Since the Christian faith rises and falls on the truthfulness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ I thought it would be helpful to share some fascinating thoughts on this essential Christian doctrine by leading apologists to strengthen your faith and help you when you are asked why you believe Jesus rose from the dead.1
“There is an important difference between the apostle martyrs and those who die for their beliefs today. Modern martyrs act solely out of their trust in beliefs that others have taught them. The apostles died for holding to their own testimony that they had personally seen the risen Jesus. Contemporary martyrs die for what they believe to be true. The disciples of Jesus died for what they knew to be either true or false.” – Gary Habermas
“One of the most amazing facts about the early Christians belief in Jesus’ resurrection was that it originated in the very city where Jesus was crucified. The Christian faith did not come to exist in some distant city, far from eyewitnesses who knew of Jesus’ death and burial. No, it came into being in the very city where Jesus had been publicly crucified, under the very eyes of its enemies.” – William Craig
“I came to be an historian. My approach to Classics is historical. And I tell you that the evidence for the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ is better authenticated than most of the facts of ancient history.” – E. M. Blaiklock
“What did the Jewish New Testament writers have to gain by making up a new religion? By insisting the Resurrection occurred, they got excommunicated from the synagogue and then beaten, tortured, and killed. Last I checked that was not a list of perks.” – Frank Turek
“Raking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it.” – Brooke Westcott
“As Paul stood on trial for preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he asked those present a pointed question: “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead (Acts 26:8)?” Many unbelievers find it too difficult, too incredible, that God would or could raise a dead man (Jesus) back to life. And yet, many of these same people have no problem believing that God exists and that He created the heavens and the earth. This is astonishing to me! Think this through with me. If God could create the universe with all its billions of galaxies, and millions of kinds of living creatures from nothing, it certainly seems within the bounds of reason to believe that He could raise Jesus’ body back to life. As it has often been said, if you believe Genesis 1:1, you should have no problem believing Matthew 28:6: ‘He has risen, just as he said.’” – Charlie Campbell
“The Canadian scientist G. B. Hardy one time said, “When I looked at religion I said, I have two questions. One, has anyone ever conquered death, and two, if they have, did they make a way for me to conquer death? I checked the tomb of Buddha, and it was occupied, and I checked the tomb of Confucius and it was occupied, and I checked the tomb of Mohammed and it was occupied, and I came to the tomb of Jesus and it was empty. And I said, there is one who conquered death. And I asked the second question, did He make a way for me to do it? And I opened the Bible and discovered that He said, ‘Because I live ye shall live also.’” – John MacArthur
“Why would the apostles lie [about the resurrection]?…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
“People will die for their religious beliefs if they sincerely believe they’re true, but people won’t die for their religious beliefs if they know their beliefs are false. While most people can only have faith that their beliefs are true, the disciples were in a position to know without a doubt whether or not Jesus had risen from the dead. They claimed that they saw him, talked with him, and ate with him. If they weren’t absolutely certain, they wouldn’t have allowed themselves to be tortured to death for proclaiming that the Resurrection had happened.” – Lee Strobel
“I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.” – Thomas Arnold
1 All of these quotes are from: Charlie H. Campbell, Apologetics Quotes (Carlsbad, California: The Always Be Ready Apologetics Ministry, 2020).
And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send Lazarus to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” Luke 16
If your worldview already presupposes the truth of the resurrection, these quotes can strengthen your faith, but if your worldview is not based on the Word of God you will not be convinced of the fact of the resurrection and your suppression of this historical truth will come between you and the call to repentance that leads to life everlasting.
The supremacy of Scripture should always be paramount in our apologetic.