Quotes
I believe in the literal rising of the body of Christ. It's the cornerstone of my Christian faith.
- Francis Collins (PhD)
Con: Empty Tomb
Brief Overview – Empty Tomb: How can we be convinced that Jesus really died on the cross, and rose from the dead? Maybe his followers simply moved or stole his body? Jesus’s resurrection from the dead is the cornerstone of the Christian story, for without it, Christianity would be a lie. To discover the strong arguments and evidence supporting the concept that Jesus actually rose from the dead, - Click - on buttons below (Complete Overview or "Display by Category/All" or Author Name)
Empty Tomb - Quotes
-
-
Quotes
If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didnt rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?
- Timothy Keller (PhD) -
Quotes
Why would the apostles lie? Liars always lie for selfish reasons. If they lied, what was their motive, what did they get out of it? What they got out of it was misunderstanding, rejection, persecution, torture, and martyrdom. Hardly a list of perks.
- Peter Kreeft (PhD) -
Quotes
Christianity, unlike any other religion in the world, begins with catastrophe and defeat. Sunshine religions and psychological inspirations collapse in calamity and wither in adversity. But the Life of the Founder of Christianity, having begun with the Cross, ends with the empty tomb and victory.
- Fulton Sheen -
Quotes
According to the laws of legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history.
- Simon Greenleaf (PhD) -
Quotes
If the Resurrection had not occurred, why would the apostle Paul give such a list of supposed eyewitnesses? He would immediately lose all credibility with his Corinthian readers by lying so blatantly.
- Norman L. Geisler (PhD) -
Quotes
The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven. The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.
- N. T. Wright (PhD) -
Quotes
The resurrection blasts apart the finality of death, providing an alternative to the stifling, settling dust of death and opens the way to new life.
- Billy Graham -
Quotes
There is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived or that Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three.
- Billy Graham -
Quotes
If a man can predict his own death and resurrection, and pull it off, I just go with whatever that man says
- Andy Stanley -
Quotes
We understand and acknowledge that the Resurrection has placed a glorious crown upon all of Christ's sufferings
- A. W. Tozer -
Quotes
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is one of the best attested facts on record. There were so many witnesses to behold it.
- Charles Spurgeon -
Quotes
The tomb of Christ is famous because of what it does not contain.
- Sam Morris -
Quotes
It was to a virgin woman that the birth of the Son of God was announced. It was to a fallen woman that his resurrection was announced.
- Fulton Sheen -
Quotes
The Resurrection is the supreme vindication of Jesus' divine identity and his inspired teaching. It's the proof of his triumph over sin and death. It's the foreshadowing of the resurrection of his followers. It's the basis of Christian hope. It's the miracle of all miracles.
- Lee Strobel -
Quotes
Death used to be an executioner, but the resurrection of Christ makes him nothing but a gardener. When he tries to bury you, he's really planting you, and you're going to come up better than before.
- George Herbert -
Quotes
After Jesus’ death, the disciples endured persecution, and a number of them experienced martyrdom. The strength of their conviction indicates that they were not just claiming Jesus had appeared to them after rising from the dead. They really believed it. They willingly endangered themselves by publicly proclaiming the risen Christ.
- Michael R. Licona (PhD) -
Quotes
The early church didn't experience explosive growth in the face of relentless persecution for believing the resurrection was a metaphor.
- David D. Flowers -
Quotes
These three great facts–the resurrection appearances, the empty tomb, and the origin of the Christian faith–all point unavoidably to one conclusion: The resurrection of Jesus. Today the rational man can hardly be blamed if he believes that on that first Easter morning a divine miracle occurred.
- William Lane Craig (PhD) -
Quotes
What reason have atheists for saying that we cannot rise again? That what has never been, should be, or that what has been, should be again? Is it more difficult to come into being than to return to it.
- Blaise Pascal -
Quotes
The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. Its outstandingly different in quality and quantity.
- Anthony Flew (PhD) -
Quotes
The cross is the victory, the resurrection is the triumph...The resurrection is the public display of the victory, the triumph of the crucified one.
- Martin Luther King (Nobel Prize, PhD) -
Quotes
At the heart of Christian faith is the story of Jesus death and resurrection.
