The Crucifixion and Resurrection of King Jesus

The ultimate witness, the ultimate truth given by God to His children that they are in fact His own, a truth preeminent above all natural understanding, is not found by scholarly examination.  It is a life-changing revelation given by the Spirit of God to those who come in childlike faith and who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is exceedingly superior to all natural rationale.  God is a Spirit, and by His words, the universe, including you and me, was created.  Spirit is superior, for it is the foundation of all that is.  It is first.  It is senior.  It is design programma.  God’s Spirit precedes flesh.  It precedes natural in all that’s true.  Therefore, the ultimate witness, the ultimate truth that one is a son or daughter of God, is not certified by carnal pragmatics.  Romans 8:15-16:

15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Have you come to this place of ultimate witness, of ultimate truth?  Have you believed upon and surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus Christ?  Have you been born again?  Today is your day of salvation.  Make your decision now for Christ and today will be the best day of your life, and as you walk with Jesus, tomorrow will be better.  Have you received a better offer?  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT. 

GOD SAID, Acts 2:22-32:

22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible thathe should be holden of it.

25  For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:

26  Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:

27  Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

28  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

GOD SAID, Acts 4:10-12:

10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

MAN SAID:  According to atheist Richard Dawkins: “The virgin birth, the Resurrection, the raising of Lazarus, even the Old Testament miracles, all are freely used for religious propaganda, and they are very effective with an audience of unsophisticates and children.”

Now THE RECORD.  Was there a Jesus Christ?  Was He born of a virgin?  Was this sinless Lamb of God crucified for our sin, and did God raise Him from the dead on the third day?  The singular answer, of course, to all the above is yes.

How are things proven?  If I had never met you before and I asked you to supply three proofs that you were alive and on planet Earth yesterday, how would you do it?  Most likely you would produce a birth certificate, a photo ID driver’s license, and someone to certify you by eyewitness.  All three of your proofs are witnesses.  All things that are proven must have credible witnesses.  Two or more credible witnesses are required to establish proof.  God, of course, created the standard of proof and recorded it in Deuteronomy 17:6:

At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

Much of what man believes is simply not true.  It’s amazing.  Nearly every subject on GodSaidManSaid deals with one of them.  God commands in I Thessalonians 5:21:

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

Proof is established by two or more credible witnesses.  Without witnesses we have no proof.

The birth, death, and resurrection of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ the Righteous, is the pivot point of all time.  He who created the universe by the Word of the Father came to earth in the cloak of mortality to save that which was lost.  No event in history has been so anticipated.  No event in history has been foretold by God’s ancient prophets as this one.  All eternity hinges on the saving blood of Jesus Christ. 

The Old Testament is replete with prophecies of the coming Messiah.  We will cite two for your consideration.  Approximately 800 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the book of Isaiah prophecies the following in chapter 53:

1  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8  He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

9  And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

10  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

11  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Concerning Isaiah 53, Norman Geisler, Ph.D., who has authored, co-authored, and edited more than 50 books, and is president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary, was interviewed by Lee Strobel in his book, The Case For Faith.  The following is from Strobel’s book, The Case For Faith:”

“And, of course, Isaiah 53:2-12 has perhaps the most amazing predictions about Christ in the entire Old Testament.  It foretells twelve aspects of his passion that were all fulfilled—he would be rejected, be a man of sorrow, live a life of suffering, be despised by others, carry our sorrow, be smitten and afflicted by God, be pierced for our transgressions, be wounded for our sins, would suffer like a lamb, would die with the wicked, would be sinless, and would pray for others.”

I spoke up.  “Wait a second,” I said.  “If you talk to a rabbi, he’ll tell you that passage refers symbolically to Israel, not to the Messiah.”

Geisler shook his head.  “In Old Testament times, the Jewish rabbis did consider this to be a prophecy concerning the Messiah.  That’s the opinion that’s really relevant,” he said.

