Did The Death And Resurrection Of Jesus Really Happen?
The most important event of Christianity is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If you can disprove this event then the whole belief system is invalid. Apostle Paul himself puts it this way in 1 Corinthians15:13-17, Paul wrote, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised and if
Christ has not been raised then our preaching is vain. Your faith also is vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God. . . . . and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless.” In fact Jesus himself said in John 12:27 it was for this very reason that He came. Jesus Himself predicted several time that he would not only die but would then be resurrected (brought back to life). We can see this in Matthew 16:12, again in Mark 9:9, also in John 2:19-22, and several other locations. In fact in Matthew 12:40 Jesus said this event was the one sign to prove His authenticity as who He claimed to be, “For as Jonah was three days in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son Of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
This must be an actual historical event that happened not some story to portray an idea for there to be validity. One of the first things that I tried to prove wrong when I doubted was the fact of historical evidence. First off was there really a trial by a man named Pontius Pilot? Was there even a guy named Pontius Pilot? Because it says in the Bible, that Pilot oversaw a trial relating to Jesus, so if you disprove Pilot’s existence then you can put doubt in the whole account. Over the years, many scholars had questioned even the existence of Pilot and the reason is there had been no archaeological confirmation that Pilot ever existed, there had only been literary references to Pilot. But then in 1961, in Caesarea, in Israel, the Mediterranean port, an archeologist by the name of Antonio Froya, found an inscription in the amphitheatre that was about two feet by three feet that said this, “Pontius Pilot prefect of Judea has presented the Tiberian to the Cesareans.”
So archaeology, confirmed the existence of Pilot, and the fact that he was the prefect of Judea, where Christ was.
Well that does not prove the event but does lead to the credibility of the characters involved. So if there was a man named Pilot and there was a man named Jesus did Jesus really go to trial and be crucified? There is a historian of the time named Josephus who tells of the event, but the best account of the event that is on record is the four different accounts seen in the New Testament. These accounts of the event come from four different people who were all witnesses or received eyewitness account from witnesses. And these accounts were written and circulated while there was eyewitness alive that could have questioned the credibility or accuracy of the accounts. In the past there have been questions about the date that these were written and the accuracy of the transcription over time. But if you honestly evaluate the evidence you will find there is no room for questioning this. Read these scholarly studies and you will find the truth. William F Albright who is considered the foremost biblical archaeologist said: “We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the New Testament after about A.D. 80.” William F. Albright, Recent Discoveries In Bible Lands (New York Funk and Wagnall’s, 1955) 136. Sir Frederick Kenyon, one of the leading authorities on the reliability of ancient manuscripts wrote this, “The interval between the dates of the original composition and the earliest existent evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established”. Sir Frederick Kenyon, The Bible and Archaeology (New York: Harper and Row, 1940), 288-289. William F Ramsay a scholar who tried for years to undermine the reliability of the New Testament had to conclude: “Luke is a historian of the first rank. . . . This author should be placed along with the very greatest of historians.” William F Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discoveries on the Trustworthiness of The New Testament (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915), 222. F. F. Bruce a professor of biblical criticism at the University of Manchester said this: “Had there been any tendency to depart from the facts in any material respect, the possible presence of hostile witnesses in the audience would have served as further corrective.” F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1977) 33. In fact the writing of the New Testament were presented and circulated in the very presence of antagonistic eyewitnesses of Christ who knew the events. And Paul who was once a detractor wrote that Jesus appeared alive to more than 500 of His followers at one time and the majority of these were alive and could confirm what he was writing.
Not only are the New Testament accounts reliable and accurately handed down to us. But if we look at the behavior of the witnesses it can tell us if they really believed that Jesus was who He said He was and was crucified and then rose from the dead. If we look at all eleven of the Apostles who remained after the resurrection and one convert Paul, how did they act? They all were in an antagonistic world that did not tolerate the belief in Jesus. The eleven had proven to be cowards and ran and hid during the trial and crucifixion. But something changed them from cowards to ones willing to face death. They all knew that to teach and proclaim this Jesus as God and that He rose from the dead to save the world would mean persecution or death. And Paul who persecuted and sought to kill believers suddenly changed into one of the most outspoken advocates. All 12 of these men continued to do it in the face of the danger. In fact eleven of the twelve were put to death for it and the one who wasn’t (John) was boiled in oil and lived. What kind of men would risk torture, imprisonment, and death to spread a lie? What men would go to their deaths to perpetrate a mere hoax? No one would. But they would because it was not a hoax it is the truth. And it is the most important truth that has ever been. Because it means that Jesus defeated death and He is who He claimed to be, the one and only begotten Son who God gave as gift for you and me so we can have eternal life. It is up to you to accept and receive the gift or refuse and risk that you may not have eternal life with the one who created you.
Well it's Sunday so I thought I would give you a little Gospel Bluegrass. This is from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 1989.
So on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles they did something different. On the last day the high priest would take a golden vessel down to the pool of Siloam (sent one) and fill it up and then he would march up to the temple with it and enter through the south or "water" gate. The Water Gate had special eschatological significance because it was identified by some rabbis as the south gate of Ezekiel’s Temple through which the water of life would flow to all the land as seen in the prophecy of Ezek 47:1-5(more on that latter). Then the high priest would pour out the water in front of the alter, and the high priest would read this verse from 
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