OBJECTIONS TO JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION

Jesus voluntarily took on himself the penalty for our sins. God is the ultimate standard of what is just and fair, and he decided that the atonement would take place this way, and that it satisfied the demands of his own righteousness and justice. Grudem, Systematic Theology, 574; Grudem and Purswell, Bible Doctrine, 253.

Jesus is the Savior, the only source of salvation for the world (John 14:6). God the Father chose Jesus for this purpose (1 John 3:23). That is why rejection of Jesus is actually a rejection of God the Father himself (John 5:23). Such a rejection is met with God’s wrath, while belief in Jesus rescues from God’s wrath (Luke 12:8-9). Rescue is possible because Jesus is the only one who provides forgiveness from sin (Luke 7:48). Many imposters will claim to provide an alternate form of salvation, but there are no other alternatives (Galatians 1:8-9, John 18:37). That is why the Christian church’s solemn commission is to make sure that all nations are given the gospel (Matthew 28:18-19; Luke 24:47). On the last day Jesus will be man’s final judge (Mark 8:38). Gregory Koukl, Jesus the Only Way: 100 Verses (Signal Hill, CA: Stand to Reason, 1995)..

First, hell is not a torture chamber. God made people with free will (2 Corinthians 9:7). God also made people with a purpose: to relate lovingly to God and to other people. If people fail time and time again to live for the purpose that God made them, which would allow them to flourish more than living any other way, then God will have no other choice but to give the people what they asked for their entire lives, which is separation from God (Matthew 23:37). Hell is separation from God. The essence of hell is relational. Hell is separation or banishment from the most beautiful being in the world-God himself. It is exclusion from anything that matters, from all value, not only God, but from all people who have come to know and love God. The punishment of hell is separation from God, bringing shame, anguish, and regret from not being able to live the eternal good life for which people were created for in the first place (Matthew 25:41; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Hebrews 9:27). Because people will have both body and soul in the resurrected state in hell, the misery experienced can be both mental and physical. Hell was not part of God’s original creation (Revelation 20:11-15). Hell is something God was forced to make because people chose to rebel against God and turn against what was best for them and the purpose for which they were created. Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), Strobel’s interview of J.P. Moreland, 169-194.

It does not follow that there is no salvation available to those who have not heard of Jesus (Acts 10:35; Hebrews 11:6). Anyone anywhere who seeks God will find him. The apostle Peter insisted that God “accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right” (Acts 10:35 NIV). The writer of Hebrews states “he (God) rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6 NIV). All people have the light of creation (Romans 1:19) and conscience (Romans 2:12-15), which is sufficient to condemn people to hell, but not to spiritually save people. There are many ways by which God could get the gospel to those who will be saved. The normal way is through a missionary (Romans 10:14-15). But God can save through his word (Hebrews 4:12) which he can convey through a vision, a dream, a voice from heaven, or an angel (Revelation 14:6). God is not limited in the ways he can get the saving message to those who seek him (cf. or compared to Hebrews 1:1). But if people turn away from the light they have, God is not responsible to give more spiritual light (John 3:19). Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2000), 784

The earliest position of the church fathers was that the resurrection of Jesus was a literal, historical event. Specifically, the body of Jesus that was crucified and laid in the tomb actually was raised again to new life and then ascended into heaven. Early church fathers like Tertullian had a very strong emphasis on the resurrection of the flesh. They rejected the Gnostic view that Christ just rose in a sort of spiritual way. William Lane Craig, Doctrine of Christ (Reasonablefaith.org Defenders Teaching Class Podcast, part 15); Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregal, 2003), 154-155.

