0012 Evidence for the Resurrection

Did the resurrection of Jesus really happen… or have we just been told that it did?

In this episode of the Spiritual Strategies Podcast, Brittany and Eric step into one of the most foundational—and most questioned—claims of the Christian faith:
Did Jesus truly rise from the dead?

Instead of relying on tradition or assumption, they take a step back and ask a deeper question:
What evidence actually exists—and can it stand up to real scrutiny?

This conversation moves beyond blind faith and into historical reasoning, eyewitness testimony, and logical analysis. Brittany and Eric walk through what we know about Jesus’ life, death, and the events that followed—examining whether the resurrection is simply a belief… or something far more grounded in reality.

From Roman historians to Gospel accounts, from oral tradition to archaeological discoveries, this episode builds a compelling case that invites listeners to think critically and personally about what they believe.

Together, Brittany and Eric explore:

• Why asking questions about faith actually strengthens belief—not weakens it
• The historical evidence surrounding Jesus’ life, crucifixion, and resurrection
• How eyewitness testimony supports the credibility of the Gospel accounts
• Why the timing of the written records matters in validating their accuracy
• The role of non-Christian historians in confirming key biblical events
• How oral tradition preserved Jesus’ teachings with precision and consistency
• Why the differences in Gospel accounts actually increase their credibility
• Common alternative theories about the resurrection—and why they fall apart
• The dramatic transformation of the disciples after encountering the risen Jesus
• What it means to have a faith that is rooted in both truth and evidence

This episode also challenges a common assumption:
Faith is not meant to ignore evidence—it’s meant to respond to it.

Because if the resurrection is true…
then Jesus is not just a historical figure to study—He is alive.

And that changes everything.

If you’ve ever wondered whether Christianity can stand up to real questions, or if your faith has ever felt more inherited than examined, this conversation will give you a stronger, clearer foundation.

Because the resurrection isn’t just a story to believe…
it’s a truth to respond to.

Join Brittany and Eric as they explore how history, evidence, and transformed lives all point to one central question:
If Jesus really rose from the dead—what does that mean for you?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Did the resurrection of Jesus really happen? Or have we just been told that it did? I know for me that I've just believed this since I was a little kid that this is just what happened and you have to have faith, and here we are. But today we're gonna step back and we're gonna ask what evidence actually exists? Can this stand up to real scrutiny? You know, Eric, I know that we've talked about your background before, and your background has always been science-based. And I am so excited to jump into this topic with you because 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, a man named Jesus who was sentenced to death by the Roman governor, you know, he was beaten, he was crucified on a cross, put in the grave, done, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

No, not so much because eyewitness reports say three days later, this man came to life. And this is how we rest at night, right? Like we're putting everything that we believe in on the resurrection and how this happened here. So is it possible that there's another explanation why Jesus wasn't in the tomb?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Good question. Good question. And it's a it's a it's a question that it doesn't reduce our faith to ask that question. What it does is it actually supports something that Peter wrote uh in his uh in his gospel, not his gospel, but in his letter in the first Peter 3, he says, always be ready to give a defense to everyone. Here come these words, you know, who who ask you a reason for the hope that's in you. So again, always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for the reason for the hope. Always and everyone. Those are very strong words. And it's it it it uh puts a burden on us, of a good burden, a healthy burden, for us to be ready to speak about this topic that you've just raised, this resurrection. So uh so first of all, we ought to have a thoughtful response if we're ever challenged by an unbeliever, if anybody's skeptical or you know, not to do it in a critical way or a defensive way, but to be able to explain the thought behind the resurrection. And it's also good if our hearts are resolved on this topic, uh, that these these events actually took place, and it's it kind of strengthens our faith and eliminates any room for doubt. And uh thirdly, it really gives us an opportunity to be a witness for Christ. Some people feel like, well, I'm not a pastor, I didn't go to seminary, but you by expressing what we're talking about today, you can actually be a witness for Jesus in the modern era. So I think for all those reasons, it's good for us to get to touch on this topic that we've raised today.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Yeah, no, I love that you bring up that verse because when I've read that verse, always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks for the reason for the hope that's in you. Uh, my thought process was just tell them about Jesus. My thought process has never once been to explain, you know, where this all came from. Like, how can we back up what we're saying? So I'm I'm really excited to get into this topic here. And so let's kind of let's talk a little bit about, you know, what do we know about Jesus? Well, we know he was born about 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. It was a small, pretty insignificant village, right? You know, his family lived a hundred miles north of Bethlehem in a small town called Nazareth. He was a carpenter's son, um, which diminished, you know, any prestige that he might have had or anything like that. Um, if the Bible was a work of fiction, the writers would have designed, you know, a richer, more prestigious family line for him. That's what I'd like to come from, right? Like I want people to hear my background and be like, yeah, that's where she belongs on the throne.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Work it, work it, okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Um so as a child, you know, he learned the Old Testament scriptures. So back then they had essentially all these laws, right? So he's just learning law after law after law. Um, and he discussed them with the elders when he was 12. So that's when he was found in the temple, and they're like, hey, money you're doing, and it's not time for you to be here yet. And you know, he had to go back. That's right. They're like, nah, you're about to be about raising these sheep. What you doing? Make me a table. Uh so at 30 years old, he becomes a teacher of the law, these laws that you know he knew. Um, but he had a new way of kind of interpreting and acting on God's principles. He claimed to be the son of God as well, which ruffled a lot of feathers. Um, he was loved by the common people, though. Everyone sought after him. The Jewish leaders did, the Pharisees, the high priest, they hated him. But you know, it's always so interesting to me is even though they hated him, they were obsessed with him.

