Gospel

The Resurrection—It Was Real Alright

by J.W. Phillips
04/16/25
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The Resurrection—It Was Real Alright

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead—proclaimed by Jesus before he died, and proved by Jesus after he arose—is a fact. There has never been a credible argument against it.

At the time, it was widely known that Jesus had said he would rise from the dead; he even said exactly when he would do it. Jerusalem knew it. Rome knew it.

Mindful of this, Paul later told the king, “This thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).

What Jesus foretold, and fulfilled, was public, not obscure.

Both priests and politicians were committed to preventing the resurrection.

This was exactly why the priests deployed the temple guard, the politicians deployed the Roman guard­—each regiment highly trained, and, under the threat of death, totally committed to carrying out their duty.

Have you ever heard of such a thing? Trying to prevent a criminal from escaping is one thing, but why go to such lengths to prevent a dead man from escaping?

You know why. The reason they sealed the sepulcher with that two-ton boulder and stationed Rome’s finest in that security detail was to make sure Jesus never resurrected.

But then he did.

Moreover, soon after he did, in the very vicinity where it happened, the resurrection of Jesus was proclaimed to thousands of people.

All Rome had to do, and all these Jews had to do, was to produce the body. Do that, and there would be no Christianity—ever!

Instead we're left with this cockeyed story about how the disciples stole Jesus’ body.

Can you imagine how that would have played out in court?

Let’s imagine the scene.

The witness is sworn in—he, a soldier in the security detail.

The prosecutor then asks preliminary but pertinent questions: the name of the soldier, the date of the assignment, the location of the assignment, the purpose of the assignment, the number of soldiers involved, details of how the soldiers coordinated their efforts, etc.

Having these and other necessary facts admitted in sworn testimony, the prosecutor then asks the most pertinent of all questions, “Where is the body of Jesus?"

The prosecutor allows the question to hang in the air, not for drama’s sake but waiting for an answer.

When no answer is given, he then says, “We know he was certifiably dead. Where’s the body?”

Silence.

Then ... an anguished voice attempting to speak... before this barely audible reply, “I don’t know.”

You don’t know? You, a professionally trained soldier! —and you couldn’t guard a dead man?!”

Tension mounts.

 “Tell me what do you know, soldier.”

 “Well,” … his voice trails off with a long pause following, then comes a quick look upward where no help was to be found, and finally the resumption of soft speech, “while we were sleeping ….”

“Sleeping! You mean under the penalty of death you actually went to sleep?!”

The claim strained credulity completely! Why, to do that is to die!

Charging the witness stand with rapid-fire questioning, the prosecutor demanded to know, “Who let you come here? Why aren’t you dead already? Why didn’t they send another soldier?”

Pausing to think about his own question, the prosecutor then spun around to say, “Wait a minute!" Punctuating his words with a staccato rhythm, “You-just-said... ‘while we”… whose we?"

No answer. “Does ‘we’ mean every soldier? They all went to sleep?" Meekly, the soldier nodded his head in the affirmative. “This has never happened before! You were under the strictest orders!”

All those watching this testimony were by that time on the front of their seats, gasping, looking at others while trying to make sense to it all.

Trying to gather his own thoughts, the prosecutor, while pacing, was still fighting his own unbelief when he slowly ventured the question, “So what was the rest of what you were about to say? ‘While we were sleeping’—what?”

The answer came quickly, as if in a hurry to get this part over with. “The disciples came and stole his body.”

Laughter immediately filled the court! Laughter, then more laughter! One wave followed another. It seemed as if it would never stop.

When some sense of decorum slightly returned, the prosecutor quickly seized the opportunity before it disappeared.

“Then tell me, how did you know it was his disciples if you were sleeping?

That set off another round of laughter! The scorners scorned. The rowdy ruled.

Attempting logic where none could be found, the prosecutor then says, “Let me see if I got this right: You could actually see the faces of the disciples... at night... while you were sleeping?

So if you were that close, why didn’t you stop them? No, no, no, don’t answer that question; let me venture a guess... It was because... you knew... you couldn’t outrun men carrying a dead body, right?

And of course—of course!—there was no way that you could hear them move an entrenched two-ton boulder, even though you were stationed just a few feet a way! That would be way too much to expect,” he intoned with dripping sarcasm.

Despite Caesar’s seal on the tomb, and despite Caesar’s soldiers stationed to guard that tomb, the angel gave this announcement about Jesus, “He is not here.”

The tomb couldn’t hold him! The guards couldn’t secure him! The unmovable stone got moved!

A miracle without parallel!

Talleyrand, adviser to King Louis the XVIII, once asked how he could start a new religion as effective as Christianity. To this the wise king answered, “Simple. Just be crucified and rise again on the third day.”

This “fact of all facts” does distinguish Jesus from Mohammed, Buddha, and every other supposed god; for all are still buried in yonder grave.

Archeologists finally found the body of Cortez, the famous Spanish conquistador. The whereabouts of his bones had been a mystery for more than a hundred years, but finally they were found.

The Egyptian King Tutankhamen had been buried for more than four thousand years, but archaeologists also discovered his body.

True, there have been other arguments against the resurrection, all of them, however, faring no better than the first one.

Some years ago, a man named Frank Morison wrote a book titled, Who Moved the Stone?

In the first chapter of this book he explained his motive for writing it. As an unbeliever and a very skilled skeptic, Frank Morison wanted to prove to the world that the resurrection of Jesus was a hoax.

As an attorney, he knew how to investigate. So Frank Morison meticulously gathered every detail, believing he could shred the supposed evidence that for so long these gullible believers had foolishly believed.

But there was one problem with that—he couldn’t do it!

The evidence was solid!

The case for the resurrection of Jesus was beyond reproach!

In fact, deep study led Frank Morison to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The historicity of the resurrection was always certain. Loose lips and mushy minds today can speak glibly about the “Easter myth,” but they are myth-taken.

Like Mr. Morison, there have been others who wrote impressive academic books supporting the reliability of resurrection testimony—Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, J.P. Moreland, William Craig Lane, and Gary Habermas among them.

The irrefragable conclusion set forth by each author is that the resurrection of Jesus is an indisputable fact! Not a thesis. Not a theory. Not a possibility. Not a probability.

Listen, when it comes to eternity, we can’t be playing Russian roulette. There can be no bets. No guesses. No perhaps. No maybe. We have to know!

John Calvin said, “God cannot be worshiped in doubt.” Resurrection certainty is required.

In his book, Christianity: The Witness of History, J.N.D Anderson wrote about “the apostles preaching of the resurrection. They were proclaiming it up and down the city to the great discomfiture of the chief priests….”

Theoretically, he said: “They could have exploded this disturbing heresy finally and decisively. Why, then, did they not do so? The answer seems inescapable; because they could not; because they did not themselves know where the body was.”

Talk about someone who was under immense pressure to come up with answers! Consider the Roman Procurator; it was his job to dispose of this supposed rival king.

And now the king finds out that his rival is alive? Do you think the king responded to that news with a calm demeanor?

No way! He was beside himself with crazed anger!

You can be sure that if there was any evidence, any proof, to shut down this proclamation of the resurrection, they would have produced it.

But the Jews failed to do this, the Romans failed to do this, and to date the whole world has failed to provide this evidence.

Lack of effort doesn’t explain this outcome. They couldn’t provide credible evidence for one reason: It was impossible. The resurrection of Jesus is an established fact!