by Lee Strobel
“All of a sudden,” I said, “Matthew’s account makes more sense.”
“Exactly. When the testimony is put together, we get a complete picture. The disciples heard Jesus preach and saw the miracle of the abundant fish. After they returned to shore, Jesus said to follow him—and they did, based on his revolutionary teachings and his display of supernatural power.”
“Have you seen unintentional coincidences in your police work?”
“I’ve had instances where a witness’s account leaves questions unanswered until we find an additional witness later,” he said. “This is a common characteristic of true eyewitness accounts.”
“What are some other examples?”
“Matthew says during Jesus’ trial the chief priests and members of the council struck him and said, ‘Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?’17 Now, that’s a strange request. Couldn’t Jesus just look at his attackers and identify them? But when Luke describes the same scene, he mentions one other detail: Jesus was blindfolded. There—” Wallace said, snapping his fingers. “Mystery solved.”
“What’s your conclusion?” I asked.
“The most reasonable explanation is that the gospels were penned by different eyewitnesses who were just reporting what they saw and unintentionally including these unplanned supporting details,” he said.
“So this was one more piece to the puzzle for you,” I said.
“One of many. We have archaeology corroborating certain points of the gospels. We have non-Christian accounts outside the Bible that provide confirmation of key gospel claims. We have students of the apostles who give a consistent account of what the disciples were teaching. And we have a proliferation of ancient manuscripts that help us get back to what the original gospels said.”
“Okay then, Mr. Detective. What’s your verdict?”
“That the gospels can be messy, that they’re filled with idiosyncrasies, that they’re each told from a different perspective and have variances between them—just like you’d expect from a collection of eyewitness accounts,” he said. “So I became convinced that they constitute reliable testimony to the life, teachings, death, and—yes—the resurrection of Jesus.”
Did Jesus Really Die on the Cross?
Ah, the resurrection.
Even skeptics agree with the apostle Paul’s assertion that if the resurrection were disproved, then the entire Christian faith would collapse into irrelevancy.18 Consequently, opponents are constantly minting fresh objections to undermine this central tenet of Christianity. In recent years, for example, agnostic New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman and others have advanced new efforts to cast doubt on whether Jesus died and escaped his grave alive again.
I said to Wallace, “Even if we concede that the gospel accounts are rooted in eyewitness testimony, we’re still faced with the issue of whether a miracle the magnitude of the resurrection makes sense. Let me challenge you with some of the most potent objections to Jesus’ rising from the dead.”
“Shoot,” he said, quickly catching himself with a chuckle. “Maybe that’s not the best terminology for a cop. Anyway, yes, go ahead.”
“It seems to me the two relevant issues are, first, whether Jesus was actually dead from crucifixion and, second, whether he was encountered alive afterward, necessitating an empty tomb,” I said.
Wallace folded his arms. “Agreed,” he replied.
“So how do we know he was really dead? Is it reasonable that he would succumb that soon? The thieves on either side of him were still alive.”
“But the path to the cross for Jesus was dramatically different than the path for the thieves,” he said.
“How so?”
“Pilate didn’t want to crucify Jesus like the crowd was demanding, so he kind of makes an offer. He says, in effect, ‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do—I’ll beat him to within an inch of his life. Will that satisfy you?’ Consequently, Jesus was given an especially horrific flogging. That didn’t satisfy the crowds, and he was crucified. But he was already in such extremely bad shape that he couldn’t even carry his cross.”
“These soldiers weren’t medical doctors,” I said. “Maybe they thought Jesus had died when he hadn’t.”
“That objection usually comes from people who’ve never been around dead bodies. As a cop, I’ve witnessed a lot of autopsies. Let me tell you: dead people aren’t like corpses in movies. They look different. They feel different. They get cold; they get rigid; their blood pools. These soldiers knew what death looked like; in fact, they were motivated to make sure he was deceased because they would be executed if a prisoner escaped alive. Plus, the apostle John unwittingly gave us a major clue.”
“What’s that?”
“He says when Jesus was stabbed with a spear to make sure he was dead, water and blood came out. In those days, nobody understood that. Some early church leaders thought this was a metaphor for baptism or something. Today, we know this is consistent with what we would expect, because the torture would have caused fluid to collect around his heart and lungs. So without even realizing it, John was giving us a corroborating detail.”
I reached into my briefcase and removed a copy of the Qur’an, which I placed on the table between us. “Yet,” I said, “there are more than a billion Muslims who don’t believe Jesus was crucified.19 Many of them believe that God substituted Judas for Jesus on the cross.”
Wallace picked up the Qur’an and paged through it. “Here’s the problem,” he said, handing it back to me. “This was written six hundred years after Jesus lived. Compare that to the first-century sources that are uniform in reporting that Jesus was dead. Not only do we have the gospel accounts, but we also have five ancient sources outside the Bible.”20
“Still, how can you disprove the claim that God supernaturally switched people on the cross?” I asked.