unknown 5:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

I think that's so interesting that when we look at people that may hate us for our beliefs or you know, what we're doing in our life, they're still so curious. And I think we sometimes we can plant a seed if we are doing the right things in our life. You know, that gives us the ability to plant the seed. But he threatened their power and structure. So they wanted to get rid of him. They were done. They claimed that he was blaspheming the law, and they persuaded the Romans to believe that he was a troublemaker. So eventually, as we know, he was put to death on a Roman cross. How'd we do?

SPEAKER_00 5:51

I I think wow, I'm I'm in awe. Very good. What a what a great thorough explanation. No, that alone honestly goes back to our opening thoughts. Are you ready to give a defense to somebody that you you've just told a good story and you and you brought some thoughts? The the um the the high priest and the Pharisees that they had the power structure. They were a um uh a mafia, a religious mafia of sorts that had total control. One family was in control of the entire um temple uh authorities, and they had a chokehold on him. And so Jesus comes along and comes up against that. That's what they're afraid of, not what he taught, but what uh but his his threat to their power. So anyway, uh so let's let's fast forward to the um to the part that verifies, first of all, his position as a messiah. Because if we can then substantiate the validity of the resurrection, um we can see how this man deserved to have changed human history. So did it actually happen? So go ahead. What uh what do we do next?

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Well, you know, unfortunately, we didn't have iPhones, so there was no Instagram. There's no way to um publish and let people know that Jesus is, you know, healing some people from being blind over here. So pop on over so you can get your healing too. Um there's no there's no real way to verify, you can't recreate history. So, you know, what evidence do we have? We strictly rely on eyewitnesses, you know, but can we trust their report? Did Jesus really die in Jerusalem? Did he rise from the dead? Like, did they create a myth? Did they what did they do? What can we say about that? So let me ask you some questions so that I can know now too. Can we really examine an event that took place 2,000 years ago using some modern methods of historical investigation?

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Yes. Uh historians have some guidelines that they use. Uh certain conditions need to be met. Uh, first of all, are there any published reports, any records of that era that can be used as anchor points? Then we can cross-check them for to for verifiability. Um so now people will then write their own versions of the events, but we have some questions we can ask. One of one of them is who wrote these reports? When were they written? How trustworthy are these sources? And did they have any ulterior motive in writing these reports? And the reason I say all that is because in a court of law, the the strongest type of evidence is considered to be eyewitness testimony. Somebody who says, I was at the diner at 11 o'clock. I saw that man rob that store. And so, you know, that's that's eyewitness testimony. And so, do we have any eyewitnesses, people that were uh in involved with Jesus and and perhaps were witnesses to his crucifixion and uh to these events? So, uh, and then when were they written? So uh so let's go into a couple people who were we we have these things called gospels, uh Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So let's go to Luke, and each of them had a different audience they wrote to. Uh Matthew was writing to the to the Jewish audience, Luke was writing to the wider uh audience that was uh in the uh in the region. So and he was a physician, so he starts his report saying, hey, I I I was highly meticulous in researching these details. He was a physician, like I said, and and not one given to frivolous answers. He even claims that his research was painstaking. He that's that's he writes those that very word. And in in the uh very first chapter of his gospel, he says he interviewed the eyewitnesses and wrote down their words precisely to be sure that everything was perfectly accurate, and his stated goal was to create a sense of certainty regarding the teachings and activities of Jesus. So we've got somebody who claims to be uh very logical, very systematic, very thorough, and you know that's it it increases his trustworthiness. Uh secondly, we have John, and he claims that he accompanied Jesus during his ministry. He was an eyewitness and he was actually at the foot of the cross.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

