Page 73 - Advanced Apologetics and World Views Revised

Chapter 10: More Questions about Jesus Christ

Connect …

Skeptics for years have come up with all kinds of explanations for the empty tomb of Jesus. Some have
claimed that Jesus really did not die, but passed out, was taken off the cross, and then by lying in a cool
tomb, resuscitated. Others have claimed that the rumor was true; His disciples came and stole the
body. Or the women got mixed up and went to the wrong tomb.

Today we will look at some of these declarations of skeptics to see if they are valid whatsoever. Can
these arguments against Jesus’s resurrection “hold water?” Let’s find out….

Objectives …

1. The student should be able to quickly dismiss many of these arguments of the skeptics about the
resurrection of Christ.

2. The student will be able to show that only the resurrection of Christ can explain the empty tomb.

3. The student should be able to disarm the skeptic with convincing arguments, countering their
ridiculous claims that supposedly explain how the tomb was empty, but Christ did not raise from the
dead.

The Lesson …

But does an empty grave really prove that Jesus rose from the dead?

Skeptics of the resurrection claim it is a myth that people constructed out of the real events. ``People
don't come back from the dead'', the say, ``so there must be some other explanation for the empty
grave''. There are a few typical arguments that are proposed:

1. Jesus never died in the first place - it just seemed that he was dead.
2. He died, but somebody removed his body from the grave. This is probably the most popular
idea, which got started by the Jewish authorities right after the resurrection (Matthew 27:62-65,
28:11-15).
3. The women, and subsequently everybody else went to the wrong tomb.
4. He rose from the dead, but not in bodily form - so his body still decayed.
5. The testimony of the witnesses is not valid. All of Christ's post-resurrection appearances were
just hallucinations.

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