Seven Proofs of the Resurrection: Introduction

Hello, fellow Deviants. I was incredibly sad this year that I didn't have the opportunity to make journal posts on Good Friday or Easter Sunday, so I'm hoping to make up for that. What I have in mind is a short series: Seven Proofs of the Resurrection. There are certainly more, but for the sake of brevity and to avoid boring you, I'll keep it to seven, plus an introduction. Posting one every couple of days, I should be able to get through them all in three weeks.

Seven Proofs of the Resurrection: Introduction

It is by no means an exaggeration to say that around the year 30 AD, the entire known world was fractured by a single event—the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus had many followers during his lifetime, to be sure, but by the time of his crucifixion, he had fallen out of popular favor with the Jews. They thought he would be their Messiah, the one who would reestablish the Davidic monarchy and usurp the Romans. But at the time of his death, only a small handful of Jesus' disciples were anywhere to be found.

However, in a matter of weeks, that small handful of dispirited men and women exploded into a throng of hundreds, all excitedly proclaiming that Jesus had been raised. How could such a dramatic reversal have occurred? From that point on, civilization has been split between those who believe in the resurrection of Jesus to be a real, historical event, and those who dismiss it as a hoax or a myth.

How do Christians view the resurrection? There are many (Christian) church bodies today that  denounce the resurrection and other miraculous events recorded in the Bible. How important is it that Christians believe in the resurrection, anyway? St. Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."

In other words, if Jesus was not raised, faith is utterly useless; and more than that, Christianity is a sham. So was the Resurrection the most important event in history, or was it the most elaborate and successful hoax the world has ever seen? Luke the evangelist wrote in the first chapter of Acts, "After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive." So what are these many proofs? What can we learn about this astounding event from the accounts recorded for us in the Gospels?

Next, Part 1: Foundational Facts in the Gospels