Whether you’re a Christian or atheist, if asked to explain the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, your answer will always involve a miracle. Let me explain why.

First, long gone are the days when an educated person could get away with saying that Jesus was a mythical invention vs. historical person. The scholarly works of both non-Christians and believers alike put the final nail in that coffin long ago with a good summation coming from Princeton professor Bruce Metzger: “Today no competent scholar denies the historicity of Jesus.”

Second, there is also agreement in the academic camps on the key historical facts of Jesus’ resurrection event, which are:

• Jesus was crucified and buried.


• Three days later, His body was reported missing by a group of His women followers and remains missing to this day.


• There were reported appearances of Jesus over the course of 40 or so days to both believers and unbelievers.


• People were transformed from these appearance events and publicly proclaimed Christ’s resurrection, with many being martyred for that proclamation.

• The New Testament specifically records that Jesus was beaten and scourged before His crucifixion – a procedure that often greatly weakened and caused the death of many condemned persons before they ever reached their appointed cross.


• The Romans were experts at carrying out crucifixions. They knew death well; in fact, the soldiers themselves were held liable if any victim sentenced to death happened to survive.


• John 19:34-34 describes a spear being thrust into Jesus’ side, with the description by John clearly showing a rupture of the pericardium, which would be instant death if a casualty had not already occurred via the crucifixion procedure.


• Jesus’ death was viewed by close eyewitnesses, friend and foe alike.


• After He was taken from the cross, He was wrapped in cloths and bathed in heavy spices by loving friends who certainly would have noticed if He was still alive.


• Jesus would need to revive in the tomb, push back the huge stone covering the mouth of His grave, overpower the Roman guards sent to protect the tomb (Matt. 27:62-66), and then appear to His followers and skeptics – quite the task for a scourged and crucified man.


• The disciples’ reaction to a clearly disfigured and crucified Jesus would have been much different than the gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection.


• Lastly, the biological miracle option paints a dark picture of Jesus’ moral character. Jesus would be much worse than just a liar. Not only would He have deliberately deceived His disciples, He would have remained in hiding while His disciples were arrested, tortured, and murdered for proclaiming His false resurrection.

• If the tomb wasn’t empty, why didn’t Jesus’ enemies simply go to the tomb and display the body of Christ to squelch any resurrection talk? Instead, this option confirms an empty tomb and leads to the question of who stole the body and the widely debunked theft hypothesis option (i.e. the disciples stole the body).


• No hallucination experiences have ever been recorded like those depicted in this case. The appearances of Jesus are remarkable in that they occurred not just once, but multiple times; not just to one person, but to different persons; not just to individuals, but to groups of individuals; not just at one location, but at multiple locations; not just in one circumstance, but in multiple circumstances; not just to believers, but also to unbelievers, skeptics, and even enemies.


• All gospel accounts showcase the fact that the disciples did not expect Jesus to rise from the dead. Instead, they are portrayed as being dull to the teaching of Jesus on His predicted resurrection. This fact is highly significant in that it shows that they were not mentally building themselves up to believe that their murdered leader would appear to them alive.


• Standard Jewish belief only looked forward to a resurrection at the end of the world, with no one believing that anyone would be resurrected and remain alive before that appointed time (e.g. Dan. 12:2).


• Skeptics and enemies of Jesus – including disbelieving members of His own family – claimed to see Him alive after His crucifixion. From a psychological perspective, these individuals had no reason to mentally concoct a false appearance of a person they didn’t believe in from the start.