EVIDENCE FOR CHRISTIANITY No. 2
If Jesus actually rose from the dead as described in the New Testament, this is powerful evidence that:
- Jesus is God, as He claimed He was/is.
- Jesus’ prediction that He would rise was correct.
- Christianity is unique as a religion, separate from all other religions whose founders are still in the grave.
How can something be proven? In a court of law, if a crime has allegedly been committed, the prosecution will endeavour to present evidence that shows beyond reasonable doubt that the perpetrator is guilty. Evidence can be in the form of forensic evidence, eye witness testimony, circumstantial evidence, documentary evidence and expert evidence. So, lets ask the best, most recognised lawyers and legal minds to analyse the evidence available regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) was one of the founders of Harvard Law School. He authored the authoritative three-volume text, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence (1842), which is still considered “the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.” Greenleaf literally wrote the rules of evidence for the U.S. legal system. He was certainly a man who knew how to weigh the facts. He was an atheist until he accepted a challenge by his students to investigate the case for Christ’s resurrection. After personally collecting and examining the evidence based on rules of evidence that he helped establish, Greenleaf became a Christian and wrote the classic, Testimony of the Evangelists. Christian apologetic work by Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853), an early professor (1833-1848) of the Harvard Law School (founded in 1817). – 10 mins read.
Sir Lionel Luckhoo (1914-1997) is considered one of the greatest lawyers in British history. He’s recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Most Successful Advocate,” with 245 consecutive murder acquittals. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II — twice. Luckhoo declared: “I humbly add I have spent more than 42 years as a defense trial lawyer appearing in many parts of the world and am still in active practice. I have been fortunate to secure a number of successes in jury trials and I say unequivocally the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is so overwhelming that it compels acceptance by proof which leaves absolutely no room for doubt.” Check out this brief Instagram reel about Sir Lionel Luckoo. The most successful lawyer in history was Sir Lionel Luckhoo who says the resurrection definitely took place. – 20 mins read
Lee Strobel was a Yale-educated, award-winning journalist at the Chicago Tribune. As an atheist, he decided to compile a legal case against Jesus Christ and prove him to be a fraud by the weight of the evidence. As Legal Editor of the Tribune, Strobel’s area of expertise was courtroom analysis. To make his case against Christ, Strobel cross-examined a number of Christian authorities, recognized experts in their own fields of study (including PhD’s from such prestigious academic centers as Cambridge, Princeton, and Brandeis). He conducted his examination with no religious bias, other than his predisposition to atheism.
Remarkably, after compiling and critically examining the evidence for himself, Strobel became a Christian. Stunned by his findings, he organized the evidence into a book entitled, The Case for Christ, which won the Gold Medallion Book Award for excellence. Strobel asks one thing of each reader – remain unbiased in your examination of the evidence. In the end, judge the evidence for yourself, acting as the lone juror in the case for Christ. “As a “lone juror,” I sat quiet in my chair. As jurors often do in the jury room, I asked to return once again to a provoking piece of evidence.”
Even more powerful analysis is available here……
A Historian Explains the Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus (Dr. Gary Habermas) – Youtube 36 mins
The Resurrection Argument That Changed a Generation of Scholars | Gary Habermas at UCSB – Youtube 1 hour 20 mins
Evidence for the Resurrection (Dr. William Lane Craig) – Youtube 34 mins.
craigmanderson 