“Only later, after Christians pointed out this was obviously referring to Jesus, did they begin saying it was really about the suffering Jewish nation.  But clearly that’s wrong.  Isaiah customarily refers to the Jewish people in the first-person plural, like ‘our’ or ‘we,’ but he always refers to the Messiah in the third-person singular, like ‘he’ and ‘him’—and that’s what he did in Isaiah 53.  Plus, anyone who reads it for themselves will readily see it’s referring to Jesus.  Maybe that’s why it’s usually skipped over in synagogues these days.  [End of quote]

Approximately 1,000 years before Jesus was born, His end was prophesied in Psalms 22:4-22:

14  I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

15  My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

16  For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

17  I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

18  They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

19  But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

20  Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

21  Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

22  I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.

Literally dozens of times, Christ’s death and resurrection are prophesied in the Old Testament hundreds of years before they happen.  The apostles and disciples believed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and for many it was at the cost of their own lives.  Over 50 times in the New Testament alone is the truth declared.  Over 550 eyewitnesses testified of seeing the resurrected Christ.  Imagine if 550 people claimed they saw you rob a bank.  Would there be any doubt in the jury’s mind of your guilt?

Scientist Peter Stoner, quoted in Josh McDowell’s book, Evidence That Demands A Verdict, lays out the probability that a man would make just eight of the prophecies of Christ and actually see them come to pass.  Then he considers the probability of 48 Messianic prophecies.  Excerpts follow:

The following probabilities are taken from Peter Stoner in Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) to show that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability.  Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophecies (1.- No. 10; 2.- No. 22; 3.- No. 27; 4.- No. 33 & 44; 5.- No. 34; 6.- No. 35 & 36; 7.- No. 39; 8.- No. 44 & 45 [crucified]), “we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10¹⁷.”  That would be 100,000,000,000,000,000.  In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that “we take 10¹⁷ silver dollars and lay them down on the face of Texas.  They will cover all of the state two feet deep.  Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state.  Blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one.  What chance would be have of getting the right one?  Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them in their own wisdom.

Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, “we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10¹⁵⁷.  [End of quote]

One of the proof categories on GodSaidManSaid is prophecy.  Here we take the very clear and succinct prophecies of the Word of God and lay them up against the laws of probability.  What are the chances that a man could make these predictions, and history see them come to pass?  For example’s sake, let’s assume that the odds in a particular prophecy that the predictions were made by a man are 1 in 5,000,000,000.  Then it would follow that the odds would be 4,999,999,999 out of 5,000,000,000 that the prophecy was made by God.  The odds displayed above in Stoner’s computations are far beyond our ability to articulate.  The mathematical words do not exist.

Does secular history says yes to Jesus Christ, His death, and resurrection?  Again, the singular answer is yes.

The Jewish Babylonian Talmud had no historical problem with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  The Babylonian Talmud is an in-depth commentary on Jewish law which was recorded in Babylon over a six-hundred-year period, from 100 BC to 499 AD.  It speaks of Yeshu, which is Hebrew for Jesus.  It follows:

Sanhedrin Text 43a.  Babylonian Talmud—Baraitha

It has been taught (in a Baraitha): On the eve of Passover they hanged Yeshu, the Nazarene.  And an announcer went out, in front of him, for forty days (saying): 'Yeshu, the Nazarene, is going to be stoned, because he practised sorcery and enticed and led Israel astray.  Anyone who knows anything in his favour, let him come and plead in his behalf.'  But, not having found anything in his favour, they hanged him on the eve of Passover.  [End of quote]

The famous Jewish historian Josephus, who was born in 37 AD, not long after the death of Jesus, wrote concerning Jesus’ life.  In one of his books, Antiquities of the Jews, the following passage is found:

Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.  He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles.  He was [the] Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him: for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.  And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.  [End of quote]

The above passage has been hotly contested by the Jews and other liberal scholars.  Author Grant Jeffrey, who wrote the book, Jesus: The Great Debate, weighed in on this subject with the following statement:

