Five tangible, historical evidences for the resurrection of Christ

April 7, 2:44 AMChristian Worldview ExaminerBill Belew

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Easter Sunday is upon us. In another article I try to explain some of the explanations for the origin of Easter, the use of the word and such. That is beyond the scope of this article. Here I hope to share five tangible, historical evidences for the resurrection of Christ.

Not a few books have been written and numerous folk, much more intelligent than I, (these types of folk are not hard to find, mind you) have written and presented evidence for the physical and historical resurrection of the actual being, Jesus Christ. That is, Jesus Christ died, ceased breathing and was buried only to come back to life on the third day.

I believe this. My faith has gone from blind acceptance to conviction, certainty. I am as certain of this historical fact as I am of anything that happened and for which we have historical evidences and credible witnesses.

Here are five tangible reasons why I am convinced Jesus rose from the dead.

1. A change in the day of worship. From the beginning of time, men and women stopped what they were doing and rested on the seventh day to worship, honor the God of Creation. It makes sense. We work and when we grow tired, we stop and rest. It doesn't happen that way in much of the world today. We rest up. We charge up our batteries on the first day of the week, then go out and work. Before, it was work till you get tired, then rest. Now it's the opposite of that. It's unnatural. The only historical explanation for this change in the rythym of men and women in their worship and rest habits is that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Men and women decided to change the day of worship to honor that event in history and the change has stuck.Not only that, these men and women convinced a people who's culture was steeped in honoring the seventh day since the beginning of time. Look at the calendar on your wall or desk. Is Sunday red. Why?

2. BockpeceHbe - this is a Russian word. I encourage you to look it up in a Russian/English dictionary or try an online translator. It is the Russian word for Sunday. But, what does it mean? The word means 'resurrection.' Russia has been calling Sunday. "Resurrection Day" for centuries, millenia. What's up with that? Why would there be a "resurrection day" were there no resurrection? What is the historical explanation for Russia calling their first day of the week Resurrection day if there were no resurrection?

3. Baptism - this practice happens in the church. Even so, it is 2,000ish years old. A person stands in front of a crowd of witnesses, is immersed into water and laid prostrate, then stood up again. What is this a picture of? Standing, laying flat, standing again. Granted, the practice exists in the church. But, when pressed to give a historical cause-effect explanation for its existence, the conclusion is drawn that men and women who come to faith are immitating the death burial and resurrection of Chris when they are baptized. If there were no resurrection, why does the practice of baptism exist today?

4. The church - the Bible makes it very clear, I Cor 15, that if Christ did not rise from the dead, the faith of Christians is empty/vain and the church cannot stand. Yet, 2000 years after the fact, and after this challenge, the church remains standing. The challenge has been there since the first century. Why has the resurrection not been proven false yet? Why?

5. Silence of contemporary witnesses - Eyewitnesses, contemporaries of Jesus who saw with their own eyes and gave credence to their testimony by not only being willing to die but being willing to live and endure persecution declared Jesus was alive again. Where are the testimonies of first century writers who were willing to sacrifice their lives to say "Wrong! Jesus did not rise again"? And, we will give our lives in testimony to the falsehood?

Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus every Sunday. The world celebrates the resurrection once a year.

So, what is the world celebrating if there were no resurrection? That old saying - "you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all the people all the time" comes to mind.

If there were no resurrection, there are a whole LOT of people who have been fooled for a long long time.