This document discusses the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ from multiple sources. It notes that the Jewish historian Josephus and Roman officials like Pliny the Younger and Tacitus referred to Jesus and the early Christian movement. The crucifixion of Jesus is considered a historical fact by scholars based on accounts from Josephus, Tacitus, and others. The document argues the tomb was found empty after Jesus' death and his disciples continually encountered him alive, convincing them he had resurrected, even though hallucinations do not occur in groups or convert skeptics like Paul. The compelling evidence has led many scholars and lawyers like Sir Lionel Luckhoo to accept the resurrection as proven fact.

1. Is the resurrection of
Jesus Christ true?

2. Do we know that Jesus actually existed as a person?
Josephus, the
Jewish historian,
in A.D.90, has a
biographical note
on "Jesus Who is
called Christ" in his
Antiquities—Book
XVIII, Ch.III, Section
3.
The Babylonian
Talmud makes
mention of Jesus.
Yes. Not only
do we find an
accurate
portrait of Him
in the
documents of
the New
Testament, but
dozens of
ancient non-
Biblical
manuscripts
confirm that
Jesus was a
genuine
historical
figure who
lived in
Palestine in
the early part
of the first
century.
Pliny the Younger wrote a letter to the Emperor Trajan on the subject
of Christ and Christians (Book X–96).

3. Evidence of the crucifixion
It is a fairly well-established fact
that Jesus Christ was publicly
executed in Judea in the 1st Century
A.D., under Pontius Pilate, by means
of crucifixion, at the behest of the
Jewish Sanhedrin. The non-Christian
historical accounts of Flavius
Josephus, Cornelius Tacitus, Lucian
of Samosata, Maimonides and even
the Jewish Sanhedrin corroborate
the early Christian eyewitness
accounts of these important
historical aspects of the death of
Jesus Christ.
Arabic documents dating from the
10th century contain the
following account, credited to the
Jewish historian Flavius Josephus
(AD 37?–100?):
At this time there was a wise man
who was called Jesus, and his
conduct was good, and he was
known to be virtuous. And many
people from among the Jews and
the other nations became his
disciples. Pilate condemned him
to be crucified and to die…[His
disciples] reported that he had
appeared to them three days after
his crucifixion, and that he was
alive. Accordingly they believed
that he was the Messiah,
concerning whom the Prophets
have recounted wonders.

4. What happened next?
In Matthew 28:11-15 we read how
the Jewish elders started to circulate
a false story that the disciples had
stolen Jesus' body. This story does
show that in the first century, even
those hostile to Christianity accepted
that the tomb had been found
empty.
For more than a month after, the
disciples kept meeting Jesus alive,
always unexpectedly, usually in
groups (from two people to five
hundred). Hallucinations don't
happen that way!
The evidence is solid. The tomb was empty and nobody could produce the body.

5. Here's one argument that I found
especially compelling: Both
believers and skeptics
acknowledge that Jesus' disciples
were willing to stake their lives on
their story about encounters with
the risen Savior.
Skeptics say that it's completely illogical to
believe a story about someone who was
brutally executed and sealed in a tomb for
three days and three nights coming back to
life and appearing to His friends and
followers. But is it?
As one analyst put it:
Jesus' disciples didn't. Clearly they believed
what they preached. So did the apostle Paul,
who had been among the disciples' most
rabid persecutors until the resurrected Jesus
appeared to him.
Would they have been willing to suffer
the consequences they did—beatings,
imprisonment, and even death—for a
fabrication?
"Under such pressures, liars confess their
deceptions and betray their cohorts."

6. The resurrection is
the pivot on which
the Christian faith
turns. It has been
asked, "How did it
come about that a
Man, living in a
peripheral province of
the Roman Empire,
writing no book, and
dying an ignominious
death, has been
dominant in human
life and thought ever
since?"
Of course, we know the answer! Jesus was
no mere man, but the Son of God.
www.freekidstories.org
Text adapted from TFI writings, Activated magazine and www.gotquestions.org. Art © TFI.
The evidence for the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming
that it compels acceptance by
proof which leaves absolutely no
room for doubt. - Jurisprudential
prodigy and international
statesman Sir Lionel Luckhoo (of
The Guinness Book of World
Records fame for his
unprecedented 245 consecutive
defense murder trial acquittals)