And if Christ has not been raised, then empty [too] is our preaching; empty, too, your faith….and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17–19)
In light of the above scripture passage, many in the pews may be shocked to learn that not all Christians believe that Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead. In fact, not all Christian ministers and not all Christian theologians believe it either! I offer the following references as evidence:
- “A third of Church of England clergy doubt or disbelieve in the physical Resurrection and only half are convinced of the truth of the Virgin birth” (Jonathan Petre, 8/2/2002).
- “There is no question in my mind that had there not been some transforming experience that happened to the disciples after the death of Jesus that convinced them that He had conquered the boundary of human death there would be no Christianity….Something incredible happened, but it had nothing to do with the resuscitation of the body” (Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, 4/16/2014),
- “A quarter of people who describe themselves as Christians in Great Britain do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, a survey commissioned by the BBC suggests” (BBC, 4/9/2017),
On the pages of the National Catholic Register (4/17/2020), David A. Smither rhetorically asks: “Why have so many modern ‘theologians’ made careers for themselves by interpreting the Resurrection as something other than what the New Testament manifestly teaches that it was — namely a dead man coming back to life?”
Perhaps it’s because acknowledging this obvious truth would leave us with no choice but to seek and follow Jesus’ will.
Christ’s Claims
Evangelical Christian Josh McDowell, Catholic author Dr. Peter Kreeft, and Father Ronald Tacelli first introduced me to some very straightforward Christian logic – my “Aha!” moment, if you will:
- Even among atheists and agnostics, there is a consensus that Jesus Christ was at the very least a great moral teacher. Yet,
- Before He died, Jesus Christ indicated that He was God (e.g., “Jesus said to them, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.’” (John 8: 58)) and that He would rise from the dead. He began to teach them that “the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days” (Mark 8:31).
- If a person indicates that He is God and that He will rise from the dead, logic leaves us with three conclusions, only one of which can be true:
- The person is mentally ill.
- The person is lying and certainly not a great moral teacher.
- The person is God.
Yet, Jesus did not display any signs of psychopathology, and He Himself claimed to be more than just a moral teacher like Buddha. For the past two thousand years, countless people have found that third choice most satisfying.
Evidence from the Tomb
In 2013, my wife and I were in the studio audience of a taping of EWTN Live featuring an interview with Barrie Schwortz on the Shroud of Turin. Though the Church has not made a definitive pronouncement on the authenticity of the Shroud, many believe the scientific evidence is irrefutable that it is the miraculously-preserved burial cloth of Christ:
On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put Him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. (John 20: 1-9)
I was always intrigued by the wording of John 20 and the clear distinction made between the “burial cloths” and the “cloth that had covered His head.” I believe that the Shroud of Turin has been correctly identified as the “burial cloths.” I believe that a cloth preserved in a church in Manopello, Italy, is “the cloth that had covered his head.”
In 2012, we were blessed to see the actual Shroud in Turin, Italy. In 2017, we were blessed to be in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the actual tomb.
Conclusion
Jesus Christ was an indisputably great moral teacher who showed no signs of mental illness or duplicity. He claimed to be God and predicted and fulfilled His own Resurrection from the dead. The empty tomb is the phenomenally good news of Easter morning!
In the Shroud of Turin and the Face Cloth of Manopello, I believe Jesus has provided love letters to the people of our time, to help us better understand and appreciate His Empty Tomb.
10 thoughts on “The Empty Tomb is All the Proof We Need”
Pingback: Self-Denial Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does, The Evil One and Spiritual Warfare, and More Great Links! - JP2 Catholic Radio
Pingback: THVRSDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit
Hello Andrew (Great name, btw),
Amazingly, there are people who call themselves Christian, who don’t believe in the Resurrection. Like yourself, I don’t get it.
There are even biblical “scholars” who automatically dismiss anything miraculous, maintaining it was some sort of add-on to promote Jesus! They forget that almost all of Jesus’ first apostles faced death, rather than deny Him – that is not consistent with the notion of charlatans promoting their man.
God bless,
Joe
As far as I know, non-Trinitarians by definition rejects the Resurrection because they deny that Jesus was God or part of God. Unitarians are like that. Ebionites were. Apparently many self described Christians are like that today.
“Christian” originally meant “Christ-follower” before the higher Christology of John and the Nicene Creed got attached (or encrusted) onto the term. It is a basic description and there’s no reason why someone who follows the teachings of Jesus can’t call himself that, just as someone who follows the teachings of Thomas Aquinas can call himself a Thomist.
Dear Joe,
I have never heard, or even deigned to think, that there are Christians who don’t believe in the resurrection, other than the “cultural” ones who like to call themselves Catholic and do not believe in Jesus as God at all. They are atheists who like to misrepresent themselves for some sick and dishonorable reason. Are those the people you are speaking of in your post or are you referring to some other sort of so-called Christians?
