Is Christianity True?

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The Different Theories



Why the Swoon Theory doesn’t work

1. Jesus could not have survived crucifixion.
2. The fact that the Roman soldier did not break Jesus' legs, as he did to the other two crucified criminals (Jn 19:31-33), means that the soldier was sure Jesus was dead.
3. John, an eyewitness, certified that he saw blood and water come from Jesus' pierced heart (Jn 19:34-35).
4. The body was totally encased in winding sheets and entombed (Jn 19:38-42).
5. The post-resurrection appearances convinced the disciples, even "doubting Thomas," that Jesus was gloriously alive (Jn 20:19-29). It is psychologically impossible for the disciples to have been so transformed and confident if Jesus had merely struggled out of a swoon, badly in need of a doctor.
6. How were the Roman guards at the tomb overpowered by a swooning corpse?
7. How could a swooning half-dead man have moved the great stone at the door of the tomb? Who moved the stone if not an angel? The story the Jewish authorities spread, that the guards fell asleep and the disciples stole the body (Mt 28:11-15), is unbelievable. Roman guards would not fall asleep on a job like that; if they did, they would lose their lives.
8. If Jesus awoke from a swoon, where did he go?

Why the Conspiracy Theory doesn’t work

Why couldn't the disciples have made up the whole story?
1. There is no one who denied his story because of possible imprisonment, tortures and death, but no one, weak or strong, saint or sinner, Christian or heretic, ever confessed, freely or under pressure, bribe or even torture, that the whole story of the resurrection was a fake a lie, a deliberate deception.
2. The disciples' were simple, honest, common peasants, not cunning, conniving liars.
3. There could be no possible motive for such a lie. Lies are always told for some selfish advantage. What advantage did the "conspirators" derive from their "lie"? They were hated, scorned, persecuted, excommunicated, imprisoned, tortured, exiled, crucified, boiled alive, roasted, beheaded, disemboweled and fed to lions!
4. If the resurrection was a lie, the Jews would have produced the corpse and nipped this feared superstition in the bud.

5. If there had been a conspiracy, it would certainly have been unearthed by the disciples' enemies, who had both the interest and the power to expose any fraud.

Why the Hallucination Theory doesn’t work

1. There were too many witnesses.
2. The five hundred saw Christ together, at the same time and place. This is even more remarkable than five hundred private "hallucinations" at different times and places of the same Jesus.
3. Hallucinations usually last a few seconds or minutes; rarely hours. This one hung around for forty days (Acts 1:3).
4. Hallucinations usually happen only once, except to the insane. This one returned many times, to ordinary people (Jn 20:19-21:14; Acts 1:3).
5. The disciples touched him (Mt 28:9; Lk 24:39; Jn 20:27).
6. They also spoke with him, and he spoke back. Figments of your imagination do not hold profound, extended conversations with you – and he conversed with at least eleven people at once, for forty days (Acts 1:3).
7. If the apostles had hallucinated and then spread their hallucinogenic story, the Jews would have stopped it by producing the body.
8. A hallucination would explain only the post-resurrection appearances; it would not explain the empty tomb, the rolled-away stone, or the inability to produce the corpse.

Why the Resurrection story is NOT a Myth

1. There were many eyewitnesses who were still alive when the books were written who could testify whether they came from their purported authors or not.
2. No other ancient work is available in so many copies and languages, and yet all these various versions agree in content. Richard Purtill says:
Many events which are regarded as firmly established historically have (1) far less documentary evidence than many biblical events; (2) and the documents on which historians rely for much secular history are written much longer after the event than many records of biblical events; (3) furthermore, we have many more copies of biblical narratives than of secular histories; and (4) the surviving copies are much earlier than those on which our evidence for secular history is based.

Conclusion

The amount of historical evidence of the life and resurrection of Christ is greater than many other historical facts that we take for granted. Since all the other theories have been shown to fail, the best explanation for the events of Easter Sunday is that the resurrection really happened. Since the resurrection happened as predicted and described in the Bible, the Bible must be true. Since the Bible must be true, the God described in the Bible must be true.

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