#1- The Tomb Was Empty

by Jeff Estep

    "On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!  Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'  Then they remembered his words."- Luke 24:1-8 (NIV)

    The Bible claims that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, just as he predicted he would.  How can we know that this is true?  Let us put off the question of whether Jesus was actually resurrected until another argument.  For now, let's establish that the tomb was indeed empty.

    The Bible was written as a historical document.  This is especially true of the Four Gospels and Acts, which tell the historical story of Jesus's life, and the ministry of the early Christians.  When trying establish whether the writings are true, historical documents are generally given the benefit of the doubt unless there is other historical evidence that contradicts the claims of the original.  There has never been any historical evidence to contradict the claims of the Gospels, so honest historians would admit that the Bible should be taken at its word.  If the Bible claims that the tomb was empty, there is no reason to doubt those claims.

    Furthermore, we know that the tomb must have been empty because Christianity is still around today.  While this statement may seem ridiculous, let me explain.  In order to understand my argument you first need to have an understanding of the common Jewish beliefs concerning the Messiah.

    At the time of Jesus's life on earth, the Jews were under the control of the Roman Empire.  The Greeks controlled the Jews before the Romans.  Before the Greeks were the Medes and the Persians, and the Babylonians bofore them.  In fact, the Jews had not been allowed to rule themselves since 586 B.C..  Therefore, the common belief among the Jews of Jesus's day was that the Messiah would be a strong military ruler that would overthrow the Roman rulers and establish His Kingdom with Jerusalem as its eternal capital.  The Jews were looking for deliverance from the Romans.  Jesus promised deliverance from sin.

    When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, many of the Jews believed that Jesus would kick out the Roman authorities and reign in Jerusalem as their king.  When Jesus was betrayed into the hands of the Romans, and crucified the next day, and DIED, most of the Jews thought that they'd been fooled.  They figured they had followed the wrong guy.  To them, Jesus was a prophet, maybe, but not the Messiah.  There is evidence within Scripture of this way of thinking among the Jews.  First, Peter, one of Jesus's disciples, denied he knew Jesus three times.  Why did Peter, an honest man, a man of God, and Jesus's cherished disciple, lie?  Could it have been that he was afraid he'd been following the wrong man?  Was he afraid of the embarassment that comes with being associated with a false Messiah?

    Further evidence that the disciples felt they had been fooled is found in John 20:19.  John records that the disciples were in the upper room with the doors locked "for fear of the Jews."  They were embarassed to be seen in public.  For three years they had been following what may had been a false Messiah.

    You see, Jesus wasn't the first person that claimed to be the Messiah.  Although it might be a stretch to say that there was a "Messiah" on every street corner, the Jewish people had seen their share of false leaders.  Acts 5 tells of two such men.  In the passage, the Pharisees were trying to decide what to do with these new "Christians".  Then a Pharisee named Gamaliel argued that if Peter and the other apostles were telling the truth, and God was behind them, there was nothing the Pharisees could do to stop them. But if the apostles were lying, God would reveal them as liars.  Gamaliel says...

"Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him.  He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.  After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered."- Acts 5: 35-37 (NIV)

    What does all this have to do with the tomb being empty?  If the tomb were not empty, the Pharisees, Romans, and Jews would have simply brought out Jesus's body and Christianity would have never started.  The Pharisees would have proven that Jesus was still dead.  The apostles would have been scattered and Jesus would have been considered just another false Messiah.

    So we know that the tomb was indeed empty.  That means that only a few things could have happened:

    In my next argument I will discuss each of these possibilities in detail.  I know of no other possibilities.  If you know of any more, please  e-mail me and let me know.

A good book to read about the evidence for the resurrection is "More Than A Carpenter" by Josh McDowell.