I watched a short clip on youtube of a debate between William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens asked Craig if Craig believed the story in Matthew about all the saints coming to life and walking around Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. His point was that even if Jesus was raised from the dead, that doesn't prove anything about Jesus being the messiah or the son of God since lots of other people were raised from the dead, too. If the resurrection of these saints doesn't mean that they are divine or messianic or anything like that, then the resurrection of Jesus doesn't either.
Pinchas Lapide made the same point in his book on the resurrection of Jesus. He believed Jesus was raised from the dead, but he said that didn't mean Jesus was the messiah since lots of other people had been raised from the dead. Elijah raised people from the dead, for example.
I've heard this same argument made from other people, too, so I thought I'd blog on it and tell you how I think the resurrection of Jesus proves that Jesus was the messiah.
There are two differences between Jesus' resurrection and all these other resurrections. First, Jesus made lofty claims about himself, but none of these other people did. Second, no human so much as claimed to have raised Jesus from the dead. (There's a third difference--Jesus was raised to immortality, but the others were still mortal. But that's not a relevant difference for the sake of my argument.)
If Elijah claims to be a prophet, and then he raises somebody from the dead, it seems to me that says more about Elijah than it says about the person Elijah raised. Likewise, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, that says more about Jesus than it says about Lazarus. Well, there was no human agency in the resurrection of Jesus. I'm pretty sure that if there had been, that person would've been thought of as special enough to have mentioned somewhere in the literature that has come down to us. But it looks like not only was there no human agent involved, but nobody so much as claimed to have been involved. So who raised Jesus from the dead? Well, by process of elimination, it must've been some kind of supernatural entity.
If some ordinary guy who just blended in with everybody else, never seemed special, never claimed to be special, etc., died and then came back to life three days later, we might all think there was something special about him, but what? Without some context, it's hard to pour any specific significance into the situation. Maybe it's just some weird anomaly. After all, quantum physicists tell us it's at least possible that every subatomic particle in your body could simultaneously move in the same direction by the same distance at the same time, and then you would appear to magically relocate. Chances are against it, but it's at least possible. Maybe that's what happened here.
But Jesus made unusual claims about himself. That's not to say other people didn't make similar claims, but when you look at all the people who have lived in died, most people don't make those kinds of claims about themselves. Jesus at least claimed to be the messiah. However unlikely it is that Jesus would make such a claim, and however unlikely it is that somebody would rise from the dead, it seems next to impossible that these two unlikely events would both happen with the same person. So I think it's far more reasonable to believe that there is a connection between Jesus' claim to be the messiah and his resurrection from the dead than it is to believe it's just a big coincidence that both of these things are true about the same person.
But Jesus didn't just make claims about himself. He also made claims about his Father, God. Jesus was deeply committed to glorifying his father, to advancing his kingdom, and to keeping his law. Granted, it's possible some trickster of a supernatural being raised Jesus from the dead to make everybody believe in the God of Jesus, and to believe in Jesus himself, it seems far more reasonable to believe that the same God that Jesus preached is the very God who raised Jesus from the dead. And, if so, that vindicates Jesus' claims about himself.
3 comments:
Sam, this is such a great blog. I wish more people could read this. You nailed it so well with the logics and illogics. You brought an objective point, then you compared his resurrection with other occurances in the Scriptures. And whether it was being rhectorical or presenting a much potent point, you laid it out by asking who could have raised Jesus from the dead? But just a quick followup question: How would you defend the premise you set forth against those who say that his death was fake or that it never happened? This has been another big issue along with the proof that He is the Messiah. Great blog though.
There's a couple of reasons I wouldn't buy that. First, the only record we have of somebody surviving a Roman crucifixion comes from Joseph, and it was a situation where the person was intentionally taken down from the cross before he died. And I think that person died later anyway.
Second, if Jesus was in such bad shape that the Roman mistakenly thought he was dead, I don't think Jesus would have been able to convince his followers that he had conquered death. I mean just imagine Jesus showing up all mangled from the crucifixion, in bad need of medical attention, and saying, "I've conquered death, risen from the dead, and if you put your faith in me, you can have a glorified resurrection body just like mine." I just don't buy that.
In the gospel accounts the other two people's legs were broken so they would die quicker. They didn't break Jesus' legs because he was already dead. To make sure he was dead, they stabbed him with a spear. If you're willing to grant the details of this narrative, then Jesus was almost certainly dead.
There is good evidence to suggest that Jesus was placed in a tomb. I find it highly unlikely that nobody would notice he was still alive. Plus, if he was wrapped in a burial cloth, and a stone was placed over the entrance of the tomb, he would've died in the tomb if he wasn't dead already. He wouldn't have been able to get out of there all by himself.
Hey Sam that's some good observations. I never gave much thought to the mangled body with which he died and the glorified body which he then appeared to have. Thus,Mary,especially Thomas,and few of the disciples would not have had trouble recognizing Jesus. If Jesus would have shown up in His mangled body, there would not have been doubt nor surprise of an kind. Do you know of anybody or people who have recently traveled to Jerusalem that have shared feedback concerning touring in spots where Christ Himself had passed through during His ministry?
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