I mean, you can't get any closer than that, can you?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

I think so. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

So when it comes to eyewitnesses, if court says, hey, eyewitness is where it's at, and we trust this, then I would think that when we see eyewitness accounts, that we would be like, huh, okay, this makes sense. There's more than one. We can go back and look and see, you know, how these people are qualified and whatnot. So we can find out that these are trustworthy authors, but putting aside our faith for a moment, what is the criteria for historical documents like these to be considered accurate? Because I can I can go anywhere and say, hey, my uncle Jim Bob was uh he was a pediatrician, and I don't know, he's like the smartest person in the world. And he knows this and that, and his grandpa told him the story, so it's true, you know. So how do we consider these accurate?

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Well, great. Now, if I come along and say, Well, I actually met Jim Bob, okay. Now that that's that's a cross-check. That that is seen as uh out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, the thing is confirmed. So that's one of the things that we would we'd be looking for. Um, so that we actually have four gospels, not just two. And so then we also have Roman history. We also have a famous historian named Josephus, and he has written about John the Baptist and Jesus, and John, who was the brother of Jesus. And Josephus is highly trusted amongst historians. Uh, so there's another thing. Also, the uh the gospels um what one thing that that enhances their authenticity is that they don't dispute or don't disregard rather any disputes or any various arguments or difficult moments during the birth of this new religion. Uh, each of them mentions Pontius Pilate as being the governor who played a key role in the execution of Jesus. Uh he is uh he has been verified as the governor of the region by regular archaeological archaeological evidence. Uh so there's this consistency and cross-checking that you can do about these gospels. So that um that's important.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

So you know that's a good point because if I'm going to write how I'm going to have this new religion and it's going to take over the world, and this is how we're going to do things, I'm probably not going to put in there that a lot of people doubted me. I'm just going to like X them out of there. Oh, yeah. Be like, we don't even know about these people. Everybody believed me. They bowed down, they worshipped. It was great. I'm on my throne. Here we are. Definitely not going to die. I just want to throw that out there.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

It's true. Unless you're going to claim that resurrection is part of the storyline. That is something new.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

I'm going to find a new way around that one. That sounds a little painful.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yes, yes, true enough.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

But regardless, there's a lot of evidence, archaeological evidence, historical evidence, things like that pointing to these reports, but we haven't gotten to the archaeological part. So what archaeological evidence do we have to point to this?

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Well, there was a town mentioned in the Bible called Caesarea. Uh Paul was actually locked up in prison there for two years. And so, but it was a seaport. It was on the Mediterranean Sea. And they have found, archaeologists have found coins of that era. Um just again, these little indicators that all this stuff really happened. And there's abundant evidence that uh points to Pontius Pilate as a governor. And so uh then in 1990, the tomb of Caiaphas, the high priest, was found. And this also corroborates the gospel account that he was a real person. He's mentioned in the Bible, and we have found his tomb. So again, all this to go back to your original question, this cross-checking, this verification, there's ways to um to lock in that that that these stories have, these reports have actual historical value and they can be trusted.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Hmm. Okay. So say we do believe these people, that these people did write these things, that they knew all about it. How were the authors connected to the actual events? I know that you said that John was, you know, at the foot of the cross. Pretty close, pretty close there. I think I can take that as an eyewitness account. But how much time elapsed from when the resurrection events occurred until these documents were written? Like, are these people taking hundreds of years to try and figure out, you know, what they should write or what they should talk about here?

