Jesus: The Importance Of The Resurrection Of Jesus

The resurrection of Jesus is a topic in Christian Apologetic that confirms the faith of a believer. Groothuis submits, “Of all the world’s religions Christianity alone purports to be based on the resurrection of its divine founder. No other religion or worldview makes such an audacious and consequential claim. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus himself predicts his own betrayal, death and resurrection.”1 The Bible reveals the importance of the resurrection in Corinthians 15:14-17, “And if Christ wasn’t raised to life, our message is worthless, and so is your faith. If the dead won’t be raised to life, we have told lies about God by saying that he raised Christ to life, when he really did not. So if the dead won’t be raised to life, Christ wasn’t raised to life. Unless Christ was raised to life, your faith is useless, and you are still living in your sins.”

The historical facts involving the resurrection of Jesus, according to Groothuis must be interpreted through the filters of theistic worldview.

Groothuis conveys to his readers, “It is the supremely significant event in providential history. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is explained on the basis of a supernatural event brought about by God.”2 The resurrection in relation to theistic worldview focus on the character of God as it relates to the human race. Therefore, if our background belief is a well-established theism, it will promote historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus with a more open attitude than would an atheist or

agnostic.3

The evidence of the appearances of Jesus to the general public can also be associated with the transformation of the disciples.4 Groothuis proclaims, “These men went from dejected, dispirited and grieving followers of a crucified rabbi to the apostles, those who had beheld the risen Christ and who, on the basis, preached him as the Lord of life and the Judge of history.”5

The naturalistic theories refute the resurrection as narrated in the New Testament by asserting the lack of historicity. Several theories point to a Christian conspiracy, among these is one that believes that the disciples were thought to have stolen the body of Jesus to start a religion. However, the greatest challenge comes from the theory that people hallucinated and believed that they had seen Jesus come back from death.6 The best response is that it’s not possible for all the people that witnessed the appearances of Jesus to have hallucinated or imagined seeing Him alive.