“That would mean Jesus was being deceptive when he appeared to people afterward. No, that would contradict what we know about his character. And how would you explain him showing the nail holes in his hands and the wound in his side to Thomas?”
“You have no doubt, then, that he was dead.”
“No, I don’t. When scholars Gary Habermas and Michael Licona surveyed all the scholarly literature on the resurrection going back thirty years, Jesus’ death was among the facts that were virtually unanimously accepted,” he said.21
“Besides,” he added, “crucifixion was humiliating—it’s not something the early church would have invented. And we have no record of anyone ever surviving a full Roman crucifixion.”
Tombs, Ossuaries, and Conspiracies
Even the skeptical Bart Ehrman concedes that Jesus was killed by crucifixion, but he recently wrote a book saying it’s “unlikely” that Jesus was buried in a tomb, saying that “what normally happened to a criminal’s body is that it was left to decompose and serve as food for scavenging animals.”22
“Of course, if Jesus was never buried, then that would neatly explain why the tomb was unoccupied,” I said.
Wallace smiled and pointed toward me. “Seems like your colleague at HBU has answered that pretty thoroughly,” he said.
He was referring to Craig Evans, an eminent New Testament scholar on the faculty with me at Houston Baptist University. As part of a book rebutting Ehrman, Evans said Ehrman’s description of Roman policy on crucifixion and nonburial is “unnuanced and incomplete.”23
“It is simply erroneous to assert that the Romans did not permit the burial of the executed, including the crucified,” he wrote.24 “The gospel narratives are completely in step with Jewish practice, which Roman authorities during peacetime respected.”25
Said Evans, “I conclude that the burial of the body of Jesus in a known tomb, according to Jewish law and custom, is highly probable.”26
“I’ll add one thing,” Wallace said to me. “An ossuary with the remains of a crucifixion victim was discovered in 1968, with part of an iron spike still in his heel bone. This is evidence that at least some crucifixion vict
ims were buried, as the earliest account of Jesus’ death tells us he was.”27
Ironically, one of Ehrman’s own colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Jewish archaeologist named Jodi Magness, affirmed, “The Gospel accounts describing Jesus’ removal from the cross and burial are consistent with archaeological evidence and with Jewish law.”28
Whatever occurred nearly two thousand years ago, there’s little dispute that the disciples believed the once-dead Jesus appeared to them alive. Not only do the four gospels report this, but there’s confirmation from students of the apostles (Clement and Polycarp), as well as in an early creed of the church found in 1 Corinthians 15:3–8 and a speech by Peter in Acts 2.
“You’ve broken a lot of conspiracy cases as a cop,” I said. “Do you see any way these people could have been lying about this?”
“For a conspiracy to succeed, you need the smallest number of coconspirators; holding the lie for the shortest period of time; with excellent communication between them so they can make sure their stories line up; with close familial relationships, if possible; and with little or no pressure applied to those who are telling the lie. Those criteria don’t fit the resurrection witnesses.
“On top of that,” he added, “they had no motive to be deceitful. In fact, we have at least seven ancient sources that tell us the disciples were willing to suffer and even die for their conviction that they encountered the risen Jesus.”29
“But,” I interjected, “research has shown that history is murky on what actually happened to some of them.”30
“True, but what’s important is their willingness to die. That’s well established. They knew the truth about what occurred, and my experience is that people aren’t willing to suffer or die for what they know is a lie.
“Even more importantly, there isn’t a single ancient document or claim in which any of the eyewitnesses ever recanted their statement. Think about that for a minute. We have ancient accounts in which second-, third-, or fourth-generation Christians were forced to recant, but no record of an eyewitness ever disavowing their testimony. I think that helps establish the truthfulness of the eyewitnesses.”
From One Miracle to Another
I tried another approach. “I’m sure you’ve seen cases where people close to a murder victim are so full of grief that it colors their recollections about what happened,” I said.
“To some degree,” he replied. “But I sense where you’re going with this: Did the sorrow of the disciples cause them to have a vision of the risen Jesus? That’s a different matter altogether.”
“Why?”
“First, groups don’t have hallucinations, and the earliest report of the resurrection said five hundred people saw him. Second, Jesus was encountered on numerous occasions and by a number of different groups. The vision theory doesn’t seem likely in those varying circumstances. And I can think of at least one person who wasn’t inclined toward a vision.”
“Paul?”
“Yeah, he was as skeptical as, well, Michael Shermer.”
“What if one of the disciples—maybe Peter—experienced a vision due to his sorrow and then convinced the others that Jesus had returned? As you know, Peter had a strong personality and could be persuasive.”
“I’ve had murder cases where one emphatic witness persuaded others that something happened,” Wallace conceded. “Inevitably, the persuader has all the details in their most robust form, while the others tend to generalize because they didn’t actually see the event for themselves. But this theory can’t account for the numerous, divergent, and separate group sightings of Jesus, which are described with a lot of specificity. Also, Peter wasn’t the first to see the risen Jesus.”
