How does one answer to these four objections to the Resurrection of Christ:?

Question

a) Romans and Jews believed that the disciples stole the body from the tomb while the guards were asleep.
b) The 18th century Rationalists suggest that Christ didn't die, but merely swooned.
c) Modernists claim that Christ was never buried, but thrown into a ditch along with the other malefactors crucified with Him.
d) Dr. Kirsopp Lake thinks that the Holy Women and the disciples mistook the tomb, stumbling by chance on an empty one.

If u don't have anything constructive to say and simply wish to use this as an excuse to bash, please don't. It's a serious question. Thanks

Answer 1

A) The roman guards who were put there to guard the tomb would be put to death if they were not doing there job. They were part of the greatest army of all time. I think they could have taken 12 men who had no military experience.

B)Okay Christ was severly beaten and whipped then he had to carry his cross a couple of miles. Then nails were put through His arms and legs and then dangled from a cross for about 6 hours. After that He is put in a tomb for 3 days. Then he just wakes up and walks away. I don't know any human can do that. He died on the cross the Roman soliders there made sure of it.

C) A tomb was purchased His body was buried in it. A lot of people loved Him at the time of His death. Would you let one of your friends be thrown in a ditch. I would make sure He was properly sent off to the next life.

D) I remeber where my relitives and friends are buried and I some who have been gone for a couple of years, but I can still manage to go to there graves and visit them. 3 days is not long enough to mistake where someone you loved tomb is.

Answer 2

a) Romans and Jews believed that the disciples stole the body from the tomb while the guards were asleep.

Many people do not understand what a "Roman Guard" was. A "Roman Guard" was a group of 16 highly trained soldiers sworn and dedicated to carrying out the will of Rome, with the penalty of death hanging over their heads if they failed. This death penalty was carried out on the spot, without trial. So for all 16 of these "Navy Seal, Green Beret, Special Forces" type soldiers to have fallen asleep on duty, all at the same time, and not hear the huge stone covering the entrance to the tomb being rolled up hill by a bunch of disciples who only hours earlier denied Jesus and scattered in every direction is a hard to believe. Where did they get the courage to stand up against 16 of Rome's finest fighting men, when they couldn't stand up for a "Carpenter"? Couple that with the fact that history makes no mention of anyone ever being executed for falling asleep while on duty, and the fact that not one of Jesus disciple ever recanted his claim that Jesus resurrected and that he personally saw Jesus alive afterward, but instead endured some of the most torturous deaths imaginable just doesn't make much sense.

b) The 18th century Rationalists suggest that Christ didn't die, but merely swooned.

Jesus side was pierced with a spear and blood and water flowed. Obviously blood flowed because Jesus' skin was cut, but what about the water, where did that come from? The human heart is inside of a sack that is called the paracardium. When a person dies as a result of crucifixion, he dies from suffocation. The paracardium begins to fill with fluid as the person struggles to breathe and eventually the heart fails because it becomes too restricted by the fluid to beat. Jesus' heart was pierced. There was a lot of blood and there was a lot of water too, from the paracardium. People do not survive that. Remember too that Rome knew that Jesus had claimed He would come back in three days. They had a vested interest in making sure He was really really dead.

c) Modernists claim that Christ was never buried, but thrown into a ditch along with the other malefactors crucified with Him.

Where is the documentation upon which they make the claim? If there is no record made in that day that corroberates their claim, then they are just blowing smoke. The bible says His body was laid in a borrowed tomb. This is the record given by people living at the time who were eyewitnesses.

d) Dr. Kirsopp Lake thinks that the Holy Women and the disciples mistook the tomb, stumbling by chance on an empty one.

And what about the angels who told them that "Jesus, whom you seek, is not here. He is risen!" Did the angels have the wrong tomb too? I think it would have been easy to determine if they had the right tomb, there would have been 16 sleeping Roman soldiers laying right in front of it. :)

Answer 3

A) These were Roman guards that were to be punished by death if they fell asleep. Highly unlikely that such a large group of guards would allow themselves to fall asleep and risk death. Especially to a high profile case that the guy claimed that He would rise again three days later. The disciples would also have had problems. When people would ask to see Jesus. They could have known that He was dead, especially when He was known for teaching people and all of a sudden He didn't teach.

B) Watch the Passion of the Christ and explain that He could have survived that. Most people died from the 39 lashes with the whips. Let alone dehidration. Then to be hung on a cross by professional Roman solders. Then stabed in the side. The loss of blood was enough to kill someone several times over. The Romans were great executioners, they would never have made the mistake of thinking someone just swooned. And even if Jesus did, three days in a grave without medical care would have done Him in. Modern doctors who take a serious look a Jesus' wounds from a medical standpoint cannot see a way that He lived.

C) That would be reading something into the scriptures that simply isn't there. The Jews believed in buring people especially before a major feast. Then there is the matter of the large stone. Was it then placed on top of the people in the ditch? That would just crush them, furthering the notion that they were dead.

D) The women were there when Jesus was buried. They knew the tomb. Plus they saw the guard there according to one of the gospels. Anyway, this mistake would have easly been pointed out by the Jews and the Romans by taking them to the sealed grave or even producing the dead body of Jesus themselves.

Answer 4

a) As people very rarely raise for the dead, when a body disappears the idea that someone took it is going to be most people's first assumption. So it makes sense that the Romans and the Jews would claim that. What does not make sense is that the disciples who took the body (knowing that they were pulling a hoax) would then face poverty, persecution, torture and even death without a single one of them ever revealing the hoax. It wouldn't have been worth dying over.

B) Jesus merely fainted. If the Bible account of the crucifixion is correct, before Jesus was removed from the cross, the soldiers confirmed his death by thrusting a spear through his chest. It says that water and blood flowed from the wound. For that to have happened, they would have had to have split his heart in half. If he was not dead before that, he was after that.