In Christ,
Andrew
Captain,
We are in agreement that “not all Christians believe that Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead.” Yet as the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds are clear about the Resurrection, it would probably be more intellectually honest for those not believing to use a different name.
Acknowledging the Resurrection and all that goes with it leave no choice but to seek and follow Jesus’ will – NOT what revisionists would like Jesus’ will to be. You are absolutely right that we should adhere to what Christ said about “hypocrisy, greed, cruelty, [and] ostentation.” In Jesus’ Church, He continues to teach His will. In what can be seemingly confusing times, we are extremely blessed to have the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Catechism. Jesus calls us to absolute respect for the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of the transmission of human life.
Joe
Joe,
Thanks for your response.
Raising from the dead is a magic trick. Not necessary either to Jesus’s message or to his claim of being the Son of God. And it wasn’t the first such claim in the ancient world. In fact accounts of Jesus’s post-resurrection appearances seem strangely tacked-on, perfunctory. We hear a great deal about what he said pre-crucifixion, but hardly anything about what he said those next 40 days. Looking at the “cry of abandonment” on the cross in the first written gospel (Mark), one gets the impression from reading the Gospels as a whole that neither Jesus nor his apostles expected him to get executed, and stories of a resurrection had to be invented afterward.
The “trilemma” you mention had been previously posed by C.S. Lewis and is not taken seriously by most people who have thought carefully about it. In the first place, it’s far from clear that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. His preferred title for himself was the “Son of Man”. In the second place, even if he did make that claim, it is perfectly possible for a man to be wrong about one thing and right about other things. Jesus said many good things about ethics. (As a side note, it’s odd that contemporary evangelizers don’t emphasize them. One way to get a sympathetic hearing from atheists is quoting what Jesus has to say about hypocrisy, greed, cruelty, ostentation. Why don’t you do that more?)
Dear Crisis,
– Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven … Matthew 16:16-19a (Simon Peter says He’s the Son of God, and isn’t corrected by Jesus)
– Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” – John 11:23-27 (Jesus says He’s the resurrection and the life and doesn’t correct Martha who calls Him the Son of God)
– And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.” But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Messiah – Luke 4:41; and whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, “You are the Son of God.” – Mark 3:11; and Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him, crying out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!” – Mark 5:6-7/Luke 8:28 (Demons acknowledge and obey Him as the Son of God)
– and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” – Matthew 3:17 (Jesus’ Baptism, called Son by God the Father)
– While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” – Matthew 17:5 (Jesus’ Transfiguration, called Son by God the Father)
– Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it[w] and was glad. So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area. – John 8:54-59 (Jesus calling God His Father and existing when Abraham did)
So, yes, it’s resoundingly clear that Jesus claimed, both Himself and through others (including God the Father) to be The Son of God, as well as the Son of Man. And since great moral teachers aren’t delusional about being the Son of God, the Lord, lunatic, or liar trilemma from C.S. Lewis is exceptionally valid. In addition, just because there were other god claims before the time of Jesus in history that doesn’t mean anything at all. The demons claimed to be god, and were even worshiped as such by Pagans and Jews alike (since to them as humans they seemed to be), but that doesn’t make those false gODS the One, True, Living God of everything! That is the Triune God, who is God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit!!!
There is also plenty of post resurrection material in the Bible as well but since this rebuttal of your post is already long enough as it is then I will encourage you to look that up on your own if you are interested in being honest and having integrity about it. The same goes for what is NOW KNOWN about the Messiah, the one who had to die the death that we all deserve for our sins, and who had to do so as a spotless and blameless (sinless) atoning lamb and sacrifice, so we could all be saved from our sins and reconciled to God. That includes you who are in crisis, captain, so when you are ready to get serious about the state of your soul and its final destination, then you’ll stop allowing yourself to being blinded from the Truth who is Jesus the Christ, your Lord ans Savior. Jesus wants you to acknowledge the wicked nature of your fallen heart and the fact that life is hopeless apart from Him and His love. Love on His terms, not yours or mine!
I’ll pray for you, including for your admonishments about hypocrisy, greed, cruelty, and ostentation that I know you will be able to school all of us much better on once you acknowledge that you don’t deserve His mercy, forgiveness, or love, but will gladly receive with joy as you turn your life over to Him in every way (as we all should). None of us are without sin, and will never meet the standard of perfection that is required to enter and live in Heaven without Jesus. It’s Him or the alternative, and that’s not worth pursuing to put it VERY lightly!
In Christ,
Andrew
In Christ,
Andrew
You took the words right out of my mouth. One item that is always missing in the “Liar, Lunatic, or Lord” trilemma is “Legend”. It’s odd for Christians to suggest non-believers to accept as historical what is written in the Bible when they do not accept as historical things in written in non-Christian religious texts. I hope apologists understand Biblical passages are not convincing without corroboration to atheists and other non-believers.