This Conspiracy Theory was the earliest counter-explanation of the resurrection of Jesus. It appears in the New Testament when the Jews said to the guards at the tomb, “Tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep” (Matthew 28:12-15). This theory was resuscitated in the 18th century by European deists. Deists are theists who believe in God who is the source of the moral law and to whom we have moral obligations, but who has not revealed himself specially in any particular religion, such as Christianity or Islam or Judaism. However, the strong conviction of the apostles/disciples that the risen Jesus had appeared to them and their willingness to suffer and even to die for their beliefs, strongly refutes their alleged lies and theft of Jesus’ body. For these reasons and others, only a small number of critical scholars have supported this theory

This Apparent Death or Swoon Theory began to appear toward the end of the 18th century. In 1986, 3 medical experts conducted a study on the procedures of scourging and crucifixion and their effects on the victim and published the study in the Journal of American Medical Association. The scourging before the crucifixion involved whipping the back, buttock, and legs with several braided leather thongs tied with small iron balls and sharp pieces of bones, with the intent to weaken the victim just short of collapse due to deep contusions and deep lacerations to the skin and underlying skeletal muscles. Then the victim had his hands/wrists and ankles/feet nailed to the cross. Due to the victim’s body weight, he would have difficulty breathing and would eventually die of asphyxiation. The Roman soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear and water and blood came out. If the soldier failed to make sure Jesus was dead, he would have received the death penalty. There were many eyewitnesses of the crucifixion. Jesus could not have rolled the heavy stone away from the tomb entrance. Therefore, the Apparent Death or Swoon Theory has be thoroughly refuted and discredited.  Craig, Doctrine of Christ, part 15; Habermas and Licona, The Case for the Resurrection, 99-103; Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 192-204; Craig, On Guard: Defending You Faith with Reason and Precision, see chapter 9.

This Legend or Myth Theory became the dominant view among critical New Testament scholars during the 20th century. In response, first, it is well established and agreed by almost all scholars that the New Testament text that we have today is virtually the same as what was originally written. The resurrection account can be traced to the eyewitness testimony of the original apostles/disciples. The accounts of Paul and James (Jesus’ brother) converting from unbelievers to believers in Jesus are very early from a historical perspective. Thus, there was not enough time for a legend to develop.  A fable about Jesus rising from the dead would not have convinced Paul and James. The New Testament resurrection accounts read like historical accounts and not mythology. The critics in the early church conceded that at least the apostles/disciples sincerely believed in the resurrection. The accounts of rising gods in other religions are vague and unlike Jesus’ resurrection. Scholars today do not regard the stories as parallels to the resurrection because they look little like Jesus’ resurrection. The first alleged account of a dying and rising that resembles Jesus’ resurrection appeared at least 100 years after the reports of Jesus’ resurrection. These subsequent accounts of miracles and rising gods in other religions do not have eyewitness testimony and confirmation of resurrection allegations by critical scholars like Jesus’ resurrection. The ancient Egyptian cult of Osiris is the only alleged account of a god who survived death that predates Christianity. According to one of the many versions of this myth, Osiris was murdered by his brother, chopped up into 14 pieces, and scattered throughout Egypt. The goddess Isis recovered and reassembled only 13 of the 14 pieces and brought him back to life. It is questionable whether Osiris was brought back to life on earth or seen by others as Jesus was. Osiris then became a god of the gloomy underworld. The hero of the story is the goddess Isis or their son, Horus. This mythical story is much different than Jesus’s resurrection. Craig, Doctrine of Christ, part 15; Habermas and Licona, The Case for the Resurrection, 84-92; Craig, On Guard: Defending You Faith with Reason and Precision, see chapter 9.

This objection is called the Subjective Vision or Hallucination Theory. Although this theory enjoyed some popularity over 100 years ago and still has some proponents, it suffers from a number of problems. First, hallucinations occur in the minds of individuals, they are not collective experiences where large groups of people have the exact same hallucination. The apostles/disciples of Jesus claimed that as a group they saw the risen Jesus including the 12 disciples, 500 plus people, all of the apostles, then to James, and last to Paul (1 Corinthians 15:5-7). Second, visions/hallucinations do not refute or explain the empty tomb. Third, visions/hallucinations do not refute or explain Saul/Paul’s conversion from the persecutor of Christians to the evangelist to the Gentiles and James conversion from skeptic to believer. Fourth, there were too many appearances of Jesus over 40 days to say they all had the same state of mind and experienced the same vision/hallucination.  Craig, Doctrine of Christ, part 15; Habermas and Licona, The Case for the Resurrection, 104-113; Craig, On Guard: Defending You Faith with Reason and Precision, see chapter 9..