The Messiah – Resurrection Theories Debunked (Part 1)

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I want to talk to you about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also whether or not there might be other possibilities as to what really happened, rather than a bodily resurrection.

But first, I want to talk about the concept of Messiah.

Throughout the centuries, there have been many messiahs. In fact, the last one, who was said to be a messiah, died in the year 1994. So just a little over 30 years ago, Josephus, the historian, the Jewish Roman historian, pointed out that between the years 45 B.C. and about 100 A.D., there were over 12 messiahs. So, for example, there was a man by the name of Theudas who died in 44-45 A.D. He gathered a large number of Jews out at the Jordan River, said he was going to part the river. It didn’t happen. And so he and the rest of his followers, they were all slaughtered, and his head was taken and dragged through the city of Jerusalem.

There was another man by the name of Bar Kokhba. In the year 132 to 135, he led a rebellion against the Roman Empire. The last rebellion by the Jews. He lost. They were slaughtered. Many of them were sold into slavery. Some of them were simply dismissed from their Jewish area. But that was the last one that took place of any significance, at least in that area. We know that these people who had been given the title Messiah, that that title didn’t last for them. It didn’t stick.

Why? Well, because they all died and they stayed dead. On the other hand, this man by the name of Jesus of Nazareth was called the Messiah. But the title Messiah has stuck with him. Why? Well, he died. But according to the historic Christian faith, according to the reliable documents, he didn’t stay dead. He arose from the dead. He was resurrected. Now we know that there were prophecies of the Messiah being raised from the dead in the Old Testament. Jesus himself talked about himself being raised from the dead many times. Even Jesus enemies realized that he had predicted his own resurrection. And so we have the apostles and others saying that he rose from the dead. So the resurrection of Christ is stated as if it is a reality within the Christian church.

How important is the resurrection of Christ to Christianity? Well, it’s very important. So, for example, when the authority of Jesus was challenged, he said, destroy this body and I will raise it again in three days. His authority was proven by his resurrection from the dead. Saint Paul tells us that his person, as the Son of God, is proven by his resurrection from the dead. In Romans chapter four, Paul points out that our justification is intimately connected with the resurrection of Christ. Peter tells us in his first epistle that our hope of everlasting life, and the fact that our baptism saves us, is intimately connected to the resurrection of Christ. But perhaps the best description of the importance of the resurrection is found in First Corinthians chapter 15, where Paul says, If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins, and we are found to be false witnesses about God. Because we testified about Jesus that God raised him from the dead. In other words, the resurrection of Christ is essential to the truthfulness of Christianity. Without the resurrection, Christianity is simply one big lie. But we also know that there are many people who say that the resurrection of Christ never took place.

Why do they say that? Well, they’ve come up with a number of theories as to what they think really happened. And that’s what I want to talk to you about in some more details. And there’s basically four different theories that people have promoted over the years. There’s what we can call the swoon theory, the wrong tomb theory, the hallucination theory, and the stolen body theory. In our next video, we’re going to take a look at these theories in some detail, and I hope you join me for that. My name is David Thompson. I’m the director for the center for Apologetics and Worldviews. Thank you for watching.