Was Jesus Raised From Dead?

Multiplying like Guinea Pigs

Outside the shocking conclusions of the four gospels, is there evidence that Jesus was raised from the dead?

For many Christians, the natural answer to this question usually has presented itself in the answer of the early Christian community. The most plausible historical explanation for the birth of the early church is that the cold dead body of Jesus got up and walked around three days after he was laid in a tomb.

It seems like an unlikely conclusion indeed.

But if you examine the writings of the earliest Christians in the New Testament, you will find that the whole message of Christian proclamation, the central focus of Christian worship, and their underlying theological framework all rests on the singular point that he got up and walked.

The early Christians had nothing, absolutely nothing, to believe in if Jesus had not come back from the grave. Paul says it bluntly and painfully:

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.

- 1 Corinthians 15:17

If the cross was the end of Jesus, then Christians are living an absolute and despicable lie. It’s all for naught, and those are the Bible’s words, not mine.

However, if Jesus died and remained dead, there needs to be some kind of explanation for why the church found a sustainable vision and multiplied like guinea pigs, all while suffering the extremes of humiliation, ostracism, and martyrdom. If all that was for a lie, that’s almost as impressive as a resurrection event.

Any way you slice it, the advent of the Christian faith is improbable. And it’s not something that we can test using scientific tools and methods. History never is. All we have with which to make our guess are the evidence, testimony, and witness of the early church.

We can call them misguided and sad, but if we want to understand their historical situation we have only their words to evaluate. And when we peer outside the gospels to try to interpret their reasoning, we hear but one determined and unified voice on the matter:

• Acts 2:24 – But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
• Acts 2:31-32 – Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
• Acts 3:15 – You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.
• Acts 4:2 – They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
• Acts 4:10 – It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed
• Acts 4:33 – With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
• Acts 5:30 – The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree
• Acts 10:40 – But God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen
• Acts 13:29-30 – They took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead
• Acts 13:34 – …the fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay
• Acts 13:37 – But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay
• Acts 15:19 – They had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.
• Acts 17:2-3 – He reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead.
• Acts 17:18 – They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
• Acts 17:31-32 – He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered
• Acts 23:6 – I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead
• Acts 26:8 – Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
• Acts 26:23 – …that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles
• Romans 1:4 – and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
• Romans 4:24-25 – For us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
• Romans 6:4 – We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
• Romans 6:9 – For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him
• Romans 7:4 – So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
• Romans 8:11 – And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
• Romans 8:34 – Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
• Romans 10:9 – That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
• 1 Corinthians 6:14 – By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 – 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
• 1 Corinthians 15:12 – But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
• 1 Corinthians 15:17 – And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
• 1 Corinthians 15:20 – But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
• 1 Corinthians 15:32 – If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
• 2 Corithinians 1:9 – But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
• 2 Corinthians 4:14 – We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.
• 2 Corinthians 5:15 – And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
• Galatians 1:1 – Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead
• Ephesians 1:19-20- That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms
• Philippians 3:10 – I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection
• Colossians 2:12 – …And raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
• 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 – They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
• 2 Timothy 2:8 – Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.
• 1 Peter 1:3 – In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
• 1 Peter 1:21 – Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him
• 1 Peter 3:21 –  It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
• Hebrews 13:20 – May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus…
• Revelation 1:5 – …and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead

And finally through John’s vision, Jesus speaks for himself:

• Revelation 1:18 – I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

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