Could It Have Been Mass Hypnotism?
Could the resurrection of Christ merely have been an hallucination, as a result of a fervent desire in the hearts of the apostles? Could it have been an ecstasy? Could it have been merely a dream or a vision? Was it, perhaps, an apparition?
But this would be utterly impossible! Remember, His disciples DID NOT BELIEVE He had risen.
"And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but SOME DOUBTED" (Matt. 28:17). "It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they BELIEVED THEM NOT" (Luke 24:10-11).
How plain! When the women had returned from the empty sepulcher, breathlessly telling their story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the apostles and others thought they were relating a mere "idle tale."
Later, reading the account from Luke 24, verse 13 to verse 31, the inescapable evidence is given that the disciples did not want to believe He had risen! Jesus had drawn near to them as they were nearing a small village outside of Jerusalem. Their eyes were closed that they did not recognize Him (verse 16) and He began speaking to them. But Cleopas (verse 18) began to relate what had occurred, in a doubtful, hesitating manner. "Then he said unto them, O fools, and SLOW OF HEART TO BELIEVE ALL THAT THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN" (verse 25).
Even after this stern admonition and His expounding of all the scriptures concerning Himself (verse 27), it wasn't until after the meal that they finally recognized Christ!
All the way through the Gospel accounts, the Gospel writers themselves attest to a very great reluctance on the part of His closest apostles and servants to BELIEVE in His resurrection!
COULD it then have been an hallucination? Do men "conjure up" a vague or nebulous dream in something they are "hoping for" if they really are not even hoping for it? Would they have an ecstatic "vision" of something they didn't believe would occur in the first place?
No, there is no logic under the sun which would even remotely support such a foolish belief. Further, different groups of people kept on seeing Jesus Christ in different places at different times. It was neither "mass hypnosis" nor was it a dream. The same dream does not keep on occurring to totally different people in widely separated areas at totally different times.
Remember, then, that the disciples of Jesus Christ THEMSELVES did not believe the resurrection of Christ until they simply HAD to believe it!
Was Jesus Not Really Dead?
Some have advanced a theory that perhaps Jesus was only in a "swoon."
Perhaps He wasn't really dead, but revived after He had been in the tomb, and somehow escaped it, to journey off to a far place and there live out His natural life and die of old age.
Could that have been true? Remember, His own mother and others with her had actually seen Him DIE! When a person has been BEATEN and WHIPPED Until he is so exhausted he literally collapses on the public streets, when he has been up all one day and all one night and part of another being buffeted about, kicked and spit upon — when he has been without food or water, and lashed within an inch of his life, finally to have spikes driven through his hands and feet, to hang in the blazing sun for hours, then to have a huge spear plunged into his side, with great spurts of gushing blood and fluids from his stomach coming pouring out of his body — when His lifeless, limp body was taken down from the stake, carefully wrapped in grave clothes by Joseph of Arimathaea, and laid away in a tomb — was there any question but that He was DEAD?
What if there could possibly have been the remote chance that He wasn't dead? Could He, in such a horribly wounded condition, weak and exhausted, have been able to move a great huge stone that required several Roman soldiers, in all of their youth and strength, to move?
Remember further that the Jews were carefully guarding against this possibility.
The chief priests and Pharisees had said to Pilate, "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive [showing they firmly believed Him to be now DEAD, and were satisfied He really was dead], After three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first" (Matt. 27:63, 64).
Pilate cooperated. He said, "Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can" (verse 65).
Notice carefully! Anyone advancing the foolish notion that Jesus had only "swooned" is denying logic, reason, historical fact, the inspired Word of God and SANITY ITSELF!
The Jews were CONVINCED He WAS DEAD. Not only were they thoroughly SATISFIED of this fact, but they were making sure the stone could not even be opened FROM THE OUTSIDE — let alone from the inside by a mortally wounded man.
"So they went, and made the sepulcher SURE, sealing the stone, and setting a WATCH" (Matt. 27:66).
