The Son Rises: Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus

PREFACE

This is a book for those who may believe in some kind of God or Supreme Being, but doubt whether He has revealed Himself to us in any decisive way.

I am of the firm conviction that God has revealed Himself in a decisive way in history, namely, in the resurrection of Jesus, and that there is solid historical evidence for that fact. This book summarizes that evidence. It is the result of two years of research at the Universität München, West Germany, and at Cambridge University, England, as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The Humboldt Foundation, funded by the West German government, is designed to bring scientists and other scholars to Germany to do research at German universities and laboratories. I am extremely grateful to the Humboldt Foundation for the generous grant that funded my research on the historical credibility of the resurrection of Jesus, and I praise God for providing me with this unique opportunity. I also wish to thank my wife, Jan, for her support during the course of the research and for her long hours of work in producing the typescript.

In this book, I attempt to summarize the results of my research in simple, concise terminology, easily understandable to the man on the street. At the same time, however, I have done my best to be thorough and accurate. It is not always easy to do both. A historical investigation of the resurrection of Jesus necessarily involves many very complex issues. The average reader, who has scarcely ever opened the New Testament, much less read it, will no doubt find certain concepts new and difficult to understand. I recommend, therefore, that you read the book slowly and think about it as you go along. I have deliberately avoided specialist terminology and sought to explain everything that might be new to the average reader. Anyone who wishes to pursue these issues more deeply should consult my forthcoming works: The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus and The Historicity of the Resurrection.

In considering the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, it is important to avoid giving the impression that the Christian faith is based on the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. The Christian faith is based on the event of the resurrection. It is not based on the evidence for the resurrection. This distinction is crucial. The Christian faith stands or falls on the event of the resurrection. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Christianity is a myth, and we may as well forget it. But the Christian faith does not stand or fall on the evidence for the resurrection. There are many real events in history for which the historical evidence is slim or nonexistent (in fact, when you think about it, most events in history are of this character). But they did actually happen. We just have no way of proving that they happened. Thus, it is entirely conceivable that the resurrection of Jesus was a real event of history, but there is no way of proving this historically. I think that in fact the historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is good—remarkably good. But that evidence is not the basis of the Christian faith. Should the evidence be refuted somehow, the Christian faith would not be refuted. It would only mean that one could not prove historically that the Christian faith is true.

In point of fact we can know that Jesus rose from the dead wholly apart from a consideration of the historical evidence. The simplest Christian, who has neither the opportunity nor wherewithal to conduct a historical investigation of Jesus’ resurrection, can know with assurance that Jesus is risen because God’s Spirit bears unmistakable witness to him that it is so. And any non-Christian who is truly seeking to know the truth about God and life can also be sure that Jesus is risen because God’s Spirit will lead him to a personal relationship with the risen Lord. Thus, there are really two avenues to a knowledge of the fact of the resurrection: the avenue of the Spirit and the avenue of historical inquiry. The former provides a spiritual certainty of the resurrection, whereas the latter provides a rational certainty of the resurrection. Ideally these ought to coincide, the Spirit working through the rational power of the evidence and the evidence undergirding the witness of the Spirit. But even if the historical avenue proved inaccessible, the avenue of the Spirit to a knowledge of the resurrection would remain open and independent.

Thus no one is justified in rejecting the Christian faith simply because “the evidence isn’t good enough.” If the evidence for the resurrection is inadequate, then we cannot prove the resurrection to be an event of history. But God’s Spirit still furnishes the unmistakable conviction that the resurrection occurred and that Jesus lives today. Therefore, whatever the state of the evidence, we can be sure that the resurrection is an event of history. Ultimately then, we must come to grips, not with historical evidence, important as this may be, but with the living Lord Himself.

WILLIAM LANE CRAIG

Erlangen, West Germany