You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
#67 King Jesus of Nazareth
King Jesus God, Myth, or Mere Man? (10)
Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? (3)
Eyewitnesses that saw the risen Christ
by Jim Mettenbrink
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Regarding the resurrection of Jesus,
we have ascertained that He was dead and in a guarded tomb (so
His body could not be stolen in an attempt to say the empty tomb
proved His resurrection). The certainty that Jesus rose
is further substantiated by women who were the first
to discover the empty tomb (Matthew 28:1, 5-6; Mark 16:1-7; Luke
24:1- 3; John 20:1-2). Without knowing the first century
Jewish culture, this does not seem significant. Although
the status of ancient Jewish women was higher than in the rest
of the world, it was lower than by modern Western standards.
Womens testimony was not acceptable in court. Yet,
it is the testimony of women that all four gospel writers record
for all of mankind to read.
Had the resurrection been a legend,
the writers would have selected one of the leading disciples,
such as Peter, James or John, not women, to discover the empty
tomb. The ancient readers would have scoffed at women being
the witnesses. The genuineness of the gospels account
is attested to by the fact that women discovered the empty tomb.
If this was legend, the disciples, who would have been
embarrassed by it, would have sought to change it so they or
at least men, not women, had discovered the empty
tomb. However, the empty tomb does not necessarily mean
that Jesus rose from the dead but is certainly corroborating
evidence.
That no one witnessed the moment
Jesus rose does not prove that He not rise. The scriptures
inform that there were no less than 10 occasions when Jesus appeared
to people after His resurrection (Matthew 28:8-10; 16-20; Luke
24:13-52; John 20:10-30, 21:1-14; Acts 1:4-9; 1 Corinthians 15:5-8).
On one occasion, there were over 500 eyewitnesses. Paul
wrote that the greater part of these eyewitnesses were still
alive (1 Corinthians 15:6). That First Corinthians was
written in less than 25 years after Jesus resurrection
and that eyewitnesses were still living, would provide the opportunity
to prove there was no resurrection if in fact it was a lie. Matthew,
Mark and Luke were also written within 20-30 years of Jesus resurrection,
thus if they were not accurate, they would have been challenged
to correct their mistakes. Aside from the chief Jewish
priests and elders (Matthew 28:11-15) immediate attempt
to deny His resurrection, there was no attempt to refute it during
the life of the eyewitnesses. This fact rules out the accusation
that Jesus resurrection is legend. Legends usually
develop not less than 100 years after an event, after all of
the eye witnesses and those who heard their testimony have died
there would be no one alive to challenge the legends
validity.
The New Testaments continuous
existence from its beginning, and the fact that no ancient document
has been found to disprove it, point to its truthfulness. If
Jesus had not risen from the dead, supposed eyewitnesses would
have refuted claims that He had risen. Although the eyewitnesses
were important for all people to know the certainty of Jesus
resurrection, there is one other important fact testifying to
Jesus resurrection the apostles themselves!
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