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The Case for the Good News about Jesus Christ
If Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again bodily, then the Bible is true. Full stop, end of story, no arguments. If the Bible is true then your decision as to whether or not you are willing to confess your sins, and trust in Jesus for salvation, and follow Him, will make the difference between whether you spend eternity in the presence of God or outside His presence in the place the Bible calls Hell.
So, the question as to whether the Bible is true or not is the most important question you will ever need to find the answer to. Let’s look, then, at the evidence for the life, death and bodily resurrection of Jesus. Many of the early quotes on this page are taken from the Student Edition of The Case for Christ written by Lee Strobel (quotes in blue). Just to introduce him, he used to be an award winning legal journalist with the Chicago Tribune, but he became a Christian after investigating the evidence for the life, death and bodily resurrection of Jesus, and is now a teaching pastor. The Case for Christ is the book he wrote laying out the evidence that he uncovered.
If you are not yet a believer your decision about how to respond to Jesus Christ will make the decision about your eternal destiny. This really matters, so please read on ...
Evidence for the life, death and bodily resurrection of Jesus found outside the Bible
Most of the information we have about Jesus is in the Bible, so how reliable is it?
Did Jesus really say that He was (and is) God?
Did Jesus really die on the Cross, or did He just faint and revive later?
What is the evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead?
What are you going to decide about Jesus?
Evidence for the life, death and bodily resurrection of Jesus found outside the Bible
In his book The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel offers the following evidence found outside the Bible:
Historical records outside the Bible and Christian writings
“If you never read the Bible or any Christian writings, you could learn the following about Jesus from an ancient Jewish work called the Talmud and from ancient historical writers such as Josephus, Tacitus, and Pliny the Younger ...
“Jesus was a Jewish Teacher.
“Many people believed he performed healings and other miracles.
“Some people believed he was the long-awaited Messiah.
“He was rejected by the Jewish leaders.
“He was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberias.
“Despite this shameful death, his followers, who believed that he was still alive, spread beyond Palestine so that there were large numbers of them in Rome by A.D. 64.
“All kinds of people from the cities and countryside - men and women, slave and free - worshipped him as God.” (p67)
Archaeological evidence
“Archaeology, like most sciences, involves drawing conclusions from the evidence ... I wouldn’t have been surprised to discover that archaeologists who were Christians interpreted the evidence as confirming biblical accounts, while archaeologists who were atheists or agnostics would be more skeptical. That’s why I was especially fascinated by the story of Sir William Ramsay of Oxford University in England, one of history’s greatest archaeologists. He was an atheist. He spent 25 years doing archaeological digs to try to disprove the book of Acts, which was written by the historian Luke (who also wrote the gospel of Luke) ...
“Instead of discrediting Luke’s account, Ramsay’s discoveries kept supporting it. Finally, he concluded that Luke was one of the most accurate historians who had ever written. Influenced by the archaeological evidence, Ramsay became a Christian.” (p68-69)
Most of the information we have about Jesus is in the Bible, so how reliable is it?
The biographies written about the life of Jesus are ancient historical documents
“Jesus’ oldest biographies are the books in the New Testament of the Bible called the Gospels and named after their writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. From these biographies, I found out a lot about who Jesus claimed to be ... For the time being, I set aside aside the issue of whether the Bible really was the inspired Word of God. Instead, I took the Bible for what it undeniably is - a collection of ancient documents claiming to record historical events.” (The Case for Christ p53-54)
Witnesses to the events recorded in these four biographies of Jesus
“After years of reporting on courtroom trials, I know how convincing eyewitness testimony can be in establishing whether an event happened in the way people claim it did ... The historian Mark recorded Peter’s firsthand account in what is now called the gospel of Mark. Luke, a physician and a sort of first-century investigative reporter, wrote a biography of Jesus based on eyewitness testimony, too.” (p54-55) (See above on archaeological evidence for the reliability of the gospel of Luke).
We know that Peter (who is believed to have provided Mark with the material for writing his gospel, and who wrote two New Testament books of his own) claimed to be writing only the truth from his statement - ‘We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’, he wrote, ‘but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty’ (2 Peter 1:16).
Similarly John, who wrote the gospel of John and also four other New Testament books, said that he was writing about things ‘which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched’ (1 John 1:1).
