Did Jesus Christ Rise from the Dead?

A genuine question raised by the non-believing Christians and the other religions like Islam and Hinduism. They are not able to appreciate that such an event could be historical and real. Are you also having such doubts? In the 21^st century, with advanced scientific knowledge, how is it possible to believe in a thing like that? Do you think like that? Well, then it is time we look into the various views on the subject and discuss the evidences for and against it. Come, my friends, let’s go through this very interesting topic in this blog.

Since the time Jesus’ disciples claimed that they had seen the resurrected Jesus, controversies raged on the reliability of such an account. Jesus while he lived on earth had predicted that he would suffer, be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, be killed, and after three days rise again.[1] Of course his disciples couldn’t make head of tail of it. They had presumed that Jesus will drive away the Romans and establish his kingdom, in which they will all reign with him as his deputies with power and honor. How could he talk like this?

Well, what Jesus foretold was exactly what happened. He was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, his own disciple, arrested by the temple guards, accused of blasphemy before the high priests and elders, dragged before Pilate, the Governor, on charges of sedition and revolt against Caesar, flogged and crucified by Roman soldiers and he died on the cross. He was buried in a rich man’s tomb in a nearby garden. How sad and what a disappointment for the disciples! They just scattered like headless chicken.

But there was more to come. Jesus had predicted that he will rise again on the third day. Aware of this, the chief priests and other religious leaders like Pharisees ask Pilate to make the tomb secure so that his disciple do not come, steal the body and claim that he had risen from the dead. Pilate simple asks them to go and make sure it is guarded with their own guards. Then they left and made the tomb secure by affixing a seal on the stone that closed the entrance to the tomb and set the guard.[2]  

Still what they feared happened! Jesus rose again from the dead on the third day! What a miracle! But the guards set by the Temple authorities came and reported that the things that had happened – how there was a great earthquake, how an angel from heaven came and rolled the stone away and directed the women who had come to embalm Jesus’ body to go and tell the disciples that He is risen as He said He will and that they are to go to Galilee where they will see him.  The authorities consulted each other, gave a large sum of money to the guards to tell them a lie that Jesus’ disciples came in the night and stole the body, when they were asleep. They promised to protect them if this reached the Governor’s notice! And to this day it is said that Jews believed such a story among themselves.[3]

This view is still prevalent among the Jews that Jesus’ disciples came in the night and stole the body away, when the guards on duty slept. This is called the "Conspiracy Theory." You might wonder why no action was taken on the guards who slept on duty! Why were they not punished? Can a guard be so negligent as to sleep on duty? In 1^st century AD, such negligence will result in the guard being punished with death! Still nothing happened to them.

Moreover, even if the doubt was that the disciples came secretly and stole the body away, why didn’t they round them up, torture them and extract the truth from them and recover the body? Not that such methods were not followed during those days. After all the disciples were poor fishermen and could have easily been threatened to give up the body. But they didn’t do it. Why? The truth was there was no ‘body’ to be found for Jesus had really risen from the dead. How about you? Still have doubts? Ok, let’s go through another type of refusal to believe.

This excuse is from the Muslims. By the way, did you know that Mohammad, the founder of Islam, was born in AD 570, some 500 years or so after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ? He died in AD 632 and you must always remember that the Quran that he was supposed to have written is at least 600 years later than any of the first accounts of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Well, in Quran it is written that they (Jews) did not kill Christ Jesus, nor did they crucify him. “Only a likeness of that was shown to them … Allah raised him up unto himself”[4]

So according to Muslims, based on this writing in Quran, Jesus did not die, but someone else was killed in his place and Allah simply took Jesus away. This is called the ‘substitution theory.’ Imagine, writing this 600 years after the event! How much could be the element of truth in that! Ahmadiya Muslims have even a better story to tell. Jesus didn’t die, but survived the crucifixion, fled to India and lived in Kashmir, where he died in old age and was buried! You will be surprised that Ahmadiya sect of Islam was founded only in 1889 in Punjab, in the then British India. A local tomb of a Muslim holy man was claimed as that of Jesus by this group in 1889, which the local Sunni caretakers vehemently reject. Such myths are propagated after some 1800 years of the incident. How truthful can these be? Not a shred of evidence.

Three things need to be examined here. One, what made Muhammad to write like that? What were the resources on which this was based? Second, was it possible for another person to be crucified in the place of Jesus under the given circumstances? And thirdly, is it possible that Jesus could have survived the crucifixion to live another day? We will examine these now.

The note in Quran below the Surah quoted above, says that the Christians believed in blood sacrifice and vicarious atonement for sins, and hence this death and resurrection of Jesus was required for their theology and they invented the whole thing. Jesus died in the place of the sinner, and his blood was shed as a sacrifice to pay the penalty due to the sinner, is Christian theology of salvation. This the Muslims reject. They cannot understand that another person can die in the place of a sinner. Since this is not the teaching of Islam, they had to cook up the story of someone else being crucified in the place of Jesus. Is this possible at all?

Jesus was identified as the culprit by Judas Iscariot kissing him; after he was arrested, the high priests and others who had seen Jesus and had interacted with him, took him to Pilate for his death penalty. The crowd in front of Pilate shouted that he be crucified. Pilate, the governor, after thoroughly checking Jesus’ person, and questioning him, scourged him,[5] handed him over to the soldiers of his establishment to be crucified.[6] There after the soldiers, under the command of a centurion, took charge of Jesus and led him to Golgotha and crucified him there.

Now, let our Muslim friend tell us, at what stage was it possible to replace Jesus with another man and crucify him and let Jesus escape? How is it possible to do such a thing in the broad day light under the full scrutiny of the Temple authorities, Roman soldiers and the Jews who accused Jesus? If any Roman soldier, let alone their chief, the Centurion, let a condemned criminal escape, he will be executed as a punishment! Compared to the gospel accounts of Jesus’ trial, and crucifixion written within 20-30 years of the incident, Quran was written after 600 years, and it could only be a myth and a story created to discredit Jesus and his sacrificial death.

What is the basis for the Islam to arrive at such a conclusion? The same note under the Surah 4:157, gives four sources which also say that Jesus being God, did not die and only appeared to have died. These are Basilidans, Docetae, Marcionite Gospel, and Gospel of St. Barnabas. All the four writings arose in the 2^nd and 3^rd century AD, condemned by the church as spurious accounts and apocrypha and not even included in the 27 books of the New Testament. Why go and base the conclusions on such discredited books? Why not quote the gospels written by the earliest writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? There could be only one reason, it supported their contrary claims. That is all!

The next point for examination is whether it is possible for Jesus to have survived the ordeal of crucifixion? Well my dear readers, we need to postpone this to the next blog, as I have run out of space here. So do wait till next week and in the meanwhile don’t stop reading! Keep mulling these facts in your mind as you await the next blog, which is not far off!

God bless you and keep you.

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[1] Mark 8:31; Matthew 17:22-23; Luke 18:32-33

[2] Matthew 27:62-66

[3] Matthew 28:2-8, 11-15

[4] Quran Surah 4:157-158

[5] John 19: 1

[6] Matthew 27: 11-25, 26-27