“Good point,” I said.
“I’ll add one last point,” said Wallace. “With all these theories of visions or hallucinations, the body is still in the tomb.”
I asked Wallace, “What happened when you finally concluded that none of the escape hatches would let you avoid the conclusion that the resurrection really happened?”
“I remember being in church one Sunday, though I can’t recall what the pastor was saying,” he said. “I leaned over and whispered to Susie that I was a believer.”
“As easy as that?”
He chuckled. “Not that easy,” he said. “Yes, the evidence broke through my philosophical naturalism, and the gospels passed all the tests we use to evaluate eyewitness accounts. So I came to believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be. But then there was another step—believing in Jesus as my forgiver and leader.”
“How did that happen?”
“The more I understood the true nature of Jesus, the more my true nature was exposed—and I didn’t like what I saw. Being a cop had led me to lose faith in people. My heart had shriveled. To me, everyone was a liar capable of depraved behavior. I saw myself as superior to everyone else. I was cynical, cocky, and distant.”
Honestly, I was surprised by his description of himself. I have only known Wallace as a warm, sincere, and generous person—but then, I’ve only known him since he has been a follower of Jesus.
“It sounds like a cliché,” Wallace continued, “but coming to faith in Christ changed me drastically over time. As someone forgiven much, I learned to forgive others. After receiving God’s grace, I was better able to show compassion. Now my life is consumed with letting others know that faith in Christ isn’t just a subjective emotion, but it’s grounded in the truth of the resurrection.”
I thought of the words of the apostle Paul, himself a hardened law enforcer who was transformed after encountering the risen Jesus: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”31
Why Don’t Jews Accept the Resurrection?
After we finished our interview, Wallace gave me a tour of his study, its walls festooned with commendations he received as a detective, mementos from his years on the police force, and family photos, including one showing three generations of cops together: his dad, him, and his son.
“One last thing,” I said before I turned off my recorder. “Shermer asked why Jewish people, who share much of the same holy book as Christians, don’t accept the resurrection. Any ideas?”
Wallace leaned against the desk where he tapes his podcasts and spent a few moments organizing his thoughts.
“There are probably three reasons people reject this,” he said. “The first is rational. Of course, everyone expresses their rejection in rational terms, because it feels good to say they’re too smart for this. But I wonder how many Jewish people have conducted their own in-depth analysis of the issues. Some synagogues hold counter-missionary seminars to argue against Christianity, and people merely accept what they say without checking it out themselves.
“Second, there’s an emotional reason. In Jewish families, there are barriers of culture and tradition. Christians see Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecies, but when a Jewish person comes to faith in Christ it’s often viewed as a betrayal or abdication of their Jewish identity. The fear of rejection can be an impediment.
“The third reason people reject it is volitional. The Jewish people are proud of having followed the laws of God; in fact, they added six hundred more laws, which the devout have tried to scrupulously adhere to.
“Humans love works-based systems because they can measure their progress and compare themselves favorably with others. It’s hard to accept a grace-based system that says, ‘The laws were there to demonstrate your need for forgiveness, because they can never be totally obeyed.’ A lot of people don’t want to accept that.”
My mind drifted to my Jewish friends who took the time to research the issues for themselves and came to faith in Christ. I thought of Louis Lapides, a soldier who returned disillusioned from Vietnam. Prodded by a street evangelist, he went on a quest to find Jesus in the Jewish scriptures—which he did, through the ancient prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus fulfilled against all odds.32
As with Wallace, the miracle of the resurrection led these Jewish friends to a second miracle that’s just as extraordinary, just as jaw-dropping, just as worship-inducing. In each of their lives, they exchanged their sin for God’s grace; they experienced a profound spiritual rebirth; and they were changed in ways that were simply inexplicable in mere human terms.
That’s the enduring power of the miracle of the resurrection. Over and over to this day, in my own experience and in the experiences of countless others, the resurrection miracle begets personal miracles of forgiveness, redemption, and new life.
PART 5
Difficulties with Miracles
CHAPTER 12
Embarrassed by the Supernatural
An Interview with Dr. Roger E. Olson
The request was simple: “Tell us about your journey to faith.”
I was in a conference room, surrounded by my pastor, several of the church’s elders, and a college professor of theology, being interviewed for ordination as a minister of the gospel. I had left my journalism career, taking a 60 percent pay cut, and joined the staff of a large congregation in suburban Chicago. Being ordained was a next step.
I had no hesitation in sharing the story of how I went from being an atheistic journalist at the Chicago Tribune to becoming a committed follower of Jesus. I knew my account of how I used my journalism and legal training to investigate the scientific and historical evidence for Christianity would resonate with everyone in the room.
After all, this was a church filled with successful people living in upscale suburbia—thinkers, achievers, leaders, influencers. They would certainly relate to how God used logic and reason to lead me to conclude that the resurrection is an actual historical event that proved Jesus is the unique Son of God.