So Lee Strobel was able to come to the conclusion: “The New Testament biographies of Jesus aren’t just secondhand information. They are based on eyewitness accounts.” (p55)
Another really important point is that the witnesses of Jesus’ life, death and bodily resurrection were talking to people who were alive at the time the events happened, and who therefore knew whether or not the witnesses were telling the truth. Peter preached a sermon very shortly after the events had taken place, saying, ‘Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know ... God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact’ (Acts 2:22-32).
As Lee Strobel points out, “The audience’s reaction was very interesting. They didn’t say, ‘We don’t know what you’re talking about!’ or, ‘That’s not the way it really happened!’ Instead, they panicked and wanted to know what they should do. On that day about 3,000 people asked for forgiveness and many others followed - apparently because they knew that Peter was telling the truth. (You can read the whole story for yourself in Acts 2:14-47).” (p56-57)
Finally, the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the day were desperate to quash the belief that Jesus was the Messiah, and that He had risen from the dead. You can be sure that if any part of the eyewitness accounts had been exaggerated, they would have been the first to complain. But there is no evidence that they ever disputed anything written in the gospels as a historical record of, for example, the miracles and teachings of Jesus.
By the time the biographies were written, had myths developed around the facts?
“Dr. William Albright, who used to direct the American School of Oriental research in Jerusalem and later taught at Johns Hopkins University, says he’s convinced that the different books of the New Testament were written within 50 years (not 100) after Jesus died - and more likely closer to 45 years. Another scholar, Craig Blomberg, thinks the time gap was about 30 years between Jesus’ death and when Mark wrote his gospel. This means that the New Testament was available in written form while plenty of eyewitnesses were still alive to say either, ‘Yes, that’s the way it happened,’ or, ‘I was there, and that’s not what I saw!’” (The Case for Christ p59)
The evidence is that there would not have been time for myths to develop before the biographies of Jesus were written.
How many manuscripts are there, and do they agree with each other?
“There are over 5,000 copies of New Testament manuscripts copied in Greek. And 8,000 to 10,000 in Latin. Eight thousand more in other languages such as Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian. Thrown in a few miscellaneous other manuscripts, and there are 24,000 New Testament manuscripts in all ...
“The amazing thing is that they say the same thing! You’ll find some variations in spelling and stuff like that, but 99.5 percent of the manuscripts match up ... When 24,000 New Testament manuscripts say virtually the same thing, it makes sense that they are accurate copies of the original.” (The Case for Christ p61-62)
Did Jesus really say that He was (and is) God?
If we can trust the New Testament books, including the four biographies of Jesus’ life, as accurate and trustworthy records of what He said and did during His life on earth, then we can look at where in these biographies He claimed to be God.
The Holy Trinity
In order to understand Jesus’ claims to be God in full, it is necessary to understand the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. This doctrine states that there is only One True God, but that He is Three Persons. This is not easy for us to grasp, because God is so ‘other’ to us, but a very simple, and thus not by any means perfect, analogy is the way in which you are made up of a body, a mind and a spirit, but you are still one person.
The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There are a number of places in the Bible where all Three Persons are mentioned, two of which are:
At Creation - “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Genesis 1:1-2; “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” John 1:1-3.
At Jesus’ Baptism, which marked the beginning of His earthly ministry - “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as He was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased.” Luke 3:21-22.
Jesus never claimed to be the Father, because He is not the Father. He never claimed to be the Holy Spirit, because He is not the Holy Spirit. When He claimed to be God, it was as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity - the Son.
Explicit claims by Jesus of His divinity
“Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?’
“‘I am,’ said Jesus. ‘And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ The high priest tore his clothes. ‘Why do we need any more witnesses?’ he asked. ‘You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’
“They all condemned him as worthy of death.” (Mark 14:61-63)
Why did they believe He had committed blasphemy? Because they understood that He had claimed to be God.
“Jesus replied, ‘If I glorify Myself, My glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies Me. Though you do not know Him, I know Him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His Word. Your father Abraham rejoiced a the thought of seeing My day; he saw it and was glad’ ... ‘I tell you the truth’, Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was I AM!’ At this they picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus hid Himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.” (John 8:54-59)
The Jews wanted to stone Jesus because they understood Him not only to have claimed that He was God’s Son, but also to have claimed the Name God for Himself. In Exodus 3:14 God revealed Himself to Moses as I AM, and here, talking to the Jews, Jesus claimed this Name of God for Himself. It was clear this is what He meant because He said “before Abraham was I AM”. I AM is the name for God that signifies that He is eternal - He always was, and is, and always will be. By saying “before Abraham was I AM” Jesus was saying that He existed before Abraham was born - a time over a thousand years before the day He said these words. He was claiming to be immortal - He was claiming to be God.
“Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The Jews gathered around him, saying, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.’
Jesus answered, ‘I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.’
Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’
‘We are not stoning you for any of these,’ replied the Jews, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’” (John 10:22-33)
Once again, the Jews clearly understood that Jesus was claiming to be God when He said that He was one with the Father, and that He had (and still has) the power to give His followers eternal life.
These three examples are only a few of the claims to be God that Jesus made - many of which are recorded in the Gospel of John.
Implicit claims by Jesus of His divinity
Jesus proved by His miracles that He had power over sickness, power over nature, and even power to raise the dead to life. In all of these ways He demonstrated that He was and is God. But there is one particular miracle in which His claim to be God stands out:
“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’
“Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, ‘Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . .’ He said to the paralytic, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’ He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’” (Mark 2:1-11)
Messianic titles used by Jesus
When Jesus was living on earth, the Jews had for a long time been waiting for the Messiah, the promised Anointed One who would deliver His people. Titles used for this awaited Messiah in the Old Testament prophecies include ‘The son of man’ and ‘Son of David’. Jesus regularly referred to Himself as the Son of Man, and was recognized as the Son of David. The Pharisees and other religious leaders understood full well what He was claiming. That is one of the reasons they wanted to kill Him.
Son of Man - “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’
“’But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.” (Matthew 16:13-20)
Son of David - “As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.’ He called out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’ Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’
“’Lord, I want to see,’ he replied. Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.” (Luke 18:35-43)
What do we make of this claim?
C S Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, sets us this challenge about Jesus’ claim to be God:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Him as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God’. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else He would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (p52)
Did Jesus really die on the Cross, or did He just faint and revive later?
If you have seen the film The Passion of the Christ you will know how weak Jesus was, and how near to death, even before He was nailed to the Cross.
He would have suffered severe blood loss both through the crown of thorns pressed into His head, and the flogging He received at the hands of the Romans. The Romans used a kind of whip that had multiple thongs on it, each with a piece of sharp bone or metal at the end. By the time Jesus had been flogged His skin would have been in shreds, and He would have lost a lot more blood. Sometimes people died from the flogging alone. By the time He had to carry His own cross He was so weak that He collapsed under the weight.
Death by crucifixion came through asphyxiation. Jesus would have had His hands and feet nailed to the cross, with His feet resting on a kind of board. As He struggled to breathe, and His body rose and fell, His shredded back would have grated against the wood.
Even if there was not evidence in the New Testament gospel record that He was actually dead, there is absolutely no way that a man in this condition could ever have revived in the tomb, pushed away the stone, and then gone on to convince over 500 witnesses that He was risen from the dead.
However, there is evidence in the New Testament gospel record that Jesus actually died:
“Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken,’ and, as another scripture says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced.’” (John 19:31-37)
There are two pieces of evidence here that Jesus was really dead. The first is that blood and water flowed out of His side - after death the red and white blood cells separate, which is what had happened here to create the appearance of blood and water. The second is that the soldiers were expert executioners, and they would have been able to tell if Jesus was dead or alive.
What is the evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead?
Evidence from the New Testament record
(1) “The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, “After three days I will rise again.” So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first. ’Take a guard,’ Pilate answered. ‘Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: “He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.” Now I have told you.’
“... While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” (Matthew 27:62 - 28:15)
A few points here - (1) If the Pharisees could have produced a body they would have; (2) If the disciples had made this account up and wanted to be taken seriously they would never have used women as witnesses - the fact that women saw the risen Jesus before the disciples did is strong evidence that this account is exactly as it happened; (3) If the body had not been missing the guards would not have had to tell the story about the disciples stealing the body.
(2) “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6)
Five hundred witnesses is a lot of people. Notice two things - (1) When Paul wrote this he could say that most of the witnesses were still living, so he would not have been able to get away with making this up; (2) Paul, who had started out persecuting Christians and was converted after being met by Jesus on his way to Damascus, suffered enormously for being a Christian, and according to tradition was finally executed for his faith. Would he have gone through all that he went through if he had known that what he believed was based on fiction?
Evidence from history
(1) The twelve disciples of Jesus did not start preaching that He had been raised from the dead straight away. In fact John records that before the disciples first saw the risen Jesus they were hiding because they were afraid:
“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.” (John 20:19-20)
What happened that transformed this cowering group of men into the apostles who boldly proclaimed the message that Jesus had risen from the dead? They saw the risen Jesus, and just as He promised them they were filled with His Spirit (you can read about this in Acts 2).