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Good point. The the gospels were written between 20 and 40 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Now, that means that there's plenty of people still alive who could say that didn't happen. Uh I was there and it didn't happen that way. They could discount these reports. Um for instance, um, let's go to Alexander the Great. You've heard of uh this historical figure. The first report written about him was 400 years after his death. And yet historians uh look to those documents as being worth um trustworthy and worthwhile.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

So 400 years later.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

400 years later, just Alexander the Great. The story about Jesus was only 40 years later. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Yeah, that's quite a stark difference. I feel like we can remember stories a little better within the 20 to 40 time frame.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Right. So and and these they also provide these gospels provide these precise details about these certain aspects of Jesus' uh ministry that don't gloss over. There's not, they haven't been polished to bring uniformity. They even describe the failures, such as this Jewish nationalist zealot named Judas who betrayed Jesus. That's in the Bible, that's in the stories. And again, if you've got this huge historical figure that's starting a new worldwide religion, you don't need to see that there's any defiance or anything. You need everybody clapping and homfronds.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

I need my throne.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

But that's not, it tells the truth about the no, there was great uh dis uh discord. And in even what Peter said, you know, the you know, saying you're you're not gonna die. And Jesus said, get get behind me, Satan. I mean, there there's um there even amongst his tight inner circle, uh, Peter denied him three times. That's uh the night of his execution before his execution. So there's all this stuff is recorded, and when you when you tell the bad and the good, it it again it confirms the veracity of the story.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yes, I do like that. I love that they tell everything, um, the good, the bad, the ugly, the in-between. But you know, Jesus lived for a long time, and I feel like there's not that many stories. I feel like, you know, they mentioned one part in the Bible where it's you couldn't even write how many things that Jesus did because there wouldn't be enough pages or words or something along those lines, you know. But didn't many G stories about Jesus just kind of disappear?

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Well, sure, because as you just correctly said, uh, if everything was written down, the the whole world couldn't contain the books that tells the story about what he did. But going back to the the idea of these uh gospels being written twenty or forty years after the events, imagine if somebody claims today that the JFK assassination didn't take place, and that was in you know the early 60s, 1960s, or if the the Apollo moon landing, or that 9-11 was a myth. So there's not gonna be people. Well, imagine there are there are people who discount you know certain things, and they consider that to be you know a myth, deniers is what they call. But there's plenty of people who would assert, no, I saw it, I was there, I have pictures of it. We have a a history, we have movies, videos of these things, or I saw it on TV. Now, again, if they if if Mark and John are writing at 20 years, 30, 40 years after the events, there's plenty of people who would still be alive who then say, I don't believe this account, but that didn't happen. In fact, there were just radical positive changes that took place. We can get into that in just a minute, but uh uh even in really historians also trust the words of of of Tacitus, who was a Roman historian. Uh he lived in the second century, and he wrote about events in the first century, and he actually wrote about Jesus about a hundred years after the events occurred. He even mentions the crucifixion under uh Pontius Pilate. And historians consider his works to be trustworthy, independent, non-Christian. In fact, he believes that uh Christianity is a mischievous superstition. So forget how he judged it, but the fact is he's still verifying that these events took place. So again, all this cross-checking is available. So there's this historical record is pretty rock solid about about this. So at some point we've got to just give in and say there's plenty of evidence that all this took place. Now, there's still more questions that that have yet to come. So why don't you proceed to what else you got?

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Yeah, well, so far I love the thought process of you know when these were recorded within 20 to 40 years, because you're right, nobody would sit around and be like, oh, 9-11 didn't happen because we have the evidence for that. Well, back then, whatever evidence they had, that was available to them. So that makes sense. And then being able to go outside of that and see that other historians that do not believe in, you know, Christianity, they're saying that this is the truth as well, you know, that these things were there, that this did happen. But, you know, how do we know that the sayings of Jesus were accurate or how are they not forgotten? You know, my I get told things all the time. And sometimes when I go to repeat it, I'm like, that doesn't sound right. You know, who who was this Jesus? Or was he even authentic?

