Can We Believe it?
Why would we doubt it?

A huge part of the plotline in each of the gospels is how Jesus starts talking about how He is going to die and rise again.

Does the Resurrection really matter?

Many, even religious leaders, say that it does not matter whether Jesus rose from the dead or not. “It is just what I feel in my own heart.” The Apostle Paul has a different take on that in the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 15. He said in effect, “If Christ has not risen from the dead, then disband, go and join a club or do something useful with your life.” Let’s suppose Jesus did not rise from the dead. What does that mean?” Well, in the first place, Paul says, it means the apostles and everybody else who testified
that Jesus has risen from the dead are all a group of liars.

Then Paul says, if it is not true, you’re still in your sins. This assumption is that the rest of what the Bible says is true; but now we take out the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. The rest of the Bible says that we are lost in our trespasses and sins. Why on earth should you think Jesus’ sacrifice of His life has been acceptable before God? Isn’t that bound up with the resurrection?

If Jesus has not risen from the dead, then you and I have no reason to think His sacrifice means anything. It would just be one more martyr, squashed by the imperial power of Rome, and so we would remain damned, without hope.

If the resurrection is false, then our faith is futile. The Bible never encourages us to believe something that isn’t true. Faith is more than just “believing the truth.” The actual object (in this case, that Christ actually rose from the dead) must be true or your faith is invalid, meaning we’re just gullible fools.

The Truth About Knowing God

Historically, people claim to know God on the basis of one of three structures: mysticism, reason, or revelation.

The mystic claims to have knowledge of God out of some personal encounter. The person who rests on reason thinks he or she can logically work out their way to God. The majority of Christians across time have depended on revelation, the belief God has disclosed Himself in events, words, in a variety of ways.

This does not mean there isn’t any place for reason as you think about revelation. God has actually disclosed Himself, which means we are required, then, to talk about and to think about the nature of the revelation.

How do we know this revelation is True?

The Christian view of the Bible (God’s Revelation Recorded) is that it is a mediated book. There are some religions that treat their Scriptures as if dropped down, all at once, from heaven.

The Christian view of a mediated revelation is not all in a kind of drop-down-from-heaven-on-golden-tablets, as found in the Mormon tradition. It is God mediating by His Spirit in such a way there is a human dimension to Scripture. God has so superintended in His providence the transmission of all of these manuscripts that there is no doctrine, not even a minor one, that is in any jeopardy whatsoever.
There is nothing in history that approaches it.

There is also an inevitable historical element in Christian claims that sooner or later has to be faced. The accounts of the resurrection of Christ take place in the New Testament in documents claiming to be written either by eyewitnesses or by those in touch with eyewitnesses.

The Final Revelation is a Person, Jesus!

Could God have given His final revelation in someone other than Jesus?

Suppose someone could prove that Gautama the Buddha never lived. Would that jeopardize Buddhism? No, it doesn’t depend on any historical claim made about Gautama, just his teaching. Go to India. Hindus have, literally, millions of gods. If you could prove Krishna never lived, would you destroy Hinduism? No, it does not depend on a single person, just worship another god. What about Islam? Ask an imam this question: “Sir, do you believe Allah, blessed be he, could have given his final revelation to someone other than Muhammad had he chosen to do so?” The imam will reply, “Of course. Allah is Allah, but we believe he gave his final revelation to Muhammad.” In that sense, then, Muhammad himself is incidental to Islam.

Now come to Christianity. Could God have given His final revelation in someone other than Jesus? Absolutely not. The question is almost incoherent because the revelation is Jesus. The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. He was killed and He rose again. He is the God-man.

Can a person be a genuine, bona-fide Christian without accepting that Jesus rose from the Dead?

If a person understands enough of the Bible to know he or she is a sinner, that God sent Jesus to die for that sin, and believe that Jesus died for them, but says, “I can’t believe in the resurrection,” and they just discounted it, can they truly be a Christian? That understood, there is no reason to think a person can become a Christian and doubt the resurrection, any more than you can be a Christian and doubt the incarnation of Christ or doubt the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. It just can’t be done. It’s so integral to the saving act of God sooner or later you do have to face the resurrection. He Lives!