Not only did the disciples (later called apostles) proclaim that Jesus was risen from the dead, but some of them died for proclaiming this. James was killed with the sword, and tradition has it that Peter was crucified upside down. Would they really have been willing to risk their lives, and then die, for something they knew to be a lie?
(2) Paul not only met the risen Christ himself on the Damascus road, which resulted in his conversion, but he was alive at the same time as the people who had witnessed the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as well. Before his conversion he ruthlessly persecuted the Christians and this is the Bible record of the growth of the church and its subsequent persecution:
“They [the early Christian believers] devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47)
“On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.” (Acts 8:1-3)
Many of those early believers, if not most of them, had witnessed the life and death of Jesus. Many of them had also witnessed at least one of His resurrection appearances. If they had not been convinced of the fact that He was God, and had risen from the dead, they would not have become Christians, and they would certainly not have remained Christians once they were being persecuted for it.
(3) In his book Jesus and the Logic of History Paul W Barnett says the following:
“’History’, wrote the Tudor historian G. R. Elton, ‘deals with events, not states; it investigates things that happen and not things that are.’ Its concern is for ‘the transformation of things (people, institutions, ideas and so on) from one state to another’. History, therefore, may be defined as ‘those human sayings, thoughts, deeds and sufferings which occurred in the past and have left a present deposit; and it deals with them from the point of view of happening, change and the particular.’ In short, history so defined deals with phenomena, and, where possible, seeks to explain them.
“This understanding of history appears to have informed the thinking of C. F. D. Moule in his important work, The Phenomenon of the New Testament. Moule referred to ‘the coming into existence of the Nazarenes’, that is, an event, which called for an explanation. His own explanation is that the phenomenon was brought about by ‘a most powerful and original mind and a tremendous confirmatory event’. According to Moule, the existence of the Nazarenes is accounted for by the ‘powerful and original mind’ of Jesus and the event of his resurrection from the dead. I find this logic compelling. The phenomenon of the coming into existence of early Christianity is well attested. Its sudden emergence is as historically secure as any event in Palestine in that century. So the historian asks: what plausible explanations can be found for this event?”
Who Moved the Stone?
Frank Morrison was a British journalist who set out to disprove the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and so to disprove Christianity. The result was that he found so much evidence that proved Jesus really had risen bodily from the dead that he became a Christian. The book that was meant to disprove Christianity became the story of his conversion, and a detailed account of the evidence he uncovered. His story is well summed up by someone who has read his book Who Moved the Stone?:
“Frank Morrison's testimony can be found in Who Moved the Stone? What makes this story compelling on many levels is that Morrison, an English journalist and one-time skeptic of Christianity, actually began this book as a means to disprove the very foundation of the Christian religion: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He researched numerous historical documents including the four gospels found in the Bible and it became apparent that over the course of his research one question continued to plague him, thus the title of his book. What began as a narrative aimed at refuting the resurrection soon became a testimonial of how one man transformed from skeptic to follower. Rather than argue the case for the resurrection with faith alone, Morrison uses logic and reason to discount the counter-theories that he once believed to hold the truth. For example, why would the Jewish high priests hide Christ's body when the resurrection itself poses such a substantial threat to their power? Why would the disciples do the same and not immediately proclaim that Christ had risen, knowing that not doing so would risk the movement running out of steam as had been the case with other philosophic and religious leaders at the time? Instead, they waited months before doing so, perhaps because they were asking the same question that Morrison was asking. And if the resurrection were false, how could such a large following have developed on its heels?”
What are you going to decide about Jesus?
No-one could deny that the evidence for the resurrection is compelling. The above narrative gives the example of three men who set out to disprove the truth of the Bible message, and ended up proving it so conclusively that they themselves became Christians:
Lee Strobel, a former legal journalist whose investigations into the evidence are detailed in his book The Case for Christ
Frank Morrison, an English journalist whose investigations into the evidence are detailed in his book Who Moved the Stone?
Sir William Ramsay, who could only find archaeological evidence that proved the accuracy of the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, written by Luke, who also wrote one of Jesus’ biographies found in the Bible.
Are you willing to take the time to read The Case for Christ or Who Moved the Stone? for yourself? Are you willing to read one of the gospels for yourself? If what the Bible says is true then the decision you make about Jesus will decide where you spend eternity.
What could be more important than that?
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