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Mm-hmm. And and the word beguile comes to mind. Was he just weaving a web around people's heads, like a cult leader would today that we would watch a documentary about that? And so once again, let's compare our modern culture to the world of Palestine 2,000 years ago. Today, we record events. You can go to a university class and just record what the professor is saying, and now you have a permanent actual transcript of the seminar that it was given. They didn't have that back then. So what they did was they maintained what they call an oral tradition. The teacher would stay with the students, not just for a class in a semester, but for years, and they would repeat their lessons over and over again, and the student would stay there and apply. Plot not only hearing and documenting, but then applying. And so this is where we get the word disciple, the a disciplined follower. And so this is what Jesus was building. It was a cadre of disciples. And that's why he said the night before his execution, uh, the men that you've given me, they are prepared, they're they're ready. I have finished the work you gave me to do. He hasn't been to the cross yet. So what is he speaking about? He's speaking about I have prepared the disciples to carry on, because I've got to go to the cross and be resurrected here. And so we need a team of people who are going to carry this message forward. And so it's it's just an intricate strategic plan to for him to bring a spirit of grace and the Holy Spirit to to come inside of us and then to release these individuals to go out and transform the world. So there was an oral tradition. Uh they look they learned what the teacher the rabbi was teaching, they implemented it, and so that was the hit that was the culture of the day. And so they they had a great ability to memorize words. Today young people's minds are like, why do I have to learn that? I can just punch it into my phone and I can get a straight answer right then. So why do I have to think? And youngsters are learning, are losing the ability to have critical thinking. But back then is what we're speaking about. Um that's that. So now the Jewish leaders debated with Jesus on a regular basis. You'll recall he actually called them hypocrites at times, which seems a little bit offensive, but you know, it was actually a common expression amongst the Pharisees themselves. They would debate endlessly about Mosaic law, and their own students and themselves they would call each other hypocrites. And it's like, whoa, it's pretty strong language. But they they found um they appreciated uh when a student would push back to to find the the real truth about Mosaic law. And Jesus is coming and saying, look, look, you're you're you're worrying about the um how how to how to tithe on mustard seeds, but you don't do you you ignore the weightier issues of the law, uh like mercy, okay? And so so that's that's where these these debates came in. So that's an example of what took place. Uh, but here's Jesus, he he brings a tax collector, some fishermen, and this Jewish zealot named Judas, and together they were holding court with the scholars of the land. So that was that was the tradition of the day. And so that's you know, that that's again something that will help us when you ask, you know, how do we know that the sayings were not forgotten? Well, they were memorized, they were told, and they were eventually written down.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

You have my brain on fire with this. This oral tradition. Okay, I'm mind blown because nowadays you're right. We do just simply go, oh, what is the answer to that? Let me just look it up on Google. And when we look at Google, we take that as gold because we know that there's so much information out there that was, you know, accumulated that that's gotta be the right answer. And essentially what you're saying is they were so dedicated to what they were doing, that they were listening, they were applying, they were over and over and over to where it would be essentially like looking at someone and them being Google for us nowadays and being like, hey, did such and such happen? And it's locked and loaded, whatever you know, they were taught comes out. So is that essentially like when Jesus said, you know, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, essentially all these disciples were able to spit out that repetition so quickly because they were seeing it, they were doing it, they were modeling it.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

Yeah, was that a question?

SPEAKER_01 25:52

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Okay, it sounded like it sounded like so excited. I don't know. I was hoping I was getting there. I was didn't know if there was a question mark or an exclamation point there. So uh, but yeah, and and I was I was thinking about something as you were talking because you you you spoke about just going to Google, and I'm thinking, and I'll probably get in trouble for this, but if I had um school-age children or even grandchildren, and they were coming around sitting around a table, I mean, we watch movies and TV shows where those kids just have their heads glued into a phone and earphones on. That would never happen in my home at my dinner table. They would I would just simply not tolerate it. Because and what I would do is is quiz them of not quiz them, but converse with them about their day and about what was said and what they believe and what the current news and current events are and how they respond to it. And of course I'll get some pushback because you know kids that age is gonna say, Dad, you know, it's mom.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Your kids don't do that, they're more holy than anything I but imagine, but look, we we want that oral tradition is important to be able to get a child to be able to do critical thinking on their own. So I'm glad you brought up the um the point.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

So anyway, go well, I just think that's that's crazy that they had that oral tradition. We you're right, we don't have the memory we used to have. We don't we're not able to just tap in like we used to do, so that is wild. But about Jesus, though, back to him, why was everybody so threatened by him? You would think that this is one guy. He's got 12 people around him, so flippin' what? Like we have these rulers with all with all these, you know, soldiers and things like that, whole kingdoms, and they're scared over this little baby that was born, this one guy. Like, why were the Pharisees so fearful of his influence?

