-------False Beliefs About The Resurrection of Christ-------

There is more historical evidence about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ than any other event in history yet many people refuse to believe this happened. Every Easter and every Sunday the church celebrates this resurrection. In fact, the Bible tells us that if the resurrection did not happen, that the faith that Christians have would be utterly useless and pointless.

"And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching also in vain, and your faith is also vain." 1 Cor. 15:14

"And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." verse 17.

Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin and my sin. He rose from the grave to show the world He had the keys to death and hell. His resurrection turned a group of cowardly disciples who feared for their lives into the boldest preachers who ever lived and gave them the strength and courage to face horrible deaths because they would not recant their faith in Christ.

The unbelieving world who refuse to believe in Christ, because they love the darkness, has invented several excuses why the resurrection did not happen. Let's examine those excuses.

Excuse number 1 - The body of Jesus was stolen and hidden by his disciples.

The Jewish religious leaders had heard Jesus claim He would raise up after three days so they feared the disciples would make an attempt to steal the body. To prevent this from happening, they had Roman guards to watch over the tomb and they had a large stone placed in front of the tomb to prevent entrance. If you were a guard in the Roman army and you failed to do your duty the penalty was death. We know from scriptures that angels rolled away the stone not to let Jesus out but to let the disciples in. The religious leaders made up the story of the body being stolen and most Jewish people still believe that today.

Excuse number 2 - The disciples went to the wrong tomb.

This claim has the disciples being unable to remember where they buried Jesus. In the confusion of the crucifixion and the Sabbath day, they somehow got confused as to the exact spot where Jesus was buried and lost Him. This claim is totally unbelievable.

Excuse number 3 - The resurrection was a hallucination.

The people who believe this believe the resurrection belongs in the same category as ghost tales and stories of UFOs. They believe people have actually seen something but it was not real. It was all a mirage. Jesus appeared to over 500 witnesses and to his disciples plus many of the dead appeared with Jesus in Jerusalem.

"52 And the graves were opened ; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose , 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." Matthew 27

I'm surprised this is not talked about more often. After Jesus was resurrected, He brought many people out of their graves and they appeared with Him in the holy city which is Jerusalem.

Excuse number 4 - The belief in the resurrection was the result of mass hypnosis.

Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination." This false belief suggests that crowds who witnessed the resurrection were under a hypnotic spell. Apparently, Jesus had "suggested" He would be resurrected and due to the relaxed state of the disciples and their overactive imaginations, they believed Jesus was really resurrected when, in fact, He was still in the grave.

These false beliefs about the resurrection sometimes take you to extremes that are harder to believe than the truth is.

Excuse number 5 - Jesus did not really die. He swooned.

Swoon means to faint. Apparently, the advocates of this belief do not think 40 lashes minus one, a crown of thorns in the head, hands and feet nailed to a cross, hung on a cross, and a spear thrust into the side was enough to kill Jesus. He just simply fainted.

If this were true, then Jesus could have never gotten out of the tomb. His wounds would have required hospitalization and He would not have had enough strength to remove the bandages that His body had been wrapped in. By the way, the bandages that His body was wrapped in were covered with a sort of shellac liquid to help preserve the body. They could not have been unwrapped because this liquid hardened. Only the coverings around His head could be unwrapped and they were folded neatly above the empty bandages that once surrounded His body. Jesus had to pass through those bandages without disturbing them when He was resurrected.

Excuse number 6 - The resurrection was the result of Nostalgia.

This is the belief that the disciples so loved Jesus that He lived on in their hearts but He really never came out of the grave. I have loved ones who have passed on and they do live on in my heart but I have never believed one time that they came out of the grave. I have certainly dreamed about that but when I woke up, I knew their bodies were still buried.

The excuses that Jesus did not literally rise from the dead are outlandish. Why is that happening? It is for the simple reason that people reject the truth. When you reject the truth, the only thing that remains is a lie.

John answered this question in John Chapter 3 verse 19 "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."

Men reject Christ and the resurrection because they refuse to believe they are sinners and would rather remain spiritually blind than to accept the truth and have their evil deeds exposed.

Copyright 2012 by Gary Goodworth