We Affirm Jesus Resurrected

18 September 2026  1 Corinthians 15:12-20

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”  (1 Corinthians 15:17)

The Church and the New Testament have always proclaimed that they exist because Jesus rose from the dead on Easter. If the Resurrection is false, then something else happened on Easter Day. Whatever it was, then, would have to account for the existence of the Church and the New hur Testament. So, do they?

All of the alternate theories have disqualifying weaknesses, and none of them can account for the existence of the New Testament and the Church. For that reason, Christians are completely justified in continuing to affirm that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, and rose from the dead.

Some adhere to the Conspiracy Theory, according to which the disciples stole the body of Jesus and made up the story of the Resurrection.

For this to be true, we would have to believe that there is a Church and a New Testament because 11 badly organized and frightened disciples snuck up on a Roman guard detachment, who were sleeping, rolled away the stone without waking them up, stole the body, and then lied about the Resurrection for the rest of their lives, despite vigorous ridicule and cruel persecution. It is so preposterously unlikely that even atheist philosophers and historians don’t believe it.

Similarly preposterous is the Swoon Theory, according to which Jesus didn’t really die on the cross but only fainted, revived in the cool of the tomb, rolled away the stone despite His grievous injuries, and then disappeared without a trace. And also, then, the disciples lied for the rest of their lives about it for the rest of their lives, despite ridicule and cruel persecution. None but internet cranks believe this one either.

More popular is the Hallucination Theory, according to which the Resurrection was a collective hallucination of the disciples. But for this to be true, not only would large groups of people have to have had the same hallucination at the same time, but the tomb would have to be empty, too. No one would believe the hallucination if the body were still there. So someone would have had to steal the body before the hallucination could be believed. So, for the Hallucination Theory to be true, the Conspiracy Theory would have to be true, too. Psychologists affirm that this is not the way hallucinations happen, and the Conspiracy Theory is already unbelievable.

Most popular is the Myth Theory, according to which the Resurrection is simply a myth, like Hercules, the Golden Fleece, and Jason and the Argonauts. The problem with this is that the New Testament isn’t good enough to be a myth. Myths are highly developed forms of literature and discourse, polished by countless hands, with all embarassing elements meticulously scrubbed away. The New Testament is not that kind of document, and is loaded with embarrassing elements, like the fact that women were the first witnesses to the Resurrection. Women’s testimony wasn’t even allowed in ancient courts, so if the New Testament were a myth, that is the first thing that would have been edited out. More importantly, the testimony of the Church has always been, from the earliest date, that the New Testament and the Resurrection are history, not myth. The Myth Theory, therefore, is not an attempt to account for the facts of Easter, but to cover them up. It isn’t a pursuit of truth.

All of the alternate theories have disqualifying weaknesses, and none of them can account for the existence of the New Testament and the Church. For that reason, Christians are completely justified in continuing to affirm that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, and rose from the dead. It is the only story that accounts for the facts, especially the facts of the New Testament and the Church. Both have had extraordinary impact on the history of the world, and so require extraordinary facts to account for their existence.

The Resurrection is that extraordinary fact.