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Well, he started off with just some so-called house churches, so no threat there. And he he had, like you say, just about a dozen low-rent individuals following him. You know, just let's think of it as blue-collar individuals, or in Matthew's case, just somebody that was hated by by everybody, a Jewish tax collector collecting taxes for Rome, um, unheard of, just incredible. And yet Jesus says, follow me, and he comes and does so and was a tremendous disciple. Uh so but then eventually the crowds grew, and they could no longer be contained inside of a house or a temple, and they started meeting on hillsides, and that's where you get the big crowds, and that's where the miracles took place, the loaves and the fishes and and other things. And this became a populist movement where literally thousands of people were showing up to hear Jesus expound, uh, and and it was and he was bringing such uh deep thinking, but in a in a consumable manner, and that they were people were astonished at his teaching, that the Bible says um Matthew writes, because he didn't speak like the scribes and the Pharisees, but he spoke like somebody having true authority. And eventually, if people think he has authority, they're gonna ascribe authority to him. And what does that do? That comes up against the power structure in the temple. Again, this was this was a religious mafia, and they were in control and they weren't about to give it up. This was they weren't interested in the uh excellence of Mosaic law and trying to uh build and improve people's lives. They were interested in the money in control. So they were not godly people, and yet they were wearing their robes and and hanging around the temple and everything else. It was just hypocrisy.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

When you get in those positions like that, that just blows my mind. It reminds me of a lot of pastors nowadays that I have met of just doing some random things that don't make any sense to what the Bible says. But how? I just don't understand how they get in those trusted positions.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

That's the s that's the sin nature that's inside uh that people have. And they they um you know the it's pastors will actually say to one another, how many are you running? And you know what that expression means? It means that how many people are in the seats on Sundays? You know, how many members do you have? And they they get to give each other points and credit for having these large churches, but some of these mega churches are just collapsing. And and it's um it's just sad. So it's a it's a it's a house of cards. And we you know, again, I'm not here to judge anything, but I'm just talking about uh Jesus and his resurrection. So um but but the uh the Roman the Roman authorities, they just want to keep the peace. You know, we don't care. They actually respected the Jews because of their historical patriarchal society. They could name their ancestors all the way back 10, 20, 30, 40 generations. And the Romans actually respected that kind of culture. They but again they just say, pay your taxes, keep the peace, do your thing. Okay. Right. And when they when the Pharisees accused Jesus of being a rabble rouser, that's where Pilate got, mm, he doesn't seem like that to me. So uh but they said, Oh yeah, no, crucify him, crucify him. So that's where the it all ended and was became it became terrible. But what but all that did was lead to the actual resurrection. So maybe we could get into some details about the resurrection itself. You know, um Matthew reports that four soldiers were guarding the tomb, and then an angel met Mary Magdalene, so that's six people in total.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

And then Mark speaks about Mary plus two other women and an angelic being, so that's four in all. And then Luke speaks of Mary, two angels, and several women. Peter arrives later, that's six people. And then John speaks of five. So you say, well, Eric, that's inconsistent. And at first it looks confusing and uncertain, but it's actually to be expected. Imagine if there were four of us on four corners at an intersection and there's a car accident. Each of us has a northeast-southwest perspective of what took place. In fact, some of us may be more concerned about if there was any victims, anybody hurt. Some of us may be concerned about calling 911 or the police or an ambulance. So each of us has a slightly different response to what took place. And we may actually report uh to the authorities somewhat differently about that. So that's four different vantage points. So in a sense, nobody polished over the stories. Imagine some detective and hearing that all four of those stories about that accident were identical. He's right, they're gonna press in and say, I got suspicions here that they conspired. Maybe they're part of the accident, maybe there's some conspiracy here. So, but in this case, uh the the differences, the slight differences between the four gospel reports actually contribute to the veracity of of these stories, so it's understandable. So the fact that they're not identical, but but um take a look at what's common in those four reports. Jesus dies in Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

He's seen shortly thereafter. Who else is mentioned in in this?

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Pontius Pilate. He's mentioned in all the writings. He condemns Jesus and sends a soldier to confirm that he's actually dead.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

All right. Thirdly, who else is mentioned?

