Written by: Kyle Futral

Posted: April 12, 2020

A good friend of mine and a familiar name to many of us at First Baptist Eclectic, Brandon
Roney, posted a video the other day discussing why he is a believer in Jesus Christ. This got
me thinking about some facts another friend of mine and familiar name, Chase Krug, shared
with me several years ago that helped me to be better prepared to “make a defense to anyone
who asks for a reason for the hope that is in” me (1 Pet. 3:15), especially as it relates to the
resurrection we celebrate this Easter weekend. Therefore, I would like to share a little about why
I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who is worthy of my worship and my life’s devotion.

The objective foundation of my faith (apart from my own personal daily experience with Jesus
and the Holy Spirit confirming these truths in my heart) is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus.
For me, everything starts there, because if Jesus was really resurrected from the dead, then He
must be the Son of God. If He is the Son of God, God must be real, sovereign over creation,
and good. If God was not real and sovereign over creation, how could He have power over
death, itself? No other force in the universe can demonstrate that kind of power. And if God
was not good, why would He go to such lengths as to step into His fallen creation and rescue it
at such a great cost to Himself?

If Jesus is the Son of God, then the Bible must also be true. Jesus, himself, affirmed the
truthfulness of the Old Testament scriptures on multiple occasions (Jn 10:35, Mt. 15:3, 5:18,
22:31, Mk. 7:13, etc.).1 If the Old Testament is true and Jesus was the fulfillment of everything it
pointed to throughout its pages, then the New Testament scriptures must also be “breathed out
by God,” (2 Tim. 3:16) because the entire New Testament is really testifying to that fact and
consistent with everything written in the Old Testament. The Bible is one big, cohesive story of
God creating and rescuing humanity for His glory and the New Testament perfectly completes
this narrative.

This leads then, to the question of why I believe the resurrection of Jesus is true. There are four
historical facts surrounding the resurrection that are well-attested in history inside and outside
the Bible:

1. Jesus Christ was killed by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans.
2. He was buried in a tomb.
3. His tomb was found empty by women on the Sunday following His death.
4. Many of his followers came to genuinely believe He had risen from the dead and
reported seeing Him alive after His burial.

As I mentioned, these are well-attested historical facts, and no real faith is required to believe
them. The question is, “What is the best explanation of these facts?” There are several,
including the Swoon Theory (Jesus wasn’t fully dead and re-gained consciousness in the tomb), the Hallucination Theory (the sightings of Jesus alive after His burial were due to mass
hallucinations), and the Conspiracy Theory (Jesus’ followers stole his body and staged his
resurrection.) Josh McDowell fully explains each of these theories in his article, “Resurrection
Theories Debunked: Christ Rose!”2

The short response to the Swoon Theory is that, even if it were physically possible that Jesus
could have lived through all of his torture, crucifixion, and a spear thrust into His side to confirm
He was dead, a badly beaten and bloody, nearly dead Jesus limping around and talking to His
followers would not cause them all to think He had risen from the dead, but that He didn’t really
die! It would take quite a long time to heal enough from all of those wounds to even be able to
walk around effectively, much less convince everyone He had conquered death.
The idea that Jesus appearing to more than 500 people after His death (1 Cor. 15:16) was a
mass hallucination is barely worth addressing and not at all a compelling explanation.

The only theory that I see as even possible is the Conspiracy Theory. Even if the disciples
could have pulled off stealing his body from the Roman guards and convincing millions of
people throughout history that He rose from the dead, though, this theory still cannot explain at
all the aforementioned postmortem appearances to over 500 people. However, the most
compelling reason I find to reject this theory is that, after His Ascension, every single disciple of
Jesus devoted the rest of their lives to traveling throughout the known world telling everyone
they could that He had risen from the dead and most of them (at least 10) were martyred for
refusing to recant of their story and/or cease telling others about it. I don’t mean to say that
some people don’t die for things that aren’t true. But who would willingly give their life for
something they know is completely untrue??? Suicide bombers and cult leaders who died for
something that was untrue surely at least believed their deaths were leading them to something
better. It is very hard to fathom that anyone (much less 10-12 people) would express such
devotion to a falsified story that they would willingly die to hold onto it, even though they knew it
to be untrue.

All of this leads me to believe that the best explanation of these facts is that Jesus was actually
resurrected from the dead and that He must be everything He said He was, the Son of God and
Savior of the world. Believing He is just that, I believe He must be worthy of my entire life, every
part of it. Although, like much of humanity, I am quick to forget, there is no other proper
response to the Giver of Life and Lord of Creation than to devote my every breath to His honor
and glory.

The resurrection we celebrate this Easter is the foundation of my faith and my eternal hope
“knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus...” (2 Cor. 4:14).

2 "Resurrection Theories Debunked: Christ Rose! - Josh.org." 31 Mar. 2017,
https://www.josh.org/resurrection-theories-debunked/. Accessed 11 Apr. 2020.