Over the centuries skeptics have concocted a number of theories to explain away the resurrection of Jesus. Here are seven of the most popular alternatives to the empty tomb.
(1) Jesus didn’t die
Some skeptics have proposed that Jesus survived the crucifixion, swooned on the cross, revived in the tomb, came forth on Easter Sunday and fooled everyone into thinking he had risen from the dead.
Just to state the theory is to refute it. The whole purpose of crucifixion was brutal, agonizing death. No one could possibly survive beating, scourging, the torture of crucifixion, and being pierced by a spear. The Romans were good at killing people. It was one of their specialties. They knew the difference between a dead man and an unconscious man.
Besides, if Jesus did somehow revive after so much physical torture, how did he roll the stone away and then give the appearance of perfect physical health on Sunday morning? This theory makes no sense whatsoever.
(2) The disciples stole the body
Why would they steal the body? All the gospel writers agree that they were not expecting a resurrection. When the women went to the tomb on Sunday, they were expecting to anoint a dead body, not meet their risen Lord.
Besides, how do you explain the amazing transformation of the disciples from fearful cowards to anointed evangelists and all to their death proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection. Men might die for a myth they wrongly believed, but it is impossible to think that they would willingly go to their death for a lie.
(3) The Jews stole the body
This is a plausible theory except for one tiny fact. If the Jews stole the body, then all they had to do when the Christians said that Jesus had risen from the dead was to roll out the dead body of Jesus. End of the story. Besides, why would the Jews steal the body? They wanted to keep Jesus in the grave at all costs.
(4) The Romans stole the body
This makes no sense because the Romans weren’t worried about Jesus one way or the other. They weren’t worried about a missing body (like the Jews) and they weren’t mourning a dead leader (like the disciples). As far as they were concerned, Jesus was just another dead Jew. They had no reason to tamper with the body.
(5) The body just disappeared
Fine, but what does that mean? I call this the UFO theory. Bodies don’t just disappear. Something had to happen to it. A disappearing body still doesn’t explain why the early Christians unanimously believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.
(6) Mass hallucination
Well, then, perhaps the early Christians suffered some kind of mass psychosis that caused all of them to have visions or hallucinations that they mistook for the risen Christ. This is difficult to square with the facts as we know them and with the reality of human nature. Visions tend to be intensely personal events. Two people rarely have visions that are even remotely similar, much less identical. But Jesus appeared many times to many people over a 40-day period after his resurrection. At one point, he appeared to 500 people at once according to 1 Corinthians 15:5-7, which lists a number of post-resurrection appearances). Its strains credulity to believe that 500 people would have the same vision at the same time.
Plus, you still have the pesky fact of the body. If his resurrection was a vision, then what happened to the body? No one has ever satisfactorily answered that question. (End Part 1)
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