Fellowship & Fairydust

By Luis Dizon

Recently, I listened to an interview with a United Church of Christ of minister named Dwight Welch, who asserted that Christians need not believe that Jesus physical rose from the dead. He claimed that what really mattered was not whether Jesus’ resurrection took place as a matter of fact, but that Christians lived according to the moral teachings taught by Christ. This claim created some pushback, with Catholic apologist and podcaster Trent Horn getting into a dialogue with him and arguing that, if one can be a Christian without believing that Jesus was raised from the dead, then the whole notion of “Christianity” becomes meaningless [1]

This idea that the Resurrection of Jesus is optional to the Christian faith is a totally new concept, and would have been foreign to the early Christians. St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, asserts that if Christ had not been raised, then there is no point to anything he has taught, and they have all been wasting their time. He writes:

If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ . . . if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:14-15, 17-19).[2]

This being the case, Christianity stands or falls on the Resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Christianity is a false religion that is worthy of nobody’s time and must be abandoned. On the other hand, if Jesus did rise from the dead, then the Christian faith is vindicated as the truth, over against every other competing religious and metaphysical claim.

But what does it mean for Christ to be raised? How can we know this to be true? And what does all this mean for us? In order to answer this, we must first find out where the concept of Resurrection comes from, then we can examine the historical evidence for Jesus’ Resurrection, and finally we can reflect on why this is important for Christians.

Resurrection Origins

Belief in the Resurrection of the body has its origins in Judaism. We see this idea referenced in passing in a few places in the Old Testament. We see Job obliquely referring to it when he says, “after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:26-27). Likewise, in the book of Daniel we read about the Resurrection in these terms: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2). Finally, in 2 Maccabees, the seven brothers who are martyred by Antiochus IV give voice to their hope that though they will be killed, they will be raised again. As one brother puts it: “One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him” (2 Maccabees 7:14).

Contrast this with the Greco-Roman worldview where Resurrection of the body was a totally alien concept. We see this in Acts 17:19, where the Athenians call Paul a “babbler” for preaching Christ and the Resurrection (Gk. Anastasis). They didn’t even understand what he meant by “Resurrection”, and thought that he was referring to a goddess named “Anastasis.”[3] The reason for this incomprehensibility was that they had a low view of the body, and believed that one’s goal was to be freed of it, not return to a new one. As Kirk MacGregor explains:

The notion of death by crucifixion and bodily resurrection were abhorrent to ancient pagans, who linked crucifixion with insurrection against the Roman state. Ancient pagans also often viewed the body as the prison of the soul that was to be destroyed at death, such that the soul could be permanently liberated from the body to enjoy a purely ethereal existence.[4]

Thus, belief in Resurrection has thoroughly Jewish roots, and has no precedent in ancient Paganism, which held that the body is a prison that we must seek to be freed from. Yet belief in a Resurrection in this age is not totally consonant with ancient Judaism either, for although the Jews believe in a Resurrection of the body, they believe that this would occur at the end of time. Thus, when Jesus told Martha that Lazarus would rise again, she didn’t realize what he meant, and replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (John 11:24). For Jesus to be raised in this age was to take the existing Jewish concept in a totally new direction.

Thus, the Resurrection of Jesus, although it is more Jewish than Pagan in its origins, ultimately goes beyond both categories. As N.T. Wright explains, “the world of second-Temple Judaism supplied the concept of resurrection, but the striking and consistent Christian mutations within Jewish resurrection belief rule out any possibility that the belief could have generated spontaneously from within its Jewish context.”[5]

Five Basic Facts

But how do we know that Jesus was raised from the dead. Much ink has been spilt discussing the historicity of the Resurrection, but space does not permit us to explore the topic comprehensively here.[6] However, because we live in an age when so many are skeptical of the Resurrection, it is necessary to say a few words.

Perhaps one of the most popular methods of verifying the historicity of the Resurrection comes from Gary Habermas and Michael Licona. In The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, they posit the “Minimal Facts Approach.” In this approach, they refer to five historical facts held by the majority of scholars and historians, Christian or non-Christian.[7] These five facts are the following:

1) Jesus’ death by Crucifixion. Bart Ehrman, in his work on the historical Jesus, references the Crucifixion as one of the certain facts about Jesus life, stating, “Jesus was a Jewish man, known to be a preacher and teacher, who was crucified (a Roman form of execution) in Jerusalem during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea.”[8] Aside from the four Gospels, the Crucifixion is also referenced by secular historians Josephus [9]and Tacitus,[10] showing that this was common knowledge among those who were aware of Jesus.

2) The disciples’ claim to have seen the risen Jesus. Paul recounts the following tradition regarding the postmortem appearances to the disciples:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. (1 Corinthians 5:3-7)

Many commentators, noting Paul’s use of tradition language, suggest that This passage is citing a pre-Pauline creed.[11] If so, this means traditions about the disciples seeing Jesus alive after his crucifixion started very early on, too early for legendary development to set in.

Some skeptics suggest that these appearances are due to hallucinations. The problem with this explanation is that many of the appearances are in group settings. As Habermas notes elsewhere, one cannot get a group of people to experience the same hallucination, as it is a very individual experience.[12] For a group of people to see the same thing, they must have seen something (or someone) real and tangible.

3) The conversion of Paul. In the above quoted tradition where Paul recounts the postmortem appearances, he adds his own name to the list of people who have seen the risen Jesus: “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Corinthians 15:8). His testimony to seeing the risen Jesus must be mentioned in its own category because unlike the most of the other disciples, he was a bitter opponent of Christianity. He had no reason to hallucinate or falsify an appearance of Jesus unless such an experience really happened.

4) The conversion of James, the brother of Jesus. Similar to Paul, James was not among the disciples of Jesus before the Resurrection. In fact, he was a skeptic, and thought Jesus was crazy during his public ministry (e.g. Mark 3:21). For him to become not only a disciple, but a prominent leader of the early church, could only be explained if the tradition Paul recounts of James seeing the risen Jesus points to a real experience.

5) The empty tomb. Perhaps the most contentious of the five facts is the empty tomb. Habermas and Licona point to three factors that support the tomb being empty:[13]

First, the fact that preaching of the Resurrection began in Jerusalem, near where Jesus was buried. If Jesus’ tomb was still full, his opponents could have pointed out this fact, and squelched the rise of Christianity immediately. 

Second, enemy attestation from that time period assumes the empty tomb. Our earliest recorded explanation for the disappearance of Jesus’ body was that the disciples stole it (Matthew 28:11-15). By making up this excuse, Jesus’ opponents implicitly concede that the tomb is indeed empty.

Finally, all four Gospels report that women were the first witnesses to the empty tomb. Given the low view of women’s testimony in the ancient world, the Gospel writers could not have invented this narrative. Instead, they must be reporting an accurate report of what really happened when the women went to visit the tomb.

Thus, we have the five basic facts on which the historical case for the Resurrection is based. Wright, commenting on both the postmortem appearances and the empty tomb, states: “I conclude that the historian, of whatever persuasion, has no option but to affirm both the empty tomb and the ‘meetings’ with Jesus as ‘historical events’… they took place as real events; they were significant events; they are, in the normal sense required by historians, provable events; historians can and should write about them.”[14]

Put together, these facts create a strong cumulative case for the Resurrection, which alternative hypotheses are not able to account for. As Wright explains in his book, the emergence of the Christian belief in Jesus’ Resurrection would be incomprehensible without them:

We are left with the conclusion that the combination of empty tomb and appearances of the living Jesus forms a set of circumstances which is itself both necessary and sufficient for the rise of early Christian belief. Without these phenomena, we cannot explain why this belief came into existence, and took the shape it did. With them, we can explain it exactly and precisely.[15]

Because He Lives

Going back to the initial discussion, the reason why Resurrection so important for Christian faith is because it forms the basis for the Christian hope that death is not the end, and that there is a future where the dead will be raised. Jesus’ Resurrection signifies not only that his work on the cross is efficacious for the forgiveness of sins, but it also assures us that one day, we will also be raised. As Jesus put it, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). Likewise, Paul expresses the Resurrection hope, saying: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

This also means that all the deeds we’ve done, whether for good or evil, have consequences not just in this life, but will bear fruit in eternity. This is the main flaw in the assertion that one can have a purely moral Christianity without the Resurrection. Jesus himself said connects our actions in this life with our future Resurrection, when he says, “for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28-29)

For those who have faith in Christ and have repented of sin, we have confidence that we will ultimately triumph over death, just as Christ did nearly two-thousand years ago. Thus, we conclude with the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, who triumphantly declares the victory over death for all who believe in Christ:

Death is swallowed up in victory. 

O death, where is your victory? 

O death, where is your sting?

1. Trent Horn and Dwight Welch, “DIALOGUE: Do Christians need to believe in the Resurrection?,” The Counsel of Trent (podcast), May 9, 2019, https://www.podcastrepublic.net/podcast/1354647807.
2. All Scripture quotes are from the ESV-CE.
3. Richard N. Longenecker, “Acts,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition), ed. Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, vol. 10 (Zondervan, 2007), 981.
4. Kirk R. MacGregor, “Christianity, Overview of Early,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary, ed. John D. Barry et al. (Lexham Press, 2016).
5. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, 686.
6.  Since lack of space prevents a thorough exploration, here are a few works I recommend, some of which are cited in this article: N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2003); Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Kregel Publications, 2004); Michael Licona, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach (IVP Academic, 2010); Josh and Sean McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict (HarperCollins, 2017); Matthew Levering, Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?: Historical and Theological Reflections (Oxford University Press, 2019); Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach (Routledge, 2020); and Dale Allison, The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021).
7. Habermas and Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 43-80.
8. Bart Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (HarperOne, 2013), 12.
9. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18.5. For a discussion of the authenticity of this quote, see Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?, 60ff.
10. Tacitus, Annals, 20.44.
11. E.g. Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians, TNTC (InterVarsity Press, 1985), 201; and Richard Horsley, 1 Corinthians, ANTC (Abingdon Press, 1998), 198. For a recent study of this topic, see James Ware, “The Resurrection of Jesus in the Pre-Pauline Formula of 1 Cor 15.3–5,” New Testament Studies 60.4 (October 2014), 475-498.
12. Gary Habermas, “Explaining Away Jesus’ Resurrection: the Recent Revival of Hallucination Theories,” LBTS Faculty Publications and Presentations 2001, https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_fac_pubs/107.
13.  Habermas and Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 71-74.
14.  Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, 709.
15. Ibid., 696.