The Resurrection

I bought the book, The Case for the Resurrection by Lee Strobel, downloaded on my e-reader to read while I was on my recent cruise. However, I did not read it. Instead I read a funny murder mystery about a killer on a cruise ship. I thought that highly appropriate since I was on a cruise ship!

Today as I was coming home from some errands I happened to hear Lee Strobel on Focus on the Family as he talked about the indisputable evidence for the resurrection and for Jesus being the Son of God.

Lee was an atheist and his wife an agnostic. She was befriended by a Christian woman in their condo building in Chicago who talked openly with her about Jesus. Eventually his wife became a Christian and eventually he went to church with her. Bill Hybels preached a message that day called Basic Christianity which thoroughly intrigued Lee. As the legal editor for The Chicago Tribune, he was known for skepticism so he set out to investigate what he had heard. The end of the story is he became a believer and received Jesus Christ into his life and was radically changed.

This statement is what perked up my ears today: the truth or falsity of all world religions comes down to just one key issue - did Jesus, or did He not, return from the dead? Why this question? Because Jesus claimed to be divine and His resurrection proves He is divine. Lee's conclusion of course is yes, Jesus did return from the dead. He gave 4 areas that he examined to come to that conclusion:
1. execution - no on anywhere disputes that Jesus really lived and Jesus was really executed
2. early reports of the resurrection - legends (which Lee thought this was) usually take 100's of years to develop but the church already had a creed about the resurrection about 25 years after the fact that Paul shares in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
3. empty tomb - no one disputes this; even the religious leaders of Jesus day admit that the tomb is empty
4. eyewitnesses - people who saw, spoke to, touched, ate with Jesus after the resurrection; the Biblical account. Although there are sources apart from the Bible to support the death and resurrection of Jesus, the eyewitness are undeniable, especially since their reports brought trouble to them. No court of law would disallow eyewitnesses.

 I believe in this truth or I could not claim Jesus as my Savior but I want to know how to talk to those who do not believe so I'm definitely gonna have to read the book.