Today is Resurrection Sunday. The resurrection of Jesus is an important doctrine to prove that indeed Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Christian faith is not meant to be just believed. The evidence for faith must be there. I remembered years ago when I read the late D. James Kennedy’s book Why I Believe and one of the most important events in Christianity. Jesus had to die for the sins of man to pay for that penalty. Jesus descended into Hell to rescue the saved souls from Abraham’s Bosom to lead them to Heaven. Jesus took the infinite penalty of Hell into Himself. Finally, Jesus rose again to prove once and for all His claims that He is God and that you can believe in Him and live.
However, sinful people are still trying to dismiss the resurrection in spite of evidence
Many of them can be very silly or downright unscientific. Yet, it’s made by people who claim to be scientific while defending something they can’t verify (such as the Big Bang Theory or random evolution). The theories can get pretty silly. Kennedy’s book Why I Believe even puts various reasons as to why these theories are made to debunk the resurrection because sinful people don’t want to believe it. I could state some of them what I heard.
The robbery theory says that Jesus’s body was stolen from the grave. However, a study of Roman history will tell us that they have stiff penalties for soldiers sleeping on duty. I wonder if the Pharisees were even aware of that when they bribed the soldiers to lie that the body was stolen. The Pharisees already saw the linen cloth was there still in perfect shape. Yet, the Pharisees didn’t want to believe. None of them repented even after the evidence was right in front of them! The disciples were too afraid to steal the body. Breaking the Roman seal meant death for people who did it.
The vision theory tries to dismiss Jesus’ resurrection as just a vision. If it were all a vision, how do we account for the women who wanted to anoint the bloody body? In the history of hallucinations, there is no incident in which five hundred people from different backgrounds, of different temperaments, ever saw the same vision at the same time! Also if it was just a hallucination, the disciples would then want to check the tomb if the body was still there.
The swoon theory is really just ridiculous from a scientific angle. Jesus was heavily scourged by the cat-o-nine tails and He was already a bloody pulp and much blood was lost. Most victims of the scourging died from the process alone. The Roman soldiers were adept at checking out the death of the crucified men. The Roman centurion decided to check if Jesus was physically dead and decided to pierce the spear on His side which then flowed out not only blood but also water, proving that every last drop of blood was gone water also came out. In biology, a dead man’s blood would separate blood and water compared to the blood of a living man. Some atheists claim that Jesus after being placed in the tomb, woke up and pushed the rock aside to fool everyone He had risen and eventually died. Further common sense would tell that this is also stupidly said because one He was wrapped in graveclothes which would restrict movement, spices would prevent reviving, and open-air would be required to revive a swooned person, not a closed tomb. I should mention that His wrists and legs were pierced with nails, He was a bloody pulp and it’s definitely a challenge for the creators of this theory to actually try it themselves if they dare!
The UFO theory is where things get even more ridiculous. I’m amazed at how some atheists say they don’t believe in God because they can’t see Him. If that’s the case then stop breathing because you can’t see the air. The universe is full of invisible forces holding it in order because God is sovereign. The UFO theory is laughable because there’s no life on other planets. The concept of aliens is pure fiction.
It takes divine intervention to believe in the resurrection
Yet, it should be amazing that even with all the evidence that people still choose to believe these ridiculous myths. These are myths that can be refuted by studying some science and history! If they could go ahead and lie about the Resurrection then they can go back and try to refute the Creation with various delusional theories such as atheistic evolution or believe in the lie of unlimited human progress. The truth is that no matter how obvious the truth is but a heart hardened in sin refuses to savingly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for sinners to pay for their sins.
Romans 1:21 says the sad truth that people have the knowledge of God yet they rejected Him and their foolish hearts were darkened. Sooner or later, atheists will admit that they know God exists but they hate Him. Such people became vain in their imaginations and their hearts were darkened. They have all the evidence in front of them yet they still don’t believe it. Exodus 7-12 also shows us how the Pharaoh of the Exodus hardened his heart even after one plague after the other. The Pharaoh of the Exodus was still determined to harden his heart. God allowed Pharoah’s heart to be hardened for a good reason–in order to display His magnificent power (Exodus 9:16).
Such men profess to be wise yet they are actually fools. We have a psychological study called the Dunning-Kruger Effect that says that stupid people tend to think that they’re very smart. Fools tend to think they’re wise and the Bible already talked about it before the term Dunning-Kruger effect was invented. Such people are so fallen that Romans 3:10-19 also declares that there’s none who seeks after God, no not one. Nobody really seeks after God. An atheist can go and laugh, “Seek after God? That’s laughable! I’m too intelligent to believe in God.” The evidence is right in front of them yet they still won’t believe it. Then when confronted by evidence then they will say God is but a merciless monster.
This is where I believe it takes the divine calling of God before one can even believe in the resurrection. Along with the resurrection is the unpopular truth that the Son of God died a death worthy of the worst of the worst yet was buried with the rich. For the Jews, it just felt absurd that their Messiah would suffer as such even after they’ve read Isaiah 51-53. The Gentiles, still find it absurd that the Savior of men should die as a human. If the crucifixion message is hard to believe then so is the resurrection.
Perhaps the best example is that it requires God’s unconditional election before one can believe in Acts 9. John 6:44 says that no man comes to Jesus except by the power of God the Father. Acts 9 talks about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus was already big in the council and was a big shot involved in persecuting the followers of Jesus. Yet, on the road to Damascus, he was faced with the one fact he didn’t want to believe–the resurrected Jesus! Saul of Tarsus needed the supernatural calling of God before he could believe it. Saul of Tarsus could see the risen Christ and still not believe it. Jesus then told a man who was also named Ananias that he chose Saul of Tarsus. It wasn’t Saul of Tarsus who chose Jesus. Instead, it was Saul of Tarsus who was chosen by Jesus. Saul of Tarsus only used his free will to persecute the followers of Jesus before they were called Christians in Acts 11. It was Jesus who caused Saul of Tarsus to have a u-turn from persecuting Christians to getting persecuted as a Christian.
The problem of being a fool is not an intellectual problem but a moral problem. Being a fool or a stupid person is not limited to intellectual capacity. Rather, some of the most stupid people are highly educated or even get high grades. The foolishness here is a heart issue that ends up becoming a brain issue. Both the heart and mind need to be cleansed. They want to deny the resurrection in spite of evidence because of a moral issue. They are greater fools than people with lower IQ because they have the intellectual capacity but refuse to believe obvious evidence. It would take divine intervention to soften a hardened heart to believe in such a great fact!
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