This is the fourth of a series of several articles that will appear in the paper to make people think about the evidence for the resurrection.
The past three weeks, I have mentioned a handful of reasons for why I believe the resurrection of Jesus is a historical fact. There are others we could emphasize but I want to highlight 1 Corinthians 15 in our final article.
Everyone (even atheist scholars) agree that 1 Corinthians was written around AD 55. Depending on when Jesus was raised (most popularly dated to AD 30 or 33) Paul is writing this within a generation of the event’s occurrence. Historically speaking, this is very little time for myths to pop up since it was in the lifetime of eyewitnesses.
Paul reminds his readers that everything that happened to Jesus was foretold in the Scriptures (what Christians call the Old Testament) and then proceeds to list the resurrection appearances of Jesus. In total, six resurrection appearances are listed in verses 5 through 8. Critics often object that the resurrection appearances were not real, but rather a hallucination of Jesus’ followers. They maintain that His followers just wanted to see him so badly that they imagined they saw him. This objection might hold water if only one or two people saw Jesus while they were off by themselves. However, of the resurrection appearances that Paul cites (not to mention the ones the four gospels tell us about) three of them are in front of multiple people. Any psychologist will tell you there is no such thing as mass hallucinations. One of Jesus’ resurrection appearances was in front of “more than 500 people” (15:6)! Paul says if you have any questions about that appearance, you can go ask one of the 500 because most of the witnesses are still alive. Any historian would love to have that kind of evidence in their back pocket: If the story I am telling sounds crazy you can interview over 500 people and they will testify to the truth of what I am telling.
For the sake of argument, let us grant that modern psychologists are wrong and there is such a thing as mass hallucinations. The disciples just felt so bad about what happened to Jesus that they imagined it. This does not explain why skeptics like James and Paul (15:7-8) believed in the resurrection.
James was the half-earthly-brother of Jesus (Mt. 13:55). He thought Jesus was crazy and even went at one point with his other brothers and mother to take custody of him (Mk 3:21, 31). James and his brothers mocked Jesus’ claims and did not believe he was the Messiah (Jn 7:1-5). Yet, when you read the book of Acts, Jesus’ brothers are among the group (Acts 1:14). James becomes a leader in the early church (Acts 12:17; 15:13-21; Gal 1:19; 2:9) and wrote the book of James. Josephus (Ant. 20.9.1) records that James and a few of his companions were stoned for “violating the law” which was commonly trumped-up charges against Christians (Acts 6:13-14). What turned James from a skeptic to a believer who gave his life for Christ? Because the resurrected Jesus appeared to him (1 Cor 15:7).
Paul persecuted anyone who bore the name Christian (Acts 8:1-3; 22:4-5; Gal 1:13-14) because he wanted to oppose Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 26:9-11). This is the same man who went on countless missionary journeys preaching Christ, suffered for Christ (2 Cor 11:24-27), and was put on trial for the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 23:6; 24:15, 21; 25:19; 26:6-8, 21-23; 28:20). Eventually, history tells us that he was beheaded for preaching Christ in Rome. His mind was changed when the resurrected Jesus appeared to him (1 Cor 15:8; see Acts 9, 22, 26).
Paul and James came to believe in Jesus after He had died and were willing to give their life for their beliefs. Most people don’t want to follow a dead man, but more people followed Jesus after His death than in His life. The only thing that could have convinced these two people that Jesus was the Christ was if they truly knew He rose from the dead. They knew they were not serving a dead man but a living Savior.
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