Christ Arose!

As we come into this Easter season, our thoughts are directed toward the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As is often the case, the words of an old hymn came to mind as I started thinking about this blog. This time it was the words of the refrain to “Christ Arose” by Robert Lowry.

Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,

He arose a Victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.

He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

What a glorious expression of the hope of every Christian. I love to study the word of God, and I especially enjoy the study of prophecy. Those studies would be totally meaningless, however, had Jesus never risen from the grave. I am reminded of the words of Paul in his letter to the Corinthians.

1Corinthians 15:13-19 “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”

The glorious truth is that Jesus did conquer the grave. There are many historical documents that testify to the resurrection, and the production of written material in the first and second century did not lend itself to mass publication of rumors and lies such as are found disseminated with such ease in the printed material of today. If you spend any time in research at all, you will find that the documentary evidence for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is better than any evidence pertaining to Plato or Homer or other significant people in history. A little internet research provided the following information from Josh McDowell’s book, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict.

Plato wrote his Philosophy about 400 BC. Only seven ancient copies exist today. The time span between Plato and the earliest existing copy is about 1,300 years.

Homer wrote the Iliad about 800 BC. There are 642 ancient copies still in existence. The time span between Homer and the earliest existing copy is about 400 years.

Julius Caesar wrote his account of the Gallic Wars between 100 BC and 44 BC. Ten ancient copies still exist. The earliest of those copies was written 1,000 years after Caesar wrote original manuscript.

Tacitus wrote his Annals around AD 100. Twenty ancient copies exist, the earliest of which dates about 1,000 years after Tacitus.

In this list thus far, Homer gets the high score. He has the highest number of ancient manuscripts in the shortest time span. The others offer very few copies, with time spans of 1,000 years or more. Yet, historians have regarded the documents as accurate.

How do the Bible's New Testament manuscripts compare? There exists today 5,366 ancient copies of portions of the New Testament. The time span between the original composition of the New Testament documents and existing copies is about 50 years for copy fragments, 100 years for whole books of the New Testament, 150 years for nearly complete New Testaments, and 225 years for complete New Testaments.
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Logic alone argues for the truth of the resurrection. The death of Jesus was a very public event. You would think that the disciples and followers of Jesus would have gone home in despair after witnessing His death. Instead, their faith was invigorated and their testimony more powerful after witnessing the risen Savior to the point that they were willing to die for their faith. That speaks more loudly to me than any of the other available evidence.

(Thoughts to be continued in the next posting….)