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Uh Caiaphas was mentioned in all four gospels.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

The high priest. Okay. Then they got this guy named Joseph. He asked, he has he had a tomb, and again, tombs were carved out of rock back then. So um he asked for Jesus' body and they laid him in the tomb. And then, and then what about Mary?

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Yeah, she was the first person to reach the tomb. She found it empty, but she was also the first person that Jesus met afterwards. I think that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Now, here's something I know our modern listeners might reel back on this, but I'm taking you back 2,000 years ago. Women were not allowed to testify in court trials. Okay, they were seen as being too emotional. So they were their testimony was not allowed. What do the gospels do? Do they allow men to report and be the first people on the scene, or is it women?

SPEAKER_01 34:52

They allowed women.

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Okay. So more proof. It's like, how dare you? If you're gonna, if you're gonna lie.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Yeah, why didn't you make them re reputable mentioned? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Exactly. But no, they brought women, including some women of uh formerly ill repute. So you've got you've got this um it's it's topsy turvy. If you're gonna have a to start a religion, you want to start it with a little bit more credibility than this. Okay, so um, so let's talk about what alternative theories about what might have happened.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Yeah, so maybe Jesus didn't really die on the cross, so he didn't need to come back to life because he never died in the first place. So what's another one? Maybe his maybe his corpse was stolen by the disciples in advance to concoct a resurrection story. So maybe everybody had a plan.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Okay, that would fall apart pretty soon, but let's that's alright.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Maybe maybe the disciples went to the wrong tomb. Maybe the wrong address.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

That's it. They forgot where they put him there.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

They didn't know what they were doing.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

Hey, it's possible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Perhaps, you know, the Roman soldiers maybe they fell asleep and Jesus walked out of the tomb at that time.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Now that's a death sentence. Because if the Roman soldiers fell asleep, they they would get they were gonna die. They were yeah, they'd be killed. So, okay, but possible. Okay. And then the fifth, what's another one?

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Uh maybe the resurrection was just a mass hallucination. Everybody lost their marbles.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

That's what would happen in a um in a some sort of a cult where we just all believe something happened that didn't really. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

So let's let's kind of dig in. Did he not die on the cross? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Now it gets a little gruesome, but uh just talking about the scourging, the whip that was used. Um it was called it's in Roman uh uh times it was called a flagrum, and it was not just a whip with leather thongs on it, but tied into that were metal balls and pieces of sharp bone. Can you imagine? No, I don't that striking uh at the a back of a human back over and over, 39 times. And some people just died from the flogging. Uh what it did was it just it ripped open the skin and exposing deep, deeply exposed muscle. Uh it if if they were the the bowels could be could be come out. Um there was um there was uh such a loss of blood that's that the um the heart would race um would race just to pump blood into the rest of the body that was it was losing because it was just losing. But uh the victim would collapse because of the low of low blood blood pressure. The kidneys would shut down because it's trying to preserve body fluids, and then the person would experience thirst. Was Jesus thirsty on the cross?

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

Yes, he was. And he said, I thirst. Okay, this is deep. I'm sorry, but this is deep. And then there's a thing called hypovolemic shock that would take place and it would it would be eventually um there there's um water that would gather around the heart, and water that fluid would gather around the lungs. So when the soldier pierced Jesus' side, what came out of him? Both blood and water. Water. So that's verification. And so so it's uh just unthinkable that Jesus had the strength to roll away a very heavy stone from his own grave, from his own tomb. Um, he just would be exhausted and beaten, even if he had survived, he couldn't have done that on his own. But uh what if he came back to his disciples and said, Wow, that was close. Man, dodged a bullet there. You know, but God has given me another 15 years to be with you guys. And so, but no, that's not what they saw. They saw this vibrant and and healthy and beaming individual, and that was inspirational. Um, so that's that would so but and who wants to follow a a God that never even died? That would be ridiculous, okay. If you're really God, if you're really the Messiah, you're gonna die and be reborn, which is what the scriptures um predicted as well. So, okay, good so far?

SPEAKER_01 39:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

Okay, so what else do we know?

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

He had a 40-day relationship with them.

SPEAKER_01 39:30

He yes, he made it. How could he be around for 40 days after that?

