Could the Christian Church ever have come into
existence as a result of what had become, after Jesus’ crucifixion and death, a
group of disheartened, frightened, skeptical apostles? Not a chance!
Only the resurrection of Christ from the dead
can account for motivating the disciples to give their lives to preach about
Christ and nurture the Christian Church the Lord had founded. It can hardly be
overestimated how devastating the crucifixion was to the apostles. They had
sacrificed everything for Jesus, including their jobs, their homes, and their
families (Matthew 19:27).
Everything of value was pinned squarely on
Jesus: all their hopes, their entire lives, everything. But now He was dead, publicly branded a
criminal. The apostles were dejected and depressed in their conclusion that
Christ was not their expected Messiah (Luke 24:21). In such a condition, they
can hardly be considered the subjects of hopeful visions and hallucinations.
These were not men ready to believe. The very fact that Jesus rebuked them for
their unbelief indicates that Thomas was not the only one who was a hard-headed
skeptic. At one time or another Jesus rebuked all of the eleven apostles for
their unbelief in His resurrection (Matthew 28:17; Luke 24:25-27, 38, 41; John
20:24-27). This proves they were finally convinced against their will.
As the Gospels show, they rejected the first
reports of Jesus’ resurrection. It was only after Jesus appeared to them again
and again, talking with them, encouraging them to touch Him, to see that He had
a physical body, showing them the wounds in His hands and His side, that they became
convinced (John 29:20, 27). If they had expected a resurrection, they would
have been waiting for it. But they weren’t, and they needed a lot of convincing
when it did happened (Acts 1:3).
The record is also clear that none of the
disciples understood the necessity for the resurrection. This is seen both from
Peter’s rebuke to Jesus when He predicted His death and resurrection (Matthew
16:21, 22), and from Christ’s prediction of His resurrection after the
transfiguration (Matthew 17:9, 22-23). Mark says of the
disciples, “But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to
ask Him” (Mark 9:32). Thus the disciples not only didn’t believe in the resurrection,
they didn’t even understand the implications. For example, after Jesus spoke of His rising from the dead in Mark 9:9, we are
told, “And they seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what
rising from the dead might mean” (Mark 9:10).
On another occasion when Jesus spoke of His
resurrection, it was recorded of the disciples: “And they understood none of these things, and
this saying was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that
were said” (Luke 18:34). So, how do we account for the disciples coming to
believe in something that was completely unexpected unless it really happened?
. . . It is quite clear that without the
belief in the resurrection the Christian faith could not have come into being.
The disciples would have remained crushed and defeated men. Even had they
continued to remember Jesus as their beloved teacher. His crucifixion would have forever silenced
any hopes of His being the Messiah. The cross would have remained the sad and
shameful end to His career. The origin of Christianity therefore hinges on the
belief of the early disciples that God had raised Jesus from the dead . . .
Now the question becomes: What caused that
belief? As R. H. Fuller says, even the most skeptical critic must presuppose
some mysterious X to get the movement going.
But what was that X?
. . .There is simply no way to explain the
origin of such a belief concerning Christ’s resurrection apart from the fact
that it happened. This is why secular historians who study the events surrounding
the origin of the Church are mystified if they reject the resurrection. The
task of the historian is to adequately account for events that occur. No one
doubts the Church exists, but the historian cannot adequately account for it
apart from Jesus being alive.
. . . The resurrection of Jesus is therefore
the best explanation for the origin of the Christian faith. Given the
disciples’ initial skepticism and lack of understanding, given the inability of
all history to adequately explain the existence of the Christian Church apart
from the actual resurrection of Christ, how do we account for churches on every
street comer of the country and throughout most of the entire planet?
Can we really believe that the mental frame of
mind of the disciples prior to the resurrection appearances was sufficient to
“invent” the Church? Could the unbelieving and skeptical disciples have
proclaimed a resurrection when they never expected it in the first place?
. . . Further,
every book of the New Testament is based upon the conviction that Christ rose
from the dead. If He never did, why were those twenty-seven books written in
the first place? And why would the apostles face the hostility and persecution
of the Jewish leaders by attempting to found a new movement based on the
teachings of a condemned criminal? Why would they continue to follow and speak
about a man who was obviously a fraud or worse, in a man who made predictions
about His own resurrection from the dead that never came true? Finally, on what
basis would the apostles proclaim this same dead person—who did not resurrect—as
God, when their entire religious training had taught them, “Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God is one Lord”? In other words, what would cause devout Jews to
widely preach blasphemies that went against the entire grain of their personal
religious convictions, unless it was the resurrection?
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