- John Ortberg -
Quotes
I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.
- Charles Colson (JD) -
Quotes
Most striking perhaps is that fact that Jesus appeared to Paul. Paul hated Christians and was hell-bent on destroying the church. What transformed him from a persecutor of Christians to a pastor, who was willing to endure extraordinary hardship to proclaim the Gospel? Paul claimed it was the resurrection. This also indicates that Jesus didn’t just appear to friends or followers who might have been predisposed to think high and exalted things about him. Christ appeared to skeptics (James) and unbelievers (Paul) and they were convinced based on the reality of the resurrection.
- Christopher D. Price -
Quotes
Two thousand years ago, in the Middle East, an event occurred that permanently changed the world. Because of that event, history was split. Every time you write a date, you're using the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as the focal point.
- Rick Warren (PhD) -
Quotes
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the single greatest event in the history of the world. . . If Christ did not rise from the dead, then no redemption was accomplished at the cross and your faith is worthless.
- John MacArthur -
Quotes
Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.
- Publius Cornelius Tacitus (116 AD) -
Quotes
"They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so.. . . For the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities but also to the villages and farms.
- Pliny The Younger (112 AD) -
Quotes
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.
- Flavious Josephus (93 AD) -
Quotes
The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account… You see, these misguided creatures start with the general conviction that they are immortal for all time, which explains the contempt of death and voluntary self-devotion which are so common among them; and then it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws. All this they take quite on faith, with the result that they despise all worldly goods alike, regarding them merely as common property.
- Lucian of Samosata (170 AD) -
Quotes
Without a doubt, at the center of the New Testament there stands the Cross, which receives its interpretation from the Resurrection.
- Hans Urs von Balthasar -
Quotes
Atheistic New Testament scholar Gerd Ludemann concludes, "It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus' death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.
- Gary Habermas (PhD) -
Quotes
One of the earliest resurrection scenes in the Bible is that of Thomas demanding evidence - he wanted to see, to touch, to prove. Those who question and probe and debate are heirs of the apostles just as much as the most fervent of believers.
- Jon Meacham (Pulitzer) -
Quotes
Here's the simplest answer: Within weeks, the disciples proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that He had been bodily raised from the dead and appeared to them.
- Josh McDowell -
Quotes
Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be. For if no follower of Jesus had written anything for one hundred years after his crucifixion, we would still know about him from two authors not among his supporters. Their names are Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus.
- John Dominic Crossan -
Quotes
Paul the apostle recounted that Jesus appeared to more than 500 of His followers at one time, the majority of whom were still alive and who could confirm what Paul wrote.
- Josh McDowell -
Quotes
....it is of the very essence of Christianity to face suffering and death not because they are good, not because they have meaning, but because the resurrection of Jesus has robbed them of their meaning.
- Thomas Merton -
Quotes
I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- Barack Obama -
Quotes
There is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived or that Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three.
- Billy Graham -
Quotes
The joyful news that He is Risen does not change the contemporary world. Still before us lie work, discipline, sacrifice. But the fact of Easter gives us the spiritual power to do the work, accept the discipline and make the sacrifice.
- Augustine of Hippo -
Quotes
We cannot give up in the face of evil. God is Love and he has defeated evil through Christ's death and resurrection
- Pope Francis -
Quotes
The first fact in the history of Christendom is a number of people who say they have seen the Resurrection.
- C. S. Lewis -
Quotes
I went to a psychologist friend and said if 500 people claimed to see Jesus after he died, it was just a hallucination. He said, hallucinations are an individual event. If 500 people have the same hallucination, that's a bigger miracle than the resurrection.
- Lee Strobel -
Quotes
In order to work, the Jesus tomb hypothesis has to claim that the disciples died for something they knew was a lie—in fact, something they themselves had fabricated. Further, it has to acknowledge that none of the disciples defected, even when faced with suffering and horrible deaths, including stoning and crucifix-ion. Is that likely?
- Darrell Bock (PhD) -
Quotes
Some people probably think of the Resurrection as a desperate last moment expedient to save the Hero from a situation which had got out of the Author's control.
- C. S. Lewis
There's so much more!
You're asking the right questions, and now you want to dig a little deeper.