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Oh, he knows that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

That is just wild.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

And and what and what about the disciples? Some again, Peter was hiding the night before. I don't know him. I don't know him three times. Okay. Um and and these were just meek, mild kind of individuals. But what happened to them after they met with Jesus? What kind of personality shift shift did they have? Peter was they were out preaching to thousands of people. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

After he denied him, you know what? That blew my absolute marbles that he denied him while he was being put to death. And then he was one of the ones that stood up, like, yeah, I saw this guy being put to death. I'm gonna forget to tell you that I may have denied him the entire time he was up there, but it's time to believe.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

Yeah, and so he gets up there and makes speech in and people heard him in in their own languages. Okay, there's some mysterious mystical things took place after that. So uh would they have a courage to go steal the body? Not the not the Peter that was described. Um, and by the way, what's the reward of following a dead martyr if you're going to get a body to steal from him to create some kind of a mystical, you know, um uh noteworthy, media-worthy event? Say, oh, what happened to Jesus? Who's gonna follow a dead martyr? It just doesn't follow. It's it's it's it's gonna be discovered eventually. The word's gonna leak out. So it's not enough. And what about the mass hallucination? Already said he was seen by women, 1012, then the people in Galilee, then on the Mount of Olives. And if it's a mass hallucination, what about Thomas? What do we know about Thomas?

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Doubting Thomas.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Doubting Thomas.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

He would have been able to come through and been like, nope, I don't believe this anymore. Let's talk about this a little longer.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

Well, he said, I won't believe unless I see the nail prints in his hands.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Okay, so where's his hallucination? But then Jesus responded to him, You've seen, you believe because you've seen. Blessed are those who believe who have not seen. Okay, so we're discounting the idea of hallucination. So all these little micro theories about what could have happened, maybe it wasn't real, they're easily dispelled. Okay. So then Paul tells us in Corinthians, how many people saw him?

SPEAKER_01 42:00

Uh over 500 people.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

500. Okay. That was written around 55 A.D. Okay, and many of the people who were around at the crucifixion were still alive at that point. So if it if it hadn't happened, they would have said Paul's a liar. They would have refuted it.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Especially because they're saying that 500 people saw it. That's a lot of people to claim.

SPEAKER_00 42:23

So, really, to wrap this thing up, Christianity has historical strength. It has roots. It's not just a fictitious, superficial belief system. Okay. These these disciples risked speaking to kings and telling them to get their lives straight, okay, that this belief in this Jesus was real. He was a real God, and he was really resurrected. Now, this was dangerous because Rome had several deities. They they believed like like the Greeks do. And Paul comes and says, I'm here to speak about that unknown God that you have the statue to. Okay. I'm here to talk about him. I see that you're a very religious people. You really believe in a lot of deities. I want to talk about this unknown God. Rome had several deities as well. So they were these disciples were risking everything to come up against that and say, No, there's only one real God. Okay, so we can't pass this off as a mass hallucination. Many of these people went on to die because of their belief in Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Now, here's the other thing I want to shock you with. Okay. If this resurrection is truth. Okay. And we can put a check mark, and if people say, you know what? Y'all brought some serious evidence here. That I would invite our good listeners to go back in time Glory to God. Church is open now, Brittany. Go back in time to the things that Jesus said and taught and to his his actions, his his healings, his method of dealing with people. And bring more faith to that, more belief, more trust, and more willingness to to yield to that and to say, I'm just gonna do what the man said. He he he says, Blessed are the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. What can I do to to imitate that or to inculcate that and to um and to become more like that? How do I how do I yield my character to the to character qualities that he had? Okay, this this gets pretty deep. And but we really ought to re-examine everything that he taught and say, make me more like you. I want to be in the image of Christ. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

I love it. Well, we started today with a question, just as simple, did the resurrection really happen? And we were able to walk through evidence. And, you know, essentially one thing became clear that this isn't blind faith. This is faith built on testimony, it's built on history, it's built on transformed lives. But, you know, that's where it gets kind of personal for us because the resurrection isn't just something to study. Yes, it's something to respond to. We need to be able to, you know, defend our faith. But if Jesus really rose from the dead, then he's not just a historical figure, he's still alive. And that means that he's still speaking. We've talked about that previously. He's still calling, he's still inviting you. So I want to leave everyone with this. If he conquered death, why don't you ask him? What could he do in your life right now?

SPEAKER_02 45:34

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

What could he do for you?

SPEAKER_02 45:36

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

Until next time, guys. Have a great week.

SPEAKER_02 45:39

Thank you.