Is Christ REALLY ALIVE today?
DID Jesus of Nazareth really walk out of His tomb?
COULD it be possible?
Today, vast percentages of professing "Christians" REJECT the resurrection and second coming of Christ!
What about it?
Can it be PROVED Christ is risen?
IS IT INCREDIBLE that Christ was raised from the dead? Is the resurrection a FACT, or merely a kind of "divinized MYTH" used to "convey a profound truth" as some modernists claim? Is the resurrection merely a "fundamental belief" or an actual historical FACT? What about it? Have you ever really PROVED it one way or the other?
If Christ Is NOT RISEN . . .
The Apostle Paul was inspired to write, ". . . If Christ be' not risen, then is our preaching VAIN, and your faith is also VAIN" (I Cor. 15:14).
Notice further: Paul, inspired of the Spirit of God; said, "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins" (verse 17).
Can you see clearly what this means? It means — UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, and the resurrection of the dead at His coming — your Bible says your WHOLE CHRISTIAN "FAITH" IS VAIN, EMPTY, VOID AND USELESS. It means, unless you accept the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, your sins have not been forgiven, and the penalty of eternal death is still hanging over you (Rom. 6:23).
And yet, how shocking today, to see vast segments of "Christianity" openly denying the RISEN Christ, openly proclaiming they believe His second coming to be sheer "myth" and yet still claiming His name, still calling themselves "Christian."
No WONDER so many "laymen" are mixed up. No wonder people are so confused, uncertain, unsure. Their PASTORS aren't sure, either.
Today's theological students — tomorrow's ministers — are DIVIDED in their beliefs.
Several years ago polltakers were shocked to find only 44 percent of them believed in the virgin birth of Christ.
ONLY 46 PERCENT BELIEVED THAT JESUS ASCENDED PHYSICALLY WHOLE INTO HEAVEN AFTER HIS CRUCIFIXION!
But the most SHOCKING Of all is that only ONE OUT OF ONE HUNDRED of the "divinity" students in today's leading theological institutions believe there will be a second coming of Christ.
Yes, NO WONDER people doubt Christ's resurrection. Even the MINISTERS of today and tomorrow DOUBT it.
But what about YOU? Do YOU believe it? Do you REALLY believe it? Can you really conceive of a RISEN Christ? Really?
Was the Resurrection a Hoax?
No single miracle of the Bible has escaped the caustic sarcasm of the supposed "higher critics" who, having denied the actual AUTHORITY of God and the Bible, have been given over to REPROBATE MINDS (Rom. 1:28).
The Resurrection has come in for the greatest share of criticism.
Some say the JEWS stole Jesus' body away. Others believe the Roman soldiers HID His body secretly, to bury it elsewhere, at a later time. Still others actually believe His OWN DISCIPLES spirited His body away, and reburied it. Some claim the disciples were victims of hallucinations, or self-hypnosis, because of their fervent belief Christ would rise again, and their great desire to see Him resurrected.
Some professing Christians of today believe He stayed buried, or IF HE "came to life" again, that He disappeared — departed into obscurity — living out His natural life elsewhere, to finally die of old age.
Mostly — professing "Christianity" of today simply ISN'T SURE. They simply DON'T KNOW.
What about it? Are these widely accepted opinions about Christ's resurrection really TRUE?
Did the Jews Steal His Body?
Some people reason His Pharisaical enemies stole His body, spiriting it away to a different location, where they secretly buried it again.
But could this be true? Does this make any sense?
Think for a moment! On MANY different occasions, the Pharisaical leaders had attempted to have Jesus Christ killed. They would have done anything to have discredited Jesus as the true Messiah. After the death and reported resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Jewish leaders themselves ". . . gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day" (Matt. 28:12-15).
Notice it. The Jews of that day paid a large sum of money to the soldiers to spread the lie that Jesus' DISCIPLES had stolen His body away. If the JEWS had stolen His body, why would they bribe the soldiers to say the disciples had done it?
Think again. What would have been one of the greatest PROOFS to the Jews that Jesus was NOT the Messiah? Surely the finding of His own body would have!
Let's face the plain facts — and be in doubt no longer! Had the Jewish leaders, or any of the Jews of Jesus' day, been able to find Jesus' body they would have PRODUCED that body. Just as the Italian people dragged the body of Mussolini through the streets of Milan, to hang it ignominiously in a public square, upside down beside the body of his mistress, so would the Jews of Jesus' day have paraded Christ's broken body through the streets of Jerusalem and all the other towns and villages around, and displayed it publicly for all the world to see!
Think again! If the Jews had stolen His body, and KNEW where that body was, why would the New Testament be absolutely filled with accounts of how these same Jews finally persecuted and even MURDERED, at the jeopardy of their own lives, those who went about teaching that Jesus HAD risen from the dead? Would it make any sense to take vows to eat no food or drink no water until they had killed the Apostle Paul, to kill James the brother of John, to martyr and butcher numerous other disciples and true apostles of God for teaching Jesus had risen from the dead, if the Jews absolutely KNEW He had NOT risen from the dead?
Of course not!
A person would have to be a literal FOOL in the face of such absolutely conclusive evidence, to believe the Jews stole Jesus' body.
Did the DISCIPLES Steal His Body?
As you have already read, it is commonly told today that His DISCIPLES stole His body.
But does this make any sense? Remember, His disciples were very reluctant to believe He HAD risen again. Peter had said, "I go fishing." Others had scattered to different areas.
To them, the whole thing was over — finished. They thought it had been "nice" while it lasted, but now their leader had been martyred, and they were about to go their own way, back to their respective jobs and positions of before, and give up the whole thing.
Remember, they had not as yet been converted, had not received God's Holy Spirit.
KNOWING these facts, is it then even remotely possible to believe that these same disciples could have been so filled with power and the deep-down CONVICTION of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that they went out fervently preaching against all opposition, even at the expense of their own LIVES, that Jesus truly had risen?
Would dozens of men be torn limb from limb, thrown to wild beasts, drawn and quartered, sawn asunder, hung upside down, burnt at the stake in horrible martyrdom FOR SOMETHING THEY KNEW TO BE A DELIBERATE HOAX?
Certainly not!
No, not by the wildest stretch of a fool's imagination could the happenings as recorded in the book of Acts have taken place if these dedicated men were suffering such terrible tortures for a cause which they knew to be a lie, a leader they knew to be a hoax, a hope they knew to be false.
The mere suggestion that His disciples stole His body so defies all logic, reason and true facts so as to appear ludicrous.
Remember another ironclad fact. The early New Testament apostles who first preached and published the story that Jesus Christ had risen from the tomb BELIEVED it to be a fact. They were not resting their faith on an empty tomb, but upon supernatural, miraculous APPEARANCES of Jesus Christ on MANY different occasions.
Thomas had actually investigated His wounds. Christ had appeared to over 500 brethren at the same time! He had appeared in a room where they were meeting, but with the doors locked.
Yes, Jesus was SEEN ALIVE after His resurrection, not once or twice, but at least ten times, as recorded in the New Testament. He was seen, not by just one individual whose word could be doubted, but by groups of two, seven, ten, eleven, and even 500! More of these vital proofs later.