If he did survive the crucifixion, followed by days without medical aid, food or water, somehow managed to move the massive stone, and stumble his way through town to where the disciples were hiding, it seems unreasonable that he would have arrived in a condition that would convince his followers he was somehow triumphant over the powers of death. What happened to him afterwards? If he survived, where did he go? How come there is no further mention of him? It makes no sense that he survived the crucifixion.

C) Can the modernist give us a single account that supports that claim? There exist today three accounts of the life of Jesus that all appear to have been written before 68 AD. (Within 30 years of the event). All three claim that supecial arrangements where made to recover the body (which may well have been tossed into a common grave before they came to claim it). If the body was simply discarded, then you have to deal with totally fiction at the end of each of the gospels, where they claim to have entombed the body and witnessed the resurrection. What logical reason would they have for such a false claim. (Go back and check out answer 1 for the idea of a false resurrection).

D) The women went to the wrong tomb. I could be convinced that such a error could happen. I can not be convinced that in the years that followed, nobody figured out that they had gotten lost. When claims of his resurrection started, why didn't somebody simply point them to the right tomb, or produce the body? If he did not raise, why do people who never went to the tomb claim to have seen jesus alive? How do you explain the two disciples on the Road to Emmanus who show him alive? How do you explain the incident that Paul records of over 500 people who all saw him at the same time? (Did all 500 of them get lost looking for the tomb?)

That someone could have gotten lost is resasonable. That nobody ever figured that out, and the hundreds more were deluded into seeing something that was not there is not reasonable.

If you would like to do a little research on the subject of the resurrection, may I suggest the book "Who Moved the Stone" by FF Bruce. A devote atheist, Bruce set out to show that the resurrection of Jesus could not have happened. But as he studied the different accounts, customs, and facts, he ened up converting himself to the Christian faith. The book will give you a lot to tink about.

Answer 5

a) there are many accounts of people who saw Jesus after He had rose from the dead. It says in the first or second chapter of Acts that there were forty people there who saw when Jesus ascend into heaven.
b) Here is a Bible reference that should clear it up...
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
~john 19: 31- 34
c) here is another one...
At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
~John 19: 41- 42
d) I do not have a reference for this one because i really have to do homework but It says that the Marys' found the linen that Jesus was rapped in. That doesn't sound like something that would be in an empty tomb.
Hopefully you see why I believe what I believe. If you have any questions you can e mail me.

Answer 6

a) The tomb was covered by a large stone and there is no way that the disciples could have moved it without waking the guards. Plus, He was seen by over 500 hundred people after He resurrected. Stealing His body would not explain this.
b) It may have been a long time ago, but I am sure they knew death when they saw it. Jesus' body was wrapped and placed in the tomb, someone would have noticed if He was still breathing (especially considering that hanging from the cross would have crushed his rib cage and caused His breathing to be extremely labored).
c) It is clearly stated that He was given a tomb in which to be buried and that it was guarded so that they could NOT steal the body. Can't say that I have ever heard this one.
d) Even if they mistook an empty tomb for Jesus' tomb, that does not explain the 500+ that saw Him after He resurrected. Also, I doubt that the people that loved Him most would "forget" which tomb held the Lord and Savior.

Answer 7

a) Well, the only written record of the event says differently. Not sure where you're getting your information here.
b) I disagree with the 18th century Rationalists. Not many people who were crucified and skewered by a spear merely "swooned".
c) What are these "Modernists" claims based on? There is certainly no historical record that Christ was thrown in a ditch rather than taken down by his family and friends and buried in a tomb.
d) Dr. Kirsopp's opinions are entirely valid. However, if you took somone you loved and carried them to a tomb and buried them, would you mistake the place a few days later? Remember, these were not pre-fab tombs in a row. :-)

I don't consider any of these serious objections to the Resurrection of Christ. They sound very much like straw-grasping.

Answer 8

A) The fact that Jesus claimed who he was/is was an extreme situation at the time so I'm sure the guards were given strict orders not to let anyone near the tomb let alone have BOTH fall asleep on their watch is highly unlikely.

B) there was allot of brutality done to Jesus , after losing so much blood by the beatings , losing blood from the hands and feet and being stabbed in the side with a sword for confirmation of death leads be to seriously disbelieve he just swooned

C) That would be completely irrelevant to anything that was ever written. Just an illogical assumption. You may as well say the three was strapped to three donkey's and let them run off

D)I would understand if there were strangers that ran into the wrong tomb, but his closest people? Do people forget where their parents or grandparent are buried? But lets say they did run into the wrong tomb, Jesus still reveled himself to them,which also would prove they were at the right tomb, with healed wounds

Answer 9

a) There were Roman guards that if anything happened to the body then they would be tortured and executed under Roman law.

b) Christ was dead. A piercing to the heart and the eyewitness of those that saw him die. The Romans made sure that those they crucified were dead.

c) If that were the case the Jews would have produced the body and stopped the apostles in their tracks.

d) An empty tomb would mean nothing. The fact that Jesus appeared to them and 500 more proves that He rose.

Remember. The disciples would not preach a dead Christ to then be crucified, stoned and beheaded for a lie.

Answer 10

The tomb was closed with a huge stone, the noise alone of the disciples trying to roll it away would have woken the guards.
Swooned? Try hung on a cross until dead, and then stabbed in the side, just to make sure!
Mistaking the tomb? Well, considering that Mary Magdalene SAW Jesus- RESURRECTED- (right outside of it) I would say she had the right one

You can read the accounts of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection in John 19-20, Matthew 27, Mark 15, and Luke 23.