How would you respond to a friend who asks you: “How do you know the resurrection of Jesus
happened and that it’s not just a myth?”
1. Non-Christian historians have written about how the Apostles died.
2. No one will accept such death for a lie.
3. Scientifically the Shroud of Turin has proved several aspects about the death and resurrection.
If a friend, or any skeptic asked me how I can be sure that the Resurrection is real I would tell them that we know it the same way they know their great-great-grandparents are real.
Christianity in the early days (the first 300 years) was illegal under both Jewish law and Roman law yet somehow it not only survived, but flourished. By "illegal", I mean punishable by death. Christianity isn't a practice built like a pyramid scheme where you gain more points, or money by the number of converts, nor is it a system where you build a cache of weaponry and militia to topple governments. Christianity is a way of love, a love that calls one to "love your enemy" and still people, in the face of death converted to spread the Gospel; the message of Jesus Christ. As Deacon Rajan said, "Who would be willing to die for a lie"?
The Bible is an historical book; the events in it either really happened, or they didn't. How possible is it that false manuscript as in depth as the New Testament would survive and thrive under such conditions as under the oversight of the overseers of Scripture in the Jewish priests and under the most powerful empire in the world at that time, Rome? Yet in the Bible we have testimony from witnesses who were there, willing to sign their own death certificate by attaching their names to circulated letters: " He who saw it has borne witness - his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth - that you also may believe" (John 19:35); "For 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 Peter 1:16), and others. We also have, in the Bible, events listed that could easily - and were attempted to be - disproven: "Pilate said to them, "You have a guard of soldiers; go make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard". But Jesus rose from the dead even with such a seal and such a guard of soldiers so that a story must be concocted: "While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers and said, 'Tell the people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep... and this story is spread among the Jews to this day" (Mt. 28 11-13, 15). So, let me get this straight, a group of scared fishermen and other menial laborers stealthly executed a silent raid on a tomb with a seal probably made of mortar around a huge boulder, broke that seal, moved the huge boulder and stole the body - which nobody ever found any trace of, risking their lives in front of trained soldiers - for a lie. Sounds believable to me - NOT!
Not to mention the other events such as the tearing of the curtain in the temple - which either happened, or didn't, or the events of nature occurring at the time of the Crucifixion - which either happened, or didn't, along with others, and that extra biblical accounts of the Resurrection exist from those from Christian hostile societies such as by Flavius Josephus, a captured Jew, turned historian for the Romans - his is probably the most cited account.
If, after this, my friend, or skeptic were not satisfied, I would gladly continue. 🙂
The shroud of Turin is another great evidence in addition to the Biblical evidence that Steve has provided above.
