Murals (2008) by PHANTAST - Graffiti - Cultural Music & Art Association inc. - 98 Milne St. Benleigh
Q : Are there any supporting facts that point to the Resurrection?
A : Circumstantial evidence:
1. The disciples were in a unique position to know whether resurrection happened, and they were willing to endure suffering and deprivation proclaiming it was true.
2. Appart from the resurrection, there's no good reason why skeptics like Paul and James would have been converted and would have died for their faith. Nobody knowingly and willingly dies for a lie.
3. Within weeks of the crucifixion thousands of Jews began abandoning key social practices that had critical sociological and religious importance for centuries:
- After the Nazarene carpenter, these Jewish pople no longer offer sacrifices;
- Within a short time after Jesus' death, Jews beginning to say that you don't become an upstanding member of their community merely by keeping Moses' laws;
- Jews scrupulously kept the Sabbath, to earn right standing with God, a guarantee of salvation of their family and to be in right standing with the nation. After the death of this Nazarene carpenter, the 1,500 year tradition is abruptly changed to Sunday. Why? Because that's when Jesus rose from the dead;
- They believed in monotheism - only one God. While Christians teach a form of monotheism, they say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God;
- These Christians pictured the Messiah as someone who suffered and died for the sins of the world, whereas Jews had been trained to believe that the Messiah was going to be a political leader who would destroy the Roman armies.
An early community of at least 10,000 people. Why? Because they had seen Jesus risen from the dead!
4. The early sacraments of Communion and Baptism affirmed Jesus' resurrection and deity.
5. The miraculous emergence of the Church in the face of brutal Roman persecution "rip a great hole in history, a hole the size and shape of resurrection (J.P. Moreland).