For three centuries, a great debate has raged among biblical scholars regarding the authenticity of the text of Josephus about Jesus of Nazareth.  Many liberal scholars believe that this reference to Jesus Christ, to his brother James, and John the Baptist must be interpolations or forgeries by Christian editors in later centuries.  In other words, they have concluded that Josephus’ reference to Jesus could not possibly be genuine.  However, such an assertion of forgery requires significant proof.  If scholars had found dozens of ancient copies of Jesephus’ book that failed to contain this passage, they would have some evidence that this material was not an original passage written by the Jewish historian.  Yet none of these scholars can produce a single ancient copy of Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews that does not contain this disputed passage on Jesus.  In his book History of the Christian Church, Phillip Schaff noted that all ancient copies of Josephus’ book, including the early Slavonic [Russian] and Arabic language versions, contain the disputed passage about the life of Christ.  No one has ever explained how a Christian editor could have altered each of these widely distributed versions during the centuries following their publication.  How could someone introduce a new paragraph in the middle of a complete text?  Why wouldn’t someone have detected this addition to the popular history?  [End of quote]

The following paragraph is from Evidence That Demands A Verdict:

Attempts have been made to show that Josephus could not have written this.  However, “this passage,” writes Michael Green in Man Alive, “was in the text of Josephus used by Eusebius in the fourth century.”  Also, it is reiterated by the most recent Loeb edition of his works.  And it is all the more remarkable when we remember that, so far from being sympathetic to Christians, Josephus was a Jew writing to please the Romans.  This story would not have pleased them in the slightest.  He would hardly have included it if it were not true.”  [End of quote]

And again from McDowell:

CORNELIUS TACITUS (born A.D. 52-54)

A Roman historian, in 112 A.D., Governor of Asia, son-in-law of Julius Agricola who was Governor of Britain A.D. 80-84.  Writing of the reign of Nero, Tacitus alludes to the death of Christ and to existence of Christians at Rome.

“But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, not all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome.  Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities.  Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberias: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also.”  [End of quote]

Morris and Morris, in their book, Many Infallible Proofs, published the following information concerning the death and resurrection of the mighty Jesus Christ:

No wonder then, in view of the combined evidence of the empty tomb, the numerous appearances, the change in the disciples, and the authenticity of the records, not to mention the testimony of two thousand years of Christian history, that such a man as Thomas Arnold, formerly professor of history at Rugby and Oxford, one of the world’s great historians, could say:

…I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died, and rose again from the dead.

In like manner, Simon Greenleaf, one of the most skilled legal minds ever produced in the United States, a top authority on the matter of what constitutes sound evidence, and developer of the Harvard Law School, after a thorough evaluation of the four Gospel accounts from the point of view of their validity as objective testimonial evidence, concluded:

It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.  [End of quote]

Finally, from Evidence That Demands A Verdict:

Professor Thomas Arnold, cited by Wilbur Smith, was for fourteen years the famous headmaster of Rugby, author of a famous three-volume History of Rome, appointed to the chair of Modern History at Oxford, was certainly a man well acquainted with the value of evidence in determining historical facts.  This great scholar said in his work, Sermons on the Christian Life—Its Hopes, Its Fears, and Its Close (6^th edition, London, 1859, p. 324):

“The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be, and often has been, shown to be satisfactory; it is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad.  Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece, as carefully as every judge summing up on a most important cause.  I have myself done it many times over, not to persuade others but to satisfy myself.”  [End of quote] 

GOD SAID, Acts 4:10-12:

10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

MAN SAID:  According to atheist Richard Dawkins: “The virgin birth, the Resurrection, the raising of Lazarus, even the Old Testament miracles, all are freely used for religious propaganda, and they are very effective with an audience of unsophisticates and children.”

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book XVIII, chapter III, section 3

 

Jeffrey, G.R., Jesus: The Great Debate, Frontier Research Publications

 

Keller, W., The Bible as History, Bantam Books

 

McDowell, J., Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Campus Crusade for Christ, 1972, pp84,175,194,198

 

Morris and Morris, Many Infallible Proofs, Master Books

 

Strobel, L., The Case For Faith, Zondervan, 2000, pp57,132

 

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