Bodily Resurrection of Jesus
Furqan Q. Ali
Liberty Theological Seminary
THEO 510
In a very simple nutshell, the New Testament is founded on Jesus Christ and the power of his "resurrection". Since the foundation of biblical Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, then the historical veracity of his life, death and resurrection are tantamount. For as Paul declared in his letter to the Corinthians:
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.
Based on standard rules of evidence, consistent testimony from multiple credible witnesses would be considered the strongest form of evidence available to a litigant. Therefore, if I found such testimony present in credible accounts of the historical record, I would have satisfied a major evidentiary challenge under traditional rules.
After reading the article The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus by Dr. William Lane Craig, I am more convinced of the truth that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was indeed physical and not just a spiritual resurrection. The arguments he presents are based on the scriptural evidence found with in the text of the Bible itself, starting with Paul writings. Explaining in the first place what Paul was saying in the book of Acts 9.1-19: 22.3-16 26.9-23. Proving that when Paul "saw" Jesus and saw the light and heard the voice, the fact that his companions also saw and heard this as the author states, "Had Luke had no tradition that included Paul's companions, then we should have another vision like Stephen's, lacking extra-mental phenomena."
The ...