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“In its favour as a living truth there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true.”
—Lord Darling,
Lord Chief Justice in England

“It can be asserted with confidence that men and women disbelieve the Easter story not because of the evidence but in spite of it.”
—J.N.D. Anderson


Various Attempts to Deny the Resurrection
Throughout the centuries, skeptics too numerous to count have denied the historicity of Christ’s resurrection.  Here are the five most common angles they have taken:


1)    The Myth Theory: “Jesus never existed.”  Those who hold this view put Jesus Christ in the same category as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.  While some of them might admit the existence of an ordinary man named Jesus of Nazareth, they believe that his portrait in the gospels is fanciful and exaggerated—a product of the disciples’ imagination.  Refutation:

a)    The evidence for Jesus’ existence is substantial.  He is mentioned by at least eleven different non-Christian sources in the first century or shortly thereafter, including Josephus, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Seutonius and the Babylonian Talmud.  These sources confirm, among other things, that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate on the eve of the Jewish Passover, that his disciples believed he rose from the dead, that they believed him to be the Jewish Messiah, that they attributed miracles to him and worshiped him as a god.  And these non-Christian sources were either neutral or hostile to Christianity, which makes their testimony all the more weighty.  Add to that another 32 early Christians authors, and that gives us 43 different sources from the ancient world that attest to the existence of Jesus.  Compare that with the historical evidence for the Roman emperor Tiberius, who ruled during the time of Christ.  Only nine authors refer to him.  So there is nearly five times the amount of evidence for the existence of Jesus than for one of the Roman emperors.   Yet no one doubts the existence of Tiberius.

b)    The four gospels do not share the characteristics of myth.   They are concise rather than verbose.  They are careful to mention place names and to indicate the passing of time.  They note cultural practices (Mark 7:3-4) and interpret the meanings of words (Matt 27:33).  They include seemingly extraneous details (John 21:11), which would make no sense in a myth but strongly suggest eyewitness testimony.  The heroes of myths are not humble and vulnerable, like Jesus, but rather arrogant and invincible.  The gospels are not written like myths, but rather like history (Luke 1:1-4).

c)    There was not enough time for myth to develop.  The New Testament books were all written during the first century.  Many of those who were eyewitnesses of the purported events were still alive and could have refuted any exaggerations or fabrications (1 Cor 15:6).  The Apostle Paul was converted a mere three years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ!

d)    If the gospels are a myth, then their authors picked the most unlikely people to witness the resurrection.  For the first people to see the resurrected Christ were women.  In first-century Jewish society, the testimony of women was considered worthless.  If the disciples wanted people to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead, why would they put the women at the tomb first?  They would have written the accounts in such a way that Jewish and Roman men witnessed it—and the more, the better.

e)    Peter declares emphatically that what he and the other disciples conveyed was, in fact, the truth: ‘Nor we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty’ (2 Pet 1:16).  So Peter was either deceived, mistaken or lying.  But he was not writing myth.

f)    Jesus has attracted billions of followers over the last two thousand years.  If he was merely a product of the disciples’ imagination, then they must be regarded as the greatest novelists to have ever lived.  As Kreeft says, “If they made up the story, they were the most creative, clever, intelligent fantasists in history, far surpassing Shakespeare, or Dante or Tolkien.  Fishermen’s ‘fish stories’ are never that elaborate, that convincing, that life-changing, and that enduring.”

“Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God.”
—Bruce Shelley


2)    The Swoon Theory: “Jesus did not actually die.”  The basic assertion of the Swoon Theory is that Jesus was not dead when he was removed from the cross, just “mostly dead.”  Those who hold this view point out that many have been mistakenly pronounced dead, even by modern doctors.  If modern doctors can be fooled, then so could those at the foot of the cross.  In some versions of this theory, Jesus revives just long enough to make a few appearances, and then dies.  In other versions, he makes a full recovery, but leaves to avoid recapture.  Refutation:

a)    Jesus’ wounds were beyond recovery.  He was scourged and beaten beyond recognition (Matt 26:67; 27:26; cp. Mark 14:65).  Thorns were driven into his scalp (Matt 27:29).  He was beaten on the head with a rod (Matt 27:30).  He was in such a state of shock that someone else had to carry his crossbeam (Matt 27:32).  His hands and feet were nailed to the cross, where he hung in agony for six hours before dying.  Finally, a spear was thrust into his side (John 19:34).  A person might recover from all kinds of wounds, but not a spear to the heart.

“Josephus (Vita, 7) tells of a time when he saw a number of captives being crucified; and, noticing three of his friends among them, he asked Titus, the Roman commander, for a reprieve.  This was granted, and the men were taken down at once.  It seems that they had only just been crucified, but despite being given every care by the most expert physicians available, two of the three died. . . . There can be no doubt that Jesus was dead.”
—Michael Green

b)    Roman soldiers knew a corpse when they saw one.  When the soldiers came to break Jesus’ legs, they ‘saw that he was already dead’ (John 19:32-33).  But just in case he was alive, they pierced him with the spear to remove any doubt (v.34).  If a Roman soldier let a prisoner escape, his life was forfeit.

c)    The Apostle John saw blood and water gush from the spear wound (John 19:34-35).  Medical doctors attribute this phenomenon to either asphyxiation or cardio-respiratory failure, both of which indicate that Jesus had already died before the soldier thrust his spear into him.

d)    Jesus’ followers were completely convinced that he was dead—to the point that they were cowering in a locked room (John 20:19).  In fact, one of their number, Thomas, refused to believe in the resurrection, even after the others claimed to have seen Jesus alive (John 20:25).  He was so convinced of Jesus’ death that he demanded empirical proof before he would believe in the resurrection.

e)    In his post-resurrection appearances, the risen Christ shows no ill-effects from the wounds he had received.  He walks and talks and eats as if nothing had happened.  The only visible effects are the scars.

f)    How did such a badly wounded Jesus roll back the two thousand pound stone covering the entrance to the tomb and then overpower the Roman guards outside?

“. . . interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge.”
—Dr. William Edwards,
Journal of the American Medical Association


3)    The Hallucination Theory: “The disciples were deceived.”  Some skeptics argue that the disciples, in a state of shock after the death of their teacher, merely thought that they had seen Jesus alive again.  But it was a hallucination.  Variations on this theory argue that the disciples were seeing a heavenly vision or a ghost.  It has even been suggested that Jesus hypnotized his followers before his death and planted a post-hypnotic suggestion into their subconscious minds.  Refutation:

a)    Jesus appeared to multiple people in different places and at different times.  On one occasion he appeared to more than five hundred people at once (1 Cor 15:6).  Two people cannot share the same hallucination, let alone five hundred.

b)    Hallucinations are momentary.  But the disciples saw Jesus over a forty day period (Acts 1:3).

c)    Neither mass hallucinations nor visions nor ghosts nor hypnosis explain how the stone was rolled away or how the tomb became empty.

d)    Jesus was in bodily form after his resurrection.  The disciples were so surprised that they actually thought he was a spirit at first (Luke 24:37).  But Jesus invited them to touch him: ‘See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.  Touch me, and see.  For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have’ (Luke 24:39; cp. John 20:27).  The women touched his feet (Matt 28:9).  He broke bread (Luke 24:30) and ate food with them (Luke 24:42-43).  He breathed on them (John 20:22).  Visions and phantoms cannot do such things.

e)    The disciples endured decades of suffering and eventual martyrdom for their beliefs.  Would a hallucination or post-hypnotic suggestion be able to produce that level of commitment for such a long time?


4)    The Oops Theory: “The disciples were mistaken.”  Some skeptics allege that the disciples went to the wrong tomb.  When they found it empty, they mistakenly thought that Jesus had arisen from the dead.  Others postulate that someone else took Jesus’ body from the tomb without his followers knowing about it.  Refutation:

a)    Multiple people visited the tomb, and at different times.  Did they all get it wrong?  At the very least, Joseph of Arimathea, who owned the tomb, would have been able to guide them to the right one.

b)    The tomb in which Jesus was laid was not your average tomb.  Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy man (Matt 27:57).  Rather than a typical grave covered by a stone slab, his tomb was cut into the side of the hill, like a cave, with a heavy stone to block the entrance.  There would not have been many tombs like that in the graveyard.

c)    The tomb of Jesus had been sealed with a Roman seal, and was surrounded by Roman soldiers (Matt 27:64-66).  It would have been hard to miss.

d)    A missing body, by itself, does not entail resurrection from the dead.  When Mary arrived at the tomb and found it empty, she did not jump to the conclusion that the Lord had risen from the dead (John 20:13, 15).  On the contrary, she fully expected that someone had moved his body.  Jesus was still dead in her mind.

e)    If someone had taken the body, they could have put an end to Christianity in a moment by simply producing the body.  The Jewish leaders would have paid good money for that.


5)    The Conspiracy Theory: “The disciples lied.”  Some early opponents of Christianity claimed that the followers of Jesus secretly stole his body from the tomb and then invented the whole story of the resurrection.  This accusation may have even prompted the Romans to enact a new ordinance known as the Edict of Caesar.  This ordinance, which was found engraved on a marble slab in Galilee, prescribes the death penalty for anyone convicted of unlawfully removing a body from a tomb.  Refutation:

a)    A hoax involving so many people would be virtually impossible to pull off—at least for very long.

b)    What motive would the disciples have to lie?  What would they gain from tricking people into thinking that Jesus was alive?

c)    The disciples had no opportunity to steal the body, as the tomb was under guard by Roman soldiers.

d)    The gospels do not portray the disciples in a flattering light.  If they could be so honest about their own shortcomings, how could they be so dishonest about the other events that they report?

e)    If the resurrection did not occur, the Jews could have simply produced Jesus’ body.  It was under their control.  Why not just show it to everyone?  Game over.

f)    The disciples faced a life of suffering and eventual martyrdom for their belief in the resurrection, yet they never recanted.  They went to their graves claiming to have seen Jesus alive from the dead.  While people will die for something they believe to be true, they will not die for something they know to be false.

“It is a matter of amazement to me that books constantly get published, and television programmes produced, which set out the most bizarre interpretations of Jesus of Nazareth on the most slender of evidence.  Jesus Christ maintains the astonishing fascination he has always exercised; but, as ever, men and women are reluctant to face up to the challenge of his claims and the cost of discipleship.  In self-justification, they tend to show an incurable preference for inferior evidence, or else a determined scepticism towards New Testament records.”
—Michael Green



1  Cited in Ankerberg & Weldon, The Passion and the Empty Tomb, 100.
2  Cited in Ankerberg & Weldon, 101.
3  Geisler, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, 222.
Much of the content of this paper is adapted from Kreeft & Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, 181-95.  I have not cited every idea gleaned from them, or else the paper would have been filled with footnotes.
4  Kreeft, 185.
5  Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, 15.
6  Michael Green; cited in Ankerberg & Weldon, 43.
7  William D. Edwards, et al, “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ,” JAMA, Vol 255, No. 11, March 21 (1986): 1463.
8  Michael Green, ;cited in R.T. France, The Evidence for Jesus, 7.