trained Roman guards.

10. He somehow then convinced His disciples (as He stood wounded, bleeding and exhausted) to be the Conquerer of Death?

Would such a pathetic sight of a half-dead Jesus in dire need of medical attention really have inspired and radically transformed these timid fishermen? This theory reeks of absolute desperation because it cartoonishly turns the disciples into gullible idiots and Jesus into a charlatan who knew He didn’t rise from death but decided to try tricking His disciples anyway (in absolutely mangled physical condition). The very existence of this theory proves how much some people don’t want to believe in Jesus.

Consider that even a non-Christian scholar like Pinchas Lapide found the examined evidence for the truth of the Resurrection strong and compelling (though sadly not enough to convert to Christianity). Lapide, one of the world’s foremost orthodox Jewish theologians, dismissed unjustified academic skepticism and came to accept that the God of Israel raised Jesus from the dead. He saw Christ’s resurrection as an actual historical event, particularly because of the transformation of the disciples. After the crushing disappointment of the crucifixion of their Master, they somehow went from being confused, despondent, fearful and doubting to unstoppable lions—forces of nature who would go to change the course of world history. Going to the nations with the Gospel of a crucified and risen Savior, they never recanted even in the face of each of their eventual deaths as martyrs. Would an invented deception really explain this? Why would every one of them separately remain faithful unto death often in far flung corners of the world for nothing more than a conspired hoax that would never lead to wealth or acclaim? Such a radical change could rationally only come about for one reason: what the disciples proclaimed truly happened.

Hallucination

The disciples were supposedly so traumatized that they began seeing hallucinations of a risen Jesus.

1. But hallucinations are most often connected to drugs and mental illness, neither of which characterized the disciples at any time.

2. Further, they had no expectation of once again seeing Jesus alive, but simply to wait until the Last Judgment. Hallucinations are built on what is already laying dormant in the mind. For those living at the time immediately after the Crucifixion, the Resurrection was simply not on the menu of options since it went directly against common first-century Jewish thinking. Rather than being a comforting “wish fulfillment,” the Resurrection had to be forcefully demonstrated in the face of the disciples’ complete shock and disbelief.

3. A single witness of a one-time event might make the “hallucination theory” a reasonable possibility, but that is simply not what happened. Jesus was seen multiple times in multiple places by multiple people (1 Corinthians 15:6), not only to believers but also to skeptics (John 20:25).

4. Also, a hallucination usually lasts no more than a few minutes, at the very most. This one lasted for 40 days (Acts 1:3). Moreover, if these were simply tricks of the mind, why did they suddenly stop after 40 days rather than going on for centuries?

5. The hallucination theory only accounts for the appearances (and does a terrible job at that). It leaves the empty tomb completely unexplained and therefore fails as a satisfying counter-narrative to the Resurrection of Jesus.

Wrong Tomb

Supposedly, the women went to the wrong tomb, heard an angel (who was actually just the gardener) say, “He is not here." The gardener then showed them the correct tomb and said, “See the place where he lay." But the women hysterically ran off and declared that the tomb was empty. It’s hard to dignify this with a response with its mindless, degrading view of women. Because the women observed the burial, they knew the size of the stone that had blocked the entrance. And even if, unbelievably, they had told an incorrect version of events in their panic, they would have been quickly corrected by the Roman guards or Joseph of Arimathea who whould have known exactly where the tomb was located (Matthew 27:57-60).

The church father, Tertuliian, recounts a ridiculous version of the “wrong tomb theory,” an early anti-Christian attempt to explain the Resurrection: The tomb gardener was so aggravated at visitors stepping on his lettuce seedlings to visit the tomb that he transferred the body of Jesus somewhere else. (!) It’s hard to believe this was ever taken seriously by anyone, but if true, that would be one powerful gardener moving thousands of pounds of rock, not to mention the little detail of tricking or defeating the military force of all the Roman guards posted to the tomb.

Twin Brother

Jesus had a secret identical twin that almost no one knew about. After Jesus died, his brother assumed his place and declared himself to be the risen Savior. This is a grasping at straws that requires no response.

