WFW: He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed

When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’” (Matt 28:12 NIV)

This week, consider posting a photo and a verse and joining us for Word-Filled-Wednesday at Amydeanne’s blog,
The 160 Acre Woods.

7 Clear Evidences for the Resurrection
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1. The empty tomb is the earliest historical fact associated with the resurrection. The worried Jewish leadership devised the theory that the disciples stole the body of Jesus and assumes that there was no body to be seen in the tomb (Matt 28:11-15).

2. The empty tomb was never disputed by the Jewish leaders (Matt 28:11-15).

3. Completely unprecedented, several women’s eye witness testimonies to the empty tomb were accepted without question in Jewish circles (Matt 28:5-8).

4. The empty tomb was documented in all four Gospels as the specific tomb of a prominent Jewish man named Joseph of Arimathea, who never disputed the extraordinary event after he laid Jesus to rest (Luke 23:50-55).

5. The early Jewish church’s bold proclamation of the Jesus’ bodily resurrection presumes an empty tomb
(1 Cor 15:3-8).

6. There were numerous witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection appearances. For instance, Paul invites his Corinthian readers to investigate the eye witness reports of “more than five hundred brothers and sisters,” most of whom were still alive at the time of his writing
(1 Cor 15:3-8).

7. The long-established tradition of Christian Sunday worship is due to the discovery of the empty tomb on the first day of the week (Mk 16:1-5).

Source: Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of The Life of Christ by Robert H. Stein

Related: Visit the Empty Tomb
(A presentation by the Archaeological Study Bible.)

Images: Soundslogical & Waen (Flickr)

Coming Up: The Cross & Lintel

Do you believe in the empty the tomb?