Further, when the stone WAS rolled back, it was NOT done by secretive disciples at night, but by A POWERFUL ANGEL. The WATCHERS the Jews had set FAINTED DEAD AWAY at the sight of him. This was NOT some "secretive" thing, of Jesus' inert body being whisked away at*, night, but a TREMENDOUS, AWESOME, GLORIOUS MIRACLE! (See Matt. 28:2-8)
If He were merely physically alive after His so-called "resurrection" and had not really died but been in a "swoon," and subsequently escaped from the tomb, how is it He was able to manifest Himself right through locked doors? Jesus Himself said, "I am he that liveth, and WAS DEAD" (Rev. 1:18). He said, "These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive" (Rev. 2:8).
Jesus Christ was completely, totally DEAD!
Could the Resurrection Have Been a Spurious Addition?
Could it be that the resurrection was a story which was inserted into the original writings at a later time?
Could the records have been tampered with? Could scribes at a later date have inserted the stories of His death, burial and resurrection in order to invent some fake glorification of an actual dead hero?
Hardly! It is an actual, firmly established historical fact that the so-called "sect" known as CHRISTIANS came into being during the reign of Tiberius. The thing which was attested to by even pagan writers and scholars to have brought these Christians into existence was the belief that Jesus had risen from the dead.
The resurrection of the dead did not become a later belief of "Christians." Rather, it was the very beginning of their belief, the very strength and impetus of their faith, the very reason for their fervent hope.
The cause and the beginning of real and true Christian faith was the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ. It did not gradually come to be accepted, to be "inserted" into the Bible later.
These people during that early first century had no written records of Christ's resurrection. Rather, they had personal attestation, living eyewitnesses, personal experiences of their own upon which to base their faith.
They rested their sound and fervent faith, not on some "records," but on what they had seen with their own eyes!
Remember again, that any subsequent records of a later date were the result of their faith, not that which brought their faith into existence.
If Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead, there would have been no Church of God, and no New Testament writings at all.
Remember, the Apostle Paul said before King Agrippa, "For the king KNOWETH of these things [of the resurrection of Christ], before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this THING WAS NOT DONE IN A CORNER" (Acts 26:26).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a talked-of, discussed, well-known event that swept the entirety of the Roman Empire in a short time.
Christ Is Alive Today!
Men have tried EVERY means to discredit your LORD, your Boss, your RULER, and your Savior! But they have failed miserably. So-called "higher critics" have shown themselves to be simpering, unreasonable, UNBALANCED men of REPROBATE MINDS (Rom. 1:28). Jesus Christ of Nazareth is ALIVE today.
Your Bible PROVES it! HISTORY PROVES IT! Sound logic and plain admission of concrete evidence PROVE it!
Do you realize How MUCH depends on the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Without it, there would have been no Holy Spirit from heaven. No New Testament of the Bible. ALL HISTORY WOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN DIFFERENTLY.
Without it, you could NOT BE SAVED, because Christians are saved by HIS LIFE, not by His death (Rom. 5:10). Without the resurrection of Christ, there would have BEEN NO CHURCH, and there would NEVER have been a SINGLE CHRISTIAN.
It's time to face facts!
It's time to realize what this means!
Without the RISEN Christ, YOU would not be reading these words NOW.
God's Word says, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. BUT NOW IS CHRIST RISEN from the dead, and become the FIRSTFRUITS of them that slept" (I Cor. 15:19-20).
Jesus Christ is soon going to STAND ON THIS EARTH!
He will RULE it with a rod of iron. THINK Of it! The HEAVENS splitting with a rock-breaking, earth-quaking ROAR! Streaming, blinding, BRILLIANT flashes of light revealing the descending King of Kings, on a huge white stallion, followed by BILLIONS of angels, as far, as the eye can see! THINK of it!
THINK of what YOU will say — how YOU will feel, when those blazing eyes of that conquering King focus squarely into YOUR eyes, searching the depths of YOUR heart. What will He say to you?