Rapid Decay

Because of the Mediterranean climate, the organic breakdown of Jesus’ body was radically accelerated to the point of total decomposition in three days. This would be almost as much of a miracle requiring just as much faith as the Resurrection, which, unlike the “rapid decay” theory, was prophecied in the Old Testament, predicted by Jesus, and confirmed by eyewitness testimony, leading to absolute transformation of the disciples and the world-changing spiritual explosion of the Christian faith.

If none of the potential alternatives adequately account for all the details of the story, what is left for those who refuse to accept the Resurrection? Nothing but to confess unbelief without an explanation. It is therefore rational—on the basis of the empty tomb, eyewitness testimony, the transformed disciples and the historical reality of the first-century spiritual explosion we call Christianity—to believe that Jesus indeed rose victorious over death.

Looking at all of the above, it’s clear that God has left more than enough rational evidence for anyone, whose mind and heart are open, to confidently believe in the Resurrection. All the clues He left us in the Word and in history are exactly how He wanted them left. But He did so in a way that would not make unbelief impossible for the one who is resolved and determined to disbelieve. Everything has been been perfectly designed to flawlessly reveal our hearts.

If the Resurrection never happened, it is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in world history.

But what if it did? Then life truly has hope and meaning. Love will finally conquer death. We can trust that God’s power and God’s love are not enemies, as they superficially seem to be, when we look at all the evil surrounding us. Instead, He is working all things together towards an indescribably good and beautiful future. God has physically entered our world and has defeated Death (Luke 24:5-6 / Hebrews 2:14-15) and will one day destroy it completely and forever (1 Corinthians 15:26). He will transform our lowly bodies (Philippians 3:21) that are subject now to the ravages of aging and brokenness. All creation, now subject to death and decay,  will be made new (Romans 8:18-25). We can know that we are not orphans alone in an empty universe, but are called to a unfathomable destiny of glory and honor…

or to choose for ourselves everlasting destruction and shame…

We’ll end with the notes we attached to our song, He is Alive:

Is there a better story than the one that actually happened?

A thousand plots of books and movies serve as distorted mirrors and imperfect signposts living in the shadows of our incomparable Savior.

The storyline often goes something like this: there are ancient prophecies that tell of a Promised One and out of complete obscurity an unlikely character rises over insurmountable odds to unexpectedly lay claim to victory over all his enemies and save the world.

But unlike the world's myths, this one is true.

Christianity may be one of the only belief systems to clearly annouce its potential fatal flaw or hypothetical weakness: an unrisen Savior is no Savior at all, thereby disqualifying Christianity as a valid truth claim.

Many powerful works have been written from every branch of Christianity defending the literal, physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is surprisingly and overwhelmingly defensible as a historical fact and well worth exploring if you have the desire to learn more.

If you want some ideas of what to read, these are just a few suggestions:

On the Resurrection, Volume 1: Evidences - Gary Habermas’ Magnum Opus, an upcoming 4-volume series (covering the topics of Evidences, Objections, Questions, amd Practical Effects), is the result of 32,000 hours of study over 50 years.

The Case for the Resurrection: A First-Century Investigative Reporter Probes History’s Pivotal Event
Lee Strobel

Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli

The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus
Gary Habermas and Michael Licona

Did the Resurrection Happen?: A Conversation with Gary Habermas and Antony Flew
Edited by Daivd J. Baggett

Jesus’ Resurrection: Fact or Figment?: A Debate Between William Lane Craig & Gerd Ludemann
Edited by Paul Copan and Ronald K. Tacelli

The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach
Michael Licona

Miracles and Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis
Miracles: a powerful discussion on whether miracles are logically possible in principle and goes on from there
Mere Christianity: an intellectually strong and deeply heartfelt summary of the Christian faith

The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol. 3)
N.T. Wright

If you prefer learning with audio or video, look up “Gary Habermas” on YouTube or check out his website: garyhabermas.com

But after you're done reading any or all of the above works, open the Gospel of John and hear Jesus ask you directly what he once asked Martha: