JD: How would you go about defending the idea that Jesus did in fact arise from the dead from a Biblical, historical and a logical perspective?
DJ: Well that’s a great question. Let’s talk about the Biblical evidence first. First of all in Psalm 22 King David predicted the method of execution of the Messiah 1,000 years before it happened and even 800 years before crucifixion had been invented by the Romans as one of their primary means of execution. So that is significant in and of itself.
All 4 gospel writers, the apostle Paul and others testify of
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And when we think about Luke and the gospel
that he wrote as well as the book of Axe Luke was not only a medical doctor but
he was an historian, he was a researcher and he put together his work based
upon a lot of research that he did to confirm everything that he wrote.
Jesus predicted his own Resurrection. He said you destroy
this temple meaning referring to his own body and 3 days later I will raise it
up and that was considered blasphemy by the Jews of his day. The Bible also
tells us that as many as 500 saw him at once. From the historical prospective
Jesus was a real person. There are many sources outside the Bible who said he
lived and was crucified. Another thing is that no one survived Roman
crucifixion so Jesus really died they didn’t just think he died. And again no
one produced the missing body of Jesus.
There are fragments of the New Testament that go back to the
first century. We have over 5,000 manuscripts in existence from the first to
the tenth century that testify to the truth of what we have as the Bible. And
then just logically after Jesus was crucified they took him down from the cross
the disciples were afraid, they were scattered. Peter during the trials even
lied about knowing him before the Resurrection and then when they knew that he
had been resurrected from the dead they took on a boldness and preached and
were willing to even die. If the disciples stole the body then why would they
and others like Steven die for something they knew to be a lie. So there are
many many reasons. And including women as eyewitnesses to the empty tomb they
were not considered to be reliable witnesses so they are not someone that you
would use unless something like that really happened.
JD: David James with the details on the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
We report this information because it is setting the stage
for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
The Resurrection is key to our salvation that’s I Corinthians
15:1-5. It’s also why we study Bible prophecy, Revelation 1:18 & 19. You
and I can have Resurrection power to live our daily lives as Christians, that’s
Ephesians 1:19 & 20.
