You may not know this, but the vast majority of experts (including secular ones) on the life of Jesus overwhelmingly agree on four facts of history:
- Jesus died on a Roman cross and was buried in a tomb.
- The tomb was empty three days later.
- Various individuals (and sometimes whole groups of people) experienced what they took to be the resurrected Jesus.
- A skeptical non-believer—James, the brother of Jesus—and a vicious persecutor of Christians—Saul of Tarsus—did an immediate about-face based on what they claimed was an encounter with the risen Christ, and both suffered martyrdom rather than recant.
What historians don’t agree on is what best explains these four facts pertaining to Jesus.
But there aren’t many options.
Jesus was dead. He suffered a brutal execution, was pronounced dead by a battle-seasoned Roman centurion, and laid in a cold crypt.
Three days later, the tomb was empty, a fact even Jesus’ enemies did not dispute.
And what of the sightings? One theory is that the disciples were hallucinating. Really? How do multiple individuals and whole groups of people hallucinate the same thing at the same time many times over at multiple locations? That doesn’t happen.
And what of James and Paul? They had absolutely no native interest in conjuring a resurrection story, nor was there any evidence they were in a mental state that motived them to see what wasn’t really there.
So, what explanation accounts for all four facts?
Only one answer will do. In Peter’